AceON Accelerator is created by skilled entrepreneurs and startup enthusiasts from advisory & BPO company Accace, together with the family venture house ZAKA. The accelerator program is designed to turn entrepreneurs' ideas into successful businesses.
The accelerator consists of two programs – Spring pre-accelerator and Autumn accelerator that can take place either online or offline. With a diverse team of skilled mentors and experts, startups can get support and first-hand insights into finance, business development, marketing and more.
With a long history of helping and guiding startups, Accace and ZAKA have helped dozens of European startups to grow and shine.
Accelerator Strategy Overview
Geography: Europe, mainly CEE. We are based in Czechia, the AceON team is operating from both Czechia and Slovakia.
Preferred industries: Fintech, data processing technology, AI, but even startups bringing sustainability solution. These are examples of startups we work with, but we are open to any interesting solution that is scalable and solves significant problem.
Company stage: Early-stage – idea stage & pre-seed
Product stage: Pre product, beta version, prototype or MVP
Product type: Tech, software
Revenues: Pre-revenue
Program Details
Duration: 1,5 months (Spring Pre-accelerator) & 2 months (Autumn Accelerator)
Participation fee: Spring batch is non-equity and free of charge. Autumn batch is equity based and the startup will receive an initial investment, from which teams will also cover the costs of the accelerator.
Equity Investment: 50 000 – 70 000 Eur per startup, 5 - 7% equity stake in the startup or in case of investing through a convertible instrument.
Grant: 0
No. of batches per year (+ months when you collect applications): 2, collection applications in January – March (Spring batch) and August – September (Autumn batch)
No. of startups in a cohort: 17 in the Spring batch, maximum of 5 startups for the Autumn batch planned
Q&A with Peter Pašek, Co-founder of AceON Accelerator
What are the 5 most important things you look for in a startup applying to your acceleration program?
First of all, the team. Diverse and high-quality team with determination, commitment potential and good chemistry between them. Then great product, scalability, traction, and prerequisite for success on the market.
- Are they addressing a large important problem/need?
- Have they come up with an innovative solution for this problem/need, that can be scaled with favorable economics?
- Is it a team with the critical competence inhouse and a balanced ownership structure, giving the right incentives to the important persons.
- Are the motivational factors within the team aligned so that they can handle 10 years of ups and downs.
- Is there a real ambition to build a large company focusing on sales?
We focus on startups that solve not only a broad problem but also a problem that is typical for certain community/area of business, for example, large companies struggling with spiraling costs and inefficient resource utilization. We had a startup bringing a solution that aims to optimize cloud spending and bring substantial cost savings to such businesses. Or a platform that enables businesses to create interactive maps easily and low-cost. Also, we had a startup with an autonomous testing platform using bots to improve efficiency and reduce waste in development and testing.
What startups should take into account before applying to your acceleration program?
They need to have everything mentioned above. From a product type perspective, they need to be based on technology, preferably software. They also have to be dedicated, approach the program and mentoring responsibly, because our mentors are experts and their time dedicated to startups is precious.
Can you share some of the red flags that can disqualify a startup from joining your accelerator?
- Not addressing an important and large problem/need.
- Not a balanced team structure
Anything contrary to the mentioned above. Those who do not approach the program responsibly, do not participate in enough workshops or mentoring, and do not see progress, will be excluded from the program. However, we believe that everyone who participates in our program or another program is really interested in making their product successful.
What are the most valuable skills that selected startups can develop thanks to your program?
Based on our experience with the previous accelerator (*we started a non-profit accelerator for start-ups and traditional businesses and turned it into a complex accelerator program with exceptional program, mentors, and speakers. Back in 2019, we organized our first accelerator under #accacelife civic association and since 2023, we work together with family venture house ZAKA. With? extensive knowledge of the ecosystem, we created the program that reflects the need of early and first-time founders, which is in the first place the need for education, especially in the field of financing, sales, marketing, growth. Practically every area. Our workshops are always adapted to specific requirements.
Secondly, we provide 1:1 mentoring or group mentoring sessions with the best of the best in their field. In the Autumn batch, each startup will have a dedicated buddy mentor who will „take care” of the team and will guide them through the whole program. They will also have a supporting board of advisory mentors at their disposal.
Last but not least, based on the fact Accace and ZAKA operate globally, we are able to provide startups with a wide network on contacts anywhere.
How does your accelerator support portfolio companies during and after the program?
We have a team dedicated to organizing the program, mentors, and supporting startups with any request. Besides everything they get mentioned above, our help and support do not end with the program. Our goal is to keep in touch with the teams, maintain a community of alumni members and connect startups from all batches with each other and thus support and develop the ecosystem across Europe.
What are the best-performing companies in your portfolio?
Due to the fact that AceON was launched at the beginning of 2023, to date, we have completed one batch and we are currently in the process of collecting applications for the Autumn batch. However, we definitely have to mention our two winners who are working on Beta testing, MVP, getting the first customers, and are in the stage of looking for investment – Mapheim and Wopee.io as well as Cloud Cost Compression.
What key lessons have you learned from projects that didn’t work out the way you expected?
With only a few minutes to present your pitch decks, focus more on the actual problem-solving and solution rather than analysis. Also, make sure that your customers will be willing to pay for your solution.
Why, in your opinion, accelerators are becoming more popular nowadays?
Founders understand that in order to be successful, they need knowledge, practical advice from successful company founders who can share their experience with them, as well as a network of contacts and partners. Besides all of that, accelerators provide them with visibility and connections with other alumni who have already been helped by the accelerator on their journey.
What are the hottest markets you currently look at as an accelerator and where do you see the biggest hype?
AceON was founded earlier this year and with every year we want to expand our operations to other countries from a geographical point of view. During this year we are focusing on Czech and Slovak founders, but we see a big potential in countries such as Romania. From the point of view of the startup's focus, our expertise is mainly in fintech, but we see a lot of potential in space tech, green tech, and AI which is all over the areas.
Do you have any predictions about the key trends that will shape the European accelerator scene in the near future?
Europe has an enormous number of tech talents and they have a number of acceleration programs to choose from. I assume that accelerators will increasingly focus on a specific area in which they can significantly help founders. I also perceive that accelerators will increasingly offer initial funding to teams already in the pre-seed phase.
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