Now part of the World Innovations Forum
We started in 2014 in Silicon Valley, helping entrepreneurs build great companies, like we received help to build our companies to great success. Flight 1, 2 and 3 were great successes with an external funding rate of 50% on average. Meaning 50% of the graduates received funding from external investors. Already a year later, 2015, we were named one of the top 100 most influential startups.
In 2016, the founders move to Europe and helped European startups to grow and injecting the Silicon Valley spirit in Europe. Flight 4 was actually a special version. This Refugee Accelerator Program, helped refugees understand how to do business in Germany. From 40 applicants, 20 started in the program. And 7 managed to get funding and grew their businesses, still running today.
The following 2 batches, Flight 5 and 6 were the first programs where we used a new method to help entrepreneurs build a disruptive business model. Trying to help entrepreneurs from developing nations to grow innovative businesses initially failed. Flight 7 was complete crash.
In 2018, the program, the pre program, selection process was revamped and the accelerator was introduced in South East Asia. In 2019, Flight 8 was run for the first time in Vietnam. The outcome was far better than the previous flight. From eight teams over 50% graduated.
In 2020, the program was fully integrated into the World Innovations Forum, where it is now part of the overall Entrepreneurship Development program and lives on as Innopreneurs Academy.