LINK
ACCELERATION PROGRAM
Fast-track access to Seed Funding in India
ARE YOU READY TO FAST-TRACK THE GROWTH OF YOUR TECH STARTUP AND BE AN INVESTMENT-READY COMPANY BY LEVERAGING LINK’S IN-HOUSE RESOURCES AND GLOBAL NETWORK?
Launched in 2015, LINK Acceleration program receives 1000+ applications per year and counts 20+ startup alumni.
Our program is targeted at startups looking for traction to raise a seed round in order to solve global problems. Our commitment is threefold: a focus on business, execution above all and a driving mentorship.
HOW OUR PROGRAM WORKS
THEY COULD BE YOUR MENTORS
50+ MENTORS WORKING TO MAXIMIZE YOUR COMPANY’S GROWTH ARE ON HAND TO ASSIST YOU
100+ COMPANIES ACCELERATED
OVER €100M IN FUNDING RAISED
OUR PERKS
€700K of assets, advantages and perks accessible via more than 70 partners
F.A.Q
What does NUMA provide?
In exchange for a 4% equity stake, each startup participating in the 5-month program will benefit from:
- Office hours with Resident Experts in Growth Hacking, Finance, UX/UI, Graphic Design, Content Marketing and more.
- Open access to 50 experienced mentors, entrepreneurs and industry experts.
- Indefinite access to NUMA’s workshops, tutorials and resources.
- PR exposure through NUMA’s corporate events and communication materials.
- Connections to investors through the Demo day and other investor meet-ups.
- Qualified introductions to our corporate partners.
- Introductions to NUMA’s international network of alumni, partnering accelerators and foreign offices (currently France, Russia, Spain, Mexico and Morocco).
- 7-month free office space.
- More than 50 perks including free consultations with partnering accounting and law firms.
How to apply?
The selection process consists of three steps, starting right from the application. Only complete applications are evaluated. Applications are reviewed by the NUMA team and are scored by 3 evaluators. The score your project receives reflects various key factors of success including your team, experience, market and product. Depending on your score, you may be invited to participate in one-on-one interviews and pitch sessions. We are currently selecting 8 to 10 startups for each season, depending on the quality of applications we receive.
What’s the selection process?
One-on-one interviews
Results are usually communicated within a week.
If you’ve made it to the finals, along with our sincere congratulations you’ll receive an agreement detailing the program’s conditions and a bunch of legal documents regarding our future partnership. You’ll need to confirm that you accept those terms and conditions.
Unfortunately, we can’t meet in person with every startup that wants to take part in the program. There are just too many. Essentially the NUMA application process is the way we decide which of them to meet in person.
What kind of startups are you selecting?
Although the selection process isn’t narrowed to that single criteria, the team plays an important role in our evaluation. NUMA is looking for great teams with talented founders who have or can attract, the core skills their businesses will need to be successful.
Finding the right cofounder can take a while and we don’t want you to spend the short time you have with us recruiting or looking for a partner. Remember, our job is to accelerate your business and we cannot do it unless the basic components are in place. We’ve seen too many well-meaning entrepreneurs with great potential either completely stuck with their project because no one could execute on decisions or burned out from carrying too much responsibility on their own.
If you’re solo, take this as your first challenge: convince someone that you’re an excellent business partner and that your project has great potential. If you can’t do that, how will you persuade your customers? If you’re not ready yet, consider taking some time to strengthen your founding team and apply for the following season. NUMA won’t disappear and there will be another chance.
We help early stage startups all along their journey to KPIs that are fundable by VC investors. Whether they are in the product design phase, market testing their product, growing their client or user base or even looking for VC funding. A number of startups we accelerate have a fully-developed product or generate revenues when they join the program. We work with them on their go-to-market strategy, business model, provide qualified introductions to corporates in our network or advise them on their funding strategy.
No matter where you’re starting from, we adapt to your needs and you will extract significant value from the program.
No, your company doesn’t need to be incorporated to join NUMA. This won’t influence in any way your application. Your company’s incorporation can be done at any point in time during the first 2 months of the program. Partnering law firms will be able to assist you with the paperwork.
