Cross-academia Accelerator “1stRound”

About

The Cross-academia Accelerator “1stRound” is Japan's largest academia-led startup growth program, providing non-equity early-stage funding and intensive support to help academic teams commercialize their research and create investable startups, with a focus on deep tech innovations and societal solutions, and is currently recruiting for its 14th cohort.

Benefits

• Access to non-equity early-stage funding
• Intensive business mentoring and acceleration
• Connection to a wide network of universities and national research institutions
• High success rate in securing funding and large research grants
• Opportunities for cross-industry collaboration
• Support for international expansion and collaboration with top accelerators and research alliances

Eligibility Criteria

• Teams or startup projects originating from Japanese academia (universities, research institutes) focusing on deep tech innovation and societal problem-solving solutions
• Non-equity support
• Emphasis on transforming academic research into investable startup entities