Retrospective of Alpha USA Startups Accelerator 2022 – Rubik Garage Cohort 4

Retrospective of Alpha USA Startups Accelerator 2022

December 15, 2022

The fall edition of Rubik Garage, Alpha USA Startups Accelerator 2022, was organized for those early-stage startups targeting the USA market – wanting to launch there or looking to raise investment within the next 6 months, based in Europe and working on MVP/having their paying first clients.

The program was developed together with Rubik Hub partners from the USA – Global Kinetics. Global Kinetics was formed to help companies “Move Innovation Forward” and it has a portfolio of over 1,000 startups and almost 30 years of experience.

The accelerator consisted of almost two months of self-paced online training modules, Ask Me Anything sessions with three experienced investors from Silicon Valley, 1:1 mentorship sessions and meetings with potential investors based on startups’ needs and assessments.

At the time, in total, the 21 startups from 4 countries present in 91 markets had 7300 paying customers, and created 190 jobs. The cohort had raised investments of €3.5 million, bootstrapped €1.7 million, committed investment of €1.5 million, were trusted by 30 investors, had annual revenue of €2.8 million, and monthly revenue of €360,000.

Cohort

Bloomcoding (winner of Best Startup and SeedBlink Award of Rubik Garage Accelerator 2022, winner of Genesis Startup Academy by Meta 2022, winner at the Business Festival „sTARTUp Day 2022” from Tartu, Estonia, finalist of How to Web Spotlight 2022) – The online after-school that teaches children coding skills.

Braight Technologies (winner of How to Web Spotlight 2022) – BrAIght provides an AI Behavioral Prediction Software serving the financial sector that enables our clients to decrease credit risk and gain deeper insights into their customers’ behavior based on the internet activity of individuals.

Chambr (winner of Best Pitch and Popularity Award of Rubik Garage Accelerator 2022, selected to pitch at Web Summit 2022) – Chambr helps learning and development professionals create learning games that increase content retention.

VOIDSHIP (selected to pitch at Web Summit 2022) – An aerospace start-up that aims to redefine accessibility through orbital launches for reduced payload owners. In a nutshell, they are developing orbital rockets for up-to-25 kg payload owners, their target being the nano and microsatellite market.

2Value (selected to pitch at Web Summit 2022) – An all-in-one tool for communication, promotion and development for SMEs, entrepreneurs, managers and specialists.

Bit&R (selected to pitch at Web Summit 2022) – An online coding platform for kids aged 8-14 where they can learn programming by repairing, building and sharing their own games, self-paced at home.

Brain AI (selected to pitch at Web Summit 2022) – Prediction with Big-data & Machine Learning. The world is racing forward with medical technology- from neonatology to neurosurgery, new breakthroughs are making life more comfortable for people with disabilities. New medical devices are revolutionizing healthcare, and these innovations will soon be incorporated into the standard of care.

Easy Sales (selected to pitch at Web Summit 2022) – The infrastructure any eCommerce merchant need to expand on marketplaces worldwide. Built as a plug & play no code SaaS solution, easySales give merchants integration and automation as a service.

Pythia (selected to pitch at Web Summit 2022) – named after the Greek Oracle of Delphi, Pythia is dedicated to analyzing open-source data, such as news and social media networks, to help public or private actors understand their social fingerprints. We aim to help companies and institutions by identifying and explaining the general consequences of their actions and partnerships, using state-of-the-art AI and statistical physics algorithms.

IdeaBuddy (selected to pitch at Web Summit 2022) – An innovative business planning platform that is trying to change the way how business ideas are planned and executed.

CityBpm – CityBpm private planner notifies and confirms appointments automatically via 2-way SMS, with ZERO additional SMS costs!

Citydock – Aims to transform the micro-mobility industry with the most adaptable, reliable, secure, efficient and future-ready product. There is no other product that provides safe-lock and charging for the electric vehicle so it can become a reliable way of transportation.

