Autumn ACCELERATOR

Fuel for your start-up served here. Build up on your MVP and move your early-stage start-up to a next level business with

2 investments of 40K EUR for 2 selected start-ups

Lectures with start-up and VC know-how

1:1 mentoring with industry experts and C-levels

Applications for the Autumn Accelerator 2024 are closed.
The program starts on October 15th.
Thank you for your interest in our program
You will get all the informations about the program on time.
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The next opportunity will be in Spring Accelerator 2025.

About the Program

Autumn Accelerator is a 2-month program tailored to help pre-seed start-ups by providing investment and support in understanding the entrepreneurship and VC landscapes, further developing their solutions, and launching them to the market. The program provides free know-how through lectures, discussions and mentoring on various topics such as business model, Go-To-Market, finance, fundraising, sales, and more.

The acceleration program is suitable for start-up teams developing their PoC, working on their MVP, or those who have just launched their product and acquired their first customers.

Our program welcomes tech start-ups developing products that address significant customer problems. We place strong emphasis on the scalability of the solution and the strength of the team.
Approx. 30 start-ups will be selected for this program and will be divided into 2 groups:

Group 1

Teams with more developed prototype, MVP or an idea with a big potential will get an opportunity to attend all the lectures and discuss the issues with the mentors on 1:1 meetings.

Group 2

Teams will get access to attend all of the lectures during the program.
Online/Hybrid
Approx. 2 months
Early-stage

Benefits of the Program

Support

Start-up founders get access to online lectures on various topics in the evenings and mentoring.

Investment of 40K EUR

At the end of the program, AceON invests 40KEUR for 5 - 7% equity stake in the start-up or incase of investing through a convertibleinstrument, a post-money CAP of 14.5 times theinvested amount will be convertible.

Community

We engage in-house professionals, industry experts, entrepreneurs and people who purely want to help. By taking part in our program, you can meet other founders or strategic partners.

WHAT SOLUTIONS ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

Autumn Accelerator is an industry-agnostic program with one specialization. What does it mean?

We warmly welcome start-ups from all industries, such as biotech, healthtech, fintech, hospitality, edtech, and more.

AceON looks for start-ups developing applications, platforms, software, marketplaces, online tools, but not hardware solutions.
At the same time, we are particularly interested in start-up teams working on Enterprise Tech solutions. As an international advisory company, Accace, is a co-founder of AceON Accelerator, we can provide significant support through specialized group sessions and mentoring, interviews with enterprise´s employees, and even opportunities to test your solution.

What is expected of start-ups entering the program?

Acceleration programs are provided by AceON Accelerator for free. It is our mission to help succeed start-ups across Europe, thus we offer the best possible know-how and expertise from our in-house and external experts and C-levels.

During the program we expect high level of proactivity and cooperation with our team as we want you to get the best experience and support.
Our goal is to invest in the solutions with the highest potential for success and growth. Therefore, we require you to sign an Accelerator Participant Agreement at the start of the program.

This agreement demonstrates our interest in investing in your start-up and guarantess that AceON Accelerator has the opportunity to invest when you are ready to fundraise or to co-invest if your secure another investor.

Key dates

Applications

July 8 – September 15

Selection

September 16 – 24

Kick-off

October 15

Demo Day

November 28

Mentors and speakers in Autumn Batch

Peter Pašek

Peter Pašek

Managing Director & Partner Accace Slovakia

Peter Pašek

Since 2013, Peter has managed Accace, one of the largest consulting companies on the Slovak market. Recognized as specialist in transaction and tax consulting, he participated in several sales of companies, set up the structure of the transaction and represented companies in negotiations with investors.
Ján Kasper

Ján Kasper

Co-founder AceON | Co-founder & Managing Partner ZAKA

Ján Kasper

Experienced entrepreneur operating in 50 companies across 9 different industries, generating a total revenue of 700 million EUR. His primary interests lie in the communication, energy, leisure & hospitality, and real estate and development sectors. Obtained his MBA at Webster and PHD at Comenius University.
Andrej Petrus

