CEED Tech is a consortium of established software accelerators, specializing in mentorship and investment in high potential, scalable businesses led by proficient founders, helping them to launch fast, and gain further investment. Its members are Startup Yard in Prague, Digital Factory in Budapest, The Spot in Bratislava, Startup Wise Guys in Tallinn, and Open Coffee Club in Vilnius. They have established a current portfolio of nearly 100 companies, working with over 100 investors and 450 mentors from fields relevant to their startups.
“The CEE region has produced many quality startups over the years and this extra support from the EU will only help build more sustainable businesses. The combined resources and extra funding will spark and enable innovation throughout the region. This EC grant will allow CEED Tech to distribute much more money to startups in the region, at a much smaller cost of equity” said Calum Cameron, Managing Director at Startup Wise Guys.
Startups that are accepted into one of the five programs will receive up to €30,000 in up-front seed capital in return for 5% to 15% of equity stake in the startup, and will undergo 3 to 6 months of acceleration, during which they will be advised by relevant experts in their fields, and will launch their products to the public while also seeking further investment. The most promising startups with highest potential business ideas, who have proved the viability and market potential of their product idea have the chance to receive up to €250,000 in follow up investment.
CEED Tech is a project co-funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme (2007-2013). All investments made are co-financed by private angels and venture investors with proven track records of cooperation with our accelerators. As part of the EC Grant program, participating startups will use open source FIWARE technologies, along with a range of perks.
CEED Tech especially welcomes projects in the areas of data, cloud services, analytics, transactional technologies, fintech and e-commerce, B2B technologies, location based services, and security. Since CEED Tech is selecting up to 50 teams, we expect to see a great range of applicants.
Startup teams can get more info on the website of CEED Tech and can apply now via F6S. Startups can apply until 15 December, in 2015 a second call will follow.
