Renewed accelerator program boosts start-ups: ‘Telenet Kickstart, powered by Idealabs’
Suggest an innovative idea on telenetkickstart.be until 15 August.
– After a successful first edition of Telenet Idealabs, start-ups Campr, Dot, Intuo, and Pith.li are ready to grow into fully fledged businesses. For the next edition, Telenet will once again be working together with Idealabs to stimulate digital enterprise in Flanders. Anyone with an innovative digital idea can register before 15 August for the renewed accelerator program ‘Telenet Kickstart, powered by Idealabs’.
Familiar accelerator program with a new name
Building on the success of the first edition, Telenet and Idealabs are once again joining forces to support young talent with a strong digital idea. The program is still the same as regards content, but it now has a new name: ‘Telenet Kickstart, powered by Idealabs’. With this initiative, Telenet and Idealabs, apart from their joint project, are also giving each other the room to support other start-up incubation projects. Idealabs is once again delivering a strong methodology and a comprehensive program, whilst Telenet is providing a network of coaches, mentors, and support to help technically and financially.
Anyone with a good digital idea can register as a candidate before 15 August 2015 via www.telenetkickstart.be. Telenet and Idealabs are looking for teams of at least two people who can run through a full-time program for four months. ‘Telenet Kickstart’ is looking for digital solutions in three fields:
· Connected entertainment: This idea offers anyone who enjoys music, pictures, videos, or gaming a richer experience. Alone or in the company of relatives and friends.
· Connected living: This idea offers a solution for challenges in society. Think of current themes like employment, ageing, care, wellness, or ecology.
· Connected business: This idea helps the self-employed and companies to make their business more efficient or to discover new opportunities in the digital economy.
Early in September, a professional jury with representatives from Telenet, Idealabs, business partners, and start-up experts will select the best ideas. The teams are invited to pitch their idea. The best eight will be selected to take part in ‘Telenet Kickstart’.
The ‘Telenet Kickstart’ accelerator and growth program
‘Telenet Kickstart’ runs in two successive phases, both of which last four months. Eight start-ups first complete an accelerator program (October-January) from idea to a working product. They can put up their workstations in the Idealabs offices and count on seed funding to the amount of € 25,000 per team. After a pitch moment in front of a professional jury, four start-ups are selected for the growth program (between February and June) with a focus on the further development and launch of the product. Here they will be offered a convertible loan of € 50,000 per team.
A review of Telenet Idealabs
May 2014 witnessed the start-up of accelerator Telenet Idealabs. Its mission to stimulate innovation and digital enterprise in Flanders proved a great success. Telenet Idealabs revolutionized the Flemish start-up world. The call to take part attracted over 400 candidates in the summer of 2014. In September 2014, 10 teams started on the accelerator program. For four whole months, they were supervised by the Idealabs team and could count on seed funding, technical support, and a network of mentors, coaches, and experts from Telenet and regular partners (Deloitte, TICKA Laga, Acerta, These Days, and Craftzing). This spring, five teams with the best ideas moved on to the growth program where they received further supervision and support. Today, Campr (gocampr.com), Dot (dotisfun.com), Intuo (intuo.io), and Pith.li (pith.li) are ready to take the market by storm with their innovative projects. Their course has been recorded in the documentary the #Start-up revolution, which can be seen on www.telenetkickstart.be.
Ann Caluwaerts, Senior VP of Corporate Affairs & Communication Telenet, says: ‘Telenet is an innovative company and we want to stimulate a wider social field to pick up this innovation. Telenet wants to boost enterprise in Flanders and Belgium and help to build up a strong start-up ecosystem. The 21st century is digital. Young entrepreneurs can be the driving force for economic growth in this. Yet, it’s not easy to succeed in business. Your project involves a certain risk. Apart from that strong initial idea, you also need a healthy dose of knowledge and skills. We want to help with that. We want to deploy our knowledge, our network, and our expertise to promote youthful enterprise.’
Nicolas Verellen, co-founder and CEO of Idealabs, says: ‘A real start-up revolution has started! Flemish media are paying attention to young up-and-coming entrepreneurs, and large-scale start-up communities are being set up. It’s our task to supervise motivated entrepreneurs in the best possible way from idea to operating business. We do this via our methodology, which gives pride of place to developing and validating the product. Telenet kick-starts the new start-ups by giving them access to its clients, distribution, and Internet know-how.’
#kickstartnow
For more information, contact:
Nina Mallants, Telenet representative,
Tel.: 015/33.55.44
E-mail: nina.mallants@staff.telenet.be
