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River City Labs Accelerator drives founders to scale up
RIVER CITY LABS Accelerator, in partnership with Telstra-backed muru-D, has opened applications for its next cohort of business founders seeking to scale fast – and internationally.
The Brisbane-based River City Labs Accelerator (RCL Accelerator) is a comprehensive quality program uniquely designed for startups who are ready to scale their businesses fast. The program provides each startup with $60,000 seed capital along with six months membership at RCL, business development support and introductions to global mentors, customers and investors. 
After three successful cohorts and 20 startups backed to date, RCL Accelerator is ready to welcome the next batch of startups to the latest program, labelled BNE.
BNE3 saw 145 startups from eight countries apply. After an intense interview and two-day bootcamp process, only 10 teams were selected for the program. For the BNE4 cohort, the accelerator is shifting focus from early-stage startups to later-stage and pre-series A scaleups.
The new head of RCL Accelerator and serial entrepreneur, Cristo Pajust, said the program was seeking founders who have a strong work ethic and the ambition to grow fast, “and those who don’t take ‘no’ easily”.
He said the program assists founders to connect to global markets that are valuable to their startups.
“We help teams tackle the hurdles, initiate a long-term relationship with suitable corporate partners and relevant investors in Australia and worldwide,” Mr Pajust said. “It’s suited to entrepreneurs who are ready to take their company seriously and want to grow in a fast paced environment.
“This is the program for the ones who have already achieved something good and want to become exceptionally great quicker than anybody else,” he said.
The program focusses on its local hands-on support from world-class serial entrepreneurs. RCL Accelerator concentrates on immediately matching startups with the right financing partner-investor, and directly connecting them to relevant corporations, venture funds and foreign sales markets.
“Instead of theory, we concentrate on execution and hands-on expansion help with local support from experienced entrepreneurs who've done it in target markets before,” Mr Pajust said. “The difference compared to any other local programs comes from actionable -- not theoretical – support from serial entrepreneurs.”
Head of muru-D, Julie Trell said the RCL Accelerator program was going from strength to strength.
“It’s been great to see the growth of the RCL Accelerator year on year as they continue to attract great founders to the program,” Ms Trell said. “It’s fantastic to see the enthusiasm and support from the Brisbane startup ecosystem and I look forward to finding out who will be joining the fourth cohort.”
The River City Labs Accelerator applications close on April 30. Startups in the current cohort, BNE3, will hold their end-of-program demo day alongside RiverPitch in a brand new event titled Startup Invest.
The event will be held during Myriad Festival, Brisbane’s biggest annual startup festival, on May 17.
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