The Circular Kickstart – EU CHALLENGE is a 6-month acceleration programme directed to EIC Accelerator beneficiaries. The Circular Kickstart Programme has 5 building blocks including: a) Circular StartersClass: an online masterclass on circular entrepreneurship, business models, value propositions, value chain architecture, and brand positioning; b) Circular Sprints: intensive workshops (sprints) for groups of max. 10 startups in which we implement the tools & methodologies for circular business building; c) 1-to-1 expertise or coaching: private coaching sessions with experts in several circular business domains. Here, we provide tailor-made advice for startups to accelerate even faster; d) Mentorship: we match startups with mentors (experienced entrepreneurs) and make sure every startup has a mentor to tackle specific startup challenges (building a team, attracting investors, creating partnerships, etc.); e) Circular Startup community (& events): we bring the community together to network, set up events to attract startups in our community, share best practices, etc. The service is implemented in a hybrid format.
Participation in this programme is granted through a pitch before a commission of circular economy experts looking at the following criteria: sustainable and circular impact, economic feasibility and scalability of the project, and the credibility of the team. This programme is oriented toward start-ups and scale-ups (< 5 years with legal personality) ready to start with the development of a prototype, user testing, and business development in order to go to market.
Acceleration, Incubation & Venture building
€1990 per an EIC beneficiary.