New accelerator 'Create' seeks entrepreneurs, not start-ups

Create Tel Aviv is turning traditional accelerators on their head by seeking experienced entrepreneurs with good ideas, but no company to speak of.

By NIV ELIS
Lightning strikes over the skyline of Tel Aviv during a rain storm (photo credit: REUTERS)
Lightning strikes over the skyline of Tel Aviv during a rain storm
(photo credit: REUTERS)
A new accelerator is opening its doors in Tel Aviv, but you don’t have to have a company to join.
Create Tel Aviv, a $1 million accelerator being funded by the Tel Aviv Municipality, the Bosch Group’s investment fund (RBVC), Visa Europe, Leumi Card and Energias de Portugal, is turning traditional accelerators on their head by seeking experienced entrepreneurs with good ideas, but no company to speak of.
The application process will look at their technological skills and previous accomplishments, and receive support from Terra Venture Partners, which will invest up to $5m. in successful ventures.
The program, housed at “The Library,” a city-funded start-up work space in Tel Aviv’s Migdal Shalom, will take up to 25 entrepreneurs under its wings twice a year.
It will put them through a two-month “ideation boot camp,” from which the five to seven teams that produce the best ideas will emerge for the four-month acceleration stage, which includes $50,000 worth of funding.
“Since entrepreneurs do not usually have the resources to invest in research and learn about a new market need, through ‘Create Tel Aviv,’ we will facilitate their understanding of the current needs in the international market, connect them with the major players in the field and give them significant funding right from the idea formulation stage,” said Barak Goldstein, a partner at Terra Venture Partners.