Collider is evolving

Collider exists to drive the future of marketing and sales technology for startups, corporates and investors.

This will not change: we’ll continue to find the very best startups to invest in and scale, bring the right startup solutions at the right time to corporates, and ultimately deliver investor returns.

We’re still about winning customers, it’ll always be about building revenue, and it’ll never be about just finding the next round of funding, which explains why we’re working with more corporates now than ever before (and in Amsterdam too!)

We’re also still focused: focused on marketing and sales tech, and focused on scaling, and the impact of that is phenomenal. We’ve invested in over 40 startups now, which means we’ve built the expertise to make even better investment decisions and add incredible value to our portfolio.

So with over five years of in depth, first-hand experience, one exit and over £13m going into the next generation of marketing and sales startups, we’ve seen a lot.

That’s why now is the perfect time to change and invest more.

https://vimeo.com/232318078

1. Keep the applications rolling

You’ll now be able to apply to Collider UK ANY time of year.

One cohort a year was proving nowhere near enough, especially given the incredible startups we kept having to turn down.

We then dabbled with the classic accelerator model of two a year, but even that didn’t cut it, particularly when taking into consideration the needs of our corporate partners – the key way we give meaning to our accelerator name.

So we settled on four cohorts a year – a minimum of three investments per cohort and a maximum of six. That’s more application opportunities, more cohorts and most importantly, more startups as part of the Collider family, shaping the future of marketing and sales tech.

2. Put meaning back into ‘early stage’

You can now apply even if you’ve raised cash before.

We’ve always been clear on our entry requirements – you must have built an MVP, have a team, be focused in B2B marketing and/or sales tech and have your full SEIS available. But now, could you just rub out point four? That’s Collider Take Two.

Once again, we kept noticing just how many startups would come to us, perfect in every way, other than just how early stage they were – and that in itself is one big, fat contradiction.

So rather than missing opportunities time and time again, we’ll be investing in startups with both SEIS and EIS available. That’s early stage, and early stage. Or in other words, startups with proof of value.

3. Flex the investment model

There’s now options, not just one offer.

If we’re going to recruit startups at different stages, we needed to shake up our investment model too.

Each startup will now have two possible investment options: £50,000 of investment (£15,000 as programme fees) or £100,000 of investment (£30,000 programme fees), rather than one standard offer.

That’ll give us a wider range of companies and different stages in their journey, which is absolutely perfect for our community – the community of potential customers.

Remember – Collider exists to shape the future of marketing and sales technology for startups, corporates and investors. If that’s you, we will officially launch on the 4^th September, and we want to hear from you.

Are you a startup?

We’re looking for ground breaking, world changing, mind blowing B2B marketing and advertising technology startups. If you want to supercharge your growth and collide with the most incredible corporate innovators, apply here.

Are you an investor?

Our investor community is a little bit different, but no one wants the same old, do they? Made up of marketing and advertising experts, our angels also hold superpowers in finance, fundraising and tech – all an incredible benefit to our startups. If you want to help accelerate our startups alongside our other investors, get in touch.

Unruly Hosted Our Fifth Demo Day, And It Was Awesome

Our startups smashed it and we couldn't be more proud, as our fifth annual Demo Day has now sailed, with some incredible brands, impressive investors and of course, some madness sprinkled in for good luck.

With video ad tech company Unruly hosting our milestone fifth cohort Demo Day, we showcased our newest startups alongside some of the very best scaleups to have graduated the programme, including Miappi, Seenit, CampaignAmp, Pixoneye and LivingLens. Brands such as Unilever, dunnhumby, Microsoft, Yahoo and Ogilvy also joined.

#ColliderDD17 crowd 💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻 pic.twitter.com/VwPuRjevwG

— Collider (@ColliderGB) March 28, 2017

The event was also the kick-off for our deepening relationship with Unruly, which aims to give back to the ecosystem.

Unruly CEO and co-founder Sarah Wood, who has mentored some of Collider’s most successful companies for a number of years, said: “Events like Collider’s Demo Day are the perfect way to connect London’s brightest founders with the people that can help bring their ideas to life.

“For Unruly, it was an unbeatable opportunity to give back to the MadTech ecosystem and encourage the next generation of businesses that will transform our industry - and on a personal level, being surrounded by start-ups in their discovery phase is always inspiring!

"With organisations like Collider, I'm confident we'll see the next unicorn come from London."

Good-Loop, one of our 2017 startups and an app which incentivises users to watch ads by donating to a charity of their choice once they reach a particular point in the video, won our 2017 Demo Day award - voted for by the crowd throughout the day.

We are thrilled to announce we are the winners of the Collider 2017 Demo Day!!! A huge thank you to the @ColliderGB team x x pic.twitter.com/JclKzMI5LO

— Good-Loop (@good__loop) March 28, 2017

The other incredible 2017 MadTech startups that pitched were:

Vensy

Vensy is a sports marketing platform that provides a simple way for brands to discover the best athletes to sponsor, while also helping athletes build and monetise their marketability.

Frenzi

Frenzi is a fast and easy platform that allows brands to build and publish engaging and interactive display ad campaigns across different online and mobile publishers.

