Morgan Stanley Inclusive & Sustainable Ventures (MSISV) is now eight years old and is still on a mission to foster a more equitable and sustainable investment landscape. MSISV includes two in-house accelerator programmes — a Lab designed for startup founders and a Collaborative to support emerging nonprofits.
The Lab provides participating companies with an equity investment, a five-month curated programme, mentorship, networking, office space for the duration of the programme and access to certain external advisors.
At the heart of the programme are entrepreneurs in residence (EIRs), who host weekly one-and-a-half hour sessions with the cohort’s startups. EIRs in the Lab include founders, investors and product leaders.
After building three startups, serial entrepreneur David Peto has fallen down — and climbed back out of — many rabbit holes. So, as an EIR in the Lab, he’s looking to share his wisdom.
According to Peto, the difference between a successful entrepreneur and an unsuccessful entrepreneur isn’t talent, it’s experience.
“Having been a founder CEO three times now, and built three startups over 20 years, I've made a lot of mistakes,” he says. “The thing I'm most proud of is helping them avoid the mistakes that I've made.”
Shared experiences
NÜWIEL is a Germany-based company providing electric mobility solutions for cities — most notably, what it calls the world’s first eTrailer. The startup is part of MSISV's 10th cohort and its founder and CEO, Natalia Tomiyama, says that the accelerator solidified her goals, even when the economic landscape was challenging.
“Being a startup founder is a challenging journey, but working on something that creates value and has a positive impact on our community is incredibly gratifying and humbling,” she says.
Tomiyama says that the mentorship she received through MSISV was a gamechanger.
"MSISV has an amazing blend of a hugely passionate team inside Morgan Stanley that have seen over 100 companies go through the cohort,” says Peto. “Really experienced EIRs that have been through everything, a really powerful curriculum as well, and the Lab finds specific external people to bring in who founders can learn from.”
At the beginning of the programme, the Lab asks the cohort members what their goals are — it could be fundraising, hiring, reworking elements like caps table or even coming up with new business models. The Lab team guides startups through those processes and shares its previous experiences.
“The biggest benefit for NÜWIEL was Morgan Stanley’s network and the opportunity to connect to stakeholders from other industries,” says Natalia Tomiyama. “As a result, we could test new use cases within a very short period of time, revise our go-to-market strategy and explore further business opportunities. All this happened within a very intense but highly rewarding five months in the programme.”
As a founder of a startup with sustainable business goals, Tomiyama was particularly drawn to the MSISV's values.
“Sustainability and inclusivity goals should not be separated from any other business metrics of the startup performance,” says Tomiyama. “For all founders in the cohort including myself, these were the reasons why we became entrepreneurs and will continue to be the main thread as our startups will grow.”
Creating connections
As the investment landscape shifts, more venture capital firms (VCs) are consolidating as fundraising continues to be tight. At the early-stage, VCs are looking for market potential, founder resilience and a clear path to commercialisation.
For sector themes, Sanghamitra Karra, global co-head of Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Group, expects to see further growth in agentic AI and AI adopters, quantum computing, energy optimisation and healthcare.
“In 2025, attracting VCs is all about operational resilience and a laser focus on execution, because they are critical for success in the rapidly evolving landscape,” says Karra. “Investors are looking for startups that combine strong execution with clear market demand.”
Applications for MSISV’s 2025 cohort are now extended until Mar 31. Ideal startups for the Lab will include founders who may have experienced systemic barriers to accessing capital and/or have a focus on sustainability; are technology or technology-enabled startups that fall within the seed to Series A funding round stage; and have launched a product into the market with demonstrated revenues.
Learn more about Morgan Stanley Inclusive & Sustainable Ventures and how to apply at morganstanley.com/ventures.
