REACH Incubator - Part 2 of our experience

In the first part of our short blog series, we already introduced the REACH Incubator. But what have been the main steps of the program so far?

Application

We applied to REACH in early 2023, along with about 160 other startups. The application was done online via the F6S platform and was admittedly quite involved. As part of the application, initial high-level architectural designs for the solution presented had to be submitted, as well as fairly detailed descriptions of where we are as a startup, where we want to go, and why we want to be supported by REACH to do so.

Explore Phase

In April/May 2023, the Explore Phase for our batch took place for a total of 40 startups. The phase started with an online kick off and included some online webinars, especially on technical deep dives. In addition, all startups were encouraged to also collaborate with the other teams to develop the most helpful solutions possible.

The highlight of the Explore phase was the 2-day Datathon event in Paris: on the first day, all 40 teams presented their technical solution in closed sessions. On the second day, the 3-minute business pitches were scheduled. And of course the decision which 10 teams will move on to the next phase....

Experiment Phase

... and Urban Monkeys is one of the 10 teams! The Experiment Phase lasts 4 months and started with a 1 week onsite event. All 10 teams met in Bilbao, Spain, got to know each other better and attended business and tech classes together at Deusto University in Bilbao.

At the halfway point of the phase, there will be a first milestone check to make sure all teams are on the right track. At the end of the 4 months all 10 teams will meet again in Bilbao and present their technical and business solution again. 5 of the 10 teams will move on to the "Evolve" phase.

So we are now working hard to complete the Experiment phase and look forward to showing what we have achieved so far in Bilbao at the end of September. Keep your fingers crossed that we will be allowed to enter the Evolve phase!

More about REACH can be found here: https://www.reach-incubator.eu/ and in the following blog articles, which we will post about our experiences here