A consortium of Romanian and Bulgarian companies, with the support of EIT Climate KIC, is developing Black Sea ClimAccelerator, an acceleration program to support 42 green start-ups in various stages of development, with mentoring, consulting in business and preparation for attracting investments, but also for a total financing of 300,000 euro.
In the first edition of the Black Sea ClimAccelerator, participation is free and includes personalized support activities, divided into three categories, depending on growing needs.
Thus, start-ups that have an idea and are in the early stages fall into the first category – Early stage, and 16 such companies in Romania will receive a grant of 5,000 euros provided by EIT Climate KIC and will benefit of business idea validation workshops and product-solution fit.
Also, start-ups that have a prototype validated with customers fall into the second category – MVP. For such businesses there are six places available in the program, with benefits such as a grant of 20,000 euro offered by EIT Climate KIC, access to workshops on marketing and sales, monetization and pricing, team alignment, business scaling, as well as specialized consultancy according to specific needs.
In the third category of the program – Growth – there are six start-ups that have scalable solutions and will benefit from specialized consulting sessions on their specific needs, including on the understanding of the terms sheets for investments (other essential commercial aspects transaction – economic and startup control), activities to identify grant opportunities both locally and internationally and facilitation and support activities to prepare them for attracting investments and financing.
“All registered start-ups will also participate in individual mentoring sessions, peer sharing sessions at national and international level and will connect with key actors in the ecosystem, through activities carried out mainly online. In addition, startups in the categories 2 and 3 will participate in national and international events and fairs and in Demo Day, a national event in which they will present their solution to the key players in the market and will participate in networking sessions,” states the source quoted by Agerpres.
Registrations for category 1 and 2 startups are open until September 15, 2021, while category 3 candidates will enter the program following an invitation from the organizers and following a personalized selection process, conducted together with a jury consisting of investors and business angels.
The start-ups participating in the program will be announced on September 22, 2021, and in October-November the support activities for the start-ups in the Early stage category will take place. From October to December, the activities prepared for the start-ups in the MVP and Growth categories will take place, while on December 9, Demo Day will take place, the event in which companies can present their solutions.
Black Sea ClimAccelerator, developed in partnership with EIT Climate KIC, becomes part of an ecosystem of seven consortia from over 30 countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South America.
The EIT Climate-KIC is a Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) that works to accelerate the transition to a “zero-carbon” society and resilience to climate change. For the past 10 years, the EIT Climate-KIC’s accelerator program has been the leading provider of climate innovation solutions, with over 1,500 solutions accepted and almost 1 billion euro in guaranteed capital.
The Climate Vertical is a Romanian initiative that aims to address critical climate challenges by activating and involving the community to support startups to build sustainable solutions.
Innovation Starter is the first innovation agency in Bulgaria, founded by Leona Aslanova in 2014.
