The Difference Engine is a full time 13 week seed accelerator programme which combines investment capital of £20,000 (for 8% of the business) with intensive mentoring and coaching. At the conclusion of the programme the businesses will be expected to be investor ready, and will have to present their businesses and products to a group of venture capitalists and angel investors at a demo day.
The first programme commenced in March 2010 and is running from Boho One located in Middlesbrough with 9 teams from across the UK and Europe. Our second programme will start later in 2010 and will be based from Sunderland Software City.
The Difference Engine is comparable to Y Combinator (Silicon Valley), TechStars (Boulder, Boston & Seattle) and Seedcamp (London).
Outside of London, this is the first major acceleration programme to be set up in Europe, and clearly demonstrates the region’s ambition in helping aspiring digital entrepreneurs and attracting them to the region.