Ignite Accelerator 2019 opens for North East England startups

by Startacus Admin

North East of England entrepreneurs and startups take note! The Ignite accelerator, a 6 month remote accelerator for MVP stage founders or teams is back. So, if you’re looking to gain valuable industry support, scale your business, potentially raise further investment and you’ve a business presence in the North East of England - bingo, read on...

This September, Ignite completed their first ‘Ignite 2.0’ remote accelerator model, with 12 quality high-tech startup alumni, including startups we’ve feature on Startacus previously, such as Happity, Prolifiko, and theWebShed with their SEO for startups platform Hike SEO.

Alongside this, the busy North East England Ignite team have been working with 20 tech businesses on their new North East England pre-accelerator programme. With a diverse cohort (Nb. 40% female founded and founders ranging in age from early 20s through to mid 60s) we look forward to sharing more news on some of those 20 selected early-stage startups pretty soon.

Now the Ignite team are back on the hunt and looking to recruit for their full remote accelerator programme.  

Ignite are looking for startups and founders who want to solve (or already solving) real-world problems with innovative tech-led ideas. Tapping into the North East’s world-class expertise in both data and ageing, they are also keen to talk to founders looking to work on ageing-related or data-driven issues.

This time the accelerator is open to companies based, or with a material presence, in the North East (County Durham, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear) or be a business that is willing to relocate to the North East. 

Funded by The North East Innovation Fund, which is supported by the European Regional Development Fund, and Accelerated Digital Ventures, the programme offers the startups £25k net (equity) investment from seed-stage VC funds Northstar Ventures and ADV, in exchange of 6% equity, of which 5% goes to the investors and 1% to the Founders Co-operative.

The total investment is actually £40,000, of which £15,000 covers the cost of the programme - so each company ends up with £25,000 to spend.

Startups will also get £100,000+ in programme perks from their programme partners (who include Amazon, Stripe, Revolut and many more) and access to their global network of founders, investors and mentors.

Aiming to help startups scale, define routes to market, get businesses closer to product/market fit and help you build your networks, the 6 month programme runs remotely for three weeks of every month, with Ignite delivering their Startup MBA course digitally alongside the programme mentors and partners.

Then, every fourth week, the programme goes ‘in-person’ with an event held in cities across the North East (with one held in London) alongside the Ignite portfolio, their programme team, mentors and partners.

To qualify for the programme, you must also be based/ have a material presence in the North East (County Durham, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear), or as a business be willing to relocate.

Each founder/team must have a UK LTD company (with a UK business bank account), less than 250 employees and balance sheet total less than €43 million and / or turnover <€50 million. Of course if you’ve turnover just shy of €50 mill, you might not need to go on the programme anyway!

For more information on this fab opportunity read over this blog post care of Programme Director Wil Benton, visit the ignite.io website to read over FAQs and info further, and click here to apply immediately!

Good luck to all whom apply!

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Published on: 16th November 2018