The launch of the online technology accelerator Upcelerator created by Dreamups took place on February 14. During the program, participants will work on their business ideas with the support of over 40 international and local mentors. The young people in the program will apply their knowledge by developing their own startups in four months. The Demo Day event will take place during the end of the accelerator, where the teams will showcase their ideas to the investors from the investment syndicate “Mozaic”.

In the third edition of the program, over 80 startup ideas were registered, 57 being from the Republic of Moldova. The business accelerator is a completely online one and it allows people to join all over the world. The program also includes participants from Denmark, Italy, Great Britain, Dubai, Switzerland, Romania, India, U.S.A., Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Spain, Ireland, Portugal.

The program partners were also present during the launching event:

Mihai Stipanov, Fondatorul Dreamups: Don’t expect it to be easy, expect it to be hard. Your participation in this accelerator will save up 2 years of your life while you are testing your idea. Also, in this program you can change or pivot your idea. If your idea is a traditional one, think about how you can add the element of technology and make it scalable to bigger markets. 

Ana Chirita, Strategic Projects Director Moldovan Association of ICT Companies: „To launch the accelerator on such a lovely day, makes us feel that we are always in love with startups and product development and supporting the development of the ecosystem. Here at Tekwill and with the support of USAID and Sweden we are in love with what we are doing. We are thrilled to support the startups and we look forward to the activity of Upcelerator. We wish you luck and be in love with what you are doing and let’s grow stronger together! 

Alessandro Lombardo, Senior Executive Officer, Central European Initiative: CEI is a regional organization that involves 17 member states of Eastern Europe and Moldova is one of the member states. We are very curious about this partnership and see what is the outcome of this project, and how the startups will evolve. So we wish you good luck throughout the program!

Cristina Mindrescu, CSR Manager, Orange: I am happy to represent both Orange Systems which is one of the main hubs providing IT solutions for business from Republic of Moldova and Orange Moldova who is number one operator in Moldova, by terms of providing communications, internet services, TV, For us it is a priority to support the ecosystem of startups and it is within our Engage 2025 strategy – and our cooperation with Dreamups proves it how impactful it is. I wish you good luck and enthusiasm to identify creative solutions for real life problems.

At the end of the program, qualified startups will receive investments up to 25000 EUR and a grant of 5000 EUR for zero share of the company. The program runs until June 14.

Upcelerator is powered by Dreamups Innovation and Entrepreneurship Accelerator and the general partner Orange Systems with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Government of Sweden in the framework of the project “Development of Moldova ICT Excellence Center Tekwill” implemented by Moldovan Association of ICT Companies (ATIC), Central European Initiative – CEI and the ”Mozaic” Union.