So You're Thinking Of Investing In An Accelerator?

You're thinking of investing in an accelerator.

Great. But which one?

Yeah yeah, we’re biased – sure; so we thought we’d let the numbers do the talking.

We’ve put together this little infographic to illustrate what we’ve achieved at Collider over the past three years –  that’s three incredible, ground breaking and sometimes-a-little-mad three years.

It’s about practicing what we preach and above all, making it clear to our community that they’re our number one.

We’d love for you to be part of that.

Investing With Accelerators: 5 Tips From Frederic Court

We recently heard from Frederic Court, founder of VC Felix Capital and expert in MadTech investment. Here’s his top tips on investing in this space:

1. People, not business

With business comes people, and they’re the ones that make stuff happen. The idea matters, but don’t forget their passion too.

According to Frederic, successful investment opportunities comes down to three things: reputation, network and luck.

2. Be friendly

It’s okay – we can be grumpy too. But whilst it seems like an obvious point to make, taking the time to get to know the people behind the business.

3. Be patient

Investing in a start up will never see immediate results, with a normal exit cycle around 8 years. Anything less lands in the ‘pretty quick’ category, although can be done.

4. Be prepared

There’s often two choices for an early stage individual investor: front the cash to maintain your equity stake or be content with getting diluted out.

5. Be reasonable

A normal fund return is around 1.4x – 3x is a really good return and anything above this is rare. And yes, unicorns are rare creatures to find in every sense of the word.

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.

Choosing startups for an accelerator: How we find the best of the best

Every year, we scour the globe for up to 10 top madtech startups to join our accelerator – in fact, we’re smack bang in the middle of doing just that right now.

We want to uncover the most innovative ideas, discover teams with incredible hustle and ultimately, find what we believe could be the next big thing in the marketing and adtech space.

Here’s a breakdown of how we find, interview and pick our startups from start to finish.

Inbound: The applications

We invite startups to apply directly to our accelerator using F6S – it’s quick and easy for you and helps to gives us a first look into what it is you’re creating.

Outbound: Referrals

Thanks to the Collider team, investors, brands, mentors and alumni all being submersed in the industry and on top of what’s going on, referrals play a large part in the startups we consider each year.

Keeping an eye out

Proactive research is also a huge part of how we work at Collider. Events, tech hubs and industry specific databases are all ways in which we reach out to start ups.

The two most important things we look for is a signifier that your startup fits into the space we work in, and an impressive idea that sparks our interest.

What are we looking for?

We’re looking for the must have, not the nice to have.

Many of our questions are centred around working out whether we’re the best people to help you, and whether you’ll get the most you can out of our programme.

And you can never under estimate the importance of a great team – it’s incredible to see how significant the people are to the investors’ decisions.

Throughout the entire process, we look at around 600 companies to ensure we really are finding the best in this space.

Stage one – a phone call

This usually lasts around 30 minutes and gives you a chance to properly explain exactly what it is that you’re doing. This process usually happens around September/October time, with our feedback given within 2-4 weeks.

Expect the key question: “What are your main challenges?” We don’t ask this to catch you out – it’s to make sure you’re a fit for our accelerator so we can give you the very best value.

Stage two – Collider Partner chat

This step is for us to get our heads together and discuss as a team: who you are, what it is you’re doing and whether you’re a good fit for Collider, drawing on our previous experiences. A model that most major VC’s also follow, it allows us to bounce off each other and on a high level, how we could see your idea fitting into the market.

Stage three – Pitch to Collider Partners

If you get through to this stage, this is your chance to really impress us from the get go – the aim is to get us talking! We’ll ask you to prepare a five minute pitch, usually followed by a short Q&A.

The most important thing we gain here is seeing what you’re like face-to-face and to get to know the team.

You’ll know within one week if you’re through to the final stage.

Stage four – Pitch to Collider Investors

Selection Day – the big one.

This works in a very similar way to stage three: a five minute pitch followed by a short Q&A, but this is in front of the very people who could be investing in your startup.

Our investors all have incredible and relevant experience in this field, and use this to help curate a list of the very best startups they believe could work in the real world. We start moving fast here – you’ll find out the next day.

Quick tips

If you’re considering applying for our accelerator programme, ask yourself these questions and then come and say hi:

1. How did this project start?

2. What challenges do you face?

3. Why Collider?

Applications are Open for the Class of 2017

LONDON | 16/06/2016

Collider, London’s leading marketing and adtech (or MadTech) accelerator has opened for entries to its fifth accelerator programme.

The programme offers startups up to £80K in equity funding for up to a one-year mentorship driven programme. Collider also partners with global brands and agencies who are looking to work directly with startups. Up to 10 startups will receive £30K equity investment for a four-month Collision Phase programme with 130+ hours of support.

• The programme focuses on providing the necessary customer feedback early-stage startups need to scale
• Expert mentorship from veteran entrepreneurs and senior brands and agency executives occurs weekly throughout the first four months

• Post-Collision Phase, up to five startups will receive £50K equity investment, and a further 8 months’ support from Collider, the Growth Phase
• By the end of one year, startups should have enough market traction to raise a late seed or Series A investment round
• Investment comes from smart Angel Investors with a unique offering they bring to startups from the marketing and advertising world, who also participate in the programme as mentors

The four-month programme is designed to provide enough customer feedback for startups to have trials in the pipeline by Demo Day. In 2016, over 200 brand and agency individuals attended the Demo Day, a commercial launch for the Class of 2016 startup cohort.

Current Corporate partners of Collider include Asda, DigitasLBi, dunnhumby, Exterion Media, Haymarket, Ogilvy & Mather Group UK, Puma, Reevoo, The National Lottery and Unilever. Collider has invested in 34 startups in the MadTech industry over the past four years.

Rose Lewis, Co-Founder of Collider says: “Industry leaders are approaching us because of the structured programme and framework we provide, and startups come to us because of the tailored mentorship and connections in our network. Brands and agencies have understood they need to work with startups to stay ahead of their competition. We provide the framework and guidance for them to do this with measured returns.”

Jubair Jalil, Co-Founder SyncSpot, Collider Class of 2015 says; "Collider puts the SMART in smart money! The contacts, exposure and mentorship are priceless."

Startups can apply on f6s at the following link: http://f6s.com/colliderclass2017 Applications for the Class of 2017 close 16^th October, 2016. The Programme begins early December, 2016.