ACCELERATOR

ACCELERATOR’S main objective is to enhance access to innovation finance through improving the institutional framework conditions and related policy instruments by developing the practical solution of acceleration services and influencing the concerned strategic framework at partner’s regions and programme level. The primary target group is SMEs in need of capital but lacking skills to acquire it. Secondly we target business support organisations at which new and improved acceleration services will be bedded and we link these organisations through a Danube-region transnational network.  Third we concentrate on integrating equity financing institutions in regional innovation ecosystems. Last the integration of the public sector is highly relevant for us due to increasing attention to equity programmes from ESIF sources. Our approach has strong transnational dimension: beyond the transnational network mentioned above, regions with well performing innovation systems and partners with successful acceleration schemes will assist weaker regions or partners with limited experience, in addition joint actions will be triggered.

Project Fact sheet:

Start date: 0-01-2017

End date: 30-06-2019

Overall budget: 1 966 163,42 Euro

ERDF contribution: 1 359 291,64 Euro

IPA contribution: 311 947,23 Euro

Priority: Innovative and socially responsible Danube region

Specific objective: Improve framework conditions for innovation

http://dtp.interreg-danube.eu/approved-projects/accelerator 

3RD SC, 5TH WG MEETING AND JOINT MEETING WITH RI2INTEGRATE

The third steering committee and the fifth work group meeting of the Accelerator project was held in Belgrade between 21th and 23th of March. This time, the event wasn't be only an "ordinary" meeting, it was also a joint meeting with another DTP project, the Ri2integrate.Certainly, the main pillar of the meeting was giving by the Accelerator project (SC and WG meeting) and the RI2integrate is connecting to it. On the 2 days event the RI2integrate project got opportunity for the introduction and the common points of the two projects will be explored. It created the opportunity of capitalization among the two projects and they could be supporting each other. Besides this event could be a great chance for meeting the two project teams, and introduce activities from both projects, some possible synergies between RI2integrate and Accelerator and ideas for new joint projects could be found.

MID-TERM DISSEMINATION EVENT IN MARIBOR

The 6th meeting of the ACCELERATOR project was held in Maribor between 15th and 17th of May, 2018. Besides of that Maribor and the PODIM Forum 2018 gave place for the mid-term dissemination event of the project. At the event were held interactive meetings in the ACCELERATOR Exhibition place for stakeholders of the project with continuous presentation and discussion of ACCELERATOR’s objectives, activities, completed tasks, information on pilot programmes in partner countries.

DEXIC ACCELERATOR - THE PILOT PROGRAM IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

In the Czech Republic, 12 promising ICT startup teams took part altogether in 2 acceleration schemes organized by DEX Innovation Centre – DEXIC BootCamp (3-day intensive acceleration programme) organized in March 2018, and DEXIC Accelerator (4-week acceleration programme) organized in May-June 2018. More than 25 mentors helped participating startups from segments such as ICT security, smart health, smart city, project management, social networks, recording & transcription in different fields of their business – business models, strategy, product development, marketing and sales, intellectual property, law, expansion to other countries, finance, investors relations and presentation skills. Both acceleration schemes ended up by final public events – Grand Finale and #DEMODAY bringing together more than 50 participants each time from investors, ecosystem actors, stakeholders, mentors, other startups and general public. 

For more information about both schemes, please visit http://dex-ic.com/demoday-winner-dexic-accelerator-2018 and http://dex-ic.com/whalebone-the-winner-of-grand-finale 

ACCELERATOR PILOT PROGRAM BY THE REPUBLIC AGENCY FOR DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

The choice for Best Business Idea of Accelerator Pilot Program the Agency organized within the project ACCELERATOR which is co-financed by the European Union from the funds of the European Regional Development Fund and IPA funds within the Danube Transnational Program.

“This program is one of the most important activities in the project ACCELERATOR and it implies support for innovative beginners in business in the form of training, advisory support, using free facilities within the business incubator, administrative and technical support for the use of funds from different finanical programs, the possibility of presenting in front of potential investors and promotion and international networking”, explained Marica Beric from the Republic Agency for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises, project manager.

At the public call, that was published by the Republic Agency for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises  in March, 30 applications were received, and 16 were selected for participation in the program. Ten of them successfully passed a training and mentoring program.

“The participants of the acceleratror pilot program in the previous two months have gone trough an intensive educational and advisory support program, thus acquiring all the knowledge necessary for business success, as well as advisory support for the purpose of realization their business idea. Individuals and teams that participated in this program were from all over the Republic of Srpska, from Novi Grad to East Sarajevo, and their business ideas belong to different sectors from: IT, food production, agriculture, machine industry, textile industry, tourism and providing certain services “- said Beric

The best business idea within accelerator pilot program is "Naše teglice''– growing and processing of the rosehip by Dusanka Surlan from Novi Grad. 

In the next period of time, we expect a significant inclusion of all institutions of Republic of Srpska, especially those who provide some kind of financial support, because the biggest problem that the innovative startups face is the lack of financial resources for realizing their business ideas.

ACCELERATOR PILOT PROGRAM BY ASIMCOV

Between March - April  ASIMCOV implemented a comprehensive and dynamic business development program which was personalized to the conditions of the local startup ecosystem. The 2-month-long pilot program included 2 workshops on CANVAS Business Model, 6 thematic days (strategic management, finance & law, digital marketing, internationalization, private & public funds, presentation techniques), 4 mentors from 4+1 different fields, coworking space & background support on behalf of regional clusters. The startuppers had the opportunity to present their ideas in the front of stakeholders (~100) though 3-minute-long pitches in english which was recorded. The videos are spreaded out by ASIMCOV through Enterprise Europe Network and other channels with the aim to promote the participants.  Achievements: startuppers within the pilot formed a community-they settled common projects, family friendly pilot validated by two mothers attending all the activities of the programme. 

