FAQ
WHO WE BACK AND HOW WE INVEST
Tech companies at pre-seed, whatever the sector. We look for real technology, or a real edge in how fast you reach your market, and a market large enough to carry the company you are describing.
Yes. Revenue is one signal among others. Usage, pilots or strong feedback from the market can also show that something is working. What we need to see is that you have built something, put it in front of real users, and learned from it.
It is usually too early for us. We back founders who have already built and tested something: a first product, a prototype in users' hands, or a pilot with a customer.
Three things. What you have built and tested. The signals that show the market is responding: revenue, usage, pilots or feedback. And how far you intend to go: we back founders who think beyond their home market from day one and aim to lead their category.
We can invest up to €500K across three stages:
- €50K at entry through a BSA, in exchange for 5% equity
- A further €50K after three months through a BSA AIR, subject to the KPIs agreed on day one, with a €1M floor, a €3.5M cap and a 20% discount
- Up to €400K in follow-on equity between month six and month eighteen, reserved for the strongest performers in the program
On the follow-on we invest alongside other investors and never put in more than half of the round.
Yes. Tell us in the application where the round stands and who is in it. We invest alongside other investors when it makes sense for the company.
THE PROGRAM
Six months, from the day you start. There is no batch: each company starts when it is ready and follows its own calendar.
We set a fast pace from your first week, and we keep it for six months. We work close to you the whole time, and we open our doors to you: customers, partners and investors.
No. There are no classes and no mandatory modules. When you hit a problem, we find the person who has already solved it and put you in front of them. The rest of the time, you build.
Our Elevation Partners, entrepreneurs who have built and scaled companies. They invest alongside us and work with the teams throughout the six months. Around them, Advisors with specific expertise help you when you need it: strategy, sales and marketing, hiring, finance and legal.
From your first week, your team can use 550+ startup tools, worth up to $3M in software resources: AI tools, Notion, Stripe, Make and hundreds of others.
You present your results to our network and to the investors who work with us. The strongest companies go on to pitch at Dealflow, the investor evenings we host at Le Triplex.
You keep your place in the network: the people, the building, and the founders who came before and after you.
LE TRIPLEX AND LILLE
No. You need to be at Le Triplex regularly across the six months. Lille sits at the heart of Europe: Brussels is thirty-five minutes away, Paris an hour, Ghent an hour and ten, London an hour and twenty.
Our home base: 1,000 m² in the heart of Lille, dedicated to startups. Entrepreneurs, investors and partners work under the same roof, and 404 Ventures has its offices in the building.
APPLYING
No. Applications are open all year. There is no batch: we review companies as they come, and each one starts when it is ready.
Through the online application form. It takes a few minutes. Tell us what you are building, who it is for, and what you have learned so far.
Five steps:
- 01Application. We review every application.
- 02Interview. Thirty minutes with the Elevation team. You can ask us everything about the program and the terms.
- 03Deep dive. An in-depth review of your company with one or two Advisors who know your field.
- 04Advisor Committee. You present to four or five Advisors who have built and financed companies.
- 05Investment Committee. Every Partner has a vote. If the answer is yes, we agree the terms and you start.
ELEVATION AND ITS NETWORK
We run Elevation with the team behind 404 Ventures, whose offices are in the same building. Together we have backed 33 companies at pre-seed and seed, and five of them have been acquired: TwicPics, Axeptio, ClicData, Inpulse and Seald.
Tell us about them. The companies we want to back are usually already known to someone.
If you have built companies and want to be involved early, tell us what you have built.