Technology Park Split and Tenity, one of Europe’s leading platforms for startup innovation and investment, are launching the Innovate Accelerator – a six-week program for startups from Split and the region that want to grow beyond Croatia. The program is free for selected teams, and applications are open until 23 October.

Since 2015, Tenity has connected startups with large companies, banks, insurers and government agencies. Its teams are based in London, Zürich, Singapore, Madrid and Istanbul, it has run more than 100 corporate innovation programs, and through its own funds it invests in startups from pre-seed to Series A – one of its portfolio companies, Keyrock, became a unicorn this year.

In an exclusive interview, we spoke with Kaan Akın, Managing Partner at Tenity, who spoke on the main stage and judged startup pitches at Innovate Split in September. We asked him what the program looks like, what he looks for when he first meets a team, the most common mistakes in applications, and the first realistic steps towards markets like DACH and the UK. If you are thinking about applying, this is your guide.

You spoke on the main stage and judged startup pitches at Innovate Split in September. What stayed with you about the people and startups you met, and why was Split the right place for Tenity? Or was Lana’s power of persuasion simply too strong? 🙂

The ambition. A lot of the teams I saw on stage were building for customers outside Croatia from day one, not treating export or going global as a someday problem. What was missing was the bridge: the right buyers, the right investors, the right feedback early enough to matter. That’s exactly the part we’re good at.

Split also has something most ecosystems would pay for: talent that actually wants to live there, a park that takes this seriously, and a community small enough that people pick up the phone. And yes, Lana is very persuasive. I think I agreed before my coffee was finished.

For someone in Split who hears about Tenity for the first time: who are you, and how do Open Innovation and Venture Capital work together under one roof?

We started in 2015. Today our teams sit in London, Zürich, Singapore, Madrid and Istanbul, and our programs run well beyond that, from Baku to Italy. In plain terms: large companies, governments and agencies come to us to work with startups, or to help their startups grow through the right partnerships, access to capital and access to ecosystems. On the other side, we’ve been investing in fintech across Europe and APAC, and we’re building more vehicles to fund our growing portfolio and alumni.

The two feed each other. Running programs with banks, insurers and governments means we see thousands of startups a year and know what buyers actually pay for. Investing means we have skin in the game and judge teams like an investor, not a consultant. For a founder, that combination means one thing: we can help you find a customer and capital, and we know which one you need first.

Tenity has run over 100 corporate innovation programs, for partners like JETRO, KISED and the Italian Trade Agency. Can you share one concrete example where a partnership with a corporate changed a small team’s trajectory?

Allianz HackZone is a good one. We’ve been running it for a while now, and some of the solutions our startups built with Allianz have been rolled out into Allianz’s global services. During the program, nearly 100 people from Allianz engage with the founders: giving feedback, co-creating and trying to find solutions that can scale.

Every year we see a few signed pilots come out of it, and a signed pilot with one of the largest insurers in the world changes everything. The next customer conversation is shorter, the next investor meeting starts from a different place, and the team stops guessing what enterprise buyers want. One real corporate customer and supporter is worth more than ten demo days.

One real corporate customer and supporter is worth more than ten demo days.

You have worked with ecosystems from Seoul to London to Singapore. What can Split learn from them, and what makes Split different?

Culture is everything, and it’s fascinating to see how differently people work around the world. At the same time, I usually say that about 60% of the problems our founders face are the same everywhere: scalability, landing the first client, hiring the right people, setting up the go-to-market. If you’re building a tech-driven, scalable solution, that’s true in any city.

Seoul taught me harmony: government, corporates and investors moving in the same direction at the same time. London is about selling early; founders there go to customers before they feel ready. Singapore thinks regional from day one, because the home market is small. That last one is the most relevant lesson for Split.

What makes Split different is scale, in a good way. The park, the city, the banks and the founders can actually sit in one room and decide something. Big ecosystems lose that. Add quality of life and a cost base that makes runway last longer, and you have a real advantage, if teams use it to go international rather than stay comfortable.

You invest from pre-seed to Series A, and Keyrock became a unicorn this year. What did that mean for Tenity, and what do you look for when you first meet a startup?

First of all, credit to the Keyrock founders. They did the hard part. For us it’s a reminder that early conviction in a team pays off, even when the market around them is noisy, and it’s great to see our founders creating real value for their clients.

