Founders of early-stage tech startups from Romania and South-Eastern Europe can apply until November 11 in Startup Reaktor, an accelerator dedicated to early-stage tech startups in the South-Eastern European region that want validation and rapid international expansion, in particular in ten countries in Western Europe, the UK and the Scandinavian area.
The activities of the program aim in particular to enable startups to quickly launch and develop in international markets, to certify the investment value of the startup at the end of the program and to facilitate the attraction of pre-seed funding between 50.000- 300.000 euro through the traditional investors associated with the program: Seedblink,Tech Angels Romania and EIT Digital.
The new Startup Reaktor edition starts in the second half of November and lasts for ten weeks.
Founders can sign up for Startup Reaktor until November 11.
The program is open to startups that belong to areas such as data automation, artificial intelligence, enterprise software, cleantech, financial services, eHealth, dual-use, proptech, edutech & future of work, market places, SaaS, transportation & mobility, aerospace & defence, smart-city, cybersecurity, and data & analytics and agritech.
Project evaluation criteria include: the composition and expertise of the team, the business model, the targeted impact of the solution, the potential for international scaling, the size of the targeted market, the identified competition, the validation actions carried out so far.
Startup Reaktor is backed by over 30 partner organizations from the European tech startup ecosystem. Founders will also have access to mentors and business developers who will guide them to achieve their goals.
Founders will receive access to the advice and expertise of international mentors to identify and launch in a new European market or to identify distribution channels that can generate immediate traction in their companies.
Assistance will be provided by over 100 international experts from ten partner countries in Western Europe, Scandinavia and UK. The startups will also be supported throughout the year to take part in European business missions and conferences that support development in new markets such as Web Summit in Lisbon, Slush in Helsinki, 4YFN in Barcelona, Deep Tech Days in Paris, EU Startups Summit in Malta, Viva Technology in Paris, The Next Web Amsterdam, Tech Week in London, Pirate Summit in Cologne (Germany).
“Internationalization is the goal with which founders should start from the very beginning. Even if this step is hard to visualize from the early stage, it is the mobilizing factor. Validating the idea and then the MVP in new markets speeds up the go-to-market strategy and is essential for a time-critical startup. Startup Reaktor offers this support: participating companies have the chance to test their products in multiple markets across Europe with the support of our mentors and partners. There are more than 100 experts who have a good understanding of both the reality in our region and of the areas where the founders want to expand. The curriculum that we propose has been continuously adapted and improved by validating it with the alumni of the more than 200 startups participating in the four editions of the program so far”, said Cristina Țoncu, Regional Director of the Romanian Tech Startups Association (ROTSA) and Techcelerator Program Partner.
“Startup Reaktor is the first program with a focus on internationalization, validation and launch on new markets for early stage and very early stage tech startups from South East Europe. We created Startup Reaktor in 2021 to address the main needs of entrepreneurs: a tailored learning program that provides access to a strong network of international mentors focused on business development, the opportunity to interact with European investors and potential customers, building a system to scale internationally, access to the experience of other founders – some of them alumni of our previous programs. With access to a global network of resources, technology business development methodologies and investor connections, Startup Reaktor empowers entrepreneurs to accelerate international growth, quickly gain traction and turn their ideas into scalable businesses. We want through this program to get entrepreneurs to not just think in the first couple of years about which country to expand to next, but actually take that step,” stated Mo Zidan, International Go-To-Market Lead for Startup Reaktor.
Founders will finish the program with Startup Reaktor DemoDay, a pitching event where they will be able to present their businesses to investors. They will also receive a certificate that will include an evaluation of their startups.
Startup Reaktor is a program launched in 2021 by the Romanian Tech Startups Association – ROTSA, which is in its fifth edition in partnership with Techcelerator, EIT Digital, TechAngels Romania, SeedBlink, European Startup Network – Brussels, Strategy Tools – Norway and local investors.