From right to left: Panellists: Bernard Moon (Co-founder & partner at SparkLabs Group); Konstanze Neumann (Co-founder Atomleap); Neha Jain (Co-founder & director, Z Nation Labs); Presentation: Gwendolyn Regina.
THE WHO
Last week, AtomLeap was invited to the Asia Pacific Week Berlin. The conference focuses on startup ecosystems, innovation, and digitalization, and brings together startups, industry representatives, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in order to facilitate an exchange of ideas on and discussions of the most important trends. The conference caters to startups with an international scope, established companies, innovation labs, venture capitalists, accelerators, scientists, political decision-makers, and institutional actors from Germany and Asia. In particular, the Connecting Startup Cities session to which AtomLeap was invited offered a platform for dialogue, knowledge exchange, networking, and matchmaking, as well as being an interface for the initiation and development of Asian-European relations through collaborative projects and partnerships.
THE WHAT
Conference participants and speakers addressed broad ranging topics: sustainable innovation and development, transcontinental cooperation and co-innovation, regulatory challenges, governance and financing, social impact and the UN sustainable development goals, the future of mobility, smart cities, energy, and artificial intelligence. Robin Tech, our managing director and co-founder, was invited to discuss new alliances for emerging markets, particularly through China’s and Europe’s role in shaping the future of mobility. Meanwhile, Konstanze Neumann, project director and co-founder, represented the Berlin accelerator scene through AtomLeap in the panel concerning accelerators and incubators, and how they can act as gateways for startups to access foreign markets. Amongst the matters that the latter panelists were asked to discuss were how accelerators can create sharing cultures across their networks, reduce risk, and set strategic partnerships; the kind of support startups can expect; how to choose the best suited market(s); and how to best pick a startup accelerator program.
THE HOW
The panel was quite diverse in that it comprised of representatives of different types of accelerators that had different ideas on the best ways to reach their intended outcomes. Panelists were asked to pitch their ideas on the spot on how startups could select an accelerator program that was best suited to their needs. Based in Mumbai, India, Z Nation Lab is an exit-driven accelerator, according to its co-founder and director Neha Jain. Meanwhile, South Korea-based SparkLabs Global Accelerator operates based on a traditional accelerator business model that is mentorship-driven and invests $25,000 per company for up to 6% equity, co-founder and partner Bernard Moon said during the panel. Conversely, AtomLeap helps high-tech startups accelerate without taking equity, thanks to the support it receives from the European Social Fund. For this reason, it puts emphasis on its ability to deliver more team-centric and personalized trainings to the startups it accelerates.
While Z Nation Lab focuses its mentorship strongly on enabling Asian startups to access Silicon Valley funding and partnerships, AtomLeap’s modus operandi is significantly different, Konstanze noted during the panel. ¨There is also an important human perspective to be had in mind. You have to ask yourself what your goal is. Do you want to be able to claim that you made an amazing exit in the US, or would you rather say — and I know I personally would love to say — that I contributed to my home country and the local economy?¨
By and large, the event was a great opportunity to exchange experiences and best practices. It also proved to be an excellent platform for AtomLeap to become acquainted with potential coaches and mentors active in the markets in Asia for the startups in our accelerator that are interested in entering or in learning more about that region.
To find out more about our programs and how we can support your startup, feel free to explore the rest of our website and to get in touch with us via the contact form on our home page.