Seedcamp

Seedcamp
Limited liability company
Industry Venture capital
Founded May, 2007 (London, United Kingdom)
Headquarters Google Campus, 4-5 Bonhill Street, EC2A 4BX, London, UK
Key people
 Reshma Sohoni, Carlos Espinal, Philipp Moehring, Kirsten Campbell
Products Investments and Mentoring Program
Website www.seedcamp.com

Seedcamp is a pan-European London based accelerator launched in May 2007 by a group of 30 European investors[1] that provides startups with seed money, mentorship, office space and support over a yearlong program. In addition to its accelerator program the company also runs initiatives to support the European startup community such as Seedhack and Seedsummit.

As on November 2014, Seedcamp had a portfolio of 138 companies[2] and is backed by over 30 institutional Venture Capital firms and angel investors. The Partners of the fund are Reshma Sohoni and Carlos Espinal. Its current Chairman is venture capitalist Saul Klein.

Sky News has said that Seedcamp is "the largest and longest running accelerator in the UK" which is "backed by many of Europe's leading VCs".[3]

Program

Seedcamp Singapore 2010, which was held at the Singapore Management University

Seedcamp's program consists of monthly events (mainly across Europe).[4]

At each event shortlisted startups gain pitch training, mentoring and then compete for investment from Seedcamp by pitching in front of venture capitalists and angel investors.

The 2012 Calendar included London, Tel Aviv, Tallinn, Berlin, Zagreb, New York, Budapest, Lisbon and Paris.[5] Previous locations have also included EMEA and further out destinations such as Singapore, Mumbai, and South Africa.

The company's main investment focus is capital efficient ventures or those based on web and mobile platforms.

The format of Seedcamp's program means that it is different from the majority of accelerators as it does not have limited application windows but instead opens up the opportunity for any start up to gain investment every month. Techcrunch, a leading technology and startup publication, ranked Seedcamp as Europe's leading micro-seed investment fund and mentoring program.[6]

Seedcamp Week

The Seedcamp investment cycle runs from October to September every year, during which time the company holds an investment event in a different part of Europe and selects investments.

During September the company hosts Seedcamp Week, its week-long flagship event in London. All companies they have invested in throughout the year, usually 20, go through a series of mentoring days (Product Day, Founders' Day, Growth Day, Investors' Day) aimed to showcase their growth with the support of 400 mentors and industry experts. The event culminates with a Demo Day.[7][8]

Seedhack

In addition to its investment programme, Seedcamp runs an initiative to help budding entrepreneurs to get started in the form of Seedhack. Seedhack is a weekend long hackathon focused on a particular industry. Previous Seedhack events have included Financial Technology and Healthcare.[9] Wired said Seedhack “gives entrepreneurs critical insight into the specific challenges that industry needs to address. Meanwhile the corporates can tap into a sort of external R&D department.” [10]

Seedsummit

Seedsummit, the second initiative run by the Seedcamp Network, is a platform aimed at making it easier for startup entrepreneurs to find the most active seed investors relevant to their business.[11] Significantly, Seedcamp was able to sign up 21 European investors agree on a standard term sheet for startups. Techcrunch presented this as a “historic move”.[12]

International partnerships

Seedcamp has also built good international partnerships with AngelList[13] and well as 500 Startups with several of its companies such as ERPLY, Brainient, Bluefields, Farmeron and LOOKK have benefited from being involved in both accelerators.[14][15]

Performance and notable exits

As of August 2012, Seedcamp has funded 73 startups.[16] Over 80% of the Seedcamp companies secured further rounds of funding after their initial investment and in aggregate have raised over €50M from external investors. BaseKit alone has raised over $10M.[17]

Notable exits include: Mobclix bought by Velti for $50M,[18] RentMineOnline bought by RealPage for $9.5M ,[19] Crashpadder acquired by Airbnb[20] and Talasim acquired by Jeeran.[21]

In regards to performance, Seedcamp is considered to be "Europe's Harvard" for startup incubators according to Wired UK.[22] The Kernel stated that “Seedcamp remains the pre-eminent accelerator on the continent and a gold standard against which others are judged” [23] while The Guardian added that "Seedcamp is the original and best UK bootcamp for startups".[24]

References

  1. ↑ "Featured Network Partners". Microsoft. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
  2. ↑ "Seedcamp Companies". Seedcamp. Retrieved 2014-11-26.
  3. ↑ . Sky News http://www.seedcamp/capital. Retrieved 2014-11-30. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. ↑ "A Golden Age for British Startups". Financial Times. Retrieved 2012-09-02.
  5. ↑ "Seedcamp Calendar". Seedcamp. Retrieved 2012-08-19.
  6. ↑ "Seedcamp Named Top European Accelerator". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2012-08-22.
  7. ↑ "Seedcamp Flexes Upwards With Its Biggest Week Yet". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2012-08-31.
  8. ↑ "What One Startup Learned From Seedcamp". The Next Web. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
  9. ↑ Hjelmgaard, Kim (2011-09-08). "Seedcamp Strengthens Its Core". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2012-08-25.
  10. ↑ "Seedcamp Announcements". Wired. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
  11. ↑ "Seedsummit Brings Europe's Seed Investors Together for the First Time". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2012-08-26.
  12. ↑ "In A Historic Move 15 European Investors Agree on Standard Term Sheet for Startups". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2012-08-28.
  13. ↑ "Seedcamp Expands". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
  14. ↑ "Seedcamp Partners With 500 Startups and Angellist". The Next Web. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
  15. ↑ "Meet The 27 New Companies Chosen For Dave McClure's Accelerator, 500 Startups". Business Insider. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
  16. ↑ "Seedcamp Companies". Seedcamp. Retrieved 2012-08-23.
  17. ↑ "Basekit Raises a Further 6.5m for its Website Creation Service". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
  18. ↑ "Mobclix Acquired by Mobile Marketing Company Velti". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
  19. ↑ "Realpage Acquires RentMineOnline". NASDAQ. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
  20. ↑ "Airbnb Buys Crashpadder its Largest UK Competitor". CNET. Retrieved 2012-08-30.
  21. ↑ "Jeeran Acquires Talasim". The National. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
  22. ↑ "After the Tech Incubator Bubble". Wired UK. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
  23. ↑ "A Reverence Deserved". Kernel Mag. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
  24. ↑ Kiss, Jemima (2011-08-11). "Seedcamp's Saul Klein on Four Years of Tapping Startup Trends". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-08-27.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Seedcamp.