The eleventh edition of the startup acceleration program is underway and BerriUp has decided to strengthen its network of mentors with three new profiles. César Alonso, Digital & Multichannel Manager – Digital Transformation & Innovation in Janssen (Johnson & Johnson group); Gurutz Linazasoro, Neurologist, Founder and CEO of VIVE bioTECH SL and Leire Mancisidor, Investment Director at the venture capital fund Mundi Ventures, have joined the BerriUp mentoring team to provide personalized advice to the winning projects.
“The mentors’ team that advises accelerated startups is one of our main added values. The professional profiles of César, Gurutz and Leire help us to continue adding talent to our network, which already has 36 mentors,” explains Patricia Casado, BerriUp’s director.
The 11th call for the startup acceleration program will be open until May 31st. Innovative initiatives, whatever their origin, business sector or field of action, can submit their project through the website.
The acceleration program provides each of the selected projects with 50,000 euros in exchange for 10% of the startup and a four-month program of personalized accompaniment. For 16 weeks, the selected teams can use BerriUp’s coworking space in San Sebastian to work on validating the business model and proving that it is viable and has a place in the market. On this occasion, and for the first time, they will also be able to opt for the remote acceleration program.
Each project gets assigned a team of expert mentors to advise the entrepreneurs in different areas and in a personalized way during the whole process.
A call in digital format
The projects selected in this 11th BerriUp call will present their proposals in an event to be held in Bilbao at the beginning of July. Given the current state of alarm, the Basque accelerator has decided to offer the possibility of participating and attending the event online.
“The atmosphere generated at the presentation event of the selected startups is important for us, where the entrepreneurs can meet each other in person and get to know the mentors. Depending on how the state of alarm advances and the precautions required at the time, it may not be possible to do it entirely in person. For this reason, we offer the possibility of both attending and presenting the projects via streaming“, says Casado.
BerriUp, which was born as a local project, also receives proposals at an international level so some of the selected startups may not be able to travel to Bilbao to present at the exhibition. “We are waiting to define the format of the final event depending on the situation but, in any case, everyone is invited to participate remotely”, concludes Casado.
Berriup is celebrating its fifth anniversary in 2020. Throughout the ten editions it has received more than 700 proposals and has accelerated a total of 25 startups that have created more than 80 jobs.