Is your startup ready to go beyond the borders and expand in the V4 region? You are ready but in need of business contacts and mentoring? We can help you! Apply now and meet corporate partners handpicked just for you. Better yet, we’ll even prepare you for the big meeting!
Join us and become one of the 20 teams that we invite to our super intensive but fun virtual Bootcamp. Workshops, business mentoring, and community events lead the way to the Demo Day after which we select the four winning teams who get to participate in the V4 Startup Force program.
The Startup Force program is a three-week hybrid program during which you receive hand-on mentoring to prepare you for tailored business meetings in all four countries. The first two weeks happen online and then we finish off with offline days in Budapest.
Timeline
APPLICATION PERIOD
SELECTION
VIRTUAL BOOTCAMP
SELECTION OF 4 WINNING TEAMS
V4 STARTUP FORCE
Benefits for Startups
Business meetings
we organize tailored business meetings with corporates and SMEs for the final 4 teams
Workshops & Mentoring
hands-on, practical knowledge to fine-tune your business
Networking & Community
access to a colorful community of like-minded entrepreneurs
Scholarship
the four teams receive a scholarship
Who can apply?
- business-to-business (B2B) solution
- stage: seed and above (or a viable business pilot that is ready to be launched)
- the startup should be based in the V4 region and at least one founder should have Czech, Hungarian, Polish, or Slovak nationality
- traction with users, well-defined business model, ready for market expansion
- 2-3 team members can dedicate their time for the full length of the program
- scalable business
Questions?
Drop a line at v4suf@designterminal.org and we’ll come
back to you in no time!
What Can You Expect?
The Virtual Bootcamp is our selection camp. If you become one of the four winning teams (we select one startup per country), you can continue to the V4 Startup Force.
Bootcamp (5 days)
Startup Force (3 weeks)
We love our startups
“V4 Startup Force paved our road to our regional expansion with useful contact and a lot of new knowledge!”
Bence Zwecker, Munch“Transfer of knowledge and great fun”
Mateusz Kierepka, BioMinds Healthcare“Great opportunity to get to know ourselves and our company even better. Also, the networking, workshops and potential business cooperation are the great bonus out of this V4 experience.”
Matej Liptak, Airlogy Labs“Surprisingly great and enjoyable 3-week journey”
David Suslik, OnSinchV4 Startup Force in numbers
We launched the program in 2018 and since then we have had:
50+
participant startups
300+
business meetings
400+
applicants
Business partners
About the organizers
The V4 Startup Force program is funded by the International Visegrad Fund and is a joint effort of Design Terminal and its partner organizations. Our partners in the startup acceleration ‘crime’:
Design Terminal, a leading innovation agency in the CEE, has been the main organizer of V4 Startup Force since 2018. We run incubation programs in 12 countries and have worked with over 2000+ startups and several industry-leading corporations since our foundation in 2014.
Campus is an international co-working space for early-stage startups, aspiring entrepreneurs and students based in Bratislava. Since opening its doors, they have welcomed members from 14 different countries, making its environment truly international and diverse.
DEX Innovation Centre (DEX IC) is a Czech non-profit organisation with diverse accelerator and virtual incubator activities. As an ecosystem builder, they have scaled up 70+ startups and helped them get investment. They are also act as the EIT Health Hub for the Czech Republic with access to top-niche partners from EIT Health Network.
The Warsaw-based non-profit foundation is a startup ecosystem builder with Poland at the center. Their vision is to create a hub where international and Polish startups work with corporate and experiment on pilots that can be scaled globally.
the IVF is an international donor organization established in 2000 by the governments of the Visegrad Group (V4) countries— Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia—to promote regional cooperation in the V4 region as well as between the region and other countries, especially the ones in the Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership. The Fund supports endeavors by awarding grants, scholarships, and artist residencies. The Fund’s annual budget is 8 million EUR which is compiled from the contributions of the V4 governments.
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