Next Call for Applications coming soon
DEEPSEA – THE STARTUP ECOSYSTEM ACCELERATOR
Get notified about our next call for applications:
Parallel program
Stockholm Impact Ecosystem Accelerator
DEEP Ecosystems and the City of Stockholm partner to accelerate the development of a global impact ecosystem. The special program is offered in parallel to the usual DEEP Startup Ecosystem Accelerator.
TOGETHER WE GROW ECOSYSTEMS
experiences and work together on joint projects for transnational ecosystems!
Accelerate your Ecosystem Project With DEEP
DEEPSEA – The DEEP Startup Ecosystem Accelerator © is the first global startup ecosystem accelerator program, first launched in 2018. It’s a cohort-based program to implement 10-12 innovation projects, boosting the growth of new vertical and geographic ecosystems.
Who should participate?
- Managers of startup programs, accelerators, or incubators.
- Economic Development agencies, investors, innovation scouts, and startup relations managers.
- Entrepreneurial non-profits and community builders.
- Founders looking to re-invest in their ecosystems.
BUILD TRANSNATIONAL ECOSYSTEMS TOGETHER

Join a passionate community
of international ecosystem builders
Connect with ecosystem builders
from across Europe and the world.
Get inspired by leading experts
Join a six-week structured program
with expert sessions and 1:1 mentoring.
Blueprints for Innovation Projects
Blueprints from Silicon Valley, Estonia,
Munich, Chile, and more.
Ready to be implemented by you.

Become a Master Ecosystem Builder
mentoring and peer advice on your own projects
Turn Ideas into Impact
challenge for the tech ecosystem

16 January – 24 February | 2023
#Agenda: DEEP accelerator
CONCEPTUALIZATION
Week 1
Knowledge – Master Class (3h)
Individual 1:1 sessions (1h)
Community Session (1h)
Presentation of Intermediary Results (1h)
Ecosystem Analysis
Weeks 2 & 3
Knowledge – Master Class (3h)
Individual 1:1 sessions (1h)
Community Session (1h)
Presentation of Intermediary Results (1h)
PARTNERING
Week 4
Knowledge – Master Class – Training (3h)
Individual 1:1 sessions (1h)
Expert Mentor Sessions – Reality Check (1h)
Presentation of Intermediary Results (1h)
Fundraising
Week 5
Knowledge – Master Class – Training (3h)
Individual 1:1 sessions (1h)
Expert Mentor Sessions – Reality Check (1h)
Presentation of Intermediary Results (1h)
Pitch Training
Week 6
Knowledge – Master Class – Training (3h)
Individual 1:1 sessions – Pitch Training (1h)
Expert Mentor Sessions – Reality Check (1h)
Community Session: Closing (1h)
ECOSYSTEM DEMO DAY
Q2 2023
Pitch your project in person & win partners
Conditions
What to expect
DEEP Ecosystems supports and creates ecosystem projects and initiatives in collaboration with different project partners. It intends to enrich ecosystems, connect ecosystem builders, and create collaboration projects that raise funds, e.g. via grants or sponsoring, to enable their execution.
We will collaborate with the participants of the DEEP Startup Ecosystem Accelerator program on the development of a specific project proposed and led by the participant.
DEEP will actively foster the development of the project by providing:
- A 6-week acceleration program for ecosystem projects taking the project from idea to execution
- Weekly knowledge sessions covering relevant concepts for ecosystem building from conceptualization, partnership and fundraising strategies
- Group and individual mentoring sessions by international experts
- Peer exchange opportunities involving other ecosystem builders with similar projects
- Partnering events and tools to identify organizations and stakeholders useful to the development of the envisioned project
- Fundraising strategy support tools, including lists of international opportunities, as well as mentoring for proposal writing
- Visibility support by listing the project on digital channels and among DEEP’s portfolio list on our website.
After the end of the 6-week program, DEEP will continuously support the project’s success by providing access to a community of ecosystem builders, organizing networking, and facilitating fundraising opportunities for the course of 2 years.
The combined value of DEEP’s contribution to the process is valued at 60,000 € (in-kind, not a cash contribution), which is seen as an upfront investment in the project.
Participation Agreement
We sign a participation agreement with successful applicants before they are admitted.
This includes a success fee sharing of 15% of the total funding sum before taxes covering all funds or investments that are raised for the project within 2 years. The success fee can be waived if the participating organizations agree to 40,000 € (excl. VAT) waiver fee.
You can review the draft participation agreement here.
Institutional Partners and Sponsors
We are open to collaborations with institutional partners and sponsoring organizations. They may sponsor a part of the regular program to allow select projects to participate at reduced or no costs, or partner with us to implement a stand-alone, dedicated edition. If you are interested to find out more about partnering opportunities, please contact us.
DEEPSEA Team
Thomas Kösters
Managing Director at DEEP Ecosystems
Erica Santini
Co-Founder and Head of Research at DEEP Ecosystems and Lecturer at University of Trento
Entrepreneur with 13 years of experience in community building, Lais led the development of entrepreneurial communities across every continent. From leading 2000 volunteers across Argentina, Chile and Uruguay as the president of a non-profit organization, to selecting and training community leaders across Latam, Africa, APAC for Startup Grind and working for governments and innovation agencies in 75+ ecosystems as part of Startup Genome’s executive team.
Serghei Glinca
Head of DEEPSEA and founder of BioTech startup CrystalsFirst