However please note that NUMA’s 2500€ can’t be provided until your startup is legally set-up.
Sorry, visa procedures are outside our area of expertise! However, we can introduce you to immigration agents previous startups have been working with or simply guide you to the relevant public institutions. If anyone on your team requires a visa for their 6-month stay in Bangalore you should start your visa application procedures as soon as your participation is confirmed.
What is happening during the 5-months program?
Yes, we require you to be in Bangalore. Much of the program’s value hinges on your presence in town to attend events organised for you (scrums, coaching sessions, speed-dating with corporates…). Being physically close to NUMA will also allow you to leverage all the informal opportunities with our mentors, alumni, corporate partners, angel or VC funds which visit NUMA from time to time.
The Demo Day is the last event of the acceleration program. You’ll be provided with the opportunity to present your start-up to a large panel of investors, corporates and journalists.
NUMA works with a wide network of 50 experts with complementary profiles to ensure accelerated startups have access at all times to all the expertise their project needs. Those experts are either web entrepreneurs, industrial experts or specialists from one of those areas where educated advice does makes a huge difference, be it, product design, UX, marketing, funding or HR. During the first part of the program, you’ll meet with a lot of them to help you identify those mentors you both need and want to work with. The most important thing is that NUMA is consistently looking for experienced people in different fields with a selective approach. And the match is up to you !
We have +50 offers and promotions from a variety of partnering startups and corporates. Ranging from cloud computing services offered by AWS Amazon, free access to recruitment platform… you name it ! All of our startups agree : those offer save them both valuable time and money.
If your project needs access to specific facilities (Fab Lab..), we completely understand that you’d need to work from other places. However, to make the most of the opportunities the program can provide you, we strongly recommend to work from NUMA’s offices. As a minimum, we require you to be available to attend a few key sessions during the week. Those include Monday morning’s scrum, weekly meetings with your EiR and mentors and speed datings with our corporate partners’ teams.
We’ve accelerated many great businesses since our beginning so it’s hard to choose! Some of our most renowned startups include Mesagraph acquired by Twitter), Sketchfab, DocTrackr, Bankin’, Zéro-Gâchis, Qunb (acquired by Ve Interactive), Artips, Lima, Agriconomie, Trip’n’drive, Infinit, Augment, Julie Desk, Soundsgood, Tiller Systems, StreamRoot, and Deepomatic.
Your agreement with NUMA
The acceleration program is free and provided to you in exchange for a 4% equity stake in your company. It includes mentoring, access for life to our workshops and tutorials, office space, access to our events and a financial support of 2500€. Please refer to apply.numa.co for a full list of the program’s benefits.
Yes. The terms of NUMA’s investment and support are standard and apply to all participating startups.
NUMA’s financial support is provided by way of a shareholder loan.
This financial support is:
- Interest-free
- Bootstrapping cash
NUMA acquires its equity stake from the founders at the shares’ nominal value.
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Do I have to accept NUMA’s financial support?
No, obviously you are free not to take NUMA’s financial support. This money is here to help you get things started. If you believe that your startups doesn’t need it, by all means don’t use it.
The contractual arrangements with NUMA have been drafted by lawyers and several batchs of startups have already entered them. Hence we would recommend that you don’t spend too much time or money with this. Naturally if your governance arrangements requires it or if you’d be more comfortable having them reviewed by a lawyer, any partnering law firms could provide you with independent advice.
It’s fine for both of us if you decide to quit the program within the first 3 weeks. Indeed, during that time
What happens after the program?
Absolutely. startups accelerated at NUMA now have access for life to all educational resources or events designed for startups.
NUMA provides you with 2500€ bootstrapping cash to help you get things started. Most likely you’ll need additional funding after the program. On average 65% of our startups raise funds after the demo day.
Naturally. This is part of our role. Specific workshops are planned during the program to help you understand how to raise funds. We also organized meetups with investors to make sure you get exposed to them.
Our Investment Team will also sit down with you to review your financing options and guide you on the best way forward.