U.S. venture capital heavyweight Sequoia announces its first 17 European seed-stage companies Start the accelerator program Arcfrom monday.
The eight-week program, which runs until July 15, gives participants time to strengthen their company-building skills with some of Europe’s top founders and operators. Additionally, Sequoia will pre-invest $1 million in each of the selected startups.
Accelerators are part of a megatrend of VCs looking to build relationships with companies at an early stage through angel and scouting programs (Sequoia also has a scouting program in Europe). Sequoia invests from seed all the way to late stage.
For Sequoia, building a relationship with the company from an early stage is especially important. “Our business is built on the idea of finding people as early as possible and doing business with them for as long as possible,” explains Sequoia partner George Robson.
When VCs invest in companies through such programs, a question that often arises is whether they will invest more money in later rounds. Some founders say it could send a negative signal if the VC doesn’t follow up.
Sequoia is considering the accelerator program “in the context of trying to build lasting relationships,” Robson said, citing the fact that Sequoia often participates in multiple rounds of public listings. “We believe that companies participating in Arc have a signaling advantage,” he said.
Despite the variety of destabilizing factors affecting the market, Robson said Sequoia’s advice is “to encourage [the startups] By investing in the research and development behind the product, focusing on the factors they can control inside the building, [and] Think very carefully about which channel is right for them. “
The cohort came from 13 countries, including 33 founders in Europe, including 6 female founders. Members of this cohort come from “all walks of life,” including founders from immigrant and refugee backgrounds. The companies selected cover a wide range of fields from artificial intelligence to education technology.
So, which companies made the first batch? The two stealth companies are not included in this list.
artificial intelligence startup
- linkage – Synative uses the latest AI research to support companies creating computer vision solutions to train models and generate high-quality images.
- telescope – By using advanced machine learning, Telescope acts like a B2B sales assistant that can monitor, create outreach emails and close deals by using machine learning.
- Twain – Twain is a free Google Chrome extension that acts as a virtual sales coach. By leveraging natural language generation, Twain hopes to help salespeople communicate more effectively.
B2B startups
- Akro – Cyber security is becoming more and more urgent and important, and this is where Akeero steps in. The Secure Design Platform is designed to enable teams to collaboratively build secure applications for cloud products.
- baseline – Serverless architectures provide software engineers with greater scalability and resiliency – but this brave new world is also very complex. Baselime hopes to help software developers better understand and leverage serverless architectures through its automated dashboards and alerting system.
- caliper – Startups want to get the most out of their data, but in reality data is stored and processed in a fragmented manner. Calliper seeks to change this by offering a plug-and-play mission control center that aggregates all operational data in one place and highlights the most important insights.
- makerspace – Finding the right collaborators can be difficult, and it’s easy to end up returning to old university networks and local groups. CreatorSpace hopes to change that by helping engineers, designers and content creators find collaborators with the right skills and interests.
- Belief – Munich-based Fides seeks to digitize corporate compliance by building an integrated management governance platform that also provides businesses with a secure audit trail.
- Popsink – Based in Munich and Paris, Popsink aims to build innovative data tools that build real-time data jobs for continuous operations without scripting.
- Speed map – RevMap’s mission is to fix the product sales feedback loop and help companies find market-fit products faster. By gamifying teamwork, the platform aims to encourage greater collaboration between product and sales teams.
- Surin – The Berlin-based platform provides personalized advice through its automated advisors, enabling small businesses to choose the right insurance level.
consumer startup
- Choice options (no website) – Whether choosing which Netflix movies to watch, or deciding which AirBnB to pre-order, consumers today face a “paradox of choice.” Choice Options wants to help consumers discover the movies, music and destinations they love while using responsible algorithms.
Edtech startups
- studio – The London-based edtech company wants to make quality education more accessible to students. Their app packs together short videos from tutors, practice tests, flashcards and community forums designed to encourage more effective learning.
Fintech startups
- Zelda – The payment app eliminates the hassle of paying through a credit card machine. The app enables people to send and receive money by simply scanning a QR code on their phone.
- Otto Financial – The London-based platform wants to provide financial support services to both employers and employees. Through its package of mentoring and educational resources, Otto strives to give employees more control over their finances.
Sophie Zhang is an editorial assistant at Sifted. They help write Sifted’s main newsletter.you can register here.
