As you may have seen recently, Outlier Ventures is kicking off the second month of 2020 with some updates. You may have read Jamie’s recent post clarifying our mission for the coming years, We are an accelerator we are excited today announce some developments in that journey.
Next month, we are kicking off the second London program running from March to May, and today we are glad to announce we are expanding outside of the UK.
Some great things are lying ahead for 2020.
Last year in October we were proud to bring together the ecosystem and representatives from the Convergence Stack at Diffusion 2019, and as we have built connections with the ecosystem over the past years we have come to realise the vital importance of supporting the community of developers in the city.
https://vimeo.com/374439423
As such, Berlin will be the home of our second Base Camp program after London and we will be running our first accelerator cohort there in summer 2020.
Applications are open today until March 31st
We’re opening the applications this week, so please consider it if you are building decentralised tech project in Berlin, and if not you directly, we would appreciate it if you could share this link with anybody around you will find the program useful.
We’re running the applications until the end of March although we will be reviewing on a rolling basis and looking to reach out to successful candidates shortly after the deadline. The sooner you get on our radar, the better.
To maximise your chances with the application, be sure to read our application guide.
What is Base Camp
Program overview
Base Camp is a 12-week program where we provide initial capital, office space with the Outlier Ventures team in Berlin, hub services, and a bespoke program for each team with a variety of mentors.
- 3 month accelerator program based in Berlin
- €40k immediate funding for 6% equity/tokens
- Up to €230k total funding available per team
- Office space, legal and back-office support
- World-beating ecosystem of investment, enterprise and tech partners
Cohort focus
We’re targeting a cohort of 6 to 8 companies building in decentralized tech in the convergence field, and as in previous cohorts, we have some particular interest areas, including, but not exclusively limited to:
Machine to machine
The web is moving from one designed for human information sharing to an operating system to support the machine economy. We are interested in concepts addressing automation and the “industrial internet/Industry 4.0”, and in particular how decentralized software can enable new forms of economic activity. For instance: smart cities, manufacturing, energy services, the smart home, and the automated sharing economy.
Fintech and DeFi
Much of the innovation in financial services is occurring in the new “open data” paradigm through open banking, we see decentralised finance (Defi) as a promising sandbox for future routes to market and experimentation. Teams developing businesses and networks to connect the decentralised finance and the existing financial infrastructure are of particular interest.
Transport and Logistics
After being in stasis for decades, the transport and logistics industry is in flux. Players are trying to figure out the right position in the value chain as a new and integrated mobility value ecosystem emerges, bringing modes of public, private and commercial transport together. Decentralised software can be valuable in the complex and global logistics supply chain offering provenance, tracking and more efficient resource utilisation across the market.
Identity
Today the paradigm for proving your identity relies on the sharing of paper documents in an unsecure way. Companies also take on risk in having to manage and maintain securely personally identifiable information. Far from “data being the new oil” it may be that data is more like uranium. We are interested in supporting founders working on helping users take back control of their identity, reputation and data and how this relates to the existing regulation around KYC/AML as well as improving tax and audit functionality.
Networking
Telecommunications networks are heavily reliant on a highly concentrated market structure that favours incumbents. Software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) are making networks more flexible and configurable but the roll-out has been limited because of the market structure. We want to support teams working in the open-source hardware (OSH) and software (OSS) space bringing decentralized software, privacy-guarantees and strong cryptographically to telco networks networks.
If you are working on a concept in this space, be sure to apply for Base Camp Berlin
From our thesis to OUR thesis
The goal of our accelerator is to help each startup get further, faster, with clarity on the mission, positioning, product momentum and ecosystem contacts.
We are now directly inviting our network to provide input into the design and thesis of our next cohorts. As such we are recruiting sponsors to share in the commercial upside through co-branded programs, including the ability to directly inform the startup selection process and city roll-out. If you are a dedicated blockchain fund, tech VC or a CVC looking for access to the crypto industry and wish to become a strategic sponsor or get us aligned with your thesis, get in touch.
