WELCOME aims to connect 4 different major EU ecosystems (Berlin, Dublin, Milan and Madrid), identifying and engaging through WELCOME local partners the most relevant players of the previous 4 web entrepreneur (WE) ecosystems (investors, corporates, media, successful WEs) with prospective, emerging and successful startups. The final goal is to create a Pan-European ecosystem in which every WE in one of the ecosystems feels that belongs to it. WELCOME will run twice over a period of 2 years. There are 5 targets for WELCOME activities in the 4 ecosystems: • WP2. “Prospective wannabe entrepreneurs”, the goal is to impact on younger generations, woman and unemployed population and attract them to become active players in the ecosystems. • WP3. “Seed and early stage startups and investors”, the goal is to identify the emerging startups, investors (BAs, VCs), large & media corporates, media and in each local ecosystem and create connections and relationship cross-borders. The objective is not only to connect startups and investors, but also startups with other startups and build a cross-border investor network, supporting them to successfully launch their operations. • WP4. “Later stage startups and investors”, the objective is to identify the emerging stars in each local ecosystem and connect them with investors, corporates, and media in order to support them scale internationally within EU. • WP5: WELCOME will foster self-sustainability of their activities beyond the life of the project as well as collaboration with SE Initiative and other EU initiatives. • WP6: WELCOME will launch a media and a marketing campaign where the most interesting cases of EU Startups able to scale up will be presented to the public, by means of storytellings in relevant media Channels. The marketing campaign will be conducted by means of the WELCOME camper that will travel around the 4 ecosystems (displaying WELCOME logo).

Lighthouse sets a standard on developing cross border connections within and beyond Europe. The project lights the way for startups within Europe by organising 8 Deep Dive Weeks in 4 ecosystems: Berlin, Dublin, Lisbon and the Baltics – meeting over 1600 different ecosystem players in specific themes such as fintech, refugee tech, e-gov, IoT, etc - and culminating with a Top 10 Lighthouse Award in London each year. Lighthouse will support directly over 120 startups to meet key people (investors, corporates, technological experts, media, customers, talent, etc.) in each of these ecosystems through matchmaking, 1-on-1 mentoring, workshops and many other activities. Furthermore, the best of the best of the selected startups will receive the chance to take part in our Europass programme - taking them to 8 of the biggest European tech events; as well as 1 week scouting missions to Silicon Valley, New York and Israel to accelerate their positioning as global players. Lighthouse’s top-notch support activities prepare startups to take advantage of the opportunities in external markets as well as providing qualified introductions to key players in new ecosystems: which all contributes to increased market success. In concrete expected impact, the project will help selected startups to obtain +2000 investment, partnership or customers leads, 500 new international customer leads, develop +100 adapted products/services to new markets, raise collective turnover by 50%, create +500 new jobs, raise +€50m in total investment and many more direct and serendipitous results. Lighthouse does not happen in a vacuum - its structure enables perfect integration with all Startup Europe activities - especially within Deep Dive Weeks. This exploits synergies between Lighthouse, Startup Europe and all related stakeholders by pooling resources together – encouraging even more ecosystems to take part in its activities.