Ten teams of founders from Romania and Bulgaria can win up to EUR 25,000 through the pre-accelerator EIT Digital Venture Program

Deniza Cristian 07/03/2023 | 12:46

Ten teams of founders from Romania and Bulgaria can win up to 25,000 EUR through Venture Program, a pre-acceleration program launched by EIT Digital, part of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). Startup Reaktor incubation platform in partnership with Techcelerator and Romanian Tech Startups Association (ROTSA) implementing the second edition of this program in Romania and Bulgaria.  

 

The EIT Digital Venture Program launched six years ago, was designed to support early-stage entrepreneurial teams from the Baltics, Eastern, and Southern Europe in their journey to market and boasts a valuable track record. Starting this year, the program is running in 22 European countries. During the first six editions, EIT Digital Venture Program supported more than 200 entrepreneurs and launched 124 startups, several of which have quickly raised investment and signed outstanding clients.

Founders from Romania and Bulgaria who build a deep innovation product in one of the 5 market verticals supported by EIT Digital: Digital Industry, Digital Cities, Digital Wellbeing, Digital Tech, Digital Finance may apply to the program here until April 16th.

Selected teams will be offered an intensive eight-week pre-acceleration program; they will be coached, in particular, on how to develop their Minimum Viable Product (MVP), do the right customer discovery and get the problem-solution fit, then establish their startup company, and prepare to raise funds from capital investors.

At the final “Pitch Day”, teams will get the chance to validate their business solution by presenting it to early-stage investors, potential clients, and experts from the tech community.

All teams will receive an initial 5,000 EUR grant, supplemented by another 10,000 EUR for those who complete the program and incorporate their startup. Finally, the first ten ventures, from all participants at the European level, who will raise at least 50,000 EUR in funding from private investors or register sales of more than 10.000 EUR by the end of November will be entitled to an additional prize of 10,000 EUR, bringing EIT Digital’s total support to 25,000 EUR.

The outcomes of the first edition from Romania and Bulgaria

In 2022, the program’s first edition in Romania and Bulgaria registered 38 applications.

Five Romanian teams won a grant of 5,000 EUR [Foni.AI, Insuloc, Rastel.io, Dotstride (fost Smoek) și Eyelearn (ex WakeZ)]. All 5 got the second phase, registered their companies and got 10,000 EUR for 5% equity.

In the final stage, 3 teams from Romania, a quite impressive outcome, qualified among the ten European finalist startups, attracted a financing round of 50.000 EUR who was joined by EIT Digital with another 10.000 EUR.

In its 6th edition, the EIT Digital Venture Program is a proven opportunity for early-stage entrepreneurial teams to establish their deep tech venture and join Europe’s largest digital innovation ecosystem. I am excited to see where this next generation of entrepreneurs take us, with the support and resources they will receive“, said Mirko Tadic, EIT Digital Venture Program’s Lead.

Europe is slowly waking up to the challenge of tech leadership- and it doesn’t want to miss out on the new innovation race focused on AI and deeptech. It is our purpose at Startup Reaktor to build the next generation of digital ventures and breed digital entrepreneurial talent, helping businesses and entrepreneurs to be at the frontier of digital innovation by providing them with talent and growth support, in collaboration with EIT Digital” said Alina Vasile-Floroaie, Startup Reaktor Managing Director.

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“The great outcomes of the 1st edition implemented by us, for Romania and Bulgaria, got to the expectation of our partner, so the decision to continue the collaboration was somehow natural. This year we planned for our participants a more complex offer under the umbrella of our innovation platform, Startup Reaktor, with knowledge boosters starting from customer discovery to investment readiness and connection with VC investors” said Cristina Țoncu, Regional Director ROTSA and Programs Partner Techcelerator.

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