SEVEN YEARS is a long time in business, particularly in the breakneck technology sector. Seven years ago computers ran the Windows Vista operating system, people were beginning to buy the Apple iPhone, and Seedcamp, a venture-capital fund-cum-accelerator (a startup school) based in London, began offering seed-funding to a handful of promising new tech companies in Europe.
Seven years on things have changed, so Seedcamp has to change, too. On July 15th it announced its third fund of $30m, with half coming from the European Investment Fund, a European Union-backed group. And the accelerator no longer wants to provide only funding and advice to fledgling firms, but help them “scale”—grow into a real business.
Seedcamp certainly has mastered the “the art of the start”, in the words of Reshma Sohoni, partner at the fund and one of its co-founders. Since September 2007 it has supported 120 startups financially. The companies which have passed through Seedcamp's accelerator have attracted investment of $1.6m on average, enough money to build a business and buy a standard-issue ping-pong table for startups.
Yet Seedcamp is no longer alone; what was once groundbreaking—curating early-stage startups--is now purely pedestrian. Today there are plenty of other startup accelerators in Europe, from Techstars to Startupbootcamp. Experts put the number of active accelerators across the old continent at more than 100. The challenge for Seedcamp is twofold: to differentiate itself amongst a pack of younger competitors, and ensure that the many startups actually grow up.
That is best done by providing an ongoing service to companies, Ms Sohoni explains. Backers of big European companies such as Spotify will advise startups on how to grow from 100 to 100,000 customers, a tricky leap that can often become a stumbling block. And knowledge will not be gleaned only from the best of Europe's entrepreneurial class. Seedcamp, resolutely a European venture, will also be expanding stateside, opening an office in Silicon Valley.
The accelerator is itself scaling up operations, too. In the coming four years 100 potential businesses will have the ear of Seedcamp’s mentors. It will still back newcomers to the tune of between $35,000 and $75,000, but will also write cheques of between $75,000 and $250,000 for growing going concerns.
Some companies will be able to move to Silicon Valley to gain expertise. All will spent one week a month in London at Seedcamp's headquarters in Tech City. But the aim, says Ms Sohoni, is not to make them move to either location, but to promote new businesses where they are born. "We want jobs and talent to build up all across Europe.”