More about the Romanian pilot:  http://innohub.center/en/accelerator/    

https://www.facebook.com/innoHUB.center/ 

SUPPORT TO THE SMES DEVELOPMENT THROUGH COOPERATION AT THE LOCAL LEVEL

As part of the promotion of the Developing accelerators to provide better access to innovation finance for SMEs (Accelerator) project, Development Agency of Serbia (RAS) organized a meeting with representatives of accredited regional development agencies (ARRA) on May 25, 2018.

Beside presenting already conducted and current activities, RAS focused on the pilot as part of the Accelerator project. After the presentation, the participants exchanged views on the possible replication of the pilot project, but also discussed cooperation in improving the support to SMEs and experiences on the local level.

A network of 16 accredited regional development agencies (ARDA) are RAS partners at the local level, and with their activities cover almost the entire territory of the Republic of Serbia. Together with RAS, ARDA participate in the implementation of programs and projects designed for SMEs support.

ACCELERATOR PILOT PROGRAM IN BULGARIA

The pilot program of the project started with 11 participants by the Technologycenter Sofia Ltd.. In the start-up phase 2 participants had to quit because they realized that their idea was not yet mature enough for participation in this project. After mentor meetings, three participants have now changed their business idea.

The product “Tsuki” – a multifunctional fabric cover for babies aged between 0 and 3 months, became a starter kit for this age group.

The IT project "DigiCulture" is on the way to develope an app for tourist destinations along the Danube in SRB, RO and BG.

“Technocreative” has developed a system for the storage of wine bottles in restaurants, wine cellаrs and in private houses. After the mentoring with the metal experts, the products design changed a little and can thus be produced at a lower cost.

Since the other participants are still working on changes to their products, further mentor meetings are scheduled and the end date planned for 10th July was set for 30th July.

A national press conference will be held on 10 July.

BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION OF FH-JOANNEUM

At the business plan competition of FH-Joanneum in Austria the three best ideas were awarded with vouchers of the city of Kapfenberg.

In the program the already founded company "Pfotenzauber" was voted on the first place. The project is a label called “Pfotenzauber”, which are handmade beds for pets of highest quality and made out of special choosen materials.

A vaccination app called "Plan4You Easy", which is reminiscent of vaccinations, won the second place. The calendar app "Phanty" was voted on the third place by our jury.

Most of the participating teams were very enthusiastic and positive, just the international teams felt that they had a slight disadvantage because of the more or less local jury.   

The feedback of the Jury was also very positive, the municipality of Kapfenberg even asked, if the event could be done on a regular basis. The only critical point here was that some of the plans had a rather rough financial calculation. So maybe the competition could be called ideas competition in the future instead.  

ICORELATOR - THE PILOT PROGRAM OF SLOVENIA

ICOrelator, an accelerator program for future ICO campaigns, set place in Ljubljana and accepted 10 teams. Slovenia is a leading nation regarding blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs). Therefore, we managed to include some of the brightest and experienced mentors to join our program and share a light on the turbulent industry. The program offered very specific talks and workshops but was mainly based on 1:1 mentorships. ICO campaign has become an extremely difficult way of raising money and demands a very broad specter of knowledge in the startup team - entrepreneurship, marketing & PR, law & taxes, project management, blockchain development etc. Our team of mentors was formed based on those needs so that accepted teams could get a broader sense of understanding the scope of these kinds of projects. It was very insightful for them and we are glad to say that at least 3 teams are going to start their own ICO, 4-5 of them have potential but need to work harder and build a stronger team, while 2-3 teams were very poorly prepared and will not continue with their projects - the latter is also considered a big success as ICOrelator had saved them precious time and resources.

ALBA ACCELERATOR - THE HUNGARIAN PILOT PROGRAM

Under the direction of the Central Transdanubian Regional Innovation Agency and with the professional assistance of the Szécheny Venture Capital Fund Management Ltd a start-up supporting mentor programme called „Alba Accelerator” was launched in April, 2018. The programme supports those SMEs who are planning to raise external capital in order to realize their innovative idea but who are not yet in the possession of the necessary internal resources.

The international jury selected 14 ideas for the first call of the Alba Accelerator programme realized withing the constraints of the ACCELERATOR project belonging the Interreg Danube Programme. The participating teams and SMEs being in their initial phase of development got mentoring from acknowledged Hungarian professionals. They got insight into the following topics: protection of intellectual property, business planning, market research, legal questions regarding establishing a business, marketing and negotiation with investors.

The process arrived to an important point on 8th June 2018. The Corvinus University Campus located in Székesfehérvár gave place to the start-up day, where the 14 selected startup-idea-owners had the chance to shortly present their business development concept to the jury of investors. Apart from the introductions, also the promotion of the next round coming up in autumn took place during the event.

The first three winners of the startup day as well as of the pilot programme are:

1. Viaplant (architecture - composite panel with UV and frost-proof properties)
2. S-Park (solar parking - multifunctional and intelligent parking system)
3. MAIk Lab Pointer (artificial intelligence framework boosted with latest computer vision algorithms)