What an incredible week.

Seedcamp set out in 2007 to help build a cohesive network which promising entrepreneurs could leverage and tap into to build great businesses that as Fred Wilson said yesterday, adopt the Silicon Valley mindset and “go for it”.

This year, we’ve hosted 22 stellar teams in the time zone between London and Amman. They’ve been mentored by 350 world-class advisors. The quality of teams just keeps improving and as the Seedcamp network grows, the capacity to build great companies keeps improving.

So, without further ado – we’re thrilled to announce this years Seedcamp Week 2009 winners (in alphabetical order):

• Boxed Ice (Birmingham, UK – Server monitoring for all website owners.

• Brainient (Bucharest, Romania) – Helping video publishers monetize on the increasingly growing video content.

• Codility (Warsaw, Poland) – First line of testing of programmers, saving employers a time and money.

• Erply (Tallinn, Estonia) – ERP on the web. Comprehensive CRM, accounting, billing and inventory management for SMEs.

• Patients Know Best (Cambridge, UK) – Revolutionizing how patients ineract with doctors as a start to better provided care.

• Talasim.com (Amman, Jordan) – The Comedy Channel of the Middle East, providing a space for self-expression and sharing humour.

These teams will all receive a €50k investment from Seedcamp and active support over the next 3 months to help develop these companies into world-beaters.

All 22 teams demonstrated outstanding performance and growth throughout the week. They listened to the wisdom of serial entrepreneurs like Hjalmar Winbladh and Brent Hoberman about the rollercoaster of startups, learned about pivoting and continuous deployment from Eric Reis, product/market fit from Sean Ellis, how to swear (and something about metrics!) from Dave McClure and to fail fast, think big and build great businesses from Fred Wilson. On the way they had practical advice from the great successes of the tech world like Google, Yahoo, last.fm, Twitter, Microsoft, eBay and Skype.

What impressed us the most was how the teams processed this torrent of feedback and evolved not just their pitch but their business and thinking between Monday’s and Thursday’s presentations. Shortening the loop between listening and learning is so critical to sustainable startup success and every team showed they had this in spades.

Seedcamp is not a one-week event and most of the teams in London this week were folks we’d met at one of the 7 Mini Seedcamp’s we ran this year. Building this localized network is core to our vision and we want to take this chance to call out Kwaga (Paris, France) and Platago (Vienna, Austria), both of whom Seedcamp has invested in this year from our Mini Seedcamps in Paris and Berlin.

We’ve always believed the start-up world doesn’t revolve around one location but we love the Valley. Last year, we went out West with the Seedcamp alumni and this cycle we’ll be going on the road again, this time taking in New York as well as San Francisco. Immersing yourself in the US market is something we always advise to startups – learn, make contacts and then go back home and code ☺

So joining us on this year’s Seedcamp on the Road, we are also inviting these talented tourists:

• Advertag (London, UK) – Advertag extracts data and creates tag cloud based on the advert.

• Fabricly (London, UK) – A web-based solution for fashion labels to manage their supply chain.

• Pearl Systems (Bristol, UK) – A web-based solution for SMEs to customize billing, CRM, accounting, business improvement software.

• Joobili (Budapest, Hungary) – A travel website offering inspiration specific to your dates and interests. You say when, Joobili says where.

• VouChaCha (London, UK) – A location based mobile discounts for consumers. A usable platform for brands to engage with their customers.

Finally, we’d like to thank everyone who contributed to this year’s Seedcamp Week including all the amazing mentors, Seedcamp investors, Tim Barnes from UCL for being an awesome host and our numerous Seedcamp supporters – without whom, we could not function.

Thanks again to the teams for converging on London for the week where we hope your experience was life changing and you continue to grow, network and emerge as successful entrepreneurs.

Please keep in touch and come see us at one of our Mini Seedcamps over the next 12 months and check out our video blog for day 5 highlights.