Sara has been part of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems for over 10 years. She started her journey as the first employee of a Coworking Space in Cologne, co-founded and ran the first Accelerator in Iran before moving to Albania in 2019 to support the development of the local startup ecosystem.
Sara has worked with Swisscontact, Founder Institute and STARTPLATZ, among others.
Sara Usinger
DEEPSEA Head Mentor and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Enabler at Swisscontact
Takhmina Lolakova
Project Manager at DEEP Ecosystems

Valentina is a specialist in ecosystem analysis. She is a PhD Candidate at Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and Research Fellow at DEEP Ecosystems.
Valentina Forrer
Research Fellow at DEEP Ecosystems & PhD Candidate at Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
Harald is an urban development and governance specialist. Previously worked at German Agency for International Development (GIZ) and [email protected]
Harald Eisenhauer
Co-Founder and Head of Platform at DEEP Ecosystems
Mentors and Coaches

Seth started the Foundry Group together with Techcelerator Founder Brad Feld. They knew each other from Brad’s previous fund Mobius Ventures and are investing in technology companies throughout the US and Canada. His career spans venture capital investing as well as operational, transactional and advisory roles at both public and private companies.
Seth Levine
Managing Director at Foundry Group

Bernhard is Head of the Innovation Accelerator at the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). The WFP Innovation Accelerator identifies, nurtures and scales disruptive startups and entrepreneurs that accelerate progress towards zero hunger. Previously, Bernhard co-founded the ShareTheMeal app, built up WFP’s Business Innovation team and worked as Project Leader at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for global tech and industrial goods companies.
Bernhard Kowatsch
Head of UN World Food Programme Innovation Accelerator

Entrepreneur with 13 years of experience in community building, Lais led the development of entrepreneurial communities across every continent. From leading 2000 volunteers across Argentina, Chile and Uruguay as the president of a non-profit organization, to selecting and training community leaders across Latam, Africa, APAC for Startup Grind and working for governments and innovation agencies in 75+ ecosystems as part of Startup Genome’s executive team.
Laís de Oliveira
Community Development Consultant at Startup Genome

As Partner at Antler, Youri leads all operations in Amsterdam, the company’s third location globally after Singapore and Stockholm. Together with the rest of the Antler team, he drives to launch variety of new innovative companies through Antler’s unique approach to talent acquisition and business-building.
YOURI DOELEMAN
Partner at Antler Netherlands

