Page 52 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES: THEORY AND PRACTICE, V.73, # 2, 2016, pp. 42-61

Teams chosen for Next Step are offered a free office space, laptops and seed
capital in the amount of 2000 AZN monthly. In return, Next Step asks for an equity
share in the range of 3-9%. The accelerator also provides legal support to founders –
to register the business as well as in applying for patents. Mentors work with teams
on a weekly basis and monitor progress. At the end of three month incubation
period, graduating teams pitch to investors on Demo Day. Next Step is open for both
software and hardware based startups. One of the startups housed at Next Step,
“Ustam” has started generating traction and has registered as a legal person.
Baku Business Factory is a private accelerator started operating in 2015.
Baku Business Factory (BBF) provides free space and mentoring for startups.
Applications to BBF take place on rolling bases. Online applications go through an
initial screening. Promising applications are invited for an interview and those who
pass the interview stage are admitted to the accelerator. Although all admitted teams
can benefit from the resources and network of BBF, not all of them receive seed
capital. Teams interested in receiving investment need to develop a business plan
and pitch their business idea in front of the BBF management team. Currently there
are 19 teams in the BBF incubator. Some of the successful startups include
BrandCream (offers exclusive way of brand promotions in the public) and Keepface
(social influencer marketing company) which have started generating cash flow. All
of the startups housed at BBF can benefit from media exposure.
Sup.az is another private accelerator which started operating in 2015. It
selects teams to its accelerator three times a year. Teams apply online and selected
teams are invited to present their business plans to the management and judges of
Sup.az. Selected teams go through 4 months of incubation or acceleration period. At
the end of the 4 months, teams present their products on Demo Day, which is
attended by local and international investors as well as other startup teams. During
their stay at Sup.az, teams are provided with free office and mentorship of local and
international experts from the fields of product development and marketing.
Moreover, team can benefit trainings and workshops on different topics which are
important for startups' success. Managers of Sup.az also help admitted startups with
PR and marketing by featuring their products at different events, on social media
and on national media.
AppLab was opened in 2014 by Bakcell, the first mobile operator and the
leading mobile internet provider of Azerbaijan. The program is aimed to provide
effective tools to entrepreneurs and application developers to help accelerate their
ideas and create innovative mobile applications for Azerbaijani and international
markets (applab.bakcell.com). Unlike Barama İnnovasiya və Sahibkarlıq Mərkəzi,
established by another mobile operator Azercell, which is designed for 18 months,

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