Huge Thing, a Polish startup accelerator, prepared an intensive free-of-charge program together with Alior Bank, one of the most dynamically developing and innovative banks in Poland. They will choose ten fintech startups for an 18-week accelerator to prepare them for their first funding, as well as successful application to the world’s top accelerators, such as Seedcamp or Y Combinator.
This is already the fourth edition of the program. This time, it is addressed to startups from CEE region with a ready MVP (Minimum Viable Product) that will be further developed during the acceleration. Most desired are fintech solutions in the fields of Blockchain, Biometrics, AI (Artificial Intelligence), IoT, Cyber Security, Payments, Authentication, or AR (Augmented Reality). Additionally, if you want to apply for funding of up to 45k EUR, you have to set up a company in Poland.
Huge Thing divided the recruitment process into three stages – collecting online applications, interviews with the team members and pre-acceleration. This pre-acceleration is a series of three meetups, taking place during three consecutive weekends in May. It will verify the participants’ commitment, give Huge Thing a better understanding of their specifics and needs, as well as provide the program’s partners with a chance to choose the startup they’d like to cooperate with. This stage of recruitment will end with an internal Demo Day, after which 10 startups will be chosen for further acceleration.
During the first few weeks of the acceleration program, each startup will closely cooperate with an individual mentor. All workshops will take place in the Brain Embassy in Warsaw, Poland – it is a prerequisite that at least one team member must be present each day. Group workshops will take place from Monday to Wednesday each week, while Thursdays and Fridays will be dedicated to the individual application of the acquired knowledge to the product.
The acceleration program will cover a wide range of topics, including customer development process, product UX and onboarding, pitching and preparing pitch deck, marketing, communication, distribution channels, project financing and teambuilding. Additionally, startups will participate in Speed Dating with investors, visit Berlin and London to get acquainted with both local startup scenes and potential partners, and showcase their products during a final Demo Day.
Huge Thing is supported by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development within the ScaleUp program. The deadline for applications is on 17th April.
