Communitech Retires HYPERDRIVE in Favor of Sales Accelerator Named Rev
Late last year Communitech’s HYPERDRIVE welcomed applications for their fifth cohort with a new investment thesis, one that gave priority to companies with female co-founders.
This morning the Waterloo-based accelerator announced that they’re once again tweaking their model. HYPERDRIVE is being replaced with a new late-stage sales accelerator called Communitech Rev.
Communitech Rev is targeted at companies who have some traction and/or revenue but need focused help scaling their business. Communitech Rev will provide $60,000 in capital, six months of tenancy and focused sales/revenue generation mentorship, but will be taking no equity in its companies.
In it’s two years of existence, HYPERDRIVE graduated 34 companies including Techvibes 20 companies BitHound, Structrur3D Printing, and Wagepoint. These graduates have created more than 130 jobs and raised $20 million in investment. In the last cohort, 80% of the companies received follow-on funding.
But since HYPERDRIVE launched the startup landscape has matured.
VERY RELATED: Four Ways Canada’s Accelerator Landscape Will Shift in 2015
According to today’s announcement, Communitech “believes the best way to help startups is to focus on generating revenue. So that’s what we’re going to do. Rev is a sales accelerator that helps highly-scalable startups with strong teams to drive revenue at the fastest rate possible.”
So who is Communitech Rev looking for? “Startups that build authentic tech and already have some revenue. Communitech has seen first-hand how diverse teams (particularly those with female co- founders) produce strong companies, so we’re making that a priority too. We want teams who are ready to compete, who have skin in the game, who are driven to be the best and are prepared to work hard to achieve it.”
Communitech Rev will be accepting up to 10 companies for a six-month program that begins in March 2015. Apply online by January 23, 2015.
Note: If you previously completed an application for HYPERDRIVE Cohort 5, you will automatically be considered for Rev.