Andrej Petrus

Head of Investment Committee ZAKA

Andrej Petrus

From working in AI venture builder and in consulting, Andrej is now leading ZAKA's investment committee. He holds a finance degree from Humboldt University of Berlin and University of Economics in Prague.
Mihaela Pašek-Virlan

Mihaela Pašek-Virlan

CEO & Partner Accace

Mihaela Pašek-Virlan

Mihaela became a part of Accace in 2007, since navigated through various positions across different countries, in 2020 became the CEO. Mihaela is also a member of YPO, a global community of leaders and CEOs, actively participating in socially responsible activities organized under the civic association #accacelife.
Laura Ștefan

Laura Ștefan

Managing Director & Partner Accace Romania

Laura Ștefan

Laura has more than 20 years of experience. She has helped grow Accace's services for both new and established businesses in Romania. Laura´s a true finance storyteller and visionary mentor. Her skills are not just about numbers but about crafting narratives that guide businesses towards new horizons and greater success.
Slavo Tuleja

Slavo Tuleja

Fractional CPO/CIO

Slavo Tuleja

Slavo works as a fractional CPO/CIO with startups and non-tech companies, mainly in the topic of GTM, Channel partnerships and customer pain-points. Also, he authors the Sunday Non-Techpreneur Newsletter & can also help you as a super-connector.
Richard Kakaš

Richard Kakaš

DevOps Specialist Raiffeisen Bank International

Richard Kakaš

Richard is DevOps Specialist at Raiffeisen Bank International and CTO at Silvergon. In addition to 5 years’ experience with cloud solutions and their automated deployments, he also has lots of experience with full-stack software development. At RBI he is a part of the team developing chatbot solutions for millions of clients.
Martina Hanusová

Martina Hanusová

Chief Sales Officer Payout

Martina Hanusová

Martina is focused on business development, sales, and marketing. Her specialties include payment systems, FinTech, setting up sales plans, and marketing strategies. Additionally, she has a passion for entrepreneurship and contributes to the startup community as an organizer for Techstars Startup Weekend events.
Natalia Sachova

Natalia Sachova

Head of Portfolio & Communication ZAKA

Natalia Sachova

After years of marketing experience in leading positions, Natalia is now a member of ZAKA VC. She is in charge of portfolio management and communication, but is also active in deal sourcing, partner network and operations.
Ján Búza

Ján Búza

Principal & Member of Investment Committee at ZAKA VC

Ján Búza

Jan has spent 10+ years in startup ecosystem. He started at LRJ Capital, where he assessed investment opportunities and worked closely with portfolio firms, such as Bloomreach. He then joined HubHub, a co-work focused on tech companies, which he scaled to over 2500 members in 5 countries and co-founded two legal tech companies: CourtQuant, a saas platform predicting court case outcomes, and Trama, a global leader in brand protection.
Samuel Hopko

Samuel Hopko

Co-founder & Consultant Plectrum Engineering

Samuel Hopko

Samuel has worked in roles such as DevOps engineer and platform director. His experience includes designing architectures, providing architecture consulting, leading teams, and leading company-wide infrastructure transformations. He co-founded a company Plectrum Engineering focused on what he loves - platform engineering and education.
Vojta Diatka

Vojta Diatka

CEO Biometric Ventures

Vojta Diatka

Vojta is a seasoned product manager with experience managing products for millions of users (Seznam.cz), leading product teams in startups and helping startups thrive with product consulting.
Patrik Ruman

Patrik Ruman

CEO & Co-founder Techband

Patrik Ruman

A business and tech enthusiast who likes to push himself and those around him forward. He worked for Exponea and Dateio. Later, he founded his own start-up Techband.io. In his spare time, he contributes to the organisation of the start-up competition CESAwards and building NGO - StartuPeak.
Pavol Magic

Pavol Magic

CEO & Co-founder Zoniq

Pavol Magic

Pavol is the CEO & co-founder at Zoniq. He has 20+ years of experience in creating successful global projects & products and leading distributed teams & businesses.
Pavol Čobirka

