It looks like there is pent-up demand for a game accelerator in Europe. GameFounders announced today that it received 122 applications from game startups in 41 countries to participate in its three-month training program in Tallinn, Estonia.
That’s a pretty healthy expression of interest in the accelerator, which is like an incubator without the funding.
“This is our first round. We aimed for a three-digit number and are happy with the final result,” said Kadri Ugand, co-founder of GameFounders. “Our mentors were a tremendous help spreading the word, and that is how we managed to cover so many countries.”
Most of the applications came from large gaming countries in the United Kingdom and the U.S. as well as neighboring countries Lithuania and Latvia. Other applicants hailed from Kazakhstan, Kenya, Philippines, Kuwait, Argentina, France, Netherlands, Russia, Romania, Denmark, Germany, Finland, India, Italy, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, Hungary, Ireland, Sweden, Brazil, Canada, Israel, Belarus, Mexico, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, and Ukraine.
GameFounders will pick 10 startups to participate by the beginning of August. The startups will move to Tallinn from September through November and be coached by more than 60 gaming mentors.
The accelerator is co-financed by the Startup Estonia program. It offers startup capital in addition to high-level mentors, partnership deals, and a global contact network.
“I am happy to see that so many gaming startups see the benefits of bootstrapping in Estonia,” Dmitri Burnashev, Director of Business Start-Up’s Division of Enterprise Estonia said about the accelerator.