cultural shift

through technological

innovation

The accelerator for tech startups in culture initiated by Immaterial Future Association & created together with Female Founders

Headquarters in Vienna
Tech companies in culture
DEMO DAY aftermovie
BATCH 4 is coming soon
CultTech = culture & technology

With the culttech acceleration program, we want to bring the full power of technology to culture.

your benefits

We deliver a high-quality, equity and cost free, program for CultTech startups that is focused on their specific (fundraising) needs and that increases their chances of successfully scaling their businesses.

focused program

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With high awareness on the specific challenges you face in CultTech, experts will focus on supporting you face these, in particular fundraising.

trusted community

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We are creating a global CultTech ecosystem that unites startups, investors and relevant stakeholders including major cultural players.

profound expertise

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The programme is not only covered by industry experts, but you additionally receive individual mentoring & coaching, and within the community we advise you to make use of the peer-to-peer advice.

global visibility

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Using the combined networks of Immaterial Future, Female Founders and of the CultTech Accelerator itself, the community we are building and already have in reach has a strong presence in the worlds of culture, tech and investment.

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the program

To ensure that you will learn a lot the CultTech accelerator is divided in three thematic blocks.

1.

fundraising and building a business

  • Fundraising Process Debunked
  • First Investor Pitches & Meetings
  • Due Diligence
  • Investor Relations
  • How to build a great team
  • Term Sheets: Do’s, Dont’s and Red Flags
  • How to nail term sheet negotiations
  • Financial Planning 1×1
2.

personal growth as founder or leader

  • Mental Health as a founder
  • Finding balance
  • Time Management 
  • Conflict Management 
  • Leading a (remote) team
  • Founder breakfast (online) with peer-to-peer learning and feedback
3.

succeeding in arts & culture

  • Fireside Chats with successful founders from the arts & culture space
  • Business Models in the arts & culture space

DEMO DAY
BATCH#2

In Vienna
16.02.2023

OPEN CALL
BATCH#3

Online until
15.01. 2023

PRIMARY SELECTION

Until
05.02.2023

INTERVIEWS

Until 14.02.2023

FINAL SELECTION

Week of
February 13th

ACCELERATOR
BATCH#3

15.03 – 31.05.2023

DEMO DAY BATCH#3

In Vienna
02.06.2023

Are you the right participant?

Do you fulfill all six criteria? We would be very happy to receive your application! Just click "apply" and join the movement!

The project must be addressing the space of CultTech. Within this space, there are no further limits.

When applying for the CultTech acceleration, there already needs to be a team that is working on the project. A team consists of at least 2 people that divide their responsibilities in an efficient & effective way.

The minimum requirement in terms of product stage is an MVP, a minimum viable product, that can be demonstrated during the selection process.

To qualify for the program, a legal entity of any kind (incl. NPOs) must be established.

At the time of the application, the team must have at least an idea of the
future business model and the corresponding revenue streams. This serves as an indication of whether the project is going to be sustainable from a financial perspective (this also applies for NPOs). We will in principle have a preference for models that show a perspective of self-
sustainability.

The founders and their ideas should be driven by the aim of having a
positive impact (wider access, fairer distribution of revenue, etc.)

We love diversity!
That is why we don’t focus on participant’s location, age, gender or personal preferences!

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our partners

The CultTech Accelerator is designed in collaboration with Female Founders.

FAQs

CultTech is the application of technology to the benefit of culture and society. It has the potential to empower creators and consumers, enable massive access to culture and foster new economic models.

In the past years we’ve witnessed the transformation of many industries: from the financial sector to healthcare, from agriculture to travel; technological innovation has changed the way we work, live and love. 

But one very important part of life has not yet seen the full power of technology come to play yet: The world of culture. 

Great examples are finalists of the Immaterial Future Innovation Award 2021:

  1. ANote Music (Luxemburg).
    A marketplace for investing in music royalties. It enables publishers, record labels, and artists to list a portion of their royalty stream rights up for auction, introducing a new system of financing

  2. FloatScans (Netherlands).
    Proprietary 3D scan technology that makes it possible to bring real-world objects to life digitally. With this technology, museums and galleries may unlock their full collections independent of available space + monetize collections by developing new business models.
     
  3.  Roots Studio (US). Award Winner
    Works with indigenous and minority artists globally to digitize their unique and endangered heritage arts into new fashion and home products, through a model that can financially support their livelihoods, communities, and traditions.

Batch#2: 3 months starting from the week of October 24

CultTech startups at the MVP stage. A candidate should have a team of at least 2 people, a registered legal entity, an understanding of its business model and an aspiration to make a positive impact.

The CultTech Accelerator program is key to realising the vision of bringing culture as a vector of change to an immaterial future. Supporting the most promising, game-changing, and driven start-ups is an investment for which the startups have no equity cost, and where zero costs are involved for the startups, it is free.

There are 2 in-person events in the programme.

  1. Kick-off meeting in Vienna. Here travel and accommodation costs covered by the startups, in exceptional cases the need-based travel grants can be considered.
  2. Demo Day in Vienna. Travel and accommodation is covered by the organizers for 1 person per startup.

1-2 sessions per week, lasting for 1.5-2 hours

Click “Apply” and fill out the application form. 

The application deadline for Batch #3 is January, 15.
Stay tuned on our social media channels to remain up-to-day.

In order to review and evaluate all of the applications we follow a two-step selection process. 

Round 1: we have composed a jury panel consisting of international, experienced individuals from our trusted investor partners as well as internal members of our team, which analyse each applicant according to standardised criteria. Each startup is given between 1-5 points for each of the following categories: 

  • team
  • business model
  • market size
  • degree of innovation
  • scalability
  • KPI/traction achieved
  • impact

 

Next, the jury gives us valuable insights, involving detailed comments about potential opportunities and risks involved and the applicants are narrowed down to a shortlist. 

Round 2: is a 1-hour video call with all startups, to understand more about their businesses, ask critical questions, get to know the founder team, give the applicants a better understanding of how they can benefit from the CultTech Accelerator and ask us any questions they have. 

We then finalise selecting 8-10 startups who will participate in the CultTech Accelerator!

up to 10 startups

Demo Day is a celebratory moment for the founder participants after successfully completing the program: the opportunity to pitch and showcase their businesses in front of investors, the media, and a variety of networks at a hybrid event, highlighting their idea and applying all they learnt and reached in the last 3 months.

Watch how Demo Day Batch#1 was goin on here.

If you want to ask a question or arrange a meeting with the organizers, please, write an email to the Head of the Accelerator office@culttechaccelerator.org or text us on LinkedIn.

The CultTech Accelerator was initiated by Immaterial Future is designed and implemented in collaboration with Female Founders, bringing together expertise and networks across from the start-up, tech, culture and art scenes in Europe and beyond. To find out more about the CTA team click here.

We are planning the third batch starting in December 2022, follow us on social media or sign-up for our newsletter to stay  updated on all happenings around the CultTech Accelerator.

We would be extremely happy to consider your support on the program as a mentor or as an expert – fill in the form here!

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We would be happy to keep you updated about the next upcoming batch and all other infos regarding our accelerator program. Sign up to our newwsletter here:
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