Pavol Čobirka

Founder & Start-up Strategist KobiVentures

Pavol Čobirka

Pavol is the founder of KobiVentures and experienced start-up strategist. With a track record of building and scaling successful ventures like Photoneo, PEKAT Vision, and Whalebone, he specializes in sales globalization, business growth, and strategic planning. Pavol helps start-ups create scalable systems, navigate challenges, and achieve sustainable growth. In his free time, Pavol enjoys calisthenics, cycling, dancing tango, trading emeralds.
Milan Novotný

Milan Novotný

Director of SEO & Content CloudTalk

Milan Novotný

Milan’s work revolves around helping SaaS companies optimize their SEO. He helps CloudTalk scale its organic traffic and gain new customers across the globe. Milan works as an educator in the SEO space. He has mentored Techstars start-ups and provided guidance to Depo Ventures VC fund.
Martin Hergovič

Martin Hergovič

Crypto regulatory lawyer & analyst blockwiseLABS

Martin Hergovič

Martin is a crypto regulatory lawyer, business strategist, crypto analyst, and regulatory policy consultant. He has extensive experience in launching, scaling, and consulting start-ups, DAOs, and web3 companies. In addition to this he is a heavy DeFi user and a proud NFT collector organizing community events and galleries.
Marianna Szarková

Marianna Szarková

CEO at Campus Cowork | Co-founder of StartuPeak

Marianna Szarková

She thrives on connecting like-minded business enthusiasts through impactful networking events. Her passion lies in supporting youth in entrepreneurship, and education is a cause close to her heart. Proudly serving as a long-term country partner of CESAwards, she is dedicated to fostering innovation and excellence.
Ivan Homola

Ivan Homola

Growth hacker & Co-founder SaaS Garden

Ivan Homola

Growth hacker, founder, and startup enthusiast. A mix of tech & marketing background allows me to look at things in different ways. Currently, managing a portfolio of bootstrapped SaaS projects. Get in touch if you need help validating ideas, attracting first customers, and bootstrapping business.
Zuzana Hasko

Zuzana Hasko

CMO Trustmatic

Zuzana Hasko

Zuzana is the CMO at the startup Trustmatic, recently acquired by the Canadian scaleup Certn, where she also serves as Marketing Director. An experienced marketing professional with a focus on B2B marketing, Zuzana has over 9 years of experience from global companies such as Sygic, Moody's Analytics, and VESTBERRY. She specializes in marketing strategy, positioning, GTM strategy, and more.
Ľubomír Banžuch

Ľubomír Banžuch

Enterprise Commercial Client Executive CZ&SK at Microsoft

Ľubomír Banžuch

Ľubomír is Enterprise Commercial Client Executive at Microsoft. He spent most of his career at Microsoft, where he primarily works with Slovak and Czech customers. He specializes in sales, marketing, development strategy and sustainability in CZ&SK from Microsoft perspective and partners solutions.
Donal Greene

Donal Greene

VP & Global Head of Identity Certn

Donal Greene

Donal is a global leader in the biometric technology sector, dedicated to advancing secure digital ecosystems. In 2021, he founded Trustmatic, an identity verification startup. Its success under his leadership led to its acquisition by Certn in 2023, where he now leads identity initiatives as Vice President. Prior to that, he played a pivotal role at Innovatrics as CXO, driving revenue from €3 million to €20 million within four years.
Boris Haško

Boris Haško

CMO Fumbi

Boris Haško

Boris is the CMO at Fumbi, Slovakia's largest crypto investment company. With over 15 years of experience in marketing and communications, he leads Fumbi’s communication and marketing strategy, contributing to the acquisition of over 140,000 users and investments exceeding 50 million euros. Under his leadership, Fumbi has received awards like Superbrands and CESA Awards. He has also worked in marketing for major brands such as Sygic and BMW.
Jakub Hrušovský

Jakub Hrušovský

Co-founder & Managing partner Birne

Jakub Hrušovský

Co-founder and managing partner of the Birne marketing studio. As a marketing consultant, he focuses on effective marketing strategies for conscious medium-sized businesses that want to stand out, increase revenue and resonate among their target audience.
Ivan Denysyuk

