Drive with Belron accelerates plans for 2018
by Startacus Admin
A couple of weeks ago it was announced that Drive with Belron, powered by investor and innovation partner L Marks, was back for 2018, launching their third accelerator programme running from 30 April to 10 July 2018. With applications now open at www.drivewithbelron.com we took a look at the programme and its success to date.
Designed to fast track the growth of startups in areas that disrupt Belron's ways of working, the accelerator is this year looking to invest in startups that: Implement Artificial Intelligence technologies; Transform the vehicle body damage market; Create the easiest personalised customer experience; Make working life easier for Belron people; and a Wildcard category open to any startup with new technology that could make a difference to Belron customers.
Belron is the worldwide leader in vehicle glass repair and replacement, trading under more than 10 major brands 
including Carglass®, Safelite® AutoGlass and Autoglass® and looks after around 15 million consumers each year in over 30 countries on six continents. In addition, it manages vehicle glass and other insurance claims on behalf of insurance customers.
Belron and L Marks have committed a total investment pot of £200k to invest in the startups participating in the 2018 programme, with investment allocated at the discretion of Belron and L Marks between participating startups, up to £100k per startup.
The recent 2017 cohort saw tech startups Blitzz, Locpin, Talking Circles and ThriveMap spend ten weeks working with Belron, embedding themselves in its global business operations in the US, Spain and France trialling their products.
It is fair to say that the cohort benefited heavily from the programme and the opportunity it gave them.
Co-founded by Dimple Lalwani, Talking Circles, a platform that allows employees to drive talent management and learning, was assigned to Drive with Belron partner, Carglass® France. The goal for both was to successfully launch Talking Circles with a small cohort within the organisation to identify the impact (qualitative and quantitative) of Talking Circles on the Carglass France workforce.
Dimple Lalwani shared her experience of the programme, offering this valuable advice for startups considering applying for the latest Drive with Belron programme:
“If you’re launching a pilot with a global business of more than 26,000 employees, make sure your strategies are scalable to a wider audience, try prove it if you can challenge your client into thinking and reflecting on the KPIs that are important for the business. Link everything you do to the business’s key performance indicators. “
Excellent insight for any startups who apply for the 2018 programme - startups should consider not only the problem that their startup solves, but what problem they aim to solve for Belron specifically.
Three of the 2017 cohort, Blitzz, Locpin and ThriveMap also received direct investment due to the Drive with Belron Programme.
Blitzz, a mobile platform that helps you quickly deploy a high-quality video powered service and collaborative app - without any tech development, received a £50k investment from Belron, Locpin - who provide a smart addressing solution, received a £50k of investment from Belron and a £50k from L Marks respectively, and ThriveMap, a platform that measures how people like to work in order to predict team fit and improve team harmony received £75k of investment from Belron and £53k from L Marks.
Aside from the obvious advantages that investment offered ThriveMap, Co-Founder & CEO Chris Platts had this to say 
about the benefit of the programme to them as a startup:
“The primary reason that the Belron Drive Accelerator was particularly useful for us was the openness from Belron employees to giving us their time, support and constructive feedback. They gave us a backstage pass to be able to see how employees react to our product and what areas to improve. In this environment our learning was accelerated because we were getting constant and invaluable feedback from a target customer.
Finally, the Drive programme strengthened our belief that what we’re doing is valuable, and discovered new opportunities to grow our product into new areas.”
Nick Burton, Chief Information and Digital Officer at Belron, had this to say about their ambitions for the 2018 programme:
“This is our third programme and we're looking forward to bringing in more innovators with technologies that they want to test in a global company. By giving these startups unparalleled access to our brands around the world, along with education and investment support, we can help them accelerate their businesses. Our team is looking forward to learning how entrepreneurs think and approach problem solving, which will challenge us to think and act differently."
Applications are open now at www.drivewithbelron.com and will be open until 4 February 2018. The programme will begin at the end of April 2018, with the Demo Day scheduled for week commencing 10 July 2018.
You can find out more about Drive at: www.drivewithbelron.com, follow the team on Twitter via @DriveBelron and learn more about Drive by watching their video below.
Drive with Belron 2018
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