By rbj
Techcelerator brings to Romania and Bulgaria the Venture Program, the pre-acceleration program launched by EIT Digital, developed to support early-stage entrepreneurial teams on their journey to market. The program is open to teams from the Baltics, Eastern Europe and Southern Europe (full list of 19 countries here). Entrepreneurial, non-incorporated teams with digital deep tech business plans are encouraged to apply by April 8th.
The Venture Program takes young entrepreneurs from idea to investment in less than a year. The selected teams will receive an intense 8 week knowledge training, they will get support to build their MVP, as well as financial support from investors, to navigate efficiently through the first year of building their business.
At the final “Pitch Days”, teams get the chance to validate their business solution by presenting it in front of early-stage investors, potential clients, and experts from the tech community.
The program will select non-incorporated multidisciplinary teams, with the best innovative business ideas, PoC, or prototypes in one of the EIT Digital 5 market verticals: Digital Industry, Digital Cities, Digital Wellbeing, Digital Tech, and Digital Finance. Among other selection criteria are: addressed market or business challenge, the technology underlying the product/service, product innovativeness, global market, and risks associated with the business model.
All accepted teams will receive a 5000 euro grant funding upon the selection in the program. Winning teams will receive a grant of up to 25,000 EUR.
The pre-accelerator program starts on May 10th, it lasts for 2 months and will be organized online. The full program lasts until November 30th, 2022. The interested founders are invited to apply until April 8th here. More information about the program is available here.
In the past four years, the EIT Digital Venture Program has supported more than 93 teams and over 200 entrepreneurs in an early stage of their development. Many of these teams have attracted investors during or shortly after the pre-acceleration program.
“We strongly believe in the impact Romania and Bulgaria can have on the European innovation system, therefore we seek to enhance their contribution by opening a path for the young entrepreneurs in the region to start their venture and be successful. It’s always together that we are stronger, more knowledgeable, more efficient. ROTSA is constantly promoting Romanian start-ups, and is always at work to consolidate Europe’s start-up ecosystem”, states Tudor Pasc, Incubation Director, ROTSA.
“In addition to our focus on pre-seed technology start-ups, Techcelerator is keen to support grassroots ventures. This year, we are happy to do so with the Venture Program, as members of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. There is a great need to work with founders, even from the idea stage, and support the best ones to grow and become the next unicorns in the region. What it takes is the urge and commitment to building a viable venture”, states Cristina Țoncu, Co-Founder Techcelerator.
Techcelerator designs and implements accelerator programs and events targeting technology start-ups in Romania and South-East Europe. Headquartered in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, Techcelerator is the first accelerator in Romania to allocate funds for the development of high-tech companies in the acceleration and post-acceleration phase. Innovative young companies with high potential for international development and expansion from growing industries such as FinTech, B2B SaaS, eHealth, PropTech, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, digital transformation and others are targeted for acceleration and investment. Techcelerator benefits from the strategic support offered by GapMinder Venture Partners and collaborates with other local and European investors to support the tech ecosystem in Romania and South-East Europe.
Techcelerator has successfully supported over 50 start-ups during previous acceleration rounds, as well as through various support programs, organized by it or in partnership with other entities in the ecosystem. In the three years since its launch, the companies in the Techcelerator portfolio have benefited from a total investment of over 5 million EUR from the investment rounds attracted so far.
Romanian Tech Startups Association is a non-governmental organization founded 10 years ago and rebranded in 2021, that aims to promote, support, and represent the interests of technology start-ups in Romania. ROTSA is part of a group whose purpose is to create a developed environment for tech start-ups, alongside with ClujHub and Techcelerator.
EIT Digital believes in making and shaping a competitive digital Europe that is inclusive, fair and sustainable, and aims at global impact through European innovation fuelled by entrepreneurial talent and digital technology.
EIT Digital is a Knowledge and Innovation Community of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). EIT Digital is co-funded by the European Union.
