Los Angeles, CA-based venture capital firm Slauson & Co. has announced a new cohort of its Friends & Family program.
According to its website, the Friends & Family program benefits founders of emerging category-defining businesses across various sectors, including artificial intelligence (AI), consumer technology, health and wellness, and fintech.
The initiative offers essential capital, connections, and community support to help the founders advance business operations, attract investment, and connect with like-minded individuals in its early stages.
On Wednesday, March 19, 2025, the firm announced 10 founders selected from over 800 applications, including Ballin AI, which provides AI-powered scouting and recruiting tools for athletes and athletic departments worldwide, and Coblr, a streamlined platform that connects fashion repair shops, brands, and consumers to unlock the $700 billion circular fashion market.
“I couldn’t be more excited to learn from, and grow alongside, this community of founders who are building category-defining companies,” Ballin AI shared on LinkedIn following the cohort announcement. “At Ballin AI, we’re continuing to redefine how basketball talent is scouted, evaluated, and recruited — and this opportunity helps us scale our impact in a major way.”
The cohort also includes Crucible, which makes third-party fertility solutions, such as egg donation and surrogacy, safer and more affordable; Satlyt, which helps satellite operators monetize space resources and reduce latency — like an “Airbnb for space compute”; and ThriveLink, which creates telephonic AI agents to assist patients enrolling in government programs and communicating with healthcare providers.
As previously reported by AFROTECH™, entrepreneurs Austin Clements and Ajay Relañ launched Slauson & Co., an inclusion-focused VC fund to help the Black community, in 2021.
The firm invests in U.S.-based startups and is committed to fostering economic inclusion and providing equitable access to entrepreneurship for historically underrepresented founders.
“We’re grateful to have assembled such an amazing group of mission-aligned investors, advisors, and luminaries to join us in our journey,” Relañ said, per AFROTECH™. “The timing could not be better, and Slauson is perfectly positioned to provide much-needed access to the capital and resources in service of the founders were backing.”
