ACG NJ Angel Forum Breakfast October 29, 2024

At our meeting, Tyler Lange and Justin Murray, of Plug and Play, plan to discuss their startup investments through “NJ FAST” which is the fourth Strategic Innovation Center in New Jersey. NJ FAST is a partnership between Stevens Institute of Technology (“Stevens”), the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (“NJEDA”), Prudential Financial (“Prudential”) and Plug and Play. NJ FAST aims to deliver significant economic impact by supporting startups with innovative, world-class ideas and position New Jersey as a leader in the research, development, innovation, and entrepreneurship of the financial and insurance technology sectors. A list of their investments through NJ FAST can be found here.

Plug and Play is a global innovation platform serving to connect 86,000 startups with 575 corporations in 60 cities across the world. Pitchbook named Plug and Play the most active global investor in 2023 with over 100 investments. Plug and Play (in partnership with Stevens, Prudential, and NJEDA) is launching NJ FAST, as its first accelerator on the East Coast focused on financial services technologies, with plans to strategically invest in startups across the tri state.

Tyler Lange started his career as the eighth hire for Plug and Play's Silicon Valley Insurtech practice, which quickly grew to be the largest vertical in Plug and Play's global ecosystem. He led East Coast partnerships and events for the practice, working closely with partners across the insurance value chain including Cigna, The Hartford, Guy Carpenter, AXIS, and many more. After Plug and Play, Tyler led insurance go-to-market for unicorn fintech startup, Array, before returning to Plug and Play to lead the firm's first East Coast accelerator, NJ FAST.

Justin Murray has been building the technology and startup ecosystem in New Jersey for the past 6 years. His experience has been on the operator side of early stage tech startups like Black Crow AI and on the community side through his previous involvement with TechUnited:NJ. At Plug and Play, Justin is the Ventures lead for the northeast - focused on fintech & insurtech investments through NJ FAST and through the local ecosystem. He is also focused on bridging the gap between NJ/NYC and Silicon Valley.