We have evolved Seedcamp into an intensive and productive experience for entrepreneurs to tap into an international platform of mentors to get great advice, build an awesome network, get validation and gain access to capital. At Seedcamp Week in September we were thrilled to announce the strengthening of our team with Carlos and Phillip coming on board to further build out Seedcamp’s international reach and capabilities to support the entrepreneurs, mentors and investors we work with better.
This expanded team is the foundation for us being able to better support every year: the thousands of applications we receive across 11 geographies, our network of 2,000 local mentors, the 200 teams we meet, and the investments that we make and support.
Now, we’re delighted to announce the €3m first closing of Seedcamp’s second fund.
What are our plans for the new funds?
Simple: (1) make more investments and (2) strengthen the breadth and depth of our international platform.
Our first closing is already 50% larger than the first fund we raised in 2007 – this is great news because it means that we can invest in more of the 200 teams we meet and mentor every year through our Mini Seedcamps.
In our first fund, we were able to invest in 22 companies. Already in our second fund we have been able to invest in 11 companies and we are likely to be able to at least treble that number over the next few years.
It seems that every year, the quality of teams gets better. We are continually blown away by the talent we see in every location we visit. This is true in both our mainstream hubs like London, Paris, Berlin and Tel Aviv as well as the regional events we also host in the Nordics, the Balkans, Central Europe and now in Singapore, Johannesburg and Mumbai.
The teams from our first fund came from 12 countries and it was s surprise to many that the teams who attracted top-tier venture backing came from Estonia, Romania and Slovenia. In fact 19 of the 22 companies received more than an aggregate of €15m in follow-on funding, created over 100 jobs and two teams so far – Jordan’s Talasim and Palo Alto’s Mobclix – had successful exits.
Seedcamp is an international network both by design and necessity. The fragmentation in the European market required us to bring a network together and it has been a blessing we have embraced. In fact since 2007, we have grown from our original roots in London, Paris, Berlin into the rest of continental Europe and now into a truly international platform supporting entrepreneurs with on the ground networks from San Francisco and New York to Tel Aviv, Mumbai and Singapore.
We have only been able to do this with the support of: our fantastic initial investors; superb and increasingly creative collaboration with corporate partners including Google, Microsoft,IBM and Paypal; and an amazing collection of mentors who offer time, energy and expertise to help build the next generation of great start-ups. Thank you to you all.
But when we raised our first fund over the summer in 2007 we didn’t have the chance to really extend the reach of our investor as widely as we would have liked. So we are thrilled to welcome new investors in our second fund who further this goal of being deep, not shallow, in local markets.
New additions like Notion Capital, 360 Capital Partners, management team of Team Europe, Ahti Heinla and Lars Hinrichs bring even more of an international and entrepreneurial dimension to Seedcamp – we welcome them, thank our mentors and returning investors and look forward to bringing on additional new investors in the months to come.
We started Seedcamp with a big vision and a long-term ambition – we continue to recognize that we are at the beginning of this journey but we are excited that an international platform is starting to fall into place to let the next great founders from Amman or Tallin continue to launch products in London, raise money in NY, Silicon Valley, or Europe, and have a network to support them wherever they want to do business.
Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

One of the big value adds of Seedcamp is the relationships with Corporate mentors that begin during the Mini Seedcamp events, continue over Seedcamp Week, and progress through the 3 months of mentorship support, which includes the 2-week US roadshow that just culminated. Since our recent visit in the Valley in March to the Facebook office, we have been working closely to find ways to let the Seedcamp companies have more and easier access to the Facebook platform. Until now, this support came mainly through mentoring at the Seedcamp events all over Europe, email contacts, and through our direct visits at Facebook HQ.

We are thrilled to announce a deeper and stronger new partnership with Facebook that will help many of our companies to move forward a lot faster: Seedcamp startups will receive product, technical, and design support as well as early access to beta products and programs on Facebook Platform. Since many of our portfolio companies use parts of Facebook’s offerings in their setup, talking to the folks working on these products directly will be a massive help. In addition, an early look at what is coming up will enable Seedcamp companies to be ahead of the market and to play with cool new features first.

Finally, our startups will also receive additional support as Facebook becomes a Platinum Seedcamp Founder Sponsor. The partnership with Facebook sets a great example for how we want to work with more of our US and European corporate mentors.

Facebook is clearly becoming ever more important to startups, be it in the way services are distributed, members are found, or information is shared. We are looking forward to see how our companies are integrating Facebook into their services, and how they can make the best of this partnership!

Also – If you are a startup in Germany or the rest of Europe – apply to Seedcamp Berlin until Sunday to get a chance to benefit from this amazing collaboration.
Related articles

Copenhagen has long been known as one of the most environmentally friendly cities on the planet, providing great quality of life to its citizens. It is also known as a regional centre of business and media and we are hoping to tap into the wealth of talent across Denmark and the rest of the Nordics when we visit this pretty city hub on 27th May 2010 for our first ever Mini Seedcamp Copenhagen, which is kindly being hosted by NorthCap Partners and supported by Rainmaking. The programme will be held at the uber cool premises of 5th Unit.

