Q. Why is Venture Acceleration-As-A-Service a primary goal of SG2030?
An. We observed over decades that many promising projects never have a fair a chance of becoming even solid ventures following the initial derisking, often funded with public sources. Active Acceleration seeks to focus resources early on the derisking cycle of a technology and of its derived products by purposely focusing skills and resources on assembling an entrepreneurial team to bring to the project through Seed and Series A funding rounds.
Q. Do you see Venture Acceleration as a process that can be recurrently applied to dissimilar ventures?
An. Yes, the ways and means for accelerating a venture from initial technological demonstration into a product prototype and business concept amenable for funding, development and scaling are similar across domains and business spaces. They require a combination of scientific and technological insights, a team of committed entrepreneurs, and an ecosystem that facilitates derisking, partnering and capital attraction.
Q. What do you consider DeepTech projects ?
An. We see DeepTech as mainly emerging technologies that have a clear connection to the physical world, that are not based on only mature software, that entail significant development cycles, and that imply integration of several technological domains in order to create a solution.
Q: Do you accelerate only DeepTech projects generated within your organization?
A: Mainly yes, however, sometimes we accelerate projects jointly with other organization that can either be a sponsoring client or a strategic partner.
Q. Do you focus only on military projects ?
An. We focus on developing innovations that potentially have a disruptive impact on technologies of interest to defense customers. Occasionally we recognize ancillary opportunities that can be better pursued in the civilian world; in those case we establish spin-off ventures with a non-military focus from the outset.
Q: What is the main difference between SG2030 and other accelerators ?
An. We are focused on developing DeepTech technologies with a clear path to dual-use business models, with the ultimate goal of commercializing products and enabling scalable processes.
Q. Is it acceleration only feasible for the case of for-profit entities or it is also applicable to non-profit endeavors?
An. Venture Acceleration, as a process, is agnostic to the business modality best suited for pursuing the development of technology or product. Many collaborative development efforts can be better executed using non-profit platforms. Naturally, participants on those efforts may want to expand their business goals by means of for-profit ventures, which is totally acceptable as long it is done in accordance with the original member’s participation agreements. This is common, for instance, in the development of collaborative standards or in the process of establishing certain social or environmental goals for pursuing specific innovative technological spaces.
Q. Why do you assign unique codes and representative names to each project type?
An. Multiple reasons. Technologies and products are easier to recognize when mnemonic names are used. More importantly, the process of accelerating a venture benefits from having a unique and distinctive public presence on the web. It assist us recruiting talent, finding partners and eventually fundraising. Lastly, when the venture has been accelerated, such that it can become a standalone spinoff, the ejection process from SG2030 is greatly facilitated.
Q. What is the difference between internal and external acceleration?
An. Ventures or Products Development Acceleration is not a new concept. It has been practiced since Edison times, perhaps before. It is more a matter of observing the creation processes, and detecting interdependencies among them such that they arrive to successful results within realistic constraints.
Nowadays, External Venture Acceleration is seen as a process for combining Angel Funding, Prototype Development, Venture Incubation under one integrated process as part of a fully dedicated Co-Inventing Workshop with the goal of closing a VC Series A as fast as possible.
We regard Internal Acceleration as a similar process in which IR&D projects are moved through various stages of development within the confines of an existing company whose entire purpose is to de-risk technologies having as main goal that of creating a spin-off venture funded by a VC Series A, or by Corporate Venture Series A, or even structured as a Not-for-profit ventures.
Internal Acceleration allows for maximum flexibility for developing a technology without being overly focused on delivering high ROI for any class of investors because development cycles can be much longer, funding can be more patient and outcomes can be acceptable under a wider range of business formats, ranging from Licensing, passing through Venture Class businesses, and even as not-for-profit entities.