OpenAxel launches the first open acceleration platform in Europe

Openaxel (Opening Acceleration across Europe) launches the first open acceleration platform in Europe gathering new acceleration services, creating European-level visibility and access to investors. The platform provides a unique opportunity for startups and SME’s with ambitions for European growth. Openaxel launches its open acceleration platform to promote growth for accelerators and startups at a European level Openaxel (Opening Acceleration across Europe) launches the first open acceleration platform in Europe gathering new acceleration services, creating European-level visibility and access to investors. The platform provides a unique opportunity for startups and SME’s with ambitions for European growth. With the financial support of the European Commission, a consortium composed of, among others, three of the major accelerators of the entrepreneurial ecosystem (Accelerace, Wayra and AppCampus) will nurture an Open Acceleration ecosystem in order to encourage collaboration between European accelerators. “After analyzing that most operate locally and do not have a European vision, we want to find out who are the most innovative in terms of the services they offer” say its representatives. Unique opportunity for startups This new platform provides a unique opportunity for startups and SMEs in the ICT sector, as it will help them grow internationally offering new acceleration services, European-level visibility and access to new investors and to best mentors.

In addition to the Web platform, Openaxel will seek out the best entrepreneurial talent in Europe through two startup competitions (one in 2014 and one in 2015) to select the 60 most promising startups in Europe (30 yearly). The 30 selected startups will receive acceleration services and 9 winners out of them will receive additional support, including world class coaching and mentoring from top level executives from global corporations, offers from world class technological partners and a trip to Silicon Valley in California, where they will come into contact with international investors and successful entrepreneurs.

 “Europe has seen a boost in digital entrepreneurship in recent years and Openaxel is born with the guarantee that it will bring together the best, and get from them the best possible performance combining talent with a world class advice” say its representatives.

Openaxel is one of the projects funded by the EU under the Startup Europe initiative to support ICT companies in accelerating their business growth through internationalization and cross-border financing. The project is carried out by a consortium composed of 8 partners (leading accelerators, institutional entities, and specialized innovation consulting firms) with huge international exposure and coming from 6 European countries:

– Accelerace – Wayra – AppCampus – DigitalEurope – Econet – Opinno – IVSZ – FundingBox

For more information about OPENAXEL please visit http://www.openaxel.com.

About Accelerace

Acceleraceis partner in Openaxel and Scandinavia’s leading start-up accelerator that helps new businesses make the most of their potential nationally and internationally. With a team of experienced entrepreneurs and business developers, Accelerace offers customized expertise, investment, and network to help start-ups succeed through a 5-month customer driven and operational program. At the same time Accelerace are dedicated to developing and sharing knowledge on best practice in entrepreneurship. Since 2008 Accelerace have spotted, trained and invested in more than 200 start-ups and spin-off companies, which has generated more than 400 jobs. The start-up survival rate since 2008 is more than 94 %. Accelerace are also partner in start-up projects such as The Commercialize project, Next Step Challenge, Launchpad Denmark, Entrepreneurial Learning Lab (EL2), Welfare Tech Invest, Nupark Accelerace Invest and Nordic High Growth. Accelerace has 6 Danish offices. For more information visit www.accelerace.org or contact Accelerace by telephone (0045) 39 17 94 04 or email: info@accelerace.dk

About Openaxel

OpenAxel stands for “Opening Acceleration across Europe”. It is a project financed by the European Commission that aims to map all the acceleration services delivered to startups across Europe. By mapping these services a cooperative, systemic and systematic grid will be established, increasing collaboration between different stakeholders at a European level. Those acceleration services, delivered by a wide range of providers, will be easily accessible to entrepreneurs through OpenAxel ́s online platform. Additionally, two big contests will be held throughout the project execution with the objective of detecting and promoting European best talent (30 most promising startups in each contest). The consortium that manages the project is composed of different players in the ecosystem, including three of the biggest global accelerators worldwide: Accelerace, AppCampus and Wayra. The project will be reinforced by the capillarity and visibility among the ICT industry provided by Digital Europe and IVSZ, and Econet ́s and Opinno ́s international connections and expertise in dealing with European projects. For more information visit www.openaxel.com]]>