Ivan Denysyuk

CEO Zade

Ivan Denysyuk

As the CEO of Zade, a product accelerator that aids early-stage startups in validating product-market fit and securing investments through rapid product prototyping, Ivan has been working with pre-seed and seed startups for the past seven years. Together, they’ve navigated the market with minimal investments and risks. He takes pride in the fact that the startups he´s supported have collectively raised over 10 million USD in their early stages.
Efi Ben Artzy

Efi Ben Artzy

Startups growth expert and investor Effective Improvement

Efi Ben Artzy

Efi has a diverse background in companies’ excellence in various industries, established a few companies, mentors in different start-up programs around the world and is a member of the board of the EU tech chamber´s Startup and Finance alliance and in advisory board of the European leadership network CEE. He is improving complex global operations and developing leaders and managers to achieve business growth and global expansion.
Juraj Popovič

Juraj Popovič

Project manager at SAPIE & Product manager at Hopero

Juraj Popovič

Juraj has over 10 years of experience in business and government. He worked for companies like Orange and CSOB involving strategic project management, digital product management or new venture building. He also contributed to national R&D and innovation policies.
Milan Golovics

Milan Golovics

Founder & CEO BAO Consulting

Milan Golovics

Milan is the founder & CEO of BAO Consulting, an advisory firm providing fractional CFO services for early stage start-ups. He is also an Investment Director at Lunar Program, focusing on idea and pre-seed stage investments in Hungary and in the CEE region. Milan is also a regular contributor to Forbes Hungary and teaches high schoolers and university students about venture capital.
Kristína Gáliková

Kristína Gáliková

CEO Full Time PR

Kristína Gáliková

Kristína is CEO of the PR remote agency Full Time PR, which creates news for Slovak and Czech media. She has been working in the media for more than ten years and thanks to tailor-made communication she and her team create long-lasting and effective communication for the clients, through which companies increase brand awareness.
Martin Repka

Martin Repka

US Attorney Sparring

Martin Repka

Martin is a CEE-based US attorney who specialises in working with tech startups and software development companies. After training within the startup ecosystem where he advised on matters from US expansion to intellectual property, he advises clients on contract negotiation and corporate governance. Whether it’s navigating daily struggles or securing international investments, Martin is dedicated to empowering innovative entrepreneurs.
Annabel Pemberton

Annabel Pemberton

Head of Growth Sparring

Annabel Pemberton

Annabel supports startups at seed and growth stages as a privacy professional and entrepreneur. As a privacy partner and data protection expert, she helps create tech by integrating compliance into products. Her expertise includes data policy, EU, UK, and US data protection, and highly regulated sectors like healthcare and fintech. She advises founders in several communities, including Alchemist Accelerator, Zinc VC, and Y Combinator.
Arcui Usoara

Arcui Usoara

Global Fractional Chief Brand Officer & Board Advisor at Iaculus

Arcui Usoara

Arcui Usoara is a global strategist who helps businesses find PMF before launch by creating a brand strategy ecosystem that helps them stand out and scale. He helps companies get on track to 100MM ARR. Having helped over 2000+ businesses in the last decade at various stages, he specializes in helping founders build with their users, validate, and scale more seamlessly in saturated markets by tailoring strategies for them and their niche.
Livia Rusu

Livia Rusu

Digital Strategist at Storytelling Studio by The Recursive

Livia Rusu

With 12+ years of experience in digital marketing, from B2B and B2C to in-house and client-based roles, working for start-ups as well as established businesses. She discovered that tech start-ups have some of the most compelling stories to tell early enough in her professional journey, despite having worked for global brands such as Microsoft, KFC, and Coca-Cola. She holds a BA in Communication Sciences and an MA in Advertising.
František Soudek

František Soudek

Co-Founder & CEO Productway

František Soudek

František (Frank) is the Co-Founder and CEO of Productway, a product studio dedicated to helping start-ups with idea validation, MVP development, launches, and Go-To-Market strategy. As a Co-Founder of DOBROBOT, the #1 non-profit auction platform in CZ, he built the platform and team from the ground up alongside David Procházka (Donio) and Livesport. He offers expertise in all aspects of the product-building process, from strategy to execution.
Michal Süttö