Rate8

Rate8 is a mobile and web-based platform for consumers that give instant feedback on fashion and lifestyle items within e-commerce sites, from friends or via the Crowd.

Tweepforce

Tweepforce turns private messages into commerce opportunities by allowing users to directly buy from brands within DM conversations on Twitter.

Pearlai

Péarlaí is a technology platform that allows shopping centres to map shopper’s journies and interactions with vendors in order to customise their experience.

Adlaunch

Adlaunch enables simple, fast video creation and editing directly in a browser, enabling anyone to create good-looking video content. The platform has plans to include unique AI technology to enable even faster video creation based on image recognition and user data.

Greengame

Greengame wants to make sustainable living the norm with technology that automatically tracks activities that impact the environment – enabling cities and brands to engage and reward people for living sustainably.

Launching in Amsterdam with a bang

We couldn't just launch in Amsterdam without something pretty special, which is why this week some of our team headed out to the Dutch capital for our second popup.

Bringing brands and startups together is what we do best, and so this time round we were joined by a number of senior team members from both KPN and NS, hosted in Deloitte's iconic The Edge building.

Working with Ellen, Amsterdam Collider's co-founder to help establish their challenges, we identified the best startups to select for the popup and work directly with the teams.

Joined by a number of Collider startups including Pixoneye, Scoop Retail, Syncspot, Locomizer and Seenit, Collider Booster startup Duel, we also welcomed three startups from Belgium and Holland – Cabture, Social Seeder and Storymail.

Trial funds were up for grabs, so the popup meant business and gave both the startups and brands the chance to really knuckle down to see where they could work together.

But KPN and NS struggled to only pick one each, and so with Social Seeder and Storymail picked as the number-one-let's-do-this, there were many other promises of future conversations for others.

Ellen said: We designed the popup as a highly interactive session, where the corporates shared their challenges and topics of interests, allowing to identify together relevant applications of the startups’ technologies. KPN and NS have each chosen a startup for a trial project and invited several startups for follow-on conversations."

You'll be hearing much more from us in Amsterdam as we're now open for applications, as we scour the globe for the very best startups to join our first ever programme in Amsterdam. You can apply right here.

A Year of Collider: 2016 in a Nutshell

What a year. We’ve crashed, bumped, smacked, bashed incredible people with incredible businesses – it really has been quite the collision – or whatever cheesy pun you’d like to go for. But all jokes aside, 2016 has turned up some seriously exciting moments. Here’s our top 2016:

1. Collider’s very own first exit – Avocarrot

Mobile ad exchanger and Collider alumni, Avocarrot, sold to Glipsa Global Group back in September for $20 million dollars.

Avocarrot joined our first ever accelerator programme back in 2013 and didn’t take them long before they headed off to San Francisco to continue their journey, exiting in less than four years.

2. Seenit took the win at TechDistrupt London!

From 14 startups down to one, our very own Seenit was crowned Startup Battlefield champion 2016, winning £40,000 and the coveted Disrupt Cup.

After presenting in front of multiple groups of VCs and tech leaders and with hours of deliberation, TechCrunch editors worked through the judges’ notes to narrow the list down to five, resulting in only one winner.

3. Collider to launch in Amsterdam

SERIOUS excitement in the Collider office when we finally announced our launch in Amsterdam!

With a booming startup scene and a huge wealth of incredible brands, Amsterdam was the obvious pick for us – we can’t wait to see what it’ll bring in the New Year.

4. Our 5^th cohort joined the Collider community

We handpicked the very best, new MadTech startups from around the globe, who have now joined the Collider family as our 5^th cohort!

We had a record number of applications this year from startups all around the world, and were incredibly impressed with the quality that came through the door.

Our final eight have now been picked, which we’ll be announcing in the New Year.

5. The launch of our Mentor Network

https://vimeo.com/collidergb/collider-mentor-network

Sarah Wood, Guy Weiynk, Zaid Al-Zaidy – just a few names you’ll find in our Mentor Network.

An exclusive offer to our scale ups, this isn’t ‘another accelerator’ with another ‘mentoring platform’ – instead, we hand picked some of the very best names in the industry and paired them up with some of our very best startups for an unbelievable mentorship experience.

And yes, back to that pun, but it really was a magical collision.

6. More startups reaching the one million pound revenue mark!

More and more of our alumni are reaching this milestone every month, with the first achieved midway through this year.

It’s been a blast, 2016. We’ll see you in the New Year with the official announcement of our new cohort.

Collider alumni Avocarrot sold to Glispa for $20 million

"Mobile ad exchanger and Collider alumni, Avocarrot, has been sold to Glispa Global Group for $20 million dollars."

That was the news this September, and one that just shows the impact of the Collider accelerator programme. Congratulations to the team!

Avocarrot joined Collider's first ever accelerator programme in 2013 when we had just six brands and nine start ups, all operating from a back alley off Leicester Square. But it didn't take them long before they headed off to San Francisco to continue their journey in the tech space.

The team accelerated at an incredible pace, and in under four years sold to a fantastic collaborator for the future.

This news shows that we're beginning to see the results of our efforts to create a successful, thriving and in demand MadTech community, all stemming from London.

We can't wait to see what happens next.