Helping US and Asian startups scale up in Europe
US and Asian scale-ups often struggle to enter the European market because they do not have access to a local network, lack market knowledge, or are unfamiliar with EU business culture and legal requirements. Imec.scale-ups addresses these common pitfalls with an intensive 8-week program including mentoring, coaching, workshops, networking opportunities, practical support, etc.
The aim of the program is to help foreign scale-ups find their way in the local ecosystem, e.g. by offering specialized workshops on EU business culture, tax and legal requirements, privacy regulations, local funding opportunities, etc.
“The program builds on our expertise with imec.istart, our start-up business accelerator, and by collaborating Scale-Ups.eu with the support of FIT we can offer a program that is really tailored to the needs of scale-ups interested in expanding into Europe. One of the hardest aspects of internationalizing your company is building your network abroad. By participating in this program, the scale-ups become part of imec’s ecosystem and get easy access to a wide network of potential partners, investors, or clients. We also have valuable in-house tech expertise in a variety of fields, from chip miniaturization, security technologies, artificial intelligence, to blockchain algorithms. If there is a match between the scale-up’s needs and imec’s technological expertise, we can also help them to further enhance their competitive edge”, explains Sven De Cleyn, imec.istart program manager.
“By combining the technical expertise of imec and the knowledge we’ve amassed & scale-up network we are building that is now 45 scale-ups strong just after 9 months of establishment, this partnership is a tangible example of the collaboration we need to orchestrate to put Europe on the map as a scale-up epicenter. Welcoming international scale-ups to Europe will not only make it easy for these companies to scale, it also enriches the European scale-up network. We are looking forward to starting this program”, added Jurgen Ingels, founder of scale-ups.eu
Though the program is located in Flanders, its scope is much broader with Flanders as an initial test market and gateway to the rest of Europe.
Imec.scale-ups welcomes ambitious tech scale-ups from across the world who have already gained sufficient traction in their home market and are ready to tackle the European market. The first cohort of the program will be launched in the spring of 2019.
More information at imec-scale-ups.
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