Free rental car booking firm Transfercar is among a small group of startups to be selected for one of the world’s leading accelerator programmes run by 500 Startups, a venture capital seed fund and startup incubator based in the heart of the Silicon Valley in California.
The Auckland-based business is one of only 30 companies chosen from thousands of applicants worldwide to take part in the prestigious four-month programme, and the first New Zealand company to get this honour since the incubator was founded in 2011.
Transfercar CTO Espen Grimstad says selection for the programme, which begins on 20 April, will give the company a "fantastic opportunity" to learn from some of the world’s best serial entrepreneurs and to pitch to Silicon Valley investors.
"This is huge for us," he says. "We are going to learn from the impressive 500 mentor network which includes key managers from Google, Facebook, Apple, Twitter and Paypal to name a few.
"It is also going to be a rush. With so much knowledge being passed on to us every day, we’ll be going through a startup MBA in just four months.’"
Along with the invitation into the accelerator programme, Transfercar also receives a capital injection of US$100,000 from 500 Startups with the expectation to raise further funds after the programme is completed.