Accelerator in Europe

Accelerators in Europe are a few years behind those in the U.S., but they have close connection with well-known accelerators in the U.S., although European accelerators are not as sophisticated as in U.S., but numbers of startup program are as many or even more than those in the U.S. (Salido, Sabas, & Freixas, 2013). Abundant accelerators in Europe, Seedcamp and Startupbootcamp were stood for the top first and second position rate by Tech Cocktail (Gruber, Top 8 European Startup Accelerators and Incubators Ranked: Seedcamp and Startup Bootcamp Top The Ranking, 2011).

3.2.1 Seedcamp

Seedcamp is a leading seed funding and mentoring program in Europe. Most of the people call them, Europe version of Y Combinator. Seedcamp founded by a group of 30 European investors, they first started an accelerator program in 2007.

13

Funding

Seedcamp is open to entrepreneurial teams within and outside Europe who wants to build their business in Europe as a starting point. They provide seed investment up to

$67,000 per teams in exchange for 8% to 10 % of the equity. Seedcamp’s program is an intensive a year-long program. They are focusing on all aspects of company development with investment cycle runs from October to September on each year.

Mentoring

Seedcamp has more than 2,000 mentors spread over the world. During September, they usually host Seedcamp Week, which is a five-days long event in London with over 150 of Seedcamp mentors. This event is included masterclass by Seedcamp, short presentations by all participant teams in a panel; also, startups will get mentoring and advice during the process (Christiansen J. D., 2009). At the end of the event they will be selected around 20 teams to get funded and joined Seedcamp family. However, before they can participate in the Seedcamp Week, first they must apply for Mini Seedcamps which is a day long version of Seedcamp, and the winners of the Mini Seedcamps will be invited to participate in the Seedcamp Week (SeedCamp, 2014).

Table 3 Seedcamp Networking

Seedcamp has built their network around worldwide and distributed mentoring during the programs. They have been partnerships with local accelerator companies also with U.S. 500 Startups to stronger their position outside Europe. Seedcamp also has been

Total company Graduated (2012) 80 Total Startups funded (April 2014) 118

Total Funding Raised $82,397,018

Number of Companies Exits (April 2014) 5 Number of Dead Companies (April 2014) 8

Seed Funding per Team €25K-€50K ($35K-$70K)

Equity Stake Required 3 - 10%

Acceptance Rate 1.5%

14

The main different Seedcamp from Y Combinator and TechStars are:

- Seedcamp is a collective rather than an individual initiative by members of VCs community, serial entrepreneurs, mentors and angel investors.

- Seedcamp has a global event model, which can brings companies and mentors together immediately, through a Mini Seedcamp or Seedcamp Weeks. So, a startup can gets value with its first interaction with Seedcamp.

- Seedcamp specific incorporate European entrepreneurs in starting up businesses.

3.2.2 Startupbootcamp

Startupbootcamp (SBC) in Europe leading accelerator for startups with a mentor and alumni network form for more than 30 countries across the world. SBC founded in 2010 in Copenhagen by Ruud Hendriks and Alex Farcet. Now, SBC has runs accelerator programs in Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Dublin, Eindhoven, and Israel.

(Startupbootcamp, 2014)

In General, SBC provided 3 month acceleration program with mentorship driven. They run the program in different cities across Europe with different focuses. Take examples such as Startupbootcamp Dublin/London just focuses on digital health;

Startupbootcamp Copenhagen works with focusing on mobile devices (technologies and solution), and Startupbootcamp Amsterdam is focused on NFC and contactless. But, some of the programs are still open to all types of applications.

Table 4 Startupbootcamp

Accelerator Startupbootcamp

Location Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen,

Dublin, Eindhoven, and Israel.

Launched 2010

Length of Program 3 Month

Total company Graduated (2012) 101 Total Startups Funded (April 2014) 130

Total Funding Raised (April 2014) $14,505,850 Number of Companies Exits (April 2014) 2

Number of Dead Companies (April 2014) 15

Seed Funding per Team €15 K ($20 K)

Equity Stake Required 8%

Acceptance Rate 10 Teams per city

15

Funding

For firm who interests in join SBC can apply through filling an online application form;

but, only 20 teams from the appliers will be chosen to participants in Startup Weekend.

Startup Weekend is a two-day event to sorts out 10 best teams to be accepted into the program. They will be receive $20,000 in pre-seed investment with return of 8% equity company, a free co-working space and over $600,000 worth of deals from SBC’s sponsors and partners (Barrehag, Larsoon, Mardstrom, Westergard, & Wrackefeldt, 2012).

Mentoring

In SBC, startups spend much time in interaction with mentors for purpose to make sure that the startups can get on the right direction in the beginning of the program. SBC mentors have a different speech’s topic in each day such as; motivational speech or sharing story about their entrepreneur experience. Startups will be assisted in building theirs product, improving their business development rather than technical issues (Barrehag, Larsoon, Mardstrom, Westergard, & Wrackefeldt, 2012). Program of SBC is adjusted according to the basic needs of each startup periodically. Mentors will gets involved in every day operations for providing startups support and guidance if needed;

further in the last two weeks, startups are focusing in pitch practice for the ‘Demo Day’;

Moreover, SBC startups have opportunities to participants in the annual investor tour to London and Silicon Valley. At the end after 3 months, all startups are given a chance to pitch their company in a hundreds of Business Angels and Venture Capitalists at “Demo Days”.

Networking

SBC has numerous global sponsors and partners, such as in Amsterdam, they have Axicom and AVG, in Berlin, they have Cisco and Mercedes-Benz, and many others well-known sponsors. (Startupbootcamp, 2014). They also have an alumni community which is can open video chat with the startups team for helping and running discussions with them. In SBC, startups have change to go to London or Silicon Valley to get additional funding from investors.