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Launched in May 2007 by a group of 30 European investors, Seedcamp is a pan-European London based accelerator that provides startups with seed money, mentorship, office space and support over a year long program. In addition to its accelerator program the company also runs initiatives to support the European startup community such as Seedhack and Seedsummit.

The fund now has a portfolio of over 70 companies and is backed by over 30 institutional Venture Capital firms and angel investors. The Partners of the fund are Reshma Sohoni and Carlos Espinal. Its current Chairman is venture capitalist Saul Klein.

Program
Seedcamp’s program consists of monthly events (mainly across Europe). At each event 20 shortlisted startups gain an intensive day of pitch training, followed by a day of mentoring and then compete for investment from Seedcamp by pitching in front of venture capitalists and angel investors. The company will then accept around 2-3 startups per event to invest in.

The 2012 Calendar included London, Tel Aviv, Tallinn, Berlin, Zagreb, New York, Budapest, Lisbon and Paris. Previous locations have also included EMEA and further out destinations such as Singapore, Mumbai, and South Africa.

Seedcamp typically invests €50,000 for an 8-10% equity stake. In addition the company offers its portfolio companies office space, intensive mentoring, a trip to the US and a “Founders’ Pack” valued at €150,000 is also provided. The company’s main investment focus is on capital efficient ventures or those based on web and mobile platforms.

The format of Seedcamp’s program means that it is different to the majority of accelerators as it does not have limited application windows but instead opens up the opportunity for any start up to gain investment every month.

Sky News has said of Seedcamp “the largest and longest running accelerator in the UK” and “Backed by many of Europe's leading VCs”. Techcrunch, a leading technology and startup publication, ranked Seedcamp as Europe’s leading micro-seed investment fund and mentoring program.

Seedcamp Week
The Seedcamp investment cycle runs from October to September every year, during which time the company holds an investment event in a different part of Europe and selects investments. During September the company hosts Seedcamp Week, its week-long flagship event in London. All companies they have invested in throughout the year, usually 20, go through a series of mentoring days (Product Day, Founders’ Day, Growth Day, Investors’ Day) aimed to showcase their growth with the support of 400 mentors and industry experts. The event culminates with a Demo Day.

Seedhack
In addition to its investment programme, Seedcamp runs an initiative to help budding entrepreneurs to get started in the form of Seedhack. Seedhack is a weekend long hackathon focused on a particular industry. Previous Seedhack events have included Financial Technology and Healthcare. Wired said Seedhack “gives entrepreneurs critical insight into the specific challenges that industry needs to address. Meanwhile the corporates can tap into a sort of external R&D department.”

Seedsummit
Seedsummit, the second initiative run by the Seedcamp Network, is a platform aimed at making it easier for startup entrepreneurs to find the most active seed investors relevant to their business. Significantly, Seedcamp was able to sign up 21 European investors agree on a standard term sheet for startups. Techcrunch presented this as a “historic move”.

International Partnerships
Seedcamp has also built good international partnerships with AngelList and well as 500 Startups with several of it’s companies such as ERPLY, Brainient, Bluefields, Farmeron and LOOKK has benefited from being involved in both accelerators.

Performance and Notable Exits
As of August 2012, Seedcamp has funded 73 startups. Over 80% of the Seedcamp companies secured further rounds of funding after their initial investment and in aggregate have raised over €50M from external investors. BaseKit alone has raised over $10m

Notable exits include: Mobclix bought by Velti for $50M, RentMineOnline bought by RealPage , Crashpadder acquired by Airbnb , Talasim acquired by Jeeran.

Seedcamp is considered to be ‘Europe’s Harvard’ for startup incubators according to Wired UK, it was also voted the best incubator in Europe in 2011 by the Kauffman Fellows Program and ranked the number one European accelerator by TechCrunch. . The Kernel stated that “Seedcamp remains the pre-eminent accelerator on the continent and a gold standard against which others are judged” while The Guardian added that "Seedcamp is the original and best UK bootcamp for startups".