Innovation Depot has chosen seven startups for its 2020 Velocity Accelerator cohort.

The seven were chosen from more than 130 companies around the world, with three based in Alabama and others from Nashville, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and Montreal.

The program, now in its fourth year, recruits tech companies to Alabama and gives them access to $50,000 in capital, along with resources and mentoring in order to grow their operations quickly. The companies undergo 13 weeks of business and leadership training at Innovation Depot, with Velocity Accelerator kicking off Jan. 27.

The program culminates in Velocity Demo Day April 21, where the companies pitch to their supporters as well as potential customers and investors. That gives them the opportunity to pitch for additional grants which would require them to move or maintain their headquarters in the Birmingham area.

The companies chosen are:

Chip of Indianapolis, Ind.

Founder: Graham Watson

Chip is a web & app based platform to help individuals pay off their debt. Chip rounds up the spare change made on debit and credit card purchases and applies them as a principal payment to student debt, auto loans or mortgages. This reduces loan term lengths and could save thousands of dollars in interest payments.

DownTime of Montreal, Canada

Founders: Aristo Mohit-Coker and Angela Di Paola

DownTime is a digital behavioral health agent connecting people to mental health providers.

Gainvest of Pittsburgh, PA

Founders: Nashid Ali

Gainvest provides resources for opportunity zone investing, allowing investors to defer taxes immediately, invest into qualified deals, and receive updates and returns.

Leadhr of Birmingham

Founders: Ross Blankenship and Howard Glenn

Leadhr is an HR tech platform that helps businesses and organizations identify and accelerate employee leadership potential.

Leveld of Mobile

Founder: Matthew Gray

LEVELD is an app-based marketplace that enables location specific tool and equipment rentals with peer-to-peer transactions. LEVELD provides individuals access to tools and equipment and enables consumers to generate passive income from their personal stock of tools not in use.

Stroll of Nashville, Tenn.

Founders: John Mark Eberhardt and Charleson Bell

Stroll is a patented, end-to-end location-based marketing platform specifically designed for tourism. Stroll connects cities to citizens and encourages economic development for local businesses.

Vendrix of Birmingham

Founders: David Stewart and Joe Turner

Vendrix is a purchasing platform for card-based business-to-business transactions. The Vendrix platform gives business owners a higher level of accountability while affording employees the convenience of purchasing with a credit card. Customer-specific spend controls are enforced at the point of purchase. That way, decision makers can see employee spending in real time, and ensure cumulative spending among users will not exceed a group or project budget.