Last year saw us in Helsingborg, which was a great success and brought us face to face with quality teams across the region and beyond. We’re urging teams from Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Iceland and Norway that are confident and ready to apply to Mini Seedcamp Copenhagen. Of course, our open door policy means that any team from anywhere can also apply.

Mini Seedcamp Copenhagen will connect 20 top quality, early stage web tech startups with over 50 regional and European esteemed, sought after and highly experienced entrepreneurs, investors and developers. Through an interactive panel discussion and informal 1:1 sessions, teams benefit from engaging with and listening to a variety of distinguished mentors and industry leaders from PR, HR, product development, business development, marketing to name but a few.

Mini Seedcamps provide the best way to have a chance at winning a spot as one of our top teams that receive investment in 2010 and to leverage the value the programme brings. As such we encourage startups to apply to any of the Mini Seedcamps that best match the timing and progress of your business.

Past winners have been blogging about the importance of attending a Mini Seedcamp and also what to expect from a Mentor Session, which gives a good insight into how the day is run and what to expect.

As always, we are looking for strong, quality startups that have the talent, drive and capacity to fully embrace the opportunities that participating in a Mini Seedcamp brings. Which is receiving quality advice from top industry leaders and start building those key relationships to help drive your business. Relationships that normally take years to build, you’ll have access to in one day. Mini Seedcamps are not a conference, but an entrepreneurial ecosystem of support and a program designed to strengthen and catapult your ideas into a viable business.

Check out our resources page that is full of advice and videos, blog posts, and follow us on Twitter , the hashtag for the event is #seedcampCPH, and Facebook to see what we’re looking for, what teams get out of it and what you can do to improve your chances in winning a spot on one of the most prestigious and rewarding web tech programs that is helping to drive and shape the European startup scene today.

You will gain invaluable insight and a solid foundation to help kick-start a viable business in Europe today. Not to mention being inspired by fellow entrepreneurs and a chance to broaden your scope within the European startup ecosystem.

Applications are now open and close at midnight on 13th May 2010. For full details, updates and how to apply go to the mini site.

Barcelona has been a long-standing city of arts, culture and commerce and has seen the likes of Gaudi, Dali and Picasso grace it’s streets. In recent years, Spain’s entrepreneurial network has been growing and bringing us great entrepreneurs such as Martin Varsavsky and startups like Madpixel, tooio.net, visual-engin.com and Tuenti. We know there is a wealth of talent throughout Spain and the surrounding region, who can’t wait to make their mark on not just a European, but Global stage. With that in mind, we are very excited to announce that applications are now open for Mini Seedcamp Barcelona, which will take place on 23rd March 2010 at the wonderful premises of IESE Business School.

Although this is our first year in Spain, we have seen some great teams apply to Seedcamp in the past few years from the region. We truly feel there is an abundance of emerging talent there and are specifically urging teams that are confident and ready to apply to Mini Seedcamp Barcelona from Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy. Of course we always have an open door policy so any team from anywhere can apply.

Past winners have recently been blogging about the importance of applying to a Mini Seedcamp, and this year even more so. The Mini Seedcamps provide the best way to have a chance at winning a spot as one of our top teams that receive investment in July 2010 and to leverage the value the programme brings. As such we encourage startups to apply to any of the Mini Seedcamps that best match the timing and progress of your business.

As always, we are looking for strong, quality startups that have the talent, drive and capacity to fully embrace the opportunities that participating in a Mini Seedcamp brings. Which is receiving quality advice from top industry leaders and start building those key relationships to help drive your business. Relationships that normally take years to build, you’ll have access to in one day. Mini Seedcamps are not a conference, but an entrepreneurial ecosystem of support and a program designed to strengthen and catapult your ideas into a viable business.

Check out our newly revamped resources page full of advice and videos, blog posts, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook to see what we’re looking for, what teams get out of it and what you can do to improve your chances in winning a spot on one of the most prestigious and rewarding web tech programs that is helping to drive and shape the European startup scene today.

Mini Seedcamp Barcelona will connect 20 top quality, early stage web tech startups with over 50 regional and European esteemed sought after and highly experienced entrepreneurs, investors and developers. Through an interactive panel discussion and informal 1:1 sessions, teams benefit from engaging with and listening to a variety of distinguished mentors and industry leaders from PR, HR, product development, business development, marketing to name but a few.

You will gain invaluable insight and a solid foundation to help kick-start a viable business in Europe today. Not to mention being inspired by fellow entrepreneurs and a chance to broaden your scope within the European startup ecosystem.

Applications are now open and close at midnight on 9th March 2010. For full details, updates and how to apply go to the mini site.

