Participation in six-month acceleration program IMPACT Connected Car (#ICCar) will allow you to get:

• EUR 60,000 of financial support without shares;
• business and technical mentoring with the accelerator representatives during the program;
• technical support through direct access to engineering services in competence centres that are part of the IMPACT Connected Car network;
• the opportunity to meet an internationally acclaimed mentors and corporate leaders in the corresponding sectors;
• trainings in raising funds area;
• bootcamps designed to support connecting start-ups with local companies;
• monitoring of project effectiveness;
• a package of additional services, including technical, legal, marketing and those related to talent recruitment;
• the opportunity to receive the Connected Car Super Stars award and an additional EUR 25,000 for the best start-ups.

Startups with best performance, will may receive additional private financing up to EUR 200,000 from the venture capital funds participating in the project.

The acceleration program is looking for modern solutions in the area of intelligent cars, especially in the following categories:

• safety and protection
• driver assistance
• comfort and well-being
• infotainment.

Full lists of demanded solutions are available on the dedicated website. 

In order to participate in the program, you need take part in one of recruitment and fulfil the following conditions:

• your company has CEO and CTO;
• you have at least a prototype of your solution;
• you are involved full time in project;
• you’re planning to acquire an investor, enter the market and cooperate with other companies within 6-9 months.

Your company must be registered in one of the countries where EU funding is available. The acceleration program does not require relocation of the business. However, there is a need to travel in order to participate in bootcamps, meetings with investors and using the technical services of the #ICCar partners.

A full list of participation conditions can be found in the guide for applicants.

The applications can be submited from 18 June 2018 to 18 October 2018.

In order to apply for the program, you need to fill in short online form.

All applications undergo a verification, which consists of four stages:

1. checking if the application meets formal requirements;
2. external evaluation by a panel of three experts;
3. evaluation of the technical mentors of the program;
4. meeting and final decision of the steering committee to accept your application.

If the project is evaluated positively, you will be invited to acceleration program. It consists of three stages: 

1^st stage

25 startups will be selected to participate in this stage. During which, they will go to the so-called Integration bootcamp, and each company will receive EUR 3,000 of funding.

2^nd stage

From the previous stage, 15 startups will be selected. Projects qualified for this phase will receive a full package of acceleration services and EUR 7,000 of financial support.

3^rd stage 

From 15 start-ups selected for the 2nd stage, 13 companies will go to the last stage,during which they will undergo the acceleration process, meet with investors and also receive a grant of EUR 50,000.