Richi Entrepreneurs announces a new partnership with ACTION for its 2018 Boston Immersion program edition

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BOSTON, MA (January 18, 2018) – Richi Entrepreneurs, a Boston-based initiative from the Richi Foundation, whose mission is to help life sciences and cleantech startups from around the world land into Boston's unique innovation ecosystem, is announcing a partnership with the network of business incubators and other entrepreneur support organization from New England (US) ACTION to run Richi Entrepreneurs' fourth edition of its Boston Immersion program, named 2018 edition, that will run from October 15th to November 2nd, 2018.

The Boston Immersion program is a 3-week boot camp helping startups from any part of the world define their own strategies to eventually land in Boston. Now, both Richi Entrepreneurs and ACTION will act as the catalysts to create bonds between the startups and Massachusetts-based innovation stakeholders (incubators and accelerators, investors, service providers, or life sciences and cleantech institutions, among others). Entrepreneurs will learn best practices and key insights from experts in topics such as fundraising, legal issues, product regulation, or managing leads in the US. At the same time, startups will also connect with Boston's key players through one-on-one meetings, helping companies take full advantage of the ecosystem.

Thanks to the partnership with ACTION, Richi Entrepreneurs aims to consolidate the Boston Immersion program, positioning it as the best landing methodology for startups overseas. The partnership will contribute to expand the community of local experts backing the entrepreneurs, as well as to increase the number of resources and business/financing opportunities available for the companies. On top of that, the next 2018 cohort of startups will compete for free incubation after the Boston Immersion program in one of the ACTION's member incubators, as an award for the best startup of the edition. This will be an interesting opportunity for the startups to continue building bonds with business partners and investors in Massachusetts.

Ernest Lara, executive director at Richi Social Entrepreneurs says: "There are great projects with outstanding technologies in Europe and overseas that would speed up their development if they build a presence in Massachusetts. Our startups have realized that the culture and access to talent, capital and networks here provide a unique environment both to validate business/technical assumptions as well as to accelerate implementation. We are positioning our program as the best methodology to support healthcare and cleantech startups from overseas in their process of making the most out of the main innovation ecosystem worldwide: Massachusetts. Now thanks to the partnership with ACTION, we not only make the program stronger and expand the network, but also get healthcare and cleantech startups from all over the world closer to the main networks where business and investment happen in Massachusetts."

Joan Popolo, executive director at ACTION: "ACTION is proud to partner with Richi Entrepreneurs to support startups participating in the Boston Immersion program. As an integral part of the value chain for entrepreneurs, our incubator managers are leaders in making key connections for international startups to accelerate their growth and success here. We look forward to introducing high-growth, innovative technology companies from around the globe to our incubator network."

Since its inception in 2016, Richi Entrepreneurs has evaluated nearly 150 startups from 24 countries and has run 3 Boston Immersion program editions, in which an overall of 37 startups from 7 countries (from Europe and America) have participated in the 3-week boot camps. As of today, 5 Richi Entrepreneurs Alumni startups have already landed in Boston and another 10 are planning to do so in the short-term. As example, one of the Alumni landed in Boston has closed an exclusive worldwide license agreement with a Cambridge-based (MA) biopharmaceutical company, and is executing a series A round in Massachusetts. Another 5 Alumni entrepreneurs have been named Innovators under 35 by the MIT Tech Review, and 2 startups have been awarded by the UMass Lowell M2D2 100K Challenge 2017.

Enquiries

For Richi Entrepreneurs
Mercè Feu, Operations Director
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Ernest Lara, Executive Director
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For ACTION
Joan Popolo, Executive Director
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About Richi Entrepreneurs

Richi Entrepreneurs is a Richi Foundation initiative whose mission is to boost life sciences (biotech, medtech, digital health) and cleantech startups from around the world by connecting them with Boston's innovation key players, and helping them take full advantage of this unique innovation ecosystem. Richi Entrepreneurs does so by running a three-week immersion boot camp in Boston, in which startups have the opportunity to embrace best practices from Massachusetts ecosystem, connecting and interacting with potential clients, investors, strategic partners, and local top-notch industry experts who will lead them to outstanding synergies.

More information about Richi Entrepreneurs is available at https://www.richientrepreneurs.org or follow @RichiFoundation.

About Richi Childhood Cancer Foundation

The Richi Childhood Cancer Foundation (Richi Foundation) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to ensure that all children who suffer from cancer have the best prognosis and quality of life. All proceeds from Richi Entrepreneurs will go to support the Richi Foundation mission.

More information is available at https://www.richifoundation.org.

About ACTION

ACTION is a network of business incubators and other entrepreneur support organizations assisting companies developing cleantech, biotech, medtech, and other complementary technologies with the common goals of accelerating the growth and success of early-stage companies, strengthening technology clusters, and creating jobs for economic improvement.

More information is available at http://www.actionnewengland.org or follow @ActionNE.

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