IgniteNI Accelerator to offer startups San Francisco landing pad

by Startacus Admin

IgniteNI Accelerator is aiming to put investment-ready tech companies on a global stage, thanks to their new San Francisco 'landing pad'.

Open to startups the world over, the IgniteNI Accelerator is a 12-week programme designed to put established technology companies, who need help scaling and raising further investment, on a global stage.

Based at the beautiful and expanding Ormeau Baths in Belfast and backed by Invest NI, over the three months the IgniteNI accelerator programme will aim to support startups through a combination of mentoring, workshops, £15k investment and investment meetings - with the teams also transported to London, Dublin, New York and San Francisco to help build a network of founders, investors and advisers. 

During the twelve week programme, the selected startups will refine their business concept, develop new growth strategies and create a successful investment proposal.

Run by seasoned entrepreneurs who are experienced in the highs and lows of building startups, Ignite have helped over 150 companies across the UK since 2011, with the accelerator positioning itself to help companies that are raising £500k to £5M in the next year and aiming to expand to the US. 

After the success of last year’s trip to the US, IgniteNI has now added an additional San Francisco Landing pad to the programme, with 5 selected companies from the programme (5 founders that is) then receiving a desk in a dedicated landing pad office in San Francisco for 3 months, running September to November 2019.

Each startup that is selected will receive a £5k grant towards travel and accommodation costs, those all important introductions to key founders, mentors and investors in SF and Silicon Valley, and of course continued support from the IgniteNI team.

With the dedicated landing pad offering startups that all important foot in the door to the US market, competition will be hot to be selected for the US Landing Pad, giving founders that all important helping hand to explore the possibility of raising from US investors and what would be required to launch in the US.

Subject to Visas, applications are welcome from all across the globe - and for companies moving to NI there’s an additional £5k loan available to help with the costs of moving and accommodation, subject to the same founder-friendly terms as the core investment.

Applications are open until 20th January and you can apply here. The full-time IgniteNI accelerator will run from Monday 4th March 2019 to Friday 31st May 2019, with the US landing pad running from the beginning of September to the end of November 2019.

For answers to, we’d imagine, most of the FAQs you may have, head on over to this recent blog post care of IgniteNI, CEO Tristan Watson and with applications currently open until January 20th 2019, apply here if you want to get your application in immediately. And if you’d like to chat to one of the IgniteNI team direct, reach out to hello@igniteni.com.

Best of luck to all who apply!

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Published on: 14th December 2018