Media company Comcast’s corporate venturing units has agreed to join four independent peers in backing a US-based incubation competition.
New York City-based SeedStart Media 2011 is a summer programme for start-up companies in digital content, e-commerce, advertising infrastructure and mobile technology.
Alongside Comcast Interactive Capital/Genacast Ventures in providing funding and mentorship for SeedStart Media 2011 are venture capital firms Contour Venture Partners, NYC Seed, Polaris Venture Partners and RRE Ventures.
Also participating in the program are media, advertising and technology companies AOL through its corporate venturing unit AOL Ventures, Hearst, MTV Networks, News Corporation, Time Warner and Vivendi. The competition is also supported by NY Tech Meetup, Silicon Valley Bank and New York University.
Up to 10 start-ups will be invited to come to New York City to participate in the 12 week program, starting in mid June. Finalist will be selected by the end of March. Each team will receive $20,000 to support the development and launch of their company.
David Horowitz, managing director of Comcast Interactive Capital, which has a partnership with serial entrepreneur Gil Beyda under the Genacast Ventures affiliation, said: "Entrepreneurs who join the program will be advantaged through mentorship and the opportunity to form relationships with leading media companies."
Separately, in the UK, Jon Bradford, managing director of Springboard Incubator, said following its launch at "Silicon Valley comes to Cambridge" in November, the programme had attracted more than 200 applications from the UK and overseas: half from the UK, a quarter from the EU and the balance from the Rest of the World. Applicants include first time teams, serial entrepreneurs and established businesses wishing to relocate to the EU.
The mentor pool has grown to over 100, including entrepreneurs and investors from Cambridge and London, influential advocates from across the EU and a number of Y Combinator teams who are flying in from the US.
Springboard is now a member of the TechStars Network, and has engaged with the key corporates Google, Microsoft, PayPal and Amazon Web Services.
The Spring programme kicks off on 3 May, finishing with an investor day on 29 July in Cambridge.