A host of corporations have developed their incubator programmes.
Germany-based media group Axel Springer said it would partner with US accelerator Plug and Play Tech Center to launch an incubator in Berlin.
The Axel Springer Plug and Play accelerator will between €10,000 ($12,000) and €50,000 in media, internet and mobile start-ups from across Europe. About 20 start-ups will go through the accelerator in two batches this year, starting in May. The accelerator programme cycles each last between three and six months before the start-ups have a demonstration day in Silicon Valley, California.
Ulrich Schmitz, chief technology officer of Axel Springer’s Electronic Media Division, and Saeed Amidi, founder of Plug and Play in 2006, will co-head the Berlin programme.
Jens Müffelmann, head of Axel Springer’s Electronic Media Division, said: “With Axel Springer Plug and Play we aim to support and accelerate innovative digital business ideas from conception through implementation. We are thereby broadening our current investment horizon in the context of our digitization offensive.”
Amidi added: “Berlin can become the centre of media and technology start-up entrepreneurs in Europe.”
Separately, Turner Broadcasting, a subsidiary of media group Time Warner, has started an accelerator called Media Camp in Los Angeles, California.
Time Warner launched Media Camp in San Francisco last year using Turner Broadcasting’s emerging technology group, with the first six start-ups as: Chute, Matcha, Showbucks, Socialize, SocialSamba and Switchcam.
Separately, MassChallenge, an accelerator in Boston, US, has started a programme in Israel sponsored by technology company EMC, although it plans to provide awards rather than take equity stakes.
And SoftLayer, another US technology company, has opened its Catalyst accelerator to members of Startup Texas.
The Catalyst program lasts for up to a year and SoftLayer takes no equity but provides use of its software.