Campus Competition Cologne

Your way to the Gateway Accelerator and a €100,000 investment offer!

CONNECT COMPETE CONVINCE

This is what the C3 Competition offers:

Access to the Gateway Accelerator: The top eight teams will participate in the Gateway Accelerator. This gives you the opportunity to further scale and grow your business.

Financial Support: The three best-placed start-ups will also each receive an investment offer of EUR 100,000 from a venture capitalist (subject to due diligence).

Networking: By working with our mentors, participants have the opportunity to make contacts with other entrepreneurs, other mentors and industry experts, form partnerships and exchange experiences.

Expertise and Feedback: The participants receive insightful observations and constructive feedback on their business models and plans following the evaluation of submissions by an experienced jury and the start-up coaches of the Gateway Universities.

Pitch Training: Before the big event, the eight finalists will go through pitch training. This is an excellent chance to improve presentation abilities and make sure that participants can articulate their business ideas clearly.

Campus Competition Cologne - C3 2024

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Who is a good fit for the Gateway C3?

You can apply as an individual founder or with your team.

Participation Requirements

No revenues or incorporation of a corporation before Juli 21, 2022
No venture capital intake before Juli 21, 2024
One of the members of the team must be a student, researcher, employee, or graduate of the universities with a Gateway start-up service. In addition to the University of Cologne, these are the TH Köln, the Rheinische Fachhochschule Köln, and the CBS International Business School

When does it start?

The application phase starts on May 1, 2024, and ends on July 21, 2024.

Evaluation criteria

Idea, innovation, and business model
Scalability and growth potential
Market and competition
Team
Chances of success in next steps
Impression in feedback discussion

A maximum of eight teams will be given the chance to participate in the final.

Gateway Accelerator Batch #4

The Accelerator #Batch 4 starts in mid-September with the 8 finalists of the C3 Campus Competition Cologne. The accelerator program runs for 6 months.