The pan-European startup accelerator, Startupbootcamp, is announcing that each participating team in their new Copenhagen MobilityXL program will be offered a $1 million loan at the end of the program. As you guessed it, MobilityXL will focus on mobile startups, and will run in a 3 month program. Participating teams will still be given €15,000 for 8% equity at the beginning of the program, as in the past.
“Several accelerators have added eg 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, head of the new Startupbootcamp MobilityXL.
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 enable the offering the loan over two years with additional five years to return it.
A million dollars will get 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% 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 the Open Pitch, which will generally take place before the ‘Battles.
