500 World spreads its wings throughout the Caucasus and Japanese Europe, by way of Tiblisi

European accelerators are going via an fascinating time proper now. As an illustration, TechStars Stockholm was all set to launch after which abruptly shut down. And I feel it’s now generally accepted that the majority accelerators outdoors of YCombinator can too be typically ‘lower than ample’, to place it diplomatically. Maybe an exception to this oft-repeated phrase, in my expertise, is Entrepreneur First out of London/Europe (however now additionally in Asia), and even then that entity is barely nearer to a pre-accelerator in the way in which it assembles expertise earlier than it assembles the startups (though it does additionally fund its startups).

Having stated that, accelerators nonetheless have a task to play in Europe’s rising ecosystem. Admittedly, within the ‘developed’ nations of Western Europe, startups are usually higher off skipping accelerators and elevating straight from Angels, HNWs and pre-seed funds. After all, “your mileage might fluctuate.” Nevertheless, it’s in Japanese Europe that — I feel, not less than — that accelerators have their finest impact in markets the place the place the tech startup ecosystem barely exists, if in any respect.

Central, South Japanese, and Japanese Europe have already seen a lot of new VCs acknowledge the expertise popping out of these areas (see Inovo, Credo, LauncHub, Vitosha, VentureFriends, Marathon VC and many others). Plus, 500 Istanbul final 12 months relaunched istelf as 500 Rising Europe with a €70 million early-stage fund. The latter has made investements such in Greece (Plum), Latvia (Printify), and Bulgaria (Cloudpipes).

So it’s positively of curiosity that there’s a brand new child on the block in accelerator land within the form of 500 World’s new program in Georgia (the nation, not the US state, for these on the again).

As a part of this they’ve bagged a former associate at Shilling VC in Lisbon, Pedro Santos Vieira. Fortunately, Georgia’s achieve isn’t Shilling VC’s loss, as he’s not leaving Shilling fully, stay on the Funding Committee as as non-Exec. Shilling continues to be amongst these Lisbon-based VCs having fun with the tech growth that’s been taking place in Lisbon these previous couple of years.

Pedro Santos Vieira

Fortunately, that is no ‘left subject’ transfer for Vieira, who isn’t any stranger to the area, having served as a mentor beforehand for 500 World in that a part of the world.

As a newly-appointed Accomplice for 500 World, Vieira will oversee this system, based mostly out of Tblisi, Georgia, which plans to speed up upwards of 100 pre-seed to seed stage corporations from nations within the Caucasus, Japanese Europe, Central Asia, and the Baltics, with pre-seed investments beginning at US$100,000.

This system is a continutation of 500 World’s partnership with Georgia’s Innovation and Expertise Company (GITA) and the Financial institution of Georgia to deliver one of many first startup accelerator packages to the nation

Certainly, since 2016, there have been three batches with a complete of 43 startups out of the area, resembling Payze (Georgia), Cargon (Georgia), Finmap (Ukraine), and TASS Imaginative and prescient (Uzbekistan), with many occurring to lift important additional rounds.

Vieira instructed me: “Three years in the past, earlier than Schilling, I used to be working with 500 World, doing accelerators for them around the globe. And certainly one of certainly one of them was Georgia. We had skilled 30 corporations right here and the outcomes have been actually good.”

“So we’ve got put collectively a fund beginning with $20 million, and from that fund, we’ll put money into 100+ corporations and prepare them with an accelerator right here in Georgia. However it’s not only for Georgia corporations, however regional,” he instructed me.

He stated it’s a really ‘fascinating’ time in Georgia: “You will have Ukrainians and Russians co-living right here! You even have Azerbaijani and Armenians after all. We’re dedicated for the long term within the area to constructing a big portfolio within the subsequent few years.”

It looks as if a really fascinating transfer, and complimentary to 500 Rising Europe in Istanbul, which doesn’t have an accelerator program and tends to put money into extra mature corporations with larger checks, therefore why this new 500 entity out of Gerogia is smart. 


With TechStars’ European technique wobbling and YCombinator withdrawing from the worldwide stage, maybe it’s 500 World’s ‘day within the solar’, as soon as extra?