500 Startups is focused on a wide range of areas like SaaS, Mobile, Marketplaces, E-commerce, Fintech and Music/video. The 500 Seed Program emphasizes internet marketing and customer acquisition, design and user experience, and lean startup practices and metrics in San Francisco, Mountain View, and Mexico City. The 500 Series A Program delivers growth marketing and investment for post-seed and pre-Series A companies and runs in multiple locations globally. 

They accept applications from Nordic startups to their seed programs in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, and their series A programs in Europe (London and Berlin). 

They believe that great founders come in all shades, genders, and nationalities. Since their inception, they’ve made it their mission to find and empower talented founders, whether they’re across the world or overlooked in their own backyard. Diversity has always been a core value at 500.

Experience

500 Startups have invested in 1,800 technology startups all over the world since their inception in 2010 including: Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), Credit Karma, Grab, Udemy, Ipsy, Talkdesk, Intercom, MakerBot (acq’d by SSYS), Wildfire (acq’d by GOOG), and Viki (acq’d by Rakuten). Their team of 150 people based in 20 countries manage seed investments across 60 countries and speak over 25 languages.

Their investment team and mentor network has operational experience at companies such as PayPal, Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Twitter and Apple.

Previously programs have been run in Sweden and Norway in collaboration with Almi Invest, SUP46, Opera Software and Telenor as strategic partners.

How much do they invest?

They invest $150k in exchange for 6% and charge a $37.5k fee for participation in the 500 Seed Program.

They invest $100-250K on market terms and charge a $25-50k fee depending on geography for participation in the 500 Series A Program.

How do they work?

You can apply for funding and prticipation in the programs through their website. Here you can write a short description of your company. If possible, be sure to include a link to your most recent investor presentation. 

This makes a difference to them

Being a global organization, 500 Startups is looking for companies who think global from day one. They mostly invest in companies with a shipping and functional product, and with some modest amount of users or revenue

Startups they funded

Some of their nordic investments include: Pacemaker, Brisk.io, Mentimeter, Timely, and Easysize.