LAUNCHub, the seed fund and accelerator program from Sofia, Bulgaria, has opened its fourth application call for financing startups, applications ending on November 3d 2013. Despite originally being reserved to South and Eastern Europe, LAUNCHub is now welcoming startups from all over Europe. Since 2012, LAUNCHub has invested 2 million € in 25 companies situated mainly in the SE Europe region. Moreover, the fund is strategically partnering up with Seedcamp and Mozilla WebFWD. LAUNCHub is also actively building a bridge between Europe and the US, and already in the process of moving its most promising startups on the other side of the Atlantic.
Update: in the previous paragraph, we incorrectly stated that LAUNCHub has invested in 5 companies; it is, in fact 25 companies.
LAUNCHub is looking for young startups with interesting projets. The companies who make it to the short list will be invited to Sofia for a 4-day Long Weekend Event, which includes mentoring, pitching and networking. For those who qualify further, the real adventure begins. They will receive €30.000 worth investment in exchange of a 8-10% equity and enter the Acceleration Program which provides mentoring and guidance, skills and expertise development, networking and most importantly the so-called “wild card” to follow-on investment up to €200k per team, the focus being however on the startups that have managed to gain some traction in terms of sales, users or product development.
The Program lasts 6 to 9 months on average, with an intensive period of 2 months when the team will have to be locally present. Considering that the average cost of living is lower in Sofia than in Paris, the adventurous, open-minded teams willing to get out of their comfort zone will certainly find this offer more than interesting.
For applications and more information, click here.