500 Global spreads its wings across the Caucasus and Eastern Europe, via Tiblisi

News Summary

  • We had trained 30 companies here and the results were really good.”“We will invest in 100+ companies and train them with an accelerator out of Georgia.
  • Admittedly, in the “developed” countries of Western Europe, startups are generally better off skipping accelerators and raising directly from Angels, HNWs and pre-seed funds.
  • But it’s not just for Georgia companies, but hugely regional, across the whole of Eastern and Southern Europe, the Baltics and the Caucasus,” he told me.He said it’s a very “interesting” time in Georgia: “You have Ukrainians and Russians co-living here!
  • And I think it’s now commonly accepted that most accelerators outside of Y Combinator can too be often “less than adequate,” to put it diplomatically.
  • European accelerators are going through an interesting time right now.
  • Plus, 500 Istanbul last year relaunched itself as 500 Emerging Europe with a €70 million early-stage fund.
European accelerators are going through an interesting time right now. For instance, TechStars Stockholm was all set to launch and then abruptly shut down. And I think its now commonly accepted that [+3934 chars]