Berlin, 2016-Sep-13 — /EPR Retail News/ — The METRO Accelerator powered by Techstars is kicking off its second round with ten new start-ups. The international teams from seven cities and five countries will participate in a three-month, intensive programme at the offices of the German Tech Entrepreneurship Center in Berlin where they will receive active coaching from around 100 mentors from the founders, investor and hospitality scene and up to €120,000 of start capital each. Above and beyond this, METRO will support the start-ups with its infrastructure, network and know-how throughout this period. With the second round, the METRO Accelerator powered by Techstars is developing into a platform for cooperation and networking among industry players. The maturity of the young companies played a significant role in the selection process of the start-ups for this year’s Accelerator. Many teams have already successfully established products in the market.
“In this second round, the quality of the start-ups and the value that they can offer our customers – entrepreneurs in the hospitality sector – is once again extremely impressive,” said Olaf Koch, Chairman of the Management Board of METRO AG. “The teams won us over with their innovative ideas and strong personal dedication. These ideas can lead to solutions that harness significant benefits for our customers in the hospitality sector. This is exactly what the Accelerator programme focuses on. Its goal is to turn good ideas into sustainably successful business models within the three months. We are very excited about our collaboration with the start-ups and Techstars.”
In an extensive selection process that lasted several weeks and involved more than 600 applications, ten start-ups qualified for the METRO Accelerator 2016. They come from London, Ottawa, Tel Aviv, Melbourne, Berlin, Cologne and Stuttgart, and thus from five countries and three continents.
The following start-ups made it to the METRO Accelerator powered by Techstars 2016:
Cheerfy from London, Great Britain – Cheerfy is dedicated to improving the customer experience in hotels and restaurants. To this effect, the start-up uses Wi-Fi hotspots as beacons.
eStaffMatch from Ottawa, Canada – This online marketplace connects event organisers with event staff.
Hoard Spot from Berlin – This app allows for a safe handover of keys in local businesses, cafés and kiosks: those who make their apartment available to guests and cannot hand over the keys personally can safely deposit them using Hoard Spot.
Jagger from Tel Aviv, Israel – Jagger is a chatbot assistant for restaurant managers and offers an intuitive chat interface, allowing them to control important processes in a company.
Pantree.co from Melbourne, Australia – Pantree.co is a co-commerce platform that brings together business partners in the food service and hospitality sector for handling all buying and selling processes.
Reputize from London, Great Britain – This online platform uses big data for the reputation management of hotels.
resment from Cologne – resment is a digital HR management system that assists small and medium-sized enterprises in human resources planning and payroll accounting.
Smunch from Berlin – Smunch is short for Smart Lunch and delivers good and healthy lunches to offices. In this way way, the start-up wants to promote team lunches at work.
tsenso from Stuttgart – This company improves the supply chain in the food industry with the help of automated sensor solutions and temperature documentation.
Venue10 from London, Great Britain – Venue10 is an online reservation platform that supports restaurant owners in managing the capacity of their businesses.
The young entrepreneurs will use the next 13 weeks to improve their business models and teams with the professional support and networks of industry experts, and will develop their models with a view to their target groups. “The METRO Accelerator powered by Techstars is the world’s number one accelerator for start-ups in the hospitality sector. Techstars and METRO each have decades of experience in their industry. By combining their competences and networks, we are creating a top-of-theline ecosystem. The ten teams will quickly find out how essential the right network and our mentoring programmes are,” explained Jens Lapinski, Managing Director Techstars of METRO Accelerator.
“We are pleased to have found ten excellent start-ups that are relevant for all fields of activity in a restaurant or hotel. We are excited to watch their development over the next three months,” said Alexander Zumdieck, Managing Director METRO of the METRO Accelerator. “With this programme, we are the industry leader and pioneer in the field of open innovation. We have access to the best mentors and industry experts to drive the businesses of the ten growth companies. With this second round, the METRO Accelerator powered by Techstars is increasingly developing into a community that connects the key stakeholders of this business sector.”
The Accelerator is organised by METRO together with its American partner company Techstars, the international accelerator network, and supports the development of innovative digital solutions for the hospitality sector. METRO uses this programme to unlock added value and innovation and to make this available to customers from the hospitality industry, such as restaurants, cafés and hotels. The participating start-ups in turn benefit from the large networks of the two partners METRO and Techstars.
On 7 December, the teams will present their successes to selected investors and industry experts at the Demo Day. More information about the different stages and the details of the programme are available at www.metroaccelerator.com, blog.metroaccelerator.com and on Twitter at @MetroAccel.
METRO GROUP is one of the most important international retailing companies. It generated sales of some €59 billion in financial year 2014/15. The company operates over 2,000 locations in 29 countries and employs more than 220,000 people. The performance of METRO GROUP is based on the strength of its sales brands, which act independently on the market: METRO/MAKRO Cash & Carry, the international leader in the self-service wholesale trade; Media Markt and Saturn, the European market leader in consumer electronics retailing; and Real hypermarkets. For more information, please visit www.metrogroup.de.
Techstars is a global ecosystem that empowers entrepreneurs to bring new technologies to market wherever they choose to live. With dozens of mentorship-driven accelerator programs and thousands of start-up programs worldwide, Techstars exists to support the world’s most promising entrepreneurs throughout their lifelong journey, from inspiration to IPO. Techstars provides access to tens of thousands of community leaders, founders, mentors, investors and corporate partners, allowing entrepreneurs to accelerate the pace of innovation and Do More Faster™. Techstars supports every stage of the entrepreneurial journey – from the idea to venture capital investments to M&A and IPO. For more information visit www.techstars.com
Contact:
METRO AG
Corporate Communications
Metro-Straße 1
40235 Düsseldorf
Phone +49 (0) 211 68 86-42 52
Fax +49 (0) 211 68 86-20 01
www.metrogroup.de
presse@metro.de
@Metro_Comms
Source: Metro Group