Ventures Thrive, a deeptech pan-European venture builder funded by the European Innovation Council (EIC) of the EU, is pleased to reveal the 12 Europe-based startups that have been selected to participate in its accelerator programme’s first cohort. These are as follows:

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• Builtrix (Portugal)
• VCG.AI (Slovenia)
• EMMA (Greece)
• Seasoil (Poland)
• Bluana (Romania)
• WindTAK (Poland)
• IQ3SOLAR (Cyprus)
• Digital Bites (Greece)
• Green0meter (Czechia)
• Biorefic (Latvia)
• Ara Robotik (Turkey)
• Avrio Energy (Poland)

The above startups are now in with the chance of receiving up to €100,000 in cash and services, equity-free.

Ventures Thrive was formally launched in Valletta, Malta in November 2022 by its three founding organisations: Acceler8 Venture Builder (Malta), Wolves Summit (Poland), and Anthology Ventures (Bulgaria).

Its first edition consists of an six-month venture building programme designed to accelerate the growth of deeptech ventures by providing access to €1.5 million equity-free capital, masterclasses, and an international community of corporate partners, investors, and world class industry leaders.

Ventures Thrive is specifically targeting deeptech founders stemming from Central Eastern Europe and Widening Countries. The programme’s efforts in this regard have proved to be extremely successful, with applications for the programme’s first cohort spanning 20 countries from the Widening Area, such as Portugal, Slovenia, Greece, and Latvia.

A second cohort of startups will be inducted into the Ventures Thrive programme towards the beginning of 2024, following the launch of a call for applications in December 2023. Interested parties are encouraged to check the Ventures Thrive website regularly as well as follow the programme’s LinkedIn page.

The 12 startups appertaining to the programme’s first cohort are now working with Ventures Thrive-appointed coaches to produce a Master Plan catered to their needs and addressing the following: (1) sales and business development; (2) product development; (3) fundraising from private and public sources.

All selected startups will also commit to pursuing a set of realistic KPIs throughout their participation in the programme.

Ventures Thrive is already working closely with 38 community partner organisations from around the bloc, and this number is expected to keep increasing in the coming months. Community partners can get involved at all stages of the Ventures Thrive Growth Programme, be it through mentoring startups, hosting masterclasses, or organising proof-of-concept activities.

Further information about Ventures Thrive can be found on the Media Kit.

Ventures Thrive Pitch Contest

The 12 shortlisted startups’ Ventures Thrive journey will come to an initial climax at Wolves Summit 2023, a three-day festival full of investment, networking and talent marketing, corporate innovation challenges, and themed-stage tracks running from 23rd to 25th May in the Wrocław Congress Centre, Poland.

This festival will be hosting a highly anticipated ‘Pitch Contest’ on its second day, wherein participating Ventures Thrive startups will pitch to industry leaders and corporate partners in hopes of making it to the next phase of the programme.

By the end of the ‘Pitch Contest’, the final six startups will be selected to continue to the full Ventures Thrive programme, whilst the remaining six will gain exposure and have the possibility to tap into the Ventures Thrive investor network.

All participating Ventures Thrive startups that draft a Master Plan and pitch at the ‘Pitch Contest’ will receive €5,000 equity-free to cover travel and accommodation costs incurred during the event.

‘Pitch Contest’ aside, Wolves Summit 2023 is expected to welcome thousands of attendees, startups, investors, and executives from around the globe.

To learn more about Wolves Summit 2023 kindly click here.

About Ventures Thrive

Ventures Thrive is a 6-month venture building programme designed to accelerate the growth of deeptech ventures by providing access to €1.5 million equity-free capital, masterclasses, and an international community of corporate partners, investors and world class industry leaders. 

The programme is hybrid and culminates with a Demo Day event where startups will be presenting live in front of hundreds of local and international investors and business professionals. Ventures Thrive runs for two years and only selects 12-20 startups to fund each cycle. 

Organised in collaboration with Wolves Summit, Acceler8 and Anthology Ventures, Ventures Thrive is funded by the European Union under the European Investment Council and Startup Europe initiatives.

Accepted startups can receive up to €100,000 in cash and services, equity-free, as well as assistance in accessing markets via corporate challenges and networking opportunities.

For more information please visit https://venturesthrive.eu.

About Acceler8 Venture Builder

A8 is a strategic R&D actor and business champion that specialises in commercialising research-based innovations.

In particular, we focus on technologies born and developed in European Research Council (ERC), European Innovation Council (EIC) and European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) funded research.

We work mostly within the life sciences and engineering domains, with deep tech as a technological focus area. Above all, we are interested in working with innovators that can contribute to develop sustainable & green solutions.

For more information please visit https://www.acceler8.today/.

About Wolves Summit

Wolves Summit is an integrated deal-flow and digital marketing platform for investors and tech companies.

Offering year-round engagement through digital events, corporate innovation challenges, and startup scaling activities. Every edition attracts a diverse audience of 2000+ investors, startups, and industry leaders.

Since 2015, Wolves Summit events facilitated over 35,000 meetings between 19,000+ participants. The summit has a network of 170+ community partners globally which includes accelerators and startup operators. In 2021 the company spun out a new startup division called WolvesX supporting large organisations such as LG Electronics, PwC, Garage+, Economic Development Board in Singapore, among others, addressing a wide range of corporate and government innovation challenges.

For more information please visit wolvessummit.com.

About Anthology Ventures

Anthology Ventures (AV) is an angel-powered venture studio, working in Southern, Central and Eastern European countries.

They specialize in fundraising and development for early-stage deeptech, spinoff, and consumer-oriented startups, in the Climate, Energy, Transport, Ag/biotech, Medtech, Proptech, and Edtech sectors.

AV also provides matchmaking, training and development for early Angel Investors, and partners in EU-funded consortia.

Anthology Ventures has worked with more than 150 startups since its founding in 2018.

For more information please visit anthologyventures.com.