AN organisation that runs pre-accelerator programmes in America and Canada is launching in the North-East.

Applications for Startup Boost Newcastle are open for start ups from Gateshead, Durham, Sunderland to Middlesbrough and Darlington.

Its goal is to lead pre-seed stage start ups towards accelerators, investment, or revenue in just six weeks.

Darlington-based Mark Gardner, city director of Startup Boost Newcastle, said: "There is a need for a grassroots pre-accelerator to feed into the other accelerators around the region.

"I'm trying to make this as inclusive as possible, will be encouraging applications from BAME, women in tech, third sector, and having worked on Enterprise days with 16 and 17-year-olds with the NCS, I have been blown away by some of the ideas of those not in further or higher education - they just need a helping hand taking things further."

Launching for the first time in the North-East, there will be an Autumn and Spring cohort.

However, because of the pandemic, those starting in Autumn will be coached remotely, on six evenings from September 28, finishing with a Global Demo Day and Global Investor Day.

The pre-accelerator is also free for anyone to attend and no equity is taken.

"In essence we are here to ensure that pre-seed tech business and founders have a good foundation and a little bit of street smarts to be sustainable and scalable as well as having access to mentors, workshops, pitch training, resources and a global shop window to put themselves into," the man added.

"We are here to collaborate regionally, nationally and internationally to raise the profile of North-East talent and innovation. I'm happy to chat to anyone who would like to get involved."

Startup Boost is supported by Techstar and F6S, a member of the Global Accelerator Network.

For the past few years Startup Boost has been running programmes in major cities in the USA and Canada, along with Dublin, with Newcastle (North-East) and London launching this year.

The Northern Echo:

Applications are now open region-wide, with eight to ten teams or founders on the first one, and 12-15 on the Spring one, which is hoped to be in-person.