Michal Süttö

GTM Consultant & Founder Questo

Michal Süttö

It’s easier than ever to build a product. It’s harder than ever to grow one. That’s why Michal created Questo, a collaborative program designed to help B2B tech teams dramatically supercharge their go-to-market execution. He helped boost growth at 60+ start-ups and scaleups across 15+ sectors and 10+ countries.
See more
Spring Accelerator 2024
Participating in the AceON Spring Accelerator was a game-changer for our startup Jusi. The program's intensive webinars and personalized mentorship helped us refine our business model and accelerate our growth. The support from experienced mentors and access to a vast network of industry professionals were invaluable. By the end of the program, we had a solid MVP and were ready to enter the market with confidence. Ready to investment stage!

Konstantin Doronin

CEO
Jusi
Spring Accelerator 2024
As a startup that recently participated in the AceON Accelerator program, I can confidently say that our experience was exceptional! AceON provided an incredible ecosystem of knowledge and support. The speaker sessions were truly invaluable, covering a wide range of topics from fundraising to growing the startup! The practical advice from mentors was actionable and tailored to our specific needs. Moreover, the networking opportunities were abundant, allowing us to connect with other startups and industry experts. From day one until the Demo Day, AceON fostered an environment of growth, learning, and collaboration!

Phi Long Bui

Co-CEO
Swayme
Spring Accelerator 2024
AceON start-up accelerator was perfect for Flyer’s Guard. The remote evening sessions fit my schedule, and I learned a lot without feeling overwhelmed. The contacts I made turned into valuable business partnerships. Plus, their free consultations after the program are a great bonus. Highly recommend!

Michal Roth

CEO
Flyer´s Guard

The Program

Autumn Accelerator's lectures that can directly impact the future of your start-up.

What is venture capital?

The lecture answers questions like: What is VC? How does investor think about the investment? What are the criteria investors use to evaluate a start-up team? How can a start-up showcase traction in pre-seed and how to have fast and steady growth?

How to build your pre-seed round pitch deck & how to succeed with your start-up?

Listen to the ultimate tips for a pitch deck that will increase the interest of investors, and learn what to do to succeed with your start-up.

Basics of fundraising

Prepare yourself for fundraising, get to know the types of investors, learn how to approach them, and find out what due diligence, equity, debt/SAFE, and more are.

Valuation, dilution, how much to ask from the investor, term sheet and much more

All the essential know-how and metrics every start-up founder needs to understand.

Validation

Confirm that a business idea, product, or service meets the needs and expectations of the target market, and learn key aspects of validation.

Market

Market, its size and growth, competition and defendable factors.

Go-To-Market

Key aspects of Go-To-Market strategy and what you shouldn´t overlook when entering the market. Discover more about MVP development, GTM budget and when to set the launch date. Discussion with successful founders who share their experience with going to the market.

Business model

Study the customer and value proposition to develop a product that will bring real value. Plan and develop a business model to achieve product-market fit.

Sales tips & techniques

Learn how to sell your product efficiently and create a repeatable sales process to grow your business quickly and steadily.

Mid-Demo Day: pitch training

Selected teams get an opportunity to try to pitch their solutions in front of an online jury and receive feedback on their pitch deck.

The finale: Demo Day

Approximately 10 of the best teams from the program will have the opportunity to pitch their startups to an audience and compete for one of two €40K investments from AceON. Demo Day will take place in Bratislava, Slovakia, on November 28th.

Partners

AccaceZAKAStartuPeakwiboCloudtalkCampusBlockwise labsStreambeeProneaITKey MediaBiometrics VenturesThe Startup ClubStorytelling Studio by The Recursiveproduct way

FAQ

What is the difference between Spring and Autumn Accelerator programs?
My start-up is just an idea. Am I too early to apply in Spring or Autumn Accelerator?
Where do the AceON programs happen? Is it online?
Do you invest in start-ups?
What type of start-ups can apply?
What is expected of the start-up entering the program?