Prague has often been called the ‘Golden City’, and Seedcamp is hoping to find a gold rush of exciting web-tech talent that is bursting with bright and innovative ideas set to make their mark. Applications are now open for Mini Seedcamp Prague, which will take place on 2nd March 2010 at the University of Economics Prague.

Last year, we held a Mini Seedcamp in Warsaw for the region, which proved a great success, and we are coming into Prague as we cover a different city each year. Through past Seedcamp Weeks, we’ve had winners such as uberVU and Brainient from Romania, ERPLY from Estonia and Codility from Poland.

We truly feel there is a wealth of talent in this region and are specifically urging teams that are confident and ready to apply from Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Estonia, Bulgaria and neighbouring countries to apply. Of course we always have an open door policy so any team from anywhere can apply.

Past winners have recently been blogging about the importance of applying to a Mini Seedcamp, and this year even more so. The Mini Seedcamps provide the best way to have a chance at winning a spot as one of our top teams that receive investment in July 2010 and to leverage the value the programme brings. As such we encourage startups to apply to any of the Mini Seedcamps that best match the timing and progress of your business.

As always, we are looking for strong, quality startups that have the talent, drive and capacity to fully embrace the opportunities that participating in a Mini Seedcamp brings. Which is receiving quality advice from top industry leaders and start building those key relationships to help drive your business. Relationships that normally take years to build, you’ll have access to in one day. Mini Seedcamps are not a conference, but an entrepreneurial ecosystem of support and a program designed to strengthen and catapult your ideas into a viable business.

Check out our newly revamped resources page full of advice and videos, blog posts, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook to see what we’re looking for, what teams get out of it and what you can do to improve your chances in winning a spot on one of the most prestigious and rewarding web tech programs that is helping to drive and shape the European startup scene today.

Mini Seedcamp Prague will connect 20 top quality, early stage web tech startups with over 50 regional and European esteemed sought after and highly experienced entrepreneurs, investors and developers. Through an interactive panel discussion and informal 1:1 sessions, teams benefit from engaging with and listening to a variety of distinguished mentors and industry leaders from PR, HR, product development, business development, marketing to name but a few.

You will gain invaluable insight and a solid foundation to help kick-start a viable business in Europe today. Not to mention being inspired by fellow entrepreneurs and a chance to broaden your scope within the European startup ecosystem.

Applications are now open and close at midnight on 16th February. For full details, updates and how to apply go to the mini site.

Good Luck!

Like many startups, Seedcamp started out with a big idea: to help to lay a long-term foundation for first-time European entrepreneurs to get access to the knowledge, network, validation and access to capital they would need to build a big business.

But in truth, we had very little idea of exactly how Seedcamp was going to play out and we’ve evolved substantially over the years.

In 2010 alone, Reshma and her lean, mean fighting machine have:

And we still have Mini Seedcamp events in Singapore and Mumbai to come in 2010.

Reshma has done an amazing job building a truly international network of entrepreneurs, mentors and investors. In a little over three years, she’s taken a concept and turned Seedcamp into a living breathing organization. Since 2007, we have:

I’m really proud of what Reshma, Alasdair and Steph have achieved but we want to do more with our network – more teams mentored, more locations visited and investments made.

Looking forward to working with the winners of Seedcamp 2010 and beyond, its time for Reshma to get some serious firepower and support to take Seedcamp to the next level, keep pushing the envelope and continue to improve the experience we can offer our network.

So I’m thrilled to be introducing two new stars in the Seedcamp team – Carlos Espinal and Philipp Moehring.

If you’re one of the 400 or 500 people who have been part of Seedcamp Week, you will have met, had an email from or come into contact with our Associate Philipp. He’s only been with us since June but has hit the ground running – providing the glue holding our operations together and moonlighting with some great video commentary. He will work with all of our companies on the portfolio management side to provide the value Seedcamp brings.

Carlos will be joining us from Doughty Hanson. He will be a Partner to work alongside Reshma, helping her to develop the organization, deepen our international network and offer the best possible support and development to Seedcamp entrepreneurs.

Carlos is a great blend of serious engineer and talented early-stage investor – he’s also not a bad cyclist. He will be a great compliment to Reshma and help us expand not just our capacity but also our horizons and language skills.

There is nothing more exciting in an organization than seeing it grow – having seen what Reshma was able to achieve flying solo, I can’t wait to see what her partnership with Carlos will deliver. You can find Carlos on Twitter and his full bio.

Please help me welcome Phil and Carlos to the team – and feel free to reach out and say hello.

Saul

Copyright © 2019 Seedcamp

Website design × Point Studio