Disney Accelerator, the three-month accelerator program operated by entertainment conglomerate Walt Disney, has chosen the participants for its latest edition, which is set to begin on June 27.
This year, Disney has broadened its approach and accepted later-stage startups and one internal project for the accelerator, though details about the latter have not been disclosed.
The initiative was established in 2014 in partnership with business accelerator company Techstars, though the firm is not mentioned on Disney Accelerator’s website. The accelerator initially invested $120,000 in each startup but has dropped mention of equity amounts from the site.
The nine startups in the 2016 cohort include mobile movie ticketing app provider Atom Tickets, which received $50m in a Disney-backed series B round in February 2016, and virtual reality technology producer Jaunt, which secured $65m in series C capital from Disney and other corporates in September 2015.
Another Disney-backed company, digital publishing platform Playbuzz, has also been selected, as have e-sports marketplace Ader and Hanson Robotics, which is working on robots that can emulate human facial expressions.
LittleBits, which creates electronic building blocks and has raised more than $60m from investors such as media company O’Reilly Media, is also joining the accelerator alongside food-focused live streaming platform Nom and Otoy, which is developing hologram-like technology.
The final company is Pley, a toy subscription service that has raised more than $16m in VC funding.