US-based venture capital firm Openner.vc announced opening the door for accepting applications from Egyptian start-ups, aiming to identify brilliant founders with innovative ideas to expand and scale 50 of them locally, regionally and globally through their local accelerator. Openner said in a statement that applications are open all-year round, as no specified one-size-fits-all program will be implemented across all 50 selected start-ups, adding that each portfolio start-up will be subject to a custom-designed program tailored to its needs, combining cash injection with growth resources while focusing on the startup's product development, tech development and distribution, which means that founders will be able to fully concentrate on sales and customer acquisition, while functions like marketing, engineering, UX/UI and public relations will be provided by the accelerator and its partners. Openner is a pre-seed and seed venture capital firm focused on investing in technology-based startups globally, which invested in over 100 startups. Openner provided $25 million in over 100 portfolio companies in the US since the fourth quarter of 2016, with an aggregate valuation of $2.95 billion. The accelerator helps transform pre-seed and seed startups with a minimum viable product (MVP) into growth and/or acquisition-ready, proven by its strong global performance track record in successfully raising Series A funding for 90 percent of their pre-seed and seed investments, the firm said in a statement. “We want startups to organically grow into revenue generating companies without having to raise funds, match them with a strategic investor when they are ready for rapid growth and position them as acquisition-ready,” Founder and General Partner of Openner Ash Rofail said. Openner historically co-invested with Andreesen Horrowitz, NEA, Sequoia, Khosla Ventures, YCombinator, Goldman Sachs and several other global top-tier VCs, and its portfolio companies received follow-up investments from ExxonMobil, Mastercard, CitiVentures and other multinationals, as well as from dozens of tier-1, US-based VCs.
