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ADSA «Atlantic Digital Startup Academy» – Newsletter – 1

ADSA Launches Exciting Internationalisation Programme for  Digital Startups

Ninety digital startups across the Atlantic Area have joined a unique and exciting internationalisation programme with the launch of theAtlantic Digital Startup Academy (ADSA). ADSA is a programme specifically designed for digital entrepreneurs taking their first steps into European Markets. It is a partnership approach that leverages its partner networks to bring together a wealth of experience, expertise and specialist knowledge in a strategic way. It supports companies to develop their proposition, market presence and sales systems with the aim of  launching into new markets.

Companies joining the Academy will receive training and mentoring tailored to their needs and particular challenges – this starts with a thorough Business Health Check.  The Academy companies will form a supportive peer group and can expect strong engagement from local ecosystem partners. Through an international partner network in France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Northern Ireland they will get overseas soft-landing supports, including mentoring, first contact point, introductions and desk space (see visual representation below).

The 10-strong partnership successfully secured €1.57M EU funding for the project through an application to the Interreg Atlantic Area programme giving a total budget for 3 years to 2020 of over €2M. Interreg Atlantic Area promotes transnational cooperation among 36 Atlantic regions of five European countries  with the objective of implementing solutions to answer to regional challenges in the fields of innovation, resource efficiency, environment and cultural assets.  

ADSA Cork Academy

ADSA Cork get underway in November with an internationalization workshop that gave participants a fly through considerations in going international for market and product validation, sales, employment, legal and finance. The 14 participating companies include:

  1. Trustap – Transaction platform for buying and selling with strangers
  2. Rashr – Home Of The Worlds Brightest Eco Friendly Rash Vests!
  3. Smartroutes – Route Planning & Optimization Software
  4. Spearline Risk & Compliance – Centralised management of data privacy and GDPR
  5. Leads2Love – Walking and dating app for dog lovers
  6. Kudos Club – Employee perks platform
  7. Shopless – Personal shopping delivery service
Over the next 18 months Academy companies benefit from a range of inputs to support them going international
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Best Practice Case Studies

A central theme in the ADSA project is building on best practice from previous projects and initiatives from around Europe  in supporting startups going international. To this end we have gathered, analysed and presented information in the form of case studies. Follow the links below for the first 3 case studies in the series.

  1. La Cantine, Nantes, France – La Cantine is a non-profit organisation which aims to connect companies and individuals in the fields of the web and digital innovation in the Loire region
  2. CESEAND SCALE-UP – a program aimed at advising the 10 most promising scale-ups in Andalusia in order to take advantage of the opportunities posed by the European Single Market Strategy
  3. RYME developed and tested a methodology for the internationalisation of companies from SUDOE Area (France, Portugal and Spain) in cooperation with partners from Brazil and USA with 99 companies from ICT, Biotech and Greentech sectors.

World’s Biggest EdTech Summit

1000 exhibitors and 3400 visitors attended, BettShow, the world’s biggest EdTech summit in London from 23rd to 26th January.

The SPN, leader on Work Package 7, dedicated to internationalization, enjoyed the opportunity to build a guidebook of the summit and to organize meetings between Portuguese (Parliapp,  Explicas) and French (eLearningTouch) startups.

The Meeting took place in the French Pavillon, which hosted 18 exhibitors.

ADSA Opens for Business as Partners Convene in Cádiz

ADSA Partners met in Cadiz at the end of October take part in LAMBDA WORLD and held a Steering Committee Meeting to move the project through the next phase from recruitment to implementation. Lambda World is a “Functional Programming Event” for web developers. A particular focus for the project committee was the development of the ADSA internationalization Bootcamp that the University of Porto will deliver in the five different countries participating in the project. The Bootcamp will take place over 2 days in each country during February and March 2019, working with entrepreneurship tools to adapt the Value Proposition to new markets and much more…

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Building on Best Practice

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Capitalization – building on acquired knowledge – in the splendor and gravitas of Coimbra Library, the partners reflected on the challenge of researching and working with best practice learning from previous programmes and how to share their own knowledge from ADSA

2nd Project Steering Committee convenes in Coimbra

Partners from the 10 organisations that make up the Atlantic Digital Startup Academy (ADSA) gathered in Coimbra in June to hammer out a programme offer best suited to their local pool of startups. The meeting was hosted by IPN Incubadoro which is ranked in the world top 5 of university associated incubators. Central to the project’s success will be the capacity of the project partners to provide soft-landing supports to participating startups looking to enter the partners home markets. Capitalization is another key element throughout the project – by researching and building on the work of previous programmes from around Europe the partners ensure that ADSA follows and develops best practice in supporting startups going international. This project work package is being led by the European Business and Innovation Centre Network (EBN) from their headquarters in Brussels…

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