The academy offers aspiring startups, as well as active students, a practical development program, one-on-one hands-on support and access to an investor and expert network in the fields of expansion or sustainability, finance, marketing, brand building and more. Selected projects will receive financial support of 125,000 CZK and an incubation programme worth 500,000 CZK. The best projects have the chance to receive an investment of up to 3 million EUR from Soulmates Ventures. GIA is ready to distribute 100 million CZK to the projects.
GIA was established to support startups focused on sustainable development and global challenges in the CEE region. The incubator is designed for projects with a good stable team and a clear vision that come up with an interesting sustainable product or service with global potential. They can apply for the selection process on the wearegia.eu website from 27 May.
GIA and more than a hundred experts from business development, investment, marketing, sustainable development and other fields will provide projects in the incubation process with a direct connection to the CEE region and investors, a chance to get investment and a network of contacts from key partners and other successful projects. The incubation process also includes a grant of 125,000 CZK. The most successful projects will then have the opportunity to receive an investment of up to 3 million EUR from Soulmates Ventures in the final phase of the incubator and take their project to the acceleration phase under their guidance.
“GIA is not a classic incubator. It wants to be an academy in the original sense of the word – a community of people who enrich each other by sharing knowledge, experience and ideas. An academy that connects idealism and entrepreneurship,” says Tomáš Řemínek, CEO of GIA.
The first phase of the incubation process is a detailed selection process, followed by an analysis to ensure that the programme and experts are as tailored as possible to the specific project. Then comes the September Kick-off event to introduce the projects and meet the experts. This is followed by “Mentor Madness“, where consultations with vetted mentors and rapid validation of key hypotheses take place over the course of a day. Then comes a unique hands-on phase, providing projects with help to create tailored strategic solutions that will also prepare them for specific challenges in business, marketing and sales, financial management, HR, sustainability and leadership. Everything will culminate in November with a Demo Day, where projects will present themselves in pitches to investors and other partners.
This year, GIA plans to successfully pilot an incubator in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and next year they would like to expand into the CEE region. Together with the incubator, GIA is launching a student programme targeting high school and university students. It helps them to find a meaningful career, choose the right university and finance their education or get an internship, and navigate the real world of sustainable innovation.
“Our goal is to be the best incubator of sustainable projects in Europe. To be not just change makers, but game makers – those who rewrite the rules of the game. And we are now embarking on this long journey,” adds Tomáš.
