Nine new startups join our (digital) accelerator program with Facebook
Once again, APX has teamed up with Facebook to offer a unique acceleration program to growth-stage, digital startups.
After a successful start last year, the Facebook Accelerator Berlin in partnership with APX kicks off its second season on April 1st and includes mentoring with Facebook, APX and industry experts + in-person training days focused on product, marketing, technology and management.
The program was planned to be offline, but due to the current situation, this has been changed. APX and Facebook are committed to supporting the startup community, especially right now as we navigate our new business norms, so we have moved the entire program online. It will still encompass all of the same program elements, including community events, mentorship sessions and office hours.
We’re really happy to welcome Afilio, Ave + Edam, BeQu, Dogo, iDialogue, mybacs, Sharpist, Sphira and VlyFoods to the program!
Read more about each company here:
BeQu is a beauty marketplace and community with an ambition to become a “digital beauty assistant”. Application of AI allows them to create personalized recommendations, AR helps customers see the end result of a product application boosting sales, Instagram helps them to build an engaged and loyal community and Messenger allows them to address this community in a personalized way at scale.
Ave + Edam is a Beauty tech company that uses AI to determine the needs of each customer’s skin and tailor a unique skincare product to address them. They have been featured in Vogue and won the Douglas ForwardBeauty Challenge in 2019 (Walgreen equivalent in Germany).
VlyFoods offers a plant-based alternative to milk. They are working with Edeka, one of Germany’s largest grocery store chains, and their products are available on the shelves across the country. Deutsche Startups has just listed them as one of the 15 startups to watch.
Mybacs is a healthcare startup that offers personalized probiotics to improve gut health. They offer products in two verticals — daily consumption and travel — and run a monthly subscription model. Among Mybacs investors are Alexander Samwer, a highly regarded German investor who invested in Facebook and Zalando in their early days. They have also secured coverage in Handelsblatt and various startup media
Dogo, originally from Lithuania, now based in Berlin, is the world’s leading dog training app. It has had 2.4M app downloads and it has been listed as “App of the Week” by Apple a couple of times. EU Startups listed them as one of the 10 Lithuanian startups to watch in 2019.
iDialogue, originally from Russia, is a global social learning platform for children. It connects a classroom of kids in, for example, Siberia with a classroom of kids in, say, Kenya or Argentina to work together on a STEM challenge or discuss a cultural topic. The idea is to help students thrive in a connected world as they develop creativity, compassion, intercultural communication skills, and global citizenship. The company has been featured in Russian startup and business media.
Sharpist is a Global L&D platform that connects learners with coaches around the world. For example, one of the co-founders’ mum is a CEO of a school in India, and she has a coach in the Bay Area. The team believes that the future of higher education is online (not expensive universities) and their ambition is to become the L&D platform globally for all adults. Sharpist has been covered by startup media such EU Startups and Tech.EU.
Afilio is a digital platform that serves as a one-stop-shop for end-of-life documentation such as insurances, wills, etc. Their current audience is 65+ year old Germans, however, they are aiming to become a global, mainstream digital care platform for the entire family and cater to customers of all ages who want to have their end-of-life documentation all in one place for easy family access. They have been covered by Forbes, Handelsblatt and other business and startup media.
Sphira is a PropTech company that provides an AR platform for facilities management and smart factories. Instead of referring to 2D paper manuals, facilities and factory staff can fix things in 3D.
