DigitalWell Ventures starts partnership with Founder Institute Norway

DigitalWell Ventures is starting a partnership with Founder Institute. The collaboration is offering a greater roadmap for all startups – and creates an extended path for those specialized in Health Tech.

Founder Institute is the world’s biggest pre-seed-accelerator. Being a worldwide organisation, they have this far contributed in the making of plus 5 000 companies since the start 2009. The basic idea is to give startups and entrepreneurs early-stage support, committing to a four-month program that is not about running a company. It is about running your company. This operative perspective goes along with the goal that every idea that gets accepted to the program should result in a real business.

The concept has spread to more than 200 cities, giving access to a network of local experts, mentors, and investors. Now Founder Institute’s Norway chapter is teaming up with DigitalWell Ventures. Both parties see great benefits in being able to guide startups in both directions, based on what stage they´re in.

– It is about creating a value chain and making it easier to connect to the next phase. If DigitalWell Ventures has some founders that aren’t up to scratch – we can bring them up to scratch, says Dimitris Polychronopoulos, Lead Director of Founder Institute Norway.

Creates a bigger service

This perspective gives greater possibilities to support and keep in touch with startups and entrepreneurs in need of more preparation, before reaching the scaling phase and entering DigitalWell Ventures accelerator. It also offers an exit plan after Founder Institute for startups specialized in HealthTech.

– We are creating a bigger service for the audience and the founders. A larger roadmap is going to restore faith and hope that the journey doesn’t end after our program. If you have invested in Founder Institute’s program you have gained experience to become more appealing to customers, investors, partners and team members. To have a bigger picture in mind also makes it easier tosell your idea which will make an angel investor more at ease, so we are quite excited with this partnership aligned, says Faraaz Ali, Communication Director of Founder Institute.

The Founder Institute team in Norway, with Faraaz Ali and Dimitris Polychronopoulos to the right of the image.

There is also a common history since the founders of DigitalWell Ventures participated in the Founder Institutes VC Lab-program, before launching the HealthTech accelerator. To start the deal flow in the new partnership DigitalWell Ventures have been given a “golden ticket” to be passed on to an interesting startup that will join Founder Institute’s program.

Connecting Sweden and Norway

David Holm, Investment Manager of DigitalWell Ventures, is extra excited that the partnership creates a bridge between the Swedish and Norwegian start-up eco-systems. Hopefully attracting startups from Founder Institute to test their services across the border.

– Many startups need a born-global perspective. If you can prove that early on, it is easier to attract interest from investors. The Swedish market is important to test because it is a gateway to EU and vice-versa, going outside EU into Norway  – that´s a great story for investors.

DigitalWell Ventures niche on HealthTech is interesting for the future, Dimitris Polychronopoulos thinks. Both because the subject is addressing the sustainable development goals and because it gives a chance to explore vertical accelerators. In Finland Founders Institute have already started an accelerator focused on FoodTech, which have affected the startup scene quite strongly.

Specilization a niche for the future

Hopefully, DigitalWell Ventures can light a torch for HealthTech in Norway in the same way.

– That’s a key part of it. The network and specialization are really important, and in that area DigitalWell Ventures can help. The future for Founder Institute, in my opinion, is about creating verticals. That makes mentors, founders, investors, and the whole ecosystem more focused. If we can prove this concept, delivering 3 or 4 companies to DigitalWell Ventures, we might be able to bring this to a higher level, and catch the attention of our headquarters, says Dimitris Polychronopoulos.