CPV Lab Pro – A web-based ad tracking platform that helps affiliate marketers and media buyers see accurate results and performance of their online marketing campaigns in a single place, offering API integration with 150+ traffic sources and affiliate networks and automated optimizations.

GIANTS – Building a web3 social game (metaverse) governed and owned by the community.

GuardianAngel.NET – Addressing health issues for vulnerable people (elders, children, disabled, chronic diseases) with the help of technology.

Logezy Ltd – Logezy Staff Management Software is a cloud-based solution that keeps every part of the recruitment, staffing and employee administration process connected. Logezy is an ideal platform for every organization with an extensive roster of employees with permanent and temporary staff.

MOD – Your Virtual Stylist – An app that combines personal styling and shopping, providing women the answer for a bolder personal image in their day-to-day lives.

Morpheus – An identity-proofing plugin that allows companies to be sure of their users and make onboarding in >30 sec.

Polymore – Helping waste collecting companies unlock data for improving the purity and economic value of collected waste, through route monitoring.

Ufubo – Keeping digital & physical data private and safe. If you stop confirming your account, your assets will be distributed to your relatives. Loss of your important assets that matters to your family, friends, employers, etc., in the event of death or critical health situations. Billions of dollars remain unclaimed instead of reaching the rightful beneficiaries.

Woof Diet – The first all-in-one service for personalized dog nutrition based on AI.

Program structure

During the accelerator, the startups had:

  • 20 deep-dive workshops & AMAs with industry experts from USA, Europe & Romania.
  • Access to the platform Silicon Valley in Your Pocket with resources, on-demand workshops and perks. Through recorded modules, can be named the following: Establishing yourself in the market, Your competitive landscape, Your Go-to-Market strategy, Pilot Partnerships, Finance & KPIs, Fundraising & Pilot Partnership Strategies, Leadership & Corporate Governance and Pitch Preparation.
  • Intensive 1:1 sessions and group meetings with mentors, meetings with investors based on their needs and assessment and meetings with the Rubik Hub team.

Rubik Hub partnered up with the leading startup service providers to offer members key resources needed during launch and expansion, including free web hosting credits, cloud computing services, accounting services, legal resources, provisional patent filing, cap table management, and much more. As part of the Rubikorns Startup Community, the founders had access to $150,000 worth of freebies and discounts from partners such as Notion, AWS, Miro, HubSpot, Twilio Segment, FREYA Recruiting, and SMSO.

Curricula

  • Workshop on Operations with experts from Silicon Valley – Jeff Wallace, Paul Kallmes, Kal Deutsch
  • Legal Basics for startups in the USA: lawyers’ perspective with Ana Maria Briard, Alex Stănescu, Tudor Velea, SLV Legal
  • AMA sessions with founders who launched in the USA with Xenia @Planable and Mihai @CyberSwarm
  • Workshops on investment-related topics: workshop on VCs outreach; how to plan for a win (with Karol Lasota, Principal, Inovo VC Fund), Valuation methods (with Alina Georgescu, Investment Manager @Catalyst Romania), Investment and Financing Models for startups (with Günce Önür, Partner @Startup Wise Guys), Raising Your First Round (with Gautam Kumar, Head of Accelerator Investments & Education @GoingVC), Pitch deck preparation for investors & Legal aspects of different investment types (with Rumen Iliev, Partner @LAUNCHub Ventures), Investor management & relations, how to position before and after an investment (with Sonia Fedorovici, Head of Legal & GP @ROCA X & Theodor Genoiu, Investment Manager @Roca X) and Finance for startups, structure, mindset & tips (with Bogdan Pasca, Investment Manager @Roca X).

Demo Day

The startups had the chance to be in the spotlight at Community & Demo Day in Iasi, on the 8th of December 2022, when we celebrated the end of two programs: the incubator RubikEDU and the accelerator Alpha USA Startup. Out of the 21 startups from this cohort, 18 were in the spotlight at Demo Day.

The winners were:

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Alexandra Hutanu