By Nancy Dahlberg
The Miami Herald.
Venture Hive, an entrepreneurial education company based in downtown Miami, is accepting applications for its 2016 Winter Accelerator Class.
This competitive accelerator program, sponsored by the Downtown Development Authority and Miami-Dade County, will host 10 selected high-growth businesses. Each selected startup will receive a 12-week entrepreneurship education program, office space and a $25,000 non-equity grant.
This will be Venture Hive’s fourth Winter accelerator program. In 2014, Venture Hive received about 400 applicants from more than 40 countries, said Susan Amat, founder and CEO of Venture Hive.
Since January of 2013, Venture Hive has supported entrepreneurs from over 25 countries in its downtown Miami location to help them develop and grow their startups in the industry verticals that are the strengths of South Florida, Amat said. Some of the program’s graduates have included Quotanda, Waleteros, SWOL, Criptext, The Fan Machine, GetMyRx, Hair Construction and many others.
To be selected, applicants must have an innovative web or mobile technology solution applied to the creative industries (art, design, music, photography, etc), finance, healthcare, hospitality/tourism or trade/logistics solutions. Participating startups must also have initial customers and revenue streams; no more than $500,000 in external funding; and a team of two to four English-speaking founders with complementary backgrounds who will commit to spending the 12 weeks of the program full-time in Venture Hive’s accelerator space in downtown Miami.
Benefits of the program include a $25,000 non-equity grant, a curriculum of highly practical workshops and training sessions, free dedicated space in its collaborative offices in downtown Miami for six months, mentoring from a vetted network of local, national and international entrepreneurs and experts, exposure to qualified investors and a Demo Day.
The Venture Hive Winter Accelerator class will run from Feb. 29 to May 20. Applications for the class will be accepted from Nov. 30 through Jan. 15 at 11:59 p.m. Selected companies will be announced on Jan. 28.
Apply at apply.venturehive.com/miami.
Venture Hive’s existing programs in Miami have shown a $7.3 million economic impact in its first 18 months of operation, Amat said.
After three years, Venture Hive’s startups have created more than 100 new jobs and an investment leverage of over 20:1.
“We now have hardware and IoT companies calling Venture Hive home, and our programs have included high growth food and product startups as well,” said Amat. “We have some exciting announcements of new partnerships to join the list that includes the Knight Foundation, DLA Piper, Ernst & Young, and Microsoft.”
In addition to its Accelerator, Venture Hive runs entrepreneurship education programs for K-12 students, an accelerator for U.S. veterans, virtual accelerators and other entrepreneurial initiatives, and has supported entrepreneurs from more than 50 countries through its clients including Microsoft, the World Bank, US Aid, the U.S. State Department, and other university and corporate partners.
In 2014 Microsoft chose Venture Hive to house the only Microsoft Innovation Center in the United States, one of more than 120 globally.
Find out more about Venture Hive here: www.venturehive.com.
