Can single founders apply?
No. We only accept teams including minimum two-founders. Why? Because experience shows that teams are more likely to succeed than “one person teams”.
Should we already have established legal entity?
No. You can apply to the programme with or without a legal entity, but if you receive grant you have to contract us as self-employed or an official legal entity.
Does a good idea enough to apply?
We are looking for teams with scalable, innovative, business ideas on the field of sustainable building and construction industry. You do not have to be in a mature phase, but we require a basic business model and market research, so we know you already started working on your idea.
Please find the scoring criteria at the next question.
Our team is definitely eligible. How do we convince EIT Climate-KIC to select us?
We are seeking for strong teams whom we assess on the following:
- Innovativeness (New in research [+] patents protected? [+] or a weak USP? [-])
- Feasibility (Realistic idea? Technically feasible? Prototype? How long it takes to launch at the market?)
- Team (Coachability? Right competencies? Experience?)
- Climate Benefit (Can you prove a positive climate impact? Capability for climate change mitigation or adaptation)
- Scalability (Does your market limited to your country borders or you could expand internationally?)
- Long term perspective (How sustainable is your business model?)
We've been working on our startup for a while. Can we still apply?
Yes, although we prefer to receive applications from startups who are less than 5 years old.
Do you accept international teams? What if we're based outside of Hungary?
We love a good international team, but we deliver our programme in Budapest, and the Accelerator requires personal attendance in most of the cases (2 day-long Bootcamp, DemoDay, 1 hour long coaching sessions every week). If you can fulfil these requirements you are more than welcome in our incubation programme, but if not, you should consider applying to one of our other EIT Climate-KIC Accelerator locations.
Do we need to speak English to enter the programme?
Yes, you need good English to be able to profit from all of the services we offer. At the beginning of Stage 1 and 2 there is a 2-day long intensive Bootcamp with our international trainer, pitching for grant is also happening English and some of our mentoring/coaching also runs in English.