The following blog post, written by Corey Ford, is cross-published from matter.vc.

Just three days ago, six brand new teams walked in our garage door ready to start their journey with us. After a rigorous application process with hundreds applying from all over the country and across the world, we are now proud to announce Matter Three!

This week, the teams are immersing themselves in the design thinking bootcamp that begins each and every Matter class. We’re all working together to establish the culture and community that makes this program so valuable.

Following in the footsteps of the previous two cohorts, Matter Three brings an interesting mix of individuals and teams. Half the teams are lead by female cofounders. We have team members joining us from Matter Partner Jake Shapiro’s hometown of Boston as well as from SOMA right here in our own backyard. Although the teams are all technically from the United States, don’t let that fool you. We’ve got people hailing from Scotland, Detroit, Hong Kong, Texas, and beyond.  But the diversity of the group is not limited to the individual level. We’ve got some really amazing mission-focused companies that are really focusing on empowering society. Check them out below!

Crateplayer  (@Crateplayer) is a media curation platform for collecting and organizing audio and video content from multiple sources into simple, shareable, playable collections.

Known (@WithKnown) is an open publishing and collaboration platform that allows anyone to share their stories using many types of media.

LocalData @GoLocalData) is a cloud-based mapping platform that helps cities and communities make data-driven decisions by capturing and visualizing street-level information in real time.

Louder (@Louder) is a crowdfunded advertising platform that allows users to donate small amounts to amplify news and information that is important to them.

Musey (@MuseyApp) connects fans with the online and offline spaces of artists and makers via mobile.

Stringr is a platform that helps media organizations request, find, license, and acquire multimedia content from freelancers and the crowd.

This is just the beginning! Save the date for Matter Three Demo Day, coming to you all in San Francisco on September 11, 2014 and in New York City on September 16, 2014.