The New Edition of XLRadar Offers €40,000 Prize and Exclusive Access to Successful Founders as Mentors
in Four Verticals
The past 12 months have changed our lives in a substantial way as the pandemic impacted both our social and work lives. Putting aside all the negatives, we have to adapt to the challenges and move on by seeing beyond the current stagnant times into the near future. Our team believes this situation has brought along a lot of opportunities for newly emerging companies to reshape the way we live and work.
In 2021 XLRadar will focus its attention on finding the visionary people that will show us the new business models of the post-pandemic times.
The following four verticals will be on our radar:
E-COMERCE, EDUCATION, HEALTHCARE and ENTERTAINMENT
We are looking for visionary teams and companies with disruptive business models, developing innovative processes with focus on automation and digital transformation. For that matter, we are partnering with successful founders with specific industry expertise in those broad four tracks, who will be mentoring you during the program. All our experts have been in your shoes not long ago and can give you fresh advise on how to tackle your issues with the right mindset and what to avoid in our first steps. Some of the experts that will take part in the program are Martin Kadinov (ex-ESL, Entertainment track), Branimir Raduilov (Founder of Consento and Polikninika Bulgaria, Health track), Evgeni Yordanov (Partner at CloudCart, e-Commerce), Rodrigo Olmedo (Founder of uGlobally, Education track) and Dimitar Karaivanov (CEO of Kanbanize, Generalist) and many others. We will also showcase some of our previous accelerated companies Worddio (Education track) and Easy Doc (Health track) and you will be able to mingle with the founders of other portfolio companies such as Subscribe.bg (e-Commerce track) among others.
XLRadar is an intensive month-long program that tests the ability of the founders to deliver (meet specific KPIs), validate their business models and gain initial traction. Innovation Capital’s team and the designated external experts will monitor the progress of each company and will offer mentorship, advise, network and a variety of relevant services. The companies that meet their KPIs will be invited to pitch at the Investor Day before a jury consisting of team members of Innovation Capital, pre-seed and seed venture capitalists and business angels.
While XLRadar offers a cash prize of €25,000, this is by far not the only perk a startup can get from the program - startups will get in-kind services worth €15,000 including software development, tech infrastructure, access to foreign markets, legal services, digital marketing, PR and the list goes on. In addition, during the 8-month post-acceleration monitoring the top-performing companies may be offered an €25,000 top-up funding and access to co-investment opportunities, while in the longer run, at the appropriate company development stage, follow-on rounds of up to €1,000,000 will still be available.
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur with an idea that fits within the verticals, you may want to meet our team members at some of the Pre-Selection events we will be hosting. Continuing our last year’s approach to be involved with the startup ecosystems on a country-wide level, we are visiting 6 cities outside Sofia in order to meet with local entrepreneurs and provide more information about the program. Here are some more details about the Roadshow and the Acceleration Program:
Pre-Selection Days:
Sofia: May 17
Plovdiv: May 18
Blagoevgrad: May 18
Ruse: May 19
Varna: May 20
Veliko Tarnovo: May 21
Burgas: May 28
Application Deadline: May 30
Acceleration Program: May 31 - June 18
Venue: Online
Investor Day - Pitch at the Beach: June 19
Venue: Beach Hub Kavatsi
Who can apply?
Any pre-revenue company that may or may not be registered. You may have a registered entity but still don’t have booked sales in 2021 from the business model you will be presenting.
You should have researched and sweat on this project for at least 3 months and have a dedicated team with domain expertise. There should be skin in the game from the founders.
Your idea should fit broadly with the verticals under the radar – either your core product relates to one of the sectors or you have target audience within one or more of the verticals.
How to apply?
More info on:
Additional details will follow soon.