Latest News

Two of China’s economic powerhouses are behind the development of a high-tech industrial park in Qingyun, Dezhou County.

The Hongyun Industrial Park is being constructed and developed by the county (which is in Shandong province) and the district of Hongqiao (in the Tianjin municipality), according to China Daily.

Points of Light and Village Capital yesterday launched the Civic Accelerator which they describe as the first start-up accelerator dedicated solely to investing in civic ventures that inspire, equip or mobilize people to create positive change. Points of Light already operates the Civic Incubator. PwC Charitable Foundation, Inc. and Starbucks Foundation are supporting the Civic Accelerator.

It sounds like Flagstaff Arizona's incubator, the Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, is a victim of its own success. At least one client of the incubator, Flagship Biosciences, grew too large not only for the incubator but also for the area and moved elsewhere. That's not good news for an incubator with the goal of creating local jobs. Consequently, Flagstaff City Council voted  6-1 this week to accept a $4 million federal grant to fund a small science park in a building next to the incubator.

Waterloo’s HYPERDRIVE program is hosting recruiting events in Vancouver and Toronto this month, to encourage applications for its Winter cohort which begins in January 2013.

Togo DeBellis is the new Managing Director, of Growth Services at High Tech Rochester. DeBellis was formerly the president and CEO of Badger Technologies until August of this year. High Tech Rochester is a non-profit business incubator based in a suburb of Rochester NY.

The Founder Institute accelerator network is testing the waters in Alexandria Egypt and Perth Australia to see if there's enough interest to setup FI chapters in those cities according to recent posts on the FI blog.

Stephen King has been named the first executive-in-residence at AcceleratorYYC in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In an announcement today, AcceleratorYYC said that King, who is currently CEO of TCELab and President of Stephdokin.com, will be available to provide hands-on guidance to startups there. Apparently this is a one-year position.

HitFox, the Berlin-based games distributor and incubator, has announced its expansion into the Asia-Pacific region with a new office in Seoul, South Korea.

Ludolf Ebner-Chung, who is German-Korean by birth, will lead HitFox Asia as General Manager. Before joining HitFox, Ebner-Chung was the CEO of Yogiyo, a food delivery platform based out of Korea.

Groundwork Labs is launching a new program for university students in North Carolina.

The Durham-based accelerator will pick one student-led team from each of the following schools: Duke University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University, University of North Carolina, and Wake Forest University.

Those five teams will participate in 3-month accelerator program, called Underground Summer, starting in May 2013.

[UPDATED - we unfortunately omitted two of the startups at the FF launch event when we published last week. Our bad.] Montreal's FounderFuel last Thursday today graduated 8 teams at Montreal's historic Monument National in front of a sold out crowd of 800 people, including investors from San Francisco, New York, Boston and across Canada. This cohort had a distinctly global flavor -- the 8 teams were from 3 different countries. FounderFuel is a startup accelerator program that focuses on web, mobile and SaaS startups.

On the weekend, Patrick Riley of the Global Accelerator Network announced on GAN's blog that  GAN will begin rolling out "honest, reliable and transparent data" about the performance of its members on Wednesday, November 14.

Thanks to Ian Jeffrey, FounderFuel founder, for sharing this photo of their demo day last week.

NewME is in Miami this week for its “Pop-Up” accelerator program. The 3-day event (which starts today) is a concentrated version of their 12-week Silicon Valley program for underrepresented entrepreneurs.

The event is sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and is hosted by The LAB Miami.

In a press release late last week, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced the approval of a $3.5 million grant to set up a business accelerator in Haiti.

The Founder Institute has announced the location of its 35^th chapter – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabia Founder Institute’s 2013 inaugural class is slated to start on February 21^st and wraps up on June 6^th.