European accelerators are going through an interesting time right now. For example, TechStars Stockholm was all set to launch and then abruptly shut down. And I think it’s now generally accepted that most accelerators outside of YCombinator are too often “less than adequate,” to put it diplomatically. Perhaps an exception to this oft-repeated phrase, in my experience Entrepreneur first from London/Europe (but now also in Asia), and even then that entity is a little closer to a pre-accelerator in the way it collects talent before assembling the startups (although it also funds its startups).
That said, accelerators still have a role to play in Europe’s emerging ecosystem. Admittedly, in the “developed” countries of Western Europe, startups are generally better off skipping accelerators and raising money directly from Angels, NWWs, and pre-seed funds. Of course, “your mileage may vary.” However, it is in Eastern Europe that – at least I think – accelerators have the best effect in markets where the ecosystem of tech startups is non-existent or barely there.
Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe have already seen a number of new VCs recognize the talent coming from those regions (see Inovo, Credo, LaunchHub, Vitosha, VentureFriends, Marathon VC etc). In addition, 500 Istanbul relaunched itself last year as 500 Emerging Europe with a seed fund of €70 million. The latter has made investments in Greece (Plum), Latvia (Printify) and Bulgaria (Cloudpipes).
So it’s certainly interesting that there’s a new kid on the block in acceleratorland in the form of 500 worldwideGeorgia’s new program (the country, not the US state, for those at the back).
As part of this, they picked up an ex-partner shillings VC in lisbon, Pedro Santos Vieira. Thankfully, Georgia’s gains aren’t Shilling VC’s losses, as he doesn’t completely leave Shilling and remains on the investment committee as a non-exec. Shilling is still among the Lisbon-based VCs enjoying the tech boom that has taken place in Lisbon in recent years.
Pedro Santos Vieira
Thankfully, this isn’t a “left field” move for Vieira, who is no stranger to the region, having previously served as a mentor for 500 Global in that part of the world.
As a newly appointed partner for 500 Global, Vieira will oversee the program, from Tblisi, Georgia, which plans to recruit more than 100 pre-seed to seed stage companies from countries in the Caucasus, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Baltic States, with pre-seed investments starting at $100,000.
The program is a continuation of 500 Global’s partnership with Georgia’s Innovation and Technology Agency (GITA) and the Bank of Georgia to bring one of the first startup accelerator programs to the country
Indeed, since 2016, there have been three batches with a total of 43 startups from the region, such as Payze (Georgia), Cargo (Georgia), Finmap (Ukraine), and TASS vision (Uzbekistan), and many will raise many more rounds.
Vieira told me, “Three years ago, before Shilling, I worked with 500 Global and did accelerators for them all over the world. And one of them was Georgia. We trained 30 companies here and the results were really good.”
“We will invest in more than 100 companies and train them with an accelerator from Georgia. But it’s not just for Georgian companies, but hugely regionally, all over Eastern and Southern Europe, the Baltic States and the Caucasus,’ he told me.
He said that it is a very ‘interesting’ time in Georgia: “You have Ukrainians and Russians living together! Of course you also have Azerbaijani and Armenians. We are determined to build a large long-term portfolio in the region over the coming years.”
It seems like a very interesting move, and an addition to 500 Emerging Europe in Istanbul, which has no accelerator program and tends to invest in more mature companies with bigger checks, hence this new 500 entity from Gerogia makes sense.
With TechStars’ European strategy faltering and YCombinator retreating from the international scene, maybe it’s 500 Global’s “day in the sun” again?
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