The goal of Access2Europe was to build on the strong regional presence of all project partners to create a true pan-European ecosystem that transcends national boundaries and promotes the growth of European startups across country borders. The objectives of Access2Europe were achieved through different work packages:
“Identify & Inform” (WP1) startups in the form of smaller and large, high-profile informational events where startups in selected fields are invited to attend and become familiar with the possibilities offered. The project partners had to inform their ecosystems about Access2Europe and attract startups ready to enter another EU market.
The results reached exceeded the target (min 5.000 Startups): over 9600 startups were identified and informed of Access2Europe.
In WP2 (Market) Discovery, Access2Europe focused on selecting Startups to participate in Discovery Tours. During these 3-day tours, they were enabled to leverage connections and meet stakeholders that are difficult to access otherwise. 99 startups with 121 participants profited from the Discovery Tours in all partner cities. The Discovery Tours are are the Success Story of the A2E project: The project partners received over 300 applications from startups and selected them according to specific evaluation criteria.
“Support & Match” (WP3) aimed at startups in rolling out their activities in international markets during the first three months by introducing them to the respective ecosystems, giving them hands-on information and contacts to relevant stakeholders, and real-life experience as a startup in the new market.
41 European Startups were selected (Project Target: min. 20 startups) out of over qualified 200 applications. The SUPPORT part included: the onboarding during introductory week, free office space, expert led workshops and one-on-one meetings for a successful market entry, access to entrepreneurial ecosystem, free access to key tech events and exposure via the partners communication channels. The MATCH part included connection to relevant industry/corporate and finance players.
In WP4 “Communicate & Enable” the focus was on promoting the exchange of information between startups and partner ecosystems, providing answers to hot topics via the Online Access Academy, and exploiting opportunities for new ventures. Access2Europe’s efforts led to 19 inclusions in newsletters (min. target 12); 152 posts on social media (min. target 100); 999 posts retweets, shares and likes (min. target 500); 8 promotions at large conference on stage (Startup Europe Week, Cube Tech Fair, SLUSH), 22 promotions at smaller scale events on stage (min. target 15); 9 press releases sent to targeted media audiences; 18 226 views of the Online Access Academy video material (min. 500 views by startuppers).
WP 5
Management activities were aimed to ensure effective coordination between the consortium and the European Commission, e.g. through partner Coordination meetings, an action Plan with an overview and monitoring of dates, deadlines, KPI's milestones and deliverables and regular communication between the partners.
