Raise your seed round
The Alpha Accelerator
Turn your early stage concept into a live business. Our 12-week in-house accelerator is designed for pre-seed businesses for founders from under-represented backgrounds. Themed around Urban Futures for 2022, cohort nine are innovating in Mobility and Transport, Smart Data, Environment, and PropTech.
For early-stage founders
If you’re a pre-seed founder or founding team focusing on smart city and urban innovation, our 12-week intensive accelerator is designed to supercharge your business and give you everything you need to prepare for raising your seed round. Delivered by experts; serial entrepreneurs, world-class operators and investors with strong ties into our Urban Futures theme, the programme will be packed with learnings and practical knowledge to give you the confidence to launch your business on strong foundations.
Alpha 9, the cohort creating a brighter urban future
- Alpha 9
Firstplanit
Founder - Ankita Dwivedi
Firstplanit is a GreenTech digital platform with patent-pending algorithms to make sustainable building product choices easy, cheap and personal for building teams. Joining Alpha: Founder Ankita Dwivedi who has previously led architecture, design and sustainability teams for top Fortune 100 businesses across the globe
Find out moreOne City
Founders - Miriam Maina and Yuriy Milevskiy
OneCity is on a mission to create more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable cities by helping developers to find and evaluate the best investments that are aligned with the latest city plans. They use data and analytics to coordinate urban development and co-create equitable towns and cities. Joining Alpha: Cofounders Yuriy Milevskiy (business founder, experienced in: urban planning and property development), and Miriam Maina (urban planner, researcher and geoinformatics expert).
Find out moreCityMaas
Founder - Rene Perkins
CityMaaS is making the world accessible online and offline, using two streams of technology, digital accessibility tools and a global mobility map for physical spaces. Joining Alpha: Founder Rene Perkins CA MSc BA(Hon) - Rene has been named one of the top 50 BAME founders under 50 by Techround and is a serial entrepreneur.
Find out moreMOSA
Founders - Josh Liu and Simon Laumet
MOSA is building a smart parking and service platform for micro-mobility. They use patent-pending, low-cost IoT technology (MOSA lock) to turn conventional parking racks into smart and safe parking spaces at scale. Joining Alpha: Cofounders Josh Liu (previously Foxconn) and Simon Laumet (trained mechanic and transport and industrial design academic).
Find out moreMykor
Founders - Valentina Dipietro and Olivia Page
Mykor is a biotechnology and advanced materials company developing sustainable materials for the construction industry. The company’s proprietary custom-engineered materials are sustainable, highly-performative and carbon-negative. Joining Alpha: Cofounders Valentina Dipietro (award-winning materials designer, lecturer, and former researcher at Green Lab and Kyoto Design Lab), and Olivia Page (internationally-renowned architect and project manager).
Find out moreKuppa
Founders - Kirsty Kenney and Reinier Zeldenrust
Kuppa identifies retrofit upgrades to reduce a home’s energy demand, making homes cosier to live in and cheaper and more efficient to run. To overcome convenience, cost and industry barriers - the MVP product will evolve to bundle assessment, financing, installation and monitoring of retrofit upgrades. Joining Alpha: Cofounders Kirsty Kenney (Urban Geography academic and previously Smart Cities Consulting group at Accenture), and Reinier Zeldenrust (Mphil in Environmental Design and Architecture, previously: Atelier Ten and Foster + Partners).
Find out more
Who's Alpha for?
For pre-seed founders
Alpha is built for pre-seed founders who are yet to raise their seed round but are intending to raise at least £350K in the 6 months following the programme start date. We're looking to see that you've spotted an opportunity within sustainability, and have the data and early revenue to back it up.
For smart city innovators
Our 2022 theme is Urban Futures. We’re on the lookout for 6 purpose-driven for-profit startups who are championing urban innovation. From mobility and transport and the environment to smart data and PropTech - we're seeking the innovations making our cities smarter.
For underrepresented founders
In 2017 as the lack of diversity and equality within the startup ecosystem became deafeningly apparent, we realised that founders from under-represented backgrounds are the ones who can benefit most from a helping hand. We’re looking for diverse founders with talent, passion, and commitment.
Programme overview
This intensive programme covers:
- Weekly workshops led by industry experts
- Essential concept feedback from our community of early adopters
- A refined commercial strategy with defined revenue streams
- Fundraising fundamentals including how to build a strong pitch deck with clear financials
- Weekly pitch practice with leading investors, plus the experience of live pitching to relevant industry investors at Alpha Pitch Day
- Exposure and introductions to our network of talent, partners and investors
- Regular group standups, plus 1-1 consultations to keep you on track and accountable
- A 360 overview of the Urban Futures domain
Selection and Eligibility
We select five startups from hundreds of applicants each year. To be eligible:
- Team: At least one underrepresented founder as part of the founding team (Gender, BAME, LGBTQ+, non-higher educated, retired, neurodiverse and beyond)
- Sector: Urban Futures
- Product: A beta/MVP version of your product, preferably an early version on the market
- Traction: Evidence of early traction/customer uptake or potential for growth (i.e. early users, pilot users, waitlist, early interest, social following etc)
- Commitment: The programme runs over Tuesday and Thursday morning for 12 weeks; Alphas commit to the full programme, including weekly stand-ups, 121s, workshops and pitch practices
- Fundraising: Either the teams are bootstrapped or have raised a friends and family round. Our Alphas all intend to raise at least £350k Seed round within 6-12 months of leaving the programme
No cost. Zero equity taken.
We’d had enough of accelerators taking large chunks of founder equity and charging huge sums for access. Pre-seed founders don’t have cash to spare and they definitely shouldn’t need to part with their most valuable asset - their equity - so early on. Huckletree Alpha is completely free of charge for the selected startups. We don’t charge fees, and we don’t take equity. Ever.
Key dates - Alpha 22 // Urban Futures
Applications open: 3rd January 2022 Application deadline: 27th February 2022 Application pitches: 7th March 2022 Programme dates: 12th April - 30th June
Alpha highlights...
£34m+ funding
Our Alphas have raised £34m+ in collective funding and two have successfully exited
250+ jobs created
our Alpha businesses have created 250 (and growing) roles for the industry, from tech to finance
+100 NPS score
We’re proud of the positive feedback from our graduates across all seven cohorts
Love from our grads
“Our time on the Alpha programme in 2021 was fundamental. We ran our pilot at Huckletree Shoreditch, which gave junee a real springboard. As a result of the programme, we have gone on to raise £250k in investment and £90k in grants. Without this investment, we would never have been able to scale the company from the two of us to a team of eight specialists.”
Caroline Williams, CEO and Co-Founder of junee