This article was published on May 20, 2013

Startup accelerator Startupbootcamp offers teams participating in its new program a $1m loan


Startup accelerator Startupbootcamp offers teams participating in its new program a $1m loan

Editor’s note: This article by Greg Anderson originally appeared on ArcticStartup, an independent tech blog that reports on digital startups and growth entrepreneurship from the Nordic and Baltic countries.

Pan-European startup accelerator Startupbootcamp has announced that each participating team in their new Copenhagen MobilityXL program will be offered a loan of up to $1 million at the end of the program.

As you probably guessed, MobilityXL will focus on mobile startups, and will be a 3-month program. Participating teams will still be given €15,000 for 8 percent equity at the beginning of the program, as in the past.

“Several accelerators have added e.g. convertible bonds on top of the normal offering, but founders will still end up bleeding equity so we decided to introduce a much more founder friendly solution,” says Lars Buch, who runs the new Startupbootcamp MobilityXL program and was formerly Head of Smartphones Copenhagen at Nokia.

MobilityXL Copenhagen   Programme   Startupbootcamp

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One of Buch’s focuses with Startupbootcamp it to be sure they offer support to teams after the demo day finishes, by allowing teams to take advantage of office space, six months of additional mentoring, and now arranging this funding option. Their financial partner, Accelerace, will pay out the loan over two years, with an additional five years to return it.

A million-dollar loan will give teams in the mobile space a lot to work with, so it will be interesting to see how teams take advantage of the funding. While VC funding isn’t the only measure of success, Startupbootcamp points out that 70-90 percent of their teams have received funding for the past couple of programs.

Entrepreneurs will get a chance to meet Startupbootcamp in Helsinki, Oslo, and Stockholm as part of their Open Pitch – which is attached to the Term Sheet Battle events we’re helping throw.

Tickets for entrepreneurs run €30, but it’s free to attend Open Pitch, which generally takes place before the Battles.

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Top image credit: Thinkstock

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