Organized by LeanSquare, a VC fund based in Liège (Belgium), this program aims to support the most promising international start-ups to help them understand better how work the music industry and the VC world.

For this 5th batch, 10 start-ups will be selected to be part of the program. Teams will be individually coached by experienced entrepreneurs and music industry experts.

The program will kick off with a series of workshops focused on entrepreneurship, innovation and finance. These workshops will cover topics including sales, negotiations, investors relations, growth hacking, digital strategy, communications and storytelling.

The program is 100% free of charges.

Running virtually from May 3d to July 8th, the 10 weeks accelerator will consist of:

• Individual mentorships with experts
• Guidance developing financial proposals
• On-stage presentations at the virtual Wallifornia Demo Day
• 1/1 meetings with top level music industry executives and VCs

This year, we are looking for start-ups working on those categories :

• ACCESS (Enabling dynamic Creation, Curation, Discovery & Dissemination of content across multimedia and internet of things)
• ENGAGEMENT (Gamification, Immersive Entertainment (VR/XR), Audience participation across social and distributed networks)
• VALUE (Content monetization, optimisation and enhancement using all technologies including NFTs, artificial technologies and blockchain)
• SMART VENUES (Enhancing access, engagement, and value using technologies across global geographies, both actual and virtual, from Stadia to smart devices)

Due to the current situation, the acceleration program will be organized 100% online. We strongly believe that gathering, even online and keeping working on the animation of the community is very important ! Let's to this all together !

If you have questions, please contact : info@walliforniamusictech.com

• Deadline to apply : April 11th
• Jury // Pitch session : April 19th
• Announcement of the 10 selected startups : April 23d
• Program : From May 3d (Kickoff) to July 8th (Demo Day)

Universal Music Group is participating in this acceleration program through its UMG Accelerator Engagement Network. Representatives from UMG will be on-hand during the program and UMG executives may be assigned as on-going mentors to start-ups within the program. UMG, the world leader in music-based entertainment, is partnered with generalist accelerator programs throughout the world to assist in the evaluation, mentorship and development of innovative music start-ups. The UMG Accelerator Network is currently partnered with the APX by Axel Springer & Porsche (Berlin), NYC MediaLab (New York City), Sparklabs (Seoul and Taipei), LeanSquare (Belgium), Chinaccelerator (Shanghai), Paris&Co’s LINCC (Paris), Ryerson University’s Music Den (Toronto), the Melbourne Accelerator Program (Melbourne), U.C. Berkeley’s SkyDeck (Berkeley), MassChallenge Israel (Jerusalem), MassChallenge Mexico (Mexico City) and Baita (Campinas).