Program organized together with the Romanian Tech Startups Association (ROTSA)
- Techcelerator, in alliance with ROTSA, brings the EIT Digital Venture Program to Romania and Bulgaria.
- €5,000 grant received by all teams upon selection into the program.
- Grant of up to €25,000 for each winning team.
- Up to €100,000 reserved for participants from the 2 countries in the 2022 edition.
- Up to $100,000 in cloud credits per year for two years, advice from Google engineers and other perks for every participant
Bucharest, February 24, 2022. 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 Baltic States, Eastern Europe and Southern Europe (the full list of 19 countries is available here). Unincorporated entrepreneurial teams with deep tech digital business plans are encouraged to apply by April 8.
The Venture Program takes young entrepreneurs from idea to investment in less than a year. Selected teams will receive intensive 8-week training, support to build their MVP, as well as financial support from investors to effectively navigate through the first year of building their business.
In the final days of the program, when the project presentations ("Pitch Days") take place, teams have the chance to validate their business solution by presenting it to investors, potential customers and experts from the technology community.
The program will select unincorporated multidisciplinary teams with the best innovative business ideas, PoC or prototype in one of the EIT Digital 5 market verticals: Digital Industry, Digital Cities, Digital Wellbeing, Digital Tech and Digital Finance. Other selection criteria include: the market or business challenge addressed, the underlying technology of the product/service, how innovative the product is, the global market and the risks of the business model.
All accepted teams will receive a grant of 5,000 euros upon selection into the program. The winning teams will receive a grant of up to €25,000.
The pre-acceleration program starts on May 10, lasts 2 months and will be organized online. The full program runs until November 30, 2022. Interested founders are invited to apply by April 8 here. More information about the program is available here.
Over the last four years, the EIT Digital Venture program has supported more than 93 teams and more than 200 entrepreneurs at an early stage of their development. Many of these teams attracted investors during or shortly after the pre-acceleration program.
"We strongly believe in the impact that Romania and Bulgaria can have within the European innovation system, therefore we seek to increase their contribution by paving the way for young entrepreneurs in the region to start their business and be successful. Together we are always stronger, more informed, more efficient. ROTSA constantly promotes Romanian start-ups and always works to strengthen the start-up ecosystem in Europe", SAYS Tudor Easter, Incubation Director, ROTSA.
“In addition to pre-seed technology start-ups, Techcelerator is always keen to support early-stage businesses. This year, we are delighted to do so through the Venture Programme, as members of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. It is very necessary to work with the founders, right from the idea stage and support the best ones to grow and become the next unicorns in the region. It takes the desire to do it and the determination and dedication to build a viable business", NOTES Cristina Țoncu, co-founder of Techcelerator.
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About Techcelerator
Techcelerator designs and implements acceleration programs and events aimed at technology start-ups in Romania and South-East Europe. Based in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, Techcelerator is the first accelerator in Romania that allocated funds for the development of high-tech companies in the acceleration and post-acceleration phase. Young innovative companies with high potential for international development and expansion in growth 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 provided by GapMinder Venture Partners and collaborates with other local and European investors to support the technological ecosystem in Romania and Southeast Europe.
Techcelerator has successfully supported more than 50 start-ups in 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 launch, Techcelerator's portfolio companies have benefited from a total investment of over EUR 5 million from the investment rounds raised so far.
About ROTSA
Romanian Tech Startups Association is a non-governmental organization established 10 years ago, which went through a branding change in 2021 and which aims to promote, support and represent the interests of technology start-ups in Romania. Along with ClujHub and Techcelerator, ROTSA is part of a group whose aim is to create a developed environment for technology startups. Since 2010, the organization has developed and joined as a partner in a series of large-scale projects in the field of entrepreneurship development in Romania.
ROTSA, by collaborating with the main players in the national ecosystem of technology start-ups, carries out the national mapping of tech start-ups in Romania, in an effort to generate data related to the state and evolution of technology start-ups . ROTSA's vision is to develop and support the technology start-up ecosystem, while also being a connector for the main players and a link with other international ecosystems. In 2021, ROTSA was selected to represent the Romanian startup ecosystem at the EU level, being part of the European Startup Network, an organization composed of 31 national startup associations from all over Europe and supported by EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel.
The main objectives of the association are: promoting the professional, economic and social interests of technology start-ups in Romania; European-level promotion of technology start-ups from Romania by joining European networks and partnerships; developing a tested incubation model that can be replicated locally; facilitating dialogue between technology start-ups and financiers, public or private, to determine and understand funding needs.
About EIT Digital
EIT Digital believes in creating and shaping a competitive digital Europe that is inclusive, fair and sustainable and aims for a global impact through European innovation fueled by entrepreneurial talent and digital technology.
EIT Digital embodies the future of innovation by mobilizing a pan-European, multi-stakeholder open innovation ecosystem of leading European corporations, SMEs, startups, universities and research institutes, where students, researchers, engineers, business developers and investors deal with the technology, talent, skills, business and capital needs of digital entrepreneurship.
EIT Digital builds the next generation of digital companies, products and services and generates digital entrepreneurial talent, supporting companies and entrepreneurs to reach the frontier of digital innovation by providing them with technology, talent and support for growth.
EIT Digital is a knowledge and innovation community a European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). EIT Digital is co-funded by the European Union.
For more information, go to www.eitdigital.eu.
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Corporate Communication Senior Advisor DiFine PR
0784 222 555
diana.iosu@difinepr.com
