The 9th Global Residency Track program of Starta Ventures accelerator launched in March in New York City.
Starta’s Global Residency is a 6-months program for international startups entering the US market as a part of their global expansion. The accelerator program consists of 3 months of full-time coaching and 3 months of online support. Also, participants receive guidance from experienced consultants in a wide range of activities: deploying businesses in the US market and using operational and marketing services.
Top performing companies will qualify for the $200k-500k follow-up investment from our $50M Starta Ventures Fund II. Moreover, Starta will provide further support in co-investment deals. For instance, Starta graduates — Stringershub (Batch 5) and Archeads (Batch 6) — received investments and were supported through fundraising and IR.
Starting from last week, the program switched to online format due to Covid-19. A decision has been made to protect people by containing the spread of coronavirus.
Starta Accelerator was launched in 2015, since then founders have been getting support in establishing business operations in the US and laying out the foundation for global penetration. They can test, validate the market, and gain investor interest.
Starta’s global residency accelerator provides cultural and business adaptation services for startups entering the North American market, as well as their integration into the international investment ecosystem. American VCs and business angels visit fireside chats at Starta headquarters and get introduced to our startups. The terms for participation in the program are individual and depend on the stage of the Startup development. Investments range from $100k — $120k, including the cost of the program, in exchange for 3–6% equity.
Soil stage startups are invited to participate in our pre-acceleration program. The goal is to track the dynamics of key indicators and provide founders with consultation support from our Starta Partners. Based on the outcome, startups could be considered for a Global Residency Track program.
“The accelerator and pre-accelerator form a pipeline, which becomes the basis of the fund deal flow. The second fund is the accelerator’s customer, and we used our experience in working with startups in the US market to highlight the most effective methods for launching a business in this largest IT market, ”, Alexei Girin comments, Starta Venture’s General Partner. “The accelerator team helps with cultural adaptation and networking by providing founders with a wide network of American contacts. We help startups to take their first steps in the US market with fewer risks, better time saved, and fewer mistakes made.”
Batch 9 startups:
TracksRacks (Bahamas-USA) — a SaaS sample management solution for fashion firms, who manage the continuous supply chain of samples. TrackRacks offers a singular focus on digital sample management solutions, providing transparent and competitive pricing, and a messenger service that supports our customers from the beginning to the end of the sample management process.
Zuzan (Russia) — Online Event Builder. Zuzan allows you to choose artists and venues for organizing holidays and events.
KeYou (Russia) — an all-in-one ecosystem that includes dating, social networking, messenger, voice/ video calls, and blogs for the LGBTQ community. The ultimate goal is to create a safe space for the LGBTQ community for everything from dating to apartment sharing, vacations, business events, and networking.
LoyalMe (Russia, USA, France) — a tech platform for innovative Loyalty Programs. LoyalMe helps beauty and luxury brands automate CRM & Loyalty Programs online and offline. The founders’ extensive industry experience combined with the flexibility of the technology allows brands to be more efficient by reducing the project management load on internal IT teams. Scalable and modular technology enables quick pilots and seamless integration within the existing infrastructure.
Magic Kids (Russia) — a digital platform of educational products intended for kids using AR and AI technologies.
GreenBar (Russia) — an AgTech startup that develops smart light culture technologies for vertical farms. Special equipment for growing fresh herbs and vegetables, a cloud platform, and a mobile application help to deploy city farms in restaurants, grocery stores, and even in your kitchen.
Tynt (USA) — a live streaming platform for beauty content. It’s a global community of beauty enthusiasts who come together each day to create and share unique, live experiences.
Subaba (Belarus-Israel) — a platform for sublets. Subaba aggregates sublets from Facebook and Craigslist onto one platform and utilizes Artificial Intelligence to analyze listings and extract sortable features from the text. Reliable filters and Subaba’s intuitive platform streamline the process of finding your next home.
Smart Books (Russia) — an educational app with AR and AI technologies for kids.
TechShelf (Moldova-USA) — TechShelf technology solves the out-of-stock problem and creates an automated checkout process for shoppers. With over 10 years of experience in distribution and retail, TechShelf developed a cost-effective solution that will change physical retail forever.
Parcy (Italy) — A B2B collaborative event management platform that brings teams, suppliers, and data together making corporate event planning more communicative, and more transparent than ever before. With an easy to use interface, Parcy has the potential to save event planners up to 30% of their time when compared to current solutions.
NOTE: Starta Ventures is one of the most active participants in the Russian early-stage investment market. The Starta Ventures has two venture capital funds and an accelerator in New York with over 110 startups in its portfolio. The group selects technology startups and invests in promising projects. LP funds and Business Angels have the possibility of co-investment within the fund or joining individual deals as well.
The Starta Ventures accelerator program in New York focuses on the cultural and business adaptation of hi-tech startups in the United States, as well as integrating them into the international investment ecosystem.
There are five full and partial exits at Starta Ventures. In 2018 FriendlyData, a portfolio startup was acquired by one of the leaders in the US IT market, ServiceNow. Previously, the Navigine project and Cindicator exited as well. In 2019, GeoCV was acquired by Occipital (USA), and n’Ris partially bought the shares of the Online Patent startup from early investors. Most startups that have gone through an acceleration program have entered new rounds of investment.
Each year, Starta considers more than 2,000 applications from start-ups from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, other European countries, and countries of North and Latin America. In September 2018, the fund received an award from the National Association of Business Angels of Russia as the best early-stage investment fund.
Alexey Girin is a Co-founder and General Partner of Starta Ventures. He is an Angel Investor and has his Masters Degree in Economics. He has worked in the field of auditing and finance for more than 15 years and has over 10 years of experience in the venture capital industry.
