STARTUP3: A new opportunity for startups and SMEs
STARTUP3 is a new business acceleration programme that aims to bring innovative tech ideas into the industry through its extensive business and growth programme and pool of corporates and investors! Funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 programme, it allows startups and SMEs to gain extensive and expensive set of business services for free, mentors from big European corporations, direct access to the corporations and investors.
It applies to startups and SMEs within IoT, Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, VR, and other deep-tech solutions in any sector of European economy and industry.
For the European deep-tech startup scene to grow sustainably and achieve its potential impact, access to real market problems and test beds is required. It is the vision to build smart spaces ecosystem, a reef-like deep-tech hub-of-hubs that fosters deep-tech startups and SMEs to scale and capture new opportunities for funding and business expansion. Driven by real market needs, the STARTUP3 project builds and facilitates an open and collaborative ecosystem for high impact deeptech innovators and corporates and acts as a cross-border/sectoral market-maker.
STARTUP3 Business and Growth Programme aims to build an ecosystem where cluster SMEs, technology SMEs, market-oriented researchers, deep tech ventures, individual innovators/researchers with innovative ideas will be given an opportunity to bring their idea into industry. Target audience will be guided by experts from digital clusters and Digital Innovation Hubs who will support them and connect them with big players, as well as select the most promising ones.
The STARTUP3 Business and Growth Programme will be based on a 3‐stage process:
1.BEST POTENTIALS
This stage will begin after peer to peer evaluation process. It is expected that 25 projects will enter this phase. Along this phase, STARTUP3 will support innovators to challenge their concepts and ideas, identify market problems, estimate the MVP and overall product effort, as well as also to identify their competitors from the deep-tech sphere.
2.MENTORING: IDEATION2PRODUCT
Ten best potentials will be selected for the participation in this Stage. Teams will be prepared to enter the last stage – Product2Market by submitting a valid and strong Executive Summary and through soft skills necessary for a successful business meeting. After this phase, the projects holding a major market potential will be invited to enter the last stage of the process.
3.PRODUCT2MARKET
The best five projects will enter the final stage. This stage is dedicated to building solid partnerships and detecting real investment opportunities for the top projects in the STARTUP3 Business and Growth Programme. They will have access to targeted investors, clients, corporate partners and international accelerator representatives to gain traction in terms of sales, prospects, users, markets and customers.
The Project contains a corporate community composed of European companies and investors which will carry out a crucial role in the implementation of the project, serving as mentors and test beds for STARTUP3 Accelerator participants’ innovative deep-tech solutions.
The STARTUP3 Project looks for sector-agnostic solutions and aims to include various stakeholders to join its Corporate Community.
You can inquire and contact the programme here.