Erin works regularly to support entrepreneurship in the Upstate, both as Director of the VentureSouth Spartanburg angel investor group and as the leader of the Economic and Entrepreneurial Vitality focus area for Ten at the Top.
Erin Henderson Ouzts
Upstate Entrepreneur Ecosystem Director for Ten at the Top

Pedro is a founder, CEO and jack of all trades at darwinLabs, a specialized IT consulting company focused on #lowcode and out systems. He is also a co-founder at Beta-i, a non-profit organization for the promotion of entrepreneurship. Pedro has extensive experience in the consulting, financial services, telecom, internet and mobile marketing industries.
Pedro Santos
CEO at darwinLabs and Co-founder at Beta-i

Dominik is Innovation Consultant, Design Thinking Coach and Workshop Facilitator with 8+ years of international experience. Previously, Dominik worked as Innovation Manager for the European Institute of Innovation and Technology’s digital technology branch (EIT Digital). Additionally, he ran intrapreneurship and innovation programs at large international corporations and organizations such as Airbus, Celfocus, Deutsche Telekom, SAP and others.
Dominik Krabbe
Innovation Consultant

Claudia has more than 16 years of experience as an international development consultant and technical adviser, working extensively in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Her work has involved designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating multi-million-dollar development programmes, particularly focused on entrepreneurship and business development, across several government and non-governmental organizations.
Claudia Pompa
Founder and Managing Director at Consulting for Growth Group (C4G)

Aneth is a Hub Network Community Manager at Tech Entrepreneurship Initiative ‘Make-IT in Africa’ implemented by GIZ. Aneth is passionate about entrepreneurship and ecosystem building having been involved in various entrepreneurship projects. Previously, Aneth led the Reach for Change incubator program in Rwanda. For the past 3 years, Aneth has supported the 2nd year seminar course as a teaching assistant at Carnegie Mellon University Africa.
Aneth Batamuliza
Hub Network Community Manager at Make-IT in Africa

Inty is the co-founder and CEO of Ichthion, an award-winning start-up in the United Kingdom. The aim of this company is the development of disruptive technologies to extract plastics and synthetic waste from rivers and oceans. Inty is also the President and co-founder of the Circular foundation in Ecuador, an NGO with the goal of improving the life of vulnerable social groups through technology and innovation, while contributing to the protection of the environment.
INTY GRØNNEBERG
Co-founder and CEO of Ichthion, Co-founder and President of Circular Foundation in Ecuador

Anna is a trained systemic consultant and heads the Berlin team of the Conscious Innovation consultancy Mandalah. She has led various national and international projects with corporations, public institutions and NGOs alike. She also is the co-founder of Welana, a social business importing fabrics from Ethiopia.
Anna Papadopoulos
Managing Partner at Mandalah

Eric is part of the founding team at Cintrifuse. His background combines corporate marketing for one of the world’s most-beloved brands (the Walt Disney Company) with the hand-to-hand combat that comes with being on the leadership team of several productive small businesses.
Eric Weissmann
Vice President at Cintrifuse

Marketing, technology, operations, and startup development professional with specialties in data analytics, growth, operations management, digital strategy, investor relations, product management, business development, ecosystem development, user/market research, data analytics, operations digitization, & product launch. His past clients include Startupbootcamp, Touch Surgery, Hackster.io, Incident gTar, Car and Driver Magazine, Noisebridge, Asa, among many others.
Matthew Eisner
Senior Product Manager at Samba TV

Khatuchi is a Program Manager at the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) East Africa Chapter. In this capacity, she provides oversight to all the chapter’s Programs . Khatuchi also oversees ANDE’s activities in Tanzania and Uganda. Prior to joining ANDE, she worked with INGOs in both Kenya and Uganda.
Khatuchi Khasandi
Program Manager at the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE)

