TheVentureCity, the new investment and acceleration model that helps diverse founders achieve a global impact, continues its pace of investment and bets on 11 startups for its Growth Program in this first half of 2020. With the addition of Squadra(Productivity), Uniwhere(EdTech), AdLaunch(Advertising), WeFish(Sportech), FixMe(Wellness) and Fuell (FinTech), during the coronavirus crisis, they join ones that entered the program during the months of January and February: Explorest(TravelTech), Tusdatos.co(Security), LessonBee(EdTech), Airning(TravelTech) and Bitphy(AIRetail).
The company led by Laura Gonzalez-Estéfani has injected a total investment of more than one million euros, with the aim of helping founders focus on the growth and scalability of their startup, making decisions based on data and adopting the best methods of Silicon Valley.
“Due to the situation we are experiencing, this is the first time we have done the onboarding of startups remotely, for the ones that have been added during the months of April and May, even though the program can be followed completely remotely,” explains Andrés Dancausa, VP of the Growth Program EMEA at TheVentureCity. He also adds, “It has become quite a challenge for the team as we have invested in all six companies without having met the founders in person.” The companies that joined during the first two months of the year received the onboarding in person.
For five months, TheVentureCity team will help startups drive their growth, focusing on product, growth, engineering and data. They will also focus on other key areas such as fundraising strategy, internationalization, talent and company culture, as well as institutional and media relations.
TheVentureCity invests in six startups during the Covid-19 crisis
The onboarding of the new members to the Growth Program has been done during the months of April and May of this year.
- Squadra helps teams measure and improve the motivation of its members in a simple and fun way, sharing moments of excellence as they happen. Based in Barcelona, founder from the US with Indian roots.
- Uniwhere builds an app that makes college less stressful, more predictable and remotely friendly. Based in Italy but also operating in Germany.
- AdLaunch a SaaS that allows you to quickly create advertising videos with artificial intelligence. Based in Finland, operating in the EU.
- WeFish is the most complete fishing app on the market. Based in Spain, operating worldwide. Clearly growing in Latin America and expanding in the USA with TheVentureCity. Works on iOS and Android.
- FixMe is a platform that offers is a platform that allows you to book personal training, physiotherapy or massage sessions less than an hour in advance. At home or online. Based in Spain, also operating in Colombia.
- Fuell is a card issuer with associated software that makes it easy for companies to manage expenses. The co-founders are serial entrepreneurs. Based in Spain. The founder, Eduardo Ortiz de Lanzagorta, lived in San Francisco.
The following startups were added during the first three months of the year:
- Explorest helps you discover the best places in the world by carefully selecting photos and travel information.
- Tusdatos.co is a software company that offers services for identity validation, background checks, third party validation and security studies on individuals, companies and vehicles.
- LessonBee is an edtech company that empowers teachers with culturally responsive lessons that help students feel healthy, safe and connected.
- Airning is a travel technology company focused on making the flight claim process easy, safe and scalable.
- Bitphy is an IA platform with the ability to process the millions of data generated by a chain of stores, anticipate behaviors and minimize risks in decision making.
The differential value of TheVentureCity’s acceleration model
TheVentureCity’s eminently practical Growth program focuses on preparing startups with great potential to reach their next level. Ideal candidates have at least five months of double-digit growth and a team with a clear mission. Each year they select a total of 40 companies in which they invest 100,000 euros during the five months of the program in exchange for 6% of equity.
One of the keys of the Growth Program proposal is to put special emphasis on product, growth, engineering and data, in order to help startups grow their technology products on a global scale. In addition, startups will have the real and effective involvement of TheVentureCity’s team, which adds to its knowledge and experience the ability to directly empathize with the founders.
“To date we have already accelerated a total of 34 startups from around the world including Tonicapp, Peoople, Dixper, uSizy and Woom,”adds Andres Dancausa. And he points out, “we want to continue helping companies discover what they still don’t know about their business and their market, with data and a growth plan, and the first step is to find the knowledge holes to learn how to solve them and interpret data”.