Soft-landing: a new Startup Europe project

Soft-landing is a 24-month project that will connect startup ecosystems through numerous exchanges of key representatives that will strengthen the knowledge about EU, US, and India’s startup scene, build strong networks and trust between the ecosystem stakeholders, and help European startups scale by providing Soft-landing support in target destinations.

The project is coordinated by Startup Division. Startup Division is a leading startup support organisation in the EU connecting broad networks in Europe and building bridges between startup ecosystems globally. Through a variety of pan-European and global projects, Startup Division collaborates with numerous renowned accelerators, incubators, investors, business angels & venture capitals. Startup Division helps startups scale, expand globally and raise funds by providing expert mentorship, running world-wide entrepreneurship support projects, helping to access investors, top-notch accelerators & incubators, and providing soft-landing support.

Startup Division is accompanied by 4 great partners – F6S, GTEC – German Tech Entrepreneurship Center, IMT Starter, Crosspring Lab. Here is some more about the team that make up the Soft-landing project:

• Crosspring Lab in The Netherlands is ICT focused incubator/accelerator with its own investment programme and has a strong track record of successfully scaling its startups. Crosspring Lab are experts of innovation and commercialisation that have helped numerous ICT startups to grow and scale.
• IMT Starter in France is based in the Paris metropolitan area the IMT Starter Incubator has accompanied and helped to scale 180+ IT companies that have created 1,600 jobs. It has strong ties with Silicon Valley through its immersion programme and has an Alumni network of 15,000 experienced and successful entrepreneurs and mentors.
• GTEC in Germany is a first private-sector open campus for entrepreneurship in Europe. Since 2015 GTEC hosted 50+ startups from 10+ countries, worked with 4000+ founders, managers and experts from leading international corporations and institutions (such as Bosch, Postbank, Airbus, Energy Australia, Statoil, Mercedes-Benz).
• F6S in The United Kingdom is the largest social network for Startups in the World, that has over 1,800,000 profiles for the Startup & SME community and more than 680,000 Startups, and supports the majority of the EU Startup and SME ecosystem through deal flow and applications.

Main Soft-landing activities will consist of Ecosystem Discovery Missions, Soft-Landing stays and Speaker & Mentor Exchanges. Throughout the span of the project, 200 missions, 96 soft-landings and 50+ speaker exchanges will take place. The ecosystems will connect not only all 4 hubs, but will also reach out to US, India, and potentially China and/or Israel. Over 2 years more than 100 feedback events will take place after each mission and soft-landing where all startups and key ecosystem builders will come to present their experiences and share their knowledge.