UR Link, Unibail-Rodamco’s business accelerator for startups, just launched its 3rd season. The reward is a 4-month programme to accelerate business of startups through POCs. Pilot projects will be carried out in the shopping centres belonging to the European leader of commercial real estate, with the support of Top Management and NUMA experts. Startups can apply until April 30th.

• Better engaging visitors (crowdmarketing, chatbots, CRM, big data, etc)
• Creating new offers and services (foodtech, events, smart office, payment solutions, etc)
• Building social and sustainable places (smart building, circular economy, education, logistics, etc)

Startups can apply until April 30th, via the Kinov platform. 32 startups will be preselected by a jury composed of professionals and UR Link & NUMA teams, beginning of May. They will then have to pitch their concept and convince the jury to be selected among the 10 finalists. Unibail-Rodamco’s Management Board will designate the 5 selected startups which will enter the UR Link programme from June to Septembre.

UR Link, a bespoke programme.

• Co-development with Unibail-Rodamco: each startup is supported by Top Management sponsors and by operational managers, in view of building products or services tailored to the assets of the Group
• Prototype on Unibail-Rodamco’s portfolio: startups will gain access to the largest shopping centre portfolio in Europe – with its 800m annual visitors – to test their concept
• Coaching and mentoring, with first-class partners, investors, commercial property experts, and access to NUMA’s ecosystem, Paris centre for entrepreneurship
• A financial investment up to €50,000
• Free accommodation at the Mixer, Unibail-Rodamco’s innovation centre, located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris
• A unique set of services provided and a wide range of events organised

After 2 seasons, the UR Link programme proved its worth

Florence Faure, Founder of Dress in the City, startup accelerated during UR Link 1st season which signed a European partnership with Unibail-Rodamco, claims: “Thanks to UR Link, we have double our customer community. We organised two second-hand clothes events and built a permanent repository service at the 4 Temps in la Défense, the most visited shopping centre in France.”

For Didier Gasté, CEO and founder of Transaction Connect, startup accelerated during the 2nd season of UR Link and rolled out in the So Ouest shopping centre for its loyalty programme and transaction analysis solution, “the programme helped us validate customer buy-in to our product, with a pilot project we implemented in record time, while benefiting from bespoke support.”

To date, in total, 11 startups were already accelerated, among which Amano, My Pop Corner, Dress in the City, deliver.ee, Sous les Fraises, Spoon or Merito.

This article was initially published on April 6th, in Maddyness