On December 2nd, 2014, EIT ICT Labs offered a startup training for entrepreneurs with the title “How to finance my start-up business”, to introduce different forms, the unique features and the impact of available financing opportunities. One of the most important questions regarding the establishment of a business venture is the financing of the start-up activities as well as the expansion phases. Ideas and prototypes need to be further developed for the market, the business concept has to be defined and developed, resources have to be structured, and the first steps towards business operation have to be taken. Several different financing sources for such steps in the pre-seed, the seed, the start-up and the expansion phases exist. Therefore it is important to illustrate themes like the nature and characteristics of corporate financing, public programs for the advancement of entrepreneurship or unique characteristics of financing in the different life cycle stages of new business ventures.
The seminar was organised by the EIT ICT Labs Business Development team and financed by the EIT ICT Labs Access-to-Finance group with support of Jérôme Chifflet. The event was supported by the Software-Cluster in Darmstadt as well as by the two EU-funded entrepreneurship support programs TESLA and LILA. Almost 30 participants from different European countries appreciated the valuable information they received.
Besides providing theoretical knowledge regarding financing models, concrete real-life scenario examples were used to illustrate strategic financing and the different alternative steps. Current challenges faced by the participants were taken into consideration for the analysis of different financing possibilities. Practitioners gave insides to support entrepreneurs accessing proper financing models. At the end of the seminar 6 international start-up concepts were pitched, reviewed and commented by experts.
