Second year in a row EIT Digital and Startup Wise Guys are running a Venture Program, where non incorporated idea stage startups can compete for up to 25K eur financial support per startup, along with 8 weeks online pre-accelerator program. The main criteria for startup eligibility is at least 2 team members that are legal residents of Baltic countries or Ukraine, not incorporated yet and working on innovative ideas. While Startup Wise Guys is the local partner in particular 4 countries,  in total EIT Digital Venture Program is run in 20 European countries with 4 other local partners. 

Idea stage teams from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine can apply here till April 26. The program will start in May.

“Airbnb was founded during the Financial Crisis and Ebay while the Dotcom bubble went bust. Time of crisis can give birth to great companies. Now is a great time to start building your company and we have a great program for you,” says Thomas Kösters, International Outreach Lead – EIT Digital.

Upon enrolling in the program, startups will receive 5K eur cash, afterwards follow on investments of total of 20K eur are possible, based on progress and meeting certain KPIs like registering the company and attracting additional investors.

Online pre-accelerator program is run entirely online with video content, live webinars with coaches and 1-on-1 mentoring calls. Mentoring is carried out by a large pool of international mentors from Startup Wise Guys network. 

Last year 7 startups successfully completed the EIT Digital Venture Program in Baltics, Poland, Slovakia, and Czech. A year later all of these companies are still active and all were eligible for full financial support from EIT Digital. Startups that participated in the program were AIRDAS (Latvia), KIDNGO (Lithuania), Recovery Companion (Estonia), Ridely (Latvia), Ruupi (Lithuania), Styleshark (Estonia), Subjective Guide (Poland).

“SWG and EIT Digital Venture program was the best experience a startup could have in very early stages. KIDNGO got very lucky to take part in it. It was organized really well and from day one the content was super engaging and useful. We enjoyed every online session followed by an amazing time in Riga, where we had two-day Bootcamp with inspiring and super smart people, who are willing to share the best of their knowledge. SWG team is all about values and deep passion for what they do and it is contagious.” says Indre Jurgaite, Founder of KIDNGO, one of the program’s participants from Lithuania.

“The program was an invaluable resource of information for our startup, empowering us to understand all facets of the startup journey and giving us the opportunity to pitch Recovery Companion to a diverse and engaged audience. We are extremely grateful for being included in the program and more importantly, for creating new friendships with our startup peers and the Wise Guys team,” says Eric Jackson, co-founder of Recovery Companion and one of the program’s participants from Estonia.

The EIT Digital Venture Program supports entrepreneurial teams from 20 countries with deep tech business ideas to finalize their MVP and start their venture. The program offers an eight-week Pre-Acceleration executed by five regional partners in Greece, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, and Slovenia. Also, teams receive financial support of up to 25K eur in 3 stages from MVP to incorporation up to finding a first investor. 

About Startup Wise Guys:

With 185 investments in early-stage startups, Startup Wise Guys is one of the top investors in the broader CEE region and Nordics. To help techy startup founders become true entrepreneurs, they have been running a world-class startup accelerator since 2012. They focus on B2B SaaS, Fintech and Cybersecurity early-stage startups, as well as have done follow-on investments in accelerated startups. The portfolio has already had 2 major exits and overall startup survival and success rate is above 77%. More information: www.startupwiseguys.com

About EIT Digital:

EIT Digital is a leading European digital innovation and entrepreneurial education organization driving Europe’s digital transformation. Its way of working embodies the future of innovation through a pan-European ecosystem of over 200 top European corporations, SMEs, startups, universities and research institutes, where students, researchers, engineers, business developers and entrepreneurs collaborate in an open innovation setting. More information: www.eitdigital.eu