A total of 122 gaming startups want to move to Estonia for the GameFounders accelerator program
The first round of GameFounders’ gaming startup accelerator attracted a total of 122 gaming startups from 41 countries that want to participate in the 3-month program in Tallinn, Estonia.
“This is our first round, we aimed for a three digit number and are happy with the final result,” noted Kadri Ugand, co-founder of GameFounders. “Our mentors were a tremendous help spreading the word and that is how we managed to cover so many countries.”
Most of the applications came from large gaming countries UK and USA as well as neighbouring countries Lithuania and Latvia that have no other such initiatives. Many exotic countries, like Kazakhstan, Kenya, Philippines or Kuwait were also represented. Applications were received from the following countries: UK, Estonia, USA, Lithuania, Argentina, France, Netherlands, Russia, Latvia, Romania, Denmark, Germany, Finland, India, Italy, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, Hungary, Ireland, Sweden, Brazil, Canada, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Philippines, Kuwait, Belarus, Mexico, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine.
The applicants will go through many evaluation levels, including Skype interviews and mentor visits. Up to 10 gaming startups will be selected by the beginning of August to participate in the GameFounders accelerator program. The startups will move to Tallinn, Estonia from September to November and be coached by 60+ international gaming mentors.
GameFounders is the first business accelerator in Europe that is purely focused on gaming and gamified apps. The accelerator, co-financed by the Startup Estonia program, offers starting game companies startup capital in addition to high-level mentors, partnership deals and a global contact network. “I am happy to see that so many gaming startups see the benefits of bootstrapping in Estonia,” Dmitri Burnashev, Director of Business Start-Up’s Division of Enterprise Estonia said about the accelerator.
The Startup Estonia program of Enterprise Estonia has been created to strengthen and develop the ecosystem of startup companies in Estonia. The Startup Estonia program is co-financed from the European Regional Development Fund.
