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Call for Proposals2-3 months
The application period has been closed on the 28th of February 2010 and is expected
to reopen on 1st of May. To participate a team needs to fill the Application form
when that becomes available again.
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First Evaluation 1 month
During the month following the end of the application period, applicants will be
notified on whether they are selected as candidates for funding or not. Successful
applicants are requested to provide more details on their submission and appear
for a short interview.
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Second evaluation 15 days
The applicants who are not selected for the final round are briefed after their
interview. Those that are selected are invited to give a presentation in front of
the board, the investors and the advisors, at a full day workshop called "Start-up
Day". The workshop takes place 15 days before the successful applicants are expected
to start working on their startup. It is will be promoted by the Openfund and is
open to the public. Maximum 5 submissions will be finally selected and receive the
full Openfund benefits.
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Seed Preparation 15 days
The applicants who are chosen after the "Startup Day" are given 15 days to prepare
for the seeding period and sign the term sheet. The term sheet defines an amount
of seed financing, ranging from 30,000 to 50,000 euros, for a share of 15% in the
company that is formed out of the submission.
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Seeding Timeframe 4 months
Once the selection is complete, the selected founders will be provided full support
to to focus on turning their startups into successful businesses. This time window
is provided to turn an idea into a working prototype and a business that can be
launched, sooner or later, depending on the particular circumstances of each startup.
During the seeding timeframe, both the Executive and Advisory Boards provide extensive
support to the start-ups, including advisory into technical and business aspects,
next to access into an extended network of contacts. Moreover, a number of members
of the Executive Board are assigned with the close monitoring of each start-up,
while each start-up presents its progress to the full Executive Board once from
month to month.
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Exit
From the end of seeding frame, the alumni start-ups are provided with full support
to grow, so as to end up in a further round of funding, acquisition or IPO. Within
this context the Openfund works at helping funded startups towards securing one
of the above targets. All Openfund alumni start-ups will essentially have in place,
at least, all the requirements necessary to make them an enticing target for further
funding, both from local and international sources.
The aforementioned process is to be repeated in cycles that are designed to maximize
the operational efficiency of the Boards and provide a steady flow of submissions,
start-ups, resources absorption and exit opportunities. As such, the next cycle
starts with a new call of interest right after the selection of the startups of
each round, while the announcement of the new startups to be funded coincides with
the end of the seeding timeframe for the start-ups of the previous round, and so
forth.