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B4i supports talents in the early stages of the life of their business projects by offering overall support from the perspective of the salient aspects for the birth and growth of a business.
Founders consolidate their startups within the B4i ecosystem thanks to coaching from the accelerator team, mentors, advisors, and high-level entrepreneurs working in different sectors.
Since March 2020, we have launched 9 Startup Calls, receiving more than 2,800 applications, supporting a total of 500 male and female entrepreneurs, and creating more than 140 jobs. As a result of our programs, we have pre-accelerated and accelerated 140 and 50 startups respectively. During B4i's 4 years of operation, these ventures have raised a total of more than 27 million euros.
During the programs, participants benefit from an initial investment of 50K and get in touch with Italian and international VCs. They have the opportunity to increase their visibility through events organized by B4i, its partners and Bocconi University, such as DemoDay, TechChill Milan, the Italy Startup Conference, Startup Weekend and presentations by scaleup and unicorn founders and CEOs. As well as the opportunity to access national and international events such as Slush, We Make Future, Web Summit, Podim and many others through our network.
Teams can apply to either the Acceleration or Pre-Acceleration program depending on the stage of maturity of their startup.
The pre-acceleration program is structured over a 3-month period of time with over 55 hours of online training sessions held on Saturdays to help founders with previous work or study commitments. Each startup will have up to 2 dedicated mentors to help them work on the validation of their idea through the definition of their business model, competition analysis, marketing & sales strategy, and finally develop an MVP (minimum viable product).
Early-stage startup founders can apply to the 4-month acceleration hybrid program, which is focused on three verticals: Digital Tech, Made in Italy, Sustainability.
Founders receive an upfront cash investment of €50.000 in exchange for up to 5% of equity, fundraising support throughout the program and beyond, and various services among which 6-month legal assistance, on-campus office space, digital marketing support, and mentorship from leading professionals.
Applicants should propose innovative solutions that solve existing problems and always back up their claims with market research data. While presenting the Unique Selling Proposition (USP), founders should also demonstrate how their business stands up from the competition. The team itself is an essential ingredient for a successful application, and B4i carefully evaluates each member’s strength, and how complementary they are to each other.
Submit your application at this link by June 23th!
To facilitate you through the application process, you can consult a comprehensive guideline and recommendations on how to properly fill the questions and structure you pitch.
To better explain the project, the pre-acceleration and acceleration teams will present programs and answer questions in a dedicated webinar on June 11 at 5:30 pm.
Register here.
For any further question or doubt you can go through the FAQ page or email the B4i’s team at infob4i@unibocconi.it.