Alain is a senior fellow at the Marron Institute of Urban Management at New York University. He is the author of a book “Order without Design: How Markets Shape Cities.” His operational work as an independent consultant and researcher focuses on the interaction between markets, regulations, and transport infrastructure in shaping the spatial structures of cities.
Alain Bertaud
Senior Fellow NYU, Former Principal Urbanist Planner at the World Bank

Lisa is the co-founder and CEO of Female Founders, the fastest-growing community of entrepreneurial women in Europe. With a 9-year track record in the tech ecosystem and especially in early stage financing, she's initiated projects all over Europe and supported hundreds of companies.
Lisa-Marie Fassl
Co-Founder & CEO at Female Founders

Bart is one of Europe's leading and awarded experts on the digital transformation of healthcare, and one of the most progressive forward thinkers focuses on finding alternative European strategies for the current postmodern world to create a more desirable future with greater social benefits. He is the initiator of the HIPPO AI Foundation in Berlin and co-founded the Digital Health Academy where he shares his knowledge to improve digital literacy.
Bart de Witte
Founder at HIPPO AI Foundation and Digital Health Academy

Michal is the Director of International Economic Development in Tel Aviv Global. She has an extensive experience in working with leading companies ranging from cutting edge startups to retail and consumers market leaders. She is also a mentor at Techstars and the 8200 Impact accelerator program.
Michal Michaeli
Director of International Economic Development @Tel Aviv Global

Laura started her career as an Investment Analyst & Community Manager at the Deep-Tech-Fonds Apex Ventures. Now she is the Managing Director of the Austrian Angel Investors Association (aaia).
Laura Egg
Managing Director at Austrian Angel Investors Association

David is a General Partner of Yield Lab Europe where he focuses on sourcing new investments and managing the Yield Lab portfolio. Previously he was a venture capital investor in Delta Partners.
David Bowles
Venture Capital Investor at The Yield Lab Europe

Harald is a specialist in international development cooperation, with a focus on the SDGs, susrtainable urban development, governance, and new technologies. Previously, he worked at the German Agency for International Development (GIZ) and implemented projects like [email protected]
Harald Eisenhauer
Co-Founder and Head of Platform at DEEP Ecosystems

Olga is a growth and strategy expert and Founder at WIYO. She is passionate about innovation, launching new ventures and growth hacking.
Olga Pantchenko
Founder at WIYO

Igor founded the innovation company Semente in Brazil, where he designed and managed acceleration programmes sponsored by corporates, governments and private foundations. With his investments he managed to successfully exit two early stage startups in the field of agritech and retail tech.
Igor Oliveira
UN consultant on ecosystem modelling,former Managing Director of Semente (Brazil)

As CEO of Start-Up Chile, the largest and most diverse startup accelerator in the globe, Sebastián worked with more than 1,000 tech-based startups and founders from many industries and countries. He is a world-wide respected consultant to governments and industry on ecosystem development.
Sebastián Díaz Mesa
Co-Founder at DEEP Ecosystems and Head of Acceleration & Community

Erica (Ph.D. in Economics, University of Florence, 2016) is Lecturer of Management at the University of Trento. Her research focuses on innovation, entrepreneurial ecosystems, servitization strategies, product- service innovation and digitalization of manufacturing.
Erica Santini
President of the European Startup Initiative and Lecturer at University of Trento

Thomas is building ecosystems in Europe since more than 8 years. He has set up and run numerous international startup programs, including for Microsoft Ventures in Germany and is currently investing with EIT Digital in pre-seed stage in 20 countries in CEE and Southern Europe.
Thomas Kösters
Managing Director at DEEP Ecosystems

Zane is the head of marketing and communications at Startup Wise Guys. She is also the founder and co-owner of Lude (Z2B Ltd). Prior to that, Zane was a consultant at Hauska & Partner.
Zane Bojāre
Head of marketing and communications at Startup Wise Guys

