Deadline: 10-May-21
Parallel 18 has launched applications to Promote Innovative and Inclusive Entrepreneurship.
A program focused on providing funding, mentorship, business connections, and investment to underrepresented entrepreneurs around the globe.
Parallel 18 is a top-level, performance-driven international startup program with a social mission: offering entrepreneurs from all over the world access to high-quality business training, funding, and networks to help them scale globally while working to position Puerto Rico as a unique hub for innovative businesses and technology.
- Their acceleration program, welcomes companies from around the world to help them scale from Puerto Rico to global markets. Their team works hard to provide high-quality business education, develop business connections, and create investment opportunities for all their startups.
- Specific Goals:
- Sustain the Program over a long period of time by remaining politically agnostic and showcasing the value that the program brings to the island.
- Ensure buy-in from both the private sector and in all areas of the government by showcasing success and furthering economic development.
- Encourage local and global angel, VC and private equity funds to invest in the best and brightest startups emerging from the island.
- Help fix some of the challenges that the Puerto Rican economy is currently faced with.
- Develop a creative and innovative vibe within the community that moves beyond technology and touches the arts, culture, culinary, tourism and other interests.
- Encourage parallel18 corporate partners to engage in business development with startups to explore new opportunities for corporate innovation.
- Further the growth of the local economy.
- Position Puerto Rico on the map as an active member in the global startup ecosystem and as a center for innovation and entrepreneurship.
- Equity free funding: A US $40,000 grants to help your startup lay the foundations for growth. The money is divided into two halves, one when companies begin the program and the other once they pass a midpoint evaluation. How can you use the money?
- Strong acceleration curriculum: More than 100 mentors are part of the parallel18 network. Each generation, they select experts that have the best fit with the cohort so they can share their knowledge through talks and one on one meeting. The team works hard to amplify the pool of mentors at all times and make it more available to participants and alumni alike.
- They mean business: Their corporate innovation program, P18Connect, is focused on helping startups grow on the island while promoting that Puerto Rico’s biggest industries become more competitive by integrating the latest innovations. More than 200+ unique interactions have been brokered by their Business Development team, and 32% of their alumni are still in contact with leads introduced by the program.
- A growing investment scene: In just four years, parallel18 has managed to help start-ups raise more than US $16M investment from Puerto Rican investors. In addition, the program offers a follow-on fund (link a P18Ventures) of up to US $75,000 for qualifying alumni. So far, P18Ventures has invested in 48 alumni. But that is not all, each cohort; their team looks for investors who are ready to put their money in startups that participate in P18.
Expected Results
- Companies with high global potential developed and scaling from Puerto Rico.
- Partner directly with local organizations to help integrate the program and its participants into the local business and startup ecosystem.
- Increase the retention efforts of local university students by presenting them with opportunities to intern and work for the new companies created through the program.
- Increase the repatriation efforts of the Puerto Rican diaspora by promoting opportunities for employment with the new companies created through the program.
- Create positive global visibility by positioning Puerto Rico in the global media as a new innovation hub.
- Work towards inclusion in global innovation indexes.
Participants
Startups that apply must be incorporated in Puerto Rico or in the United States with authorization to do business in Puerto Rico. In the case that your company is not incorporated in any of these locations, the Program will provide you with resources that can assist in this process. Only founders that own fifty percent (50%) or more of their startup may apply. The founder applying to the Program must be over eighteen (18) years of age, and the Program participants may not be more than three (3) people. Parallel18 reserves the right to use its discretionary faculty to accept team members below the age of eighteen (18) as extraordinary situations may arise.
For more information, visit https://parallel18.com/