The Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge has received £500k ($802k) from a private benefactor to fund startups emerging from its Accelerate Cambridge programme.
The programme is looking for startups looking for mentoring over handouts, and plans to invest £5k-£20k dependent on the strength of the team and their proposition.
Since starting 12 months ago, Accelerate Cambridge has taken in 30 teams, eight of which have survived.
Hanadi Jabado, director of the School, said: “We have something of Darwin within the programme,” says Jabado, who has been closely involved with over 100 startups around the globe and across industries over the last three years. We have just taken our first baby steps. I determined from the outset that we should get the structure and balance of the programme right even if it took a little longer.
She added: “Our second intake starts this weekend and we have 30 individuals taking part in 11 new teams. In the first intake we saw propositions encompassing algorithms to life sciences to social enterprise and it’s a similar spread in the second intake.”