Aru runs his own data science consultancy called Arulytics, and is the Director of Data Science at Willapay, a fintech startup based in Stockholm. Previously, he has been building and scaling analytics and data science functions at HiQ, Springworks and Truecaller in Stockholm. He also has experience working as an Analyst for the Search team at Yahoo in London, and at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
Arunabh Singh
Director of Data Science @Willapay

Natalie is a sociologist and researcher on early-stage entrepreneurship in Europe. For the last five years, she has been conducting fieldwork with entrepreneurs and community builders for the project, The Startup City. Her research and experience in the startup ecosystem spans 27 different countries on nearly all continents.
Natalie Novick
Market Researcher, Content and Digital Marketing @PIRATEx

Rocio is the Executive Director of InnovaChile CORFO and former CEO at Start-Up Chile one of the biggest and most diverse startup community in the world. She has a MS in Management at MIT, is a Master in innovation and entrepreneurship and Biotech Engineer. Her passion is to help people to transform their ideas into business.
Rocio Fonseca
Executive Director of InnovaChile

Stefano is a Lecturer of different courses in Economics at Bocconi University, ISPI and IES. He is also an 'angel investor' and a board member of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand and of the NZ European Business Council. His areas of expertise are: international trade, foreign direct investment, antitrust, EU public affairs and digital platform business.
Stefano Riela
Board member of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in NZ and European Business Council
Michaela's latest journey started in Europe supporting researchers in Horizon 2020 and empowering entrepreneurs to bring their ideas to life as a Startup Coach. And it continues in the USA with 'blueativity', a platform to tackle 'how failure boosts creativity' with workshops, research, and coaching.
Michaela Werther
Startup Coach at TUM | Founder of blueativity
Stephan is an Investment Partner at TS Ventures and Director Founders Education at the Founders Foundation. Prior to that, he has led the startup units at Microsoft in Germany and Europe and was co-founder of the Microsoft Accelerator in Berlin. He manages a portfolio of 20 angel investments in Germany, Europe and the US with a focus on AdTech, Marketplaces, SaaS and Climate Tech.
Stephan Jacquemot
Investment Partner @TS Ventures and Director Founders Education @Founders Foundation
Nina Gruber
Head of ScaleUp Incubation at tech2b Incubator

George is Director of Strategic Projects & Innovation; and Accreditation & China Director at AMBA (the Association of MBAs) in London. He leads on the accreditation of 130 universities / business schools in China, Japan, Russia, Eastern Europe, Spain, Latin America, Turkey and London. In this capacity, George advises business school deans and MBA directors in designing their MBA, DBA and Master's in Management and Entrepreneurship programmes.
George Iliev
Director of Strategic Projects & Innovation and Accreditation & China Director at AMBA

Entrepreneur, community builder & public speaker. Sebastien has a real passion for startups, innovation, and social impact. He currently dedicates his time to helping startup founders to build successful, inclusive & sustainable ventures. He also facilitates workshops at European Commission, EIT InnoEnergy, SeedStars. Previously worked at TNW Impact Startups, Innofest, The Global Hack.
Sebastien Toupy
Chief Storyteller | Advisor at Greentech Alliance

Lucia is the program manager at the UNLOCK Accelerator, a program by Wikimedia Deutschland supporting social innovations that make knowledge freely and widely accessible to all. She has many years of experience in program design and implementation as well as community engagement in the non-profit sector. Drawing from her background as a theatre scholar her mission is to create experiences that provide the framework and inspiration that access the potential in all of us.
Lucia Obst
Program Manager at UNLOCK Accelerator

