IMPACT GROWTH: EUROPEAN SUPERSTARS FOR FUTURE INTERNET

Project Information

IMPACT GROWTH

Grant agreement ID: 732480

DOI

10.3030/732480

Project closed

EC signature date 29 November 2016

Start date 1 November 2016

End date 31 December 2018

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 6 570 586,24

EU contribution

€ 5 995 021,25

Coordinated by

FUNDINGBOX ACCELERATOR SP ZOO
Poland

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - IMPACT GROWTH (IMPACT GROWTH: EUROPEAN SUPERSTARS FOR FUTURE INTERNET)

Reporting period: 2018-05-01 to 2018-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

IMPACT Growth is the new acceleration program of IMPACT Accelerator supported Startups in growth stage in four verticals: Smart Agri-food, Smart Content, Smart Manufacturing and Smart Cities and Infrastructures. The uniqueness of IMPACT GROWTH value Proposition for SMEs & Startups and its potential success relies upon a very compelling offer and progressive process (disseminate - validate - growth) that will be guaranteed by the excellence of the partners chosen to execute each phase. IMPACT GROWTH gathers the best performing market players for achieving outstanding results in each phase.
IMPACT Growth Main Objectives are:
- Wide promotion of FIWARE by implementing an aggressive PR, Social media and Media campaign all over the world.
- To select, through a series of 2 open calls, a portfolio of 28 Startups within the fields of Smart Agri-food, Smart Content, Smart Manufacturing and Smart Cities and Infrastructures
- To provide world-class acceleration services including mentoring; training; access to public and private funding, internationalization services by participating in international events and Digital Missions to the main entrepreneurship hubs in the world, access to perks, PR exposure and access, training and mentoring on FIWARE Technology.
- To ensure the sustainability of the Startups by helping them to raise private and public investment after the acceleration program ends. And fostering engagement with corporates.
- To consolidate IMPACT GROWTH as the Future Internet Accelerator based on the creation of a ‘Continuity Fund’ and, in the commercialization of IMPACT GROWTH as a product of Acceleration as a Service for catching up regions and Digital Innovation Hubs.
IMPACT GROWTH aims to discover at least 4 European Superstars, companies that will secure at least the same amount of private funding invested than the public funding awarded to the project. The consortium will do so with the support of 2 Venture Capital Funds members of the Consortium.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

IMPACT has been present in 94 events, 28 International events, 3 online info sessions and 63 offline info sessions to disseminate the open calls. We have prepared 46 PRs and achieved around 191 clippings in relevant press media with more than 340 million impacts.
IMPACT Growth social networks have 11.000+ followers. The reach of all the posts published within this period is more than two million people with more than 34,000 engagements. The newsletter has grown to 4,609 subscribers, doubling the subscribers received from IMPACT Accelerator. The project is obtaining huge publicity through partner’s networks and their distribution lists, with more than 5 million direct contacts from Startups communities, mentors, influencers, regions, investors, and corporates.
IMPACT Growth was highlighted as one of the top 10 accelerators in the World by investment in the Gust Report 2016.
IMPACT Growth launched two open calls in 2017 to select the 28 beneficiaries of the program. Finally, almost 4,000 applications were started of which 1,333 were submitted. The selection of the companies was really hard as the quality was really high.
IMPACT GROWTH provided an intensive mentoring and training program provided by key digital business and FIWARE ecosystem experts and entrepreneurs.
Companies also received the access to public funding services informing them of the EU grants they can apply to and helping them by reviewing their proposals. €4,3 million of public funding was raised.
The Startups were offered the possibility to receive support to launch equity crowdfunding campaigns to raise private investment from the crowd. A webinar was organized to explain the service and just one company was finally interested in this service.
Internationalization services were offered to the Startups in two forms: on one side offering them a possibility to participate in Digital Missions to London and Silicon Valley and by offering them a possibility to participate in International events (like FIWARE Summit, 4YFN in Barcelona or DLD Tel Aviv).
Companies also have access to the VCs of the consortium since the beginning of the acceleration program.
IMPACT GROWTH achieved the Sustainability of the project is based on three main points:
The sustainability of the Startups (Investment Committee to help Startups to raise private funding beyond the equity crowdfunding services and the VCs of the consortium)
The sustainability of the acceleration program.
The sustainability of FIWARE for which several actions have been.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

In terms of Communication Results, an important campaign was done. IMPACT Growth dissemination strategy involved promotion of Open Calls through Partners’ Network, together with attendance at a number of important events all over Europe, America and Asia with very positive results. IMPACT Growth reached more than 5 million contacts through Partners’ Networks. The Press Releases generated 191 clippings in various media and reaching a total audience of 340 Million people. Regarding the results of IMPACT Growth calls the goal was to receive 3,000 started applications and 1,100 applications (1,500 and 550 applications per call respectively); and we received almost 4,000 started and 1,333 successful submitted proposals for the two open calls from more than 60 countries from all over the world. So, the objectives of communication and open calls are met.
Regarding the live due diligence, 29 companies have started the acceleration program and the main KPIs have been met. The Startups have scored the acceleration program with more than 9 out of 10. All the KPIs of the acceleration program were met.
Regarding investment, the equity crowdfunding service was not popular among the companies, just one company is still in the process of launching the campaign and we are helping them to find lead investors. Only companies in early stage, that have a lead investor and open to have small investors in their cap table, could be interested in this type of services. In the future we will take this into account.
The goal of investment from VCs of the consortium is €4 million, so far Kibo has invested €750,000 and is part of the second €5 million round of Clarity with an amount that can not be disclosed yet. Bookingabus received €100K from Toni Raurich and €50K from Accelerace. So we have helped startups to raise directly €5,9 million. But of course IMPACT Growth services and the participation in the program has helped the companies to raise their rounds. PEM is interested in investment in 3 startups, the investment could happen once the VC Fund starts to operate.
Startups have raised €31,75 million in private funding and created 220 jobs.
FundingBox has raised a €17 million fund that will start operations in Q2-Q3 2019 and now is working on raising a new fund of €50 million.
The productization of the acceleration program to ensure the sustainability of the model. To this respect, 8 new European projects will use this model with a total budget of €85 million, 2 corporates with a total budget of €580K and two regional programs have been launched with a total budget of almost €5 million.
With respect to the valuation of the Startups, a valuation methodology was put on place with a total valuation of €206 million, an average valuation per company of €7,3 million what is €2,3 million in average better than foreseen, and €34 million below the total KPI.

Impact Growth General Overview