Thank you for your interest in NYCEDC’s Founder Fellowship program! We are accepting applications for the 2026 program cycle, which will take place from approximately March to June 2026. Applications close on December 31, 2025. UPDATE: The application deadline has been extended to January 7, 2026.

Information collected in this application form will be used by NYCEDC and Program Operators to help assess your suitability for the program, and to select startups to participate across the four 2026 Founder Fellowship cohorts to be hosted by Chloe Capital, Company Ventures, Newlab, and Visible Hands. Companies may apply to no more than two of the four cohorts. Please review this table to learn more about each cohort and their unique offerings before submitting your applications.

Startup teams selected to the Founder Fellowship will be notified in February 2026. Each Fellow team may consist of up to two co-founders of the same company.

Please review the criteria below to confirm your eligibility prior to submitting an application. Applicants must select each of the following boxes in order to continue to the application form.

• Applicants must be the founder or co-founder of a tech or tech-enabled company

• At least one company founder must reside within the five boroughs of New York City

• Applicants do not plan to participate in other accelerator programs between March-June 2026

• Applicants or their companies have not participated in a previous cohort of the Founder Fellowship or City Fellowship programs supported by NYCEDC