Grow your B2B startup with this regional scholarship program
The V4 Startup Force is helping participants expand their businesses in the Visegrad region. Startups getting into the selection camp can already gain useful knowledge and contacts, but the 4 finalists will be able to attend business meetings in all 4 countries and receive significant scholarships. Apply for the spring semester of the V4 SUF until 8 April.
Do you have a B2B startup and a plan to expand in the Visegrad countries? Would you like to have business meetings with small and medium-sized businesses, or even large corporations? Would you develop your business with helpful workshops and mentoring? Or get into a community where you can meet potential, like-minded partners with an optimistic entrepreneurial attitude?
Learn more and sign up for the V4 Startup Force!
Czech, Slovak, Hungarian and Polish startups have the opportunity to apply for the spring semester of the region’s first scholarship program up until 8 April. The V4 Startup Force program was launched in 2018 by the Hungarian innovation agency, Design Terminal with the support of the International Visegrad Fund and regional partners. Since its inception, it developed more than 50 startups with the help of more than 300 business meetings.
Design Terminal and its partners aim to create a cohesive regional community in which startups and major market players can count on each other and together they can show the strength of the region to the global market. The program builds talent locally by keeping businesses in the region, helping them thrive here first and foremost.
“The V4 Startup Force paved the way to our regional expansion with useful contacts and a lot of new knowledge!” – says Bence Zwecker, one of the founders of the Hungarian startup, Munch. David Suslik, CEO of the Czech project and workforce management platform OnSinch, believes (based on his own experience and the opinion of other companies) that it is worth focusing primarily on development and expansion in the country or region where the company was born. “We were looking for investors and other business contacts in Czechia, that’s why we joined the V4 Startup Force. It enriched us with new sales and networking opportunities.”
A total of 4 startups – one per country – will be included in the main program, but even the first 20 companies to enter the selection round will receive relevant business training. The intensive, five-day virtual bootcamp includes workshops, mentoring and community and team building events, as well as the closing Demo Day.
Between 16 May and 3 June, the four selected startups will visit the Visegrad region by online and offline programs. The first two weeks will be organized virtually, and the third one in Budapest, Hungary offline. During the opening week, the workshops will prepare startups for the business meetings, and the knowledge acquired will be useful for them in the meetings of the second and third weeks.
There will be at least 3 occasions per country and per startup, so at least 12 business meetings will be held during the program. The Czech DEX-IC and the Slovak CAMPUS have joined Design Terminal this year again, and Startup Hub Poland is also helping the initiative as a new entrant of partners.