Carlos is a Senior Advisor at EIT Digital, where he taps into 25 years of professional experience across Europe and the US – as a consultant and executive at firms like McKinsey, Microsoft, Indra or Aldesa, and as CEO of multiple SMEs – to help digital tech scaleups grow on an international basis, and corporations adopt innovative solutions from the scaleup ecosystem.
Carlos Rubal
Senior Advisor @EIT Digital
Marie is a results-driven marketing & sales professional with over 10 years of experience in producing and implementing business strategies to help companies grow in domestic and international marketplaces.
She kicked off her career in New York and London where she has built and maintained trustworthy and long term national and international client relationships.
Marie Martens
Investor Relations Manager at Buysse & Partners
Stella is passionate about innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem building and has experience in advising startups and ecosystem-builders for sustainable development within the context of development cooperation. Currently working at GIZ with the topic of scaling the most innovative digital solutions for development from Berlin, Germany. She has worked in a startup herself and extended experience in social business modelling.
Stella Deppe
Advisor at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Michelle E. Messina
CEO at Explora International
International EIR | Coach | Strategist

Naimul Abd is one of the most sought-after startup and impact advisors in the Nordics. He has been instrumental in Coompanion Stockholm’s transformation around advisory services, events, partnerships and acceleration programs. Naimul is a winner of the Global Startup Leadership Award 2022 by Founder Institute the world's largest pre-seed accelerator and is also a finalist for the Ecosystem Hero of the Year Award 2021 by Nordic Startup Awards. He is deeply involved in the Nordic ecosystem and heads the Nordic cluster of Startup Grind and mentors at several accelerators including Techstars Stockholm / Nordics. In his free time, he is a serial impact entrepreneur as well as a musician.
Naimul Abd
Business Advisor & Partnerships Lead at Coompanion Stockholm

Oskar has been deeply involved in the Stockholm startup community, supporting entrepreneurs since 2014. Previously, Oskar has been supporting impact startups in his role as a Community Manager at Norrsken House. With a background from Hyper Island and a passion for community, impact and technology, Oskar wants to enable impactful ideas and entrepreneurs to reach further and grow faster.
Oskar Malm Wiklund
Curator at
Freelance Tech Specialist

David is the Community & Engagement Lead at Norrsken Foundation, the largest impact hub in the Nordics & East Africa and will soon open a hub in Barcelona. David is responsible for growing impact startups in the Norrsken House Stockholm where he engages investors, mentors, talent and ecosystem players to help impact startups make saving the world their businesses. David also trains startup founders for pitching and is the project leader for Stockholm Impact Meetup in collaboration with the City of Stockholm where 7 impact startups get to pitch on the big stage each quarter. David has a background in tech marketing & PR. Previously he worked at Ericsson, Tele2, and Amazon Web Services where he produced presentations and wrote speech scripts for management teams for various occasions.
David Liu
Community & Engagement Lead at Norrsken Foundation

As Project Manager Startups at Invest Stockholm, the official investment promotion agency of the city of Stockholm, Ariane works very closely, both strategically and operatively, with the city’s vibrant tech ecosystem and start-up scene. Ariane held executive positions in business development, sales and public relations at larger US companies including EMI Music Publishing, Thomson and PR Newswire. No longer active in politics today, Ariane was an elected politician on Stockholm City Council between 2006 and 2014. A mother of three and an entrepreneur at heart, Ariane also runs a hobby company Ariane Stockholm, distributing jewelry products she designs and resells in her spare time.
Ariane Bucquet Pousette
Project Manager Start-Ups at Invest Stockholm

Jenny Berthling
Senior Business Development Manager at Invest Stockholm

Jonas is a leader, coach, speaker & mentor, with a background in innovation, business, entrepreneurship & ecosystems. With 30+ years in IT, marketing, media, government, tech & non-profit he has developed a unique perspective on what it takes to succeed in today's global world. Jonas is former Head of Innovation Ecosystems at Business Sweden, Director of Ecosystem & Partnerships at Ericsson. His expertise is to build relationships, complex collaborations where ideas are turned into action & his unique understanding of how to build valuable, values-based communities. Early 2023 Jonas joined Seedrs as Head of Nordics.
Jonas Almeling
Head of Nordics at Seedrs/Republic