TechHub Swansea lists JustEat and Google as mentors for start-up accelerator scheme

JustEat's CEO and Google Creative Lab's design director will mentor start-ups who make it onto TechHub Swansea's ideas.fund, Wales' first accelerator programme.

The ten start-ups accepted onto the scheme will also receive 10,000 funding from TechHub and the Welsh government, with the cash to be used by the entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and ensure future growth.

The programme will offer the start-ups free deskspace at TechHub Swansea and two months of mentorship from experts such as JustEat CEO David Buttress, Google's Matt Jones, New Look founder Tom Singh, Entrepreneur First CEO Matt Clifford and TechHub founder Elizabeth Varley.

Matt Warren, co-director of TechHub, said: "Wales has proven itself to be a major technology player at a UK-level, but we are confident there is even more talent out there. Ideas.fund aims to uncover the next big wave of disruptive ideas and turn them from concepts into concrete, lucrative businesses.

"As a tech entrepreneur myself I know that getting a start-up off the ground can be a struggle, but the unique programme ideas.fund will offer gives entrepreneurs a real chance to show how their business can generate value in a busy tech market."

TechHub Swansea launched in 2013 and now provides co-working space and support to start-ups across Wales.

Its parent organisation, TechHub, recently announced a global partnership with Google for Entrepreneurs to extend support to Bangalore, Riga and Bucharest for the first time.

"The ideas.fund programme will provide a platform where start-ups and entrepreneurs can focus wholly on honing their business plans while gaining valuable skills from a solid support team around them," said economy minister Edwina Hart. "It's vital that these entrepreneurial people are given the time, money and encouragement they need to make sure their businesses get off the ground and scale rapidly."

She added: "Technology-based companies and start-ups are a vital part of the economy in Wales and time and again we've proven that commercialising digital technologies is something we do really well.

"Ideas.fund will give Welsh start-ups the opportunity to showcase their high-quality business ideas to investors across the UK, helping push their businesses to the next level and putting Wales on the map as a hub of innovation."

Applications for ideas.fund are open until March 18, with a demo day in London set for June 24. On this day, companies will pitch to investors and VCs.