MITA YouStartIT
20 March 2018
MITA YouStartIT is a government-backed, mentor-driven accelerator programme designed to help early stage tech startups.
In November 2017 the MITA Innovation Hub, a spin-off team focusing on accelerating entrepreneurs with a digital idea, launched the third edition of the YouStartIT acceleration programme. Launch means that details about the programme are announced and startups can start preparing to apply to receive the €22,000 pre-seed fund. The process is competitive, and only the best ideas and teams are chosen.
By the 28 January deadline, 94 applications were received from 19 countries, 45 per cent of which from Malta. From these 13 teams were shortlisted and invited to participate in a short pre-acceleration phase: six teams from Malta and seven teams from Italy, the Netherlands, Libya, Latvia, Poland the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. This phase consisted of an extended week-long bootcamp to allow the startups to pitch their idea, receive feedback and take it on board; come up to speed about legal requirements to set themselves up as a business; and then engage in one-to-one meetings to allow the MIH team to acquire deeper insights and challenge the teams. The foreign teams participated via video conferencing equipment. Angelika Lattner, an experienced startup coach from Stuttgart, Germany, participated in the bootcamp.
On Saturday 24 February all 13 startups pitched their idea before a panel of judges with different levels of involvement: Alex Borg, the manager of the MIH, Bonavent Gauci, a partner at PwC, and Jessica Gioglio, a London-based writer, speaker and marketing strategist, brought here specially for the occasion.
Eight startups, including Tarsos, were selected.
We sincerely thank MITA YouStartIT for believing in our innovative tool and backing us to further our research.
TARSOS Team