Every investor has their own lens, but mine comes down to three questions. What motivates the founding team, and is it the right reason? Do they have the right tools, whether that’s experience or access to resources? And can I trust them? At pre-seed, around 60% of the companies we’ve worked with over the years end up pivoting. That means almost everything we discuss in the first meeting will change. So you want founders who can read that change and adapt to it.

You plan at least 35 targeted introductions for seven teams. What does a good introduction look like, and how do you make sure it leads to a real conversation, not just a business card?

A good intro has three things: the right person, a specific reason, and a founder who is ready for it. The right person means someone who can say yes, not someone collecting innovation trends. A specific reason means “this team solves X, which you told me is a problem”, not “you should meet”. And ready means the founder knows exactly what they’re asking for.

We’re lucky to have a lot of people around the Tenity ecosystem who like engaging with early-stage teams, and some of them end up investing. They’re also generous with honest feedback, which I think is the most valuable thing a young company can get. So from every intro, we want at least good feedback from the investor or corporate on the other side.

We do double opt-in, we prep both sides, and we track every intro to a next step. If it dies, we want to know why. Five strong intros per team beat fifty random LinkedIn connections.

What does your support look like in collaboration with Technology Park Split, both during the six weeks and in the years after?

During the six weeks: weekly 1:1s with each team, two intensive sessions in Split, mentors matched to each startup’s real problem, and introductions to customers, partners and investors in our network. The park brings the local ecosystem, the space and the community. We bring the international side.

After the program, the teams stay in our network. That means access to the corporate programs we run across Europe and Asia, investor introductions when they’re ready, and a direct line to us. That’s how we’ve always worked: after years of corporate programs, many of our partners are still with us, and plenty of those partnerships grew into market access programs and larger, multi-market programs. We want the same here. This should be the first edition, not the only one.

What would success look like after six weeks, and what would it look like after three years?

After six weeks: every team with a sharper story and a clear go-to-market plan, real conversations with international buyers and investors, and a few of them already moving toward a pilot or a funding round. If even one team signs something by December, that’s a big win for a six-week program.

After three years: a handful of Split companies selling seriously outside Croatia, at least one raising a meaningful round, and Split being a regular stop for investors and corporates who scout in the region. And I love the “startup mafia” idea. I hope the companies we work with today create spin-offs, with their early team members going on to start and grow companies of their own. That’s the real value for an ecosystem.

Why did you choose a hybrid format, with two bootcamps in Split and online work in between?

We also run fully online programs, and they can work, but it’s hard to stay focused, and you lose the serendipity of random conversations. In person, it’s often not about who’s teaching what. You start a workshop, one founder says something, another adds to it, and suddenly the room comes up with things you could never have planned. I’m hoping we also get some time to socialise, because a lot of good things happen founder to founder.

At the same time, founders’ time is the scarcest resource in the program. So the in-person days are for intensity and trust: workshops, pitch practice, and being in the room with people who can open doors. The online weeks are for doing the actual work, with support, without pulling founders away from their customers and teams. Six focused weeks with clear outcomes beats three months of calendar invites.

What kind of team convinces you in five minutes? And what would you say to a founder in Split who thinks “this isn’t for us” and is hesitating to apply?

A founder who talks more about their customer and the problem than about what they’re building. At the end of the day you build a business for the customer, not for yourself. Tell me who buys, why they buy now, how your funnel works, and why you’re the right people to do it. Honest numbers, even small ones, beat big projections. And listen when someone pushes back.

To the founder who’s hesitating: there are a lot of accelerators out there, and they’re not all the same. This one is for companies that are ready to grow. If you’re mainly heads-down on the next feature, it’s probably not the right moment. But if you’re chasing your first serious customers, want investor insight and need a way to build pipeline, especially outside Croatia, this is exactly what we’re set up for. It’s six weeks, it’s free for selected teams, and the worst case is that you leave with a sharper pitch and a few new contacts. Apply. Let us decide if you’re early.

Apply. Let us decide if you’re early.

What is the most common mistake you see in applications, and how can a team avoid it?

Making everything bland. People can tell. Use AI, by all means, but be concrete. Every early-stage team has a big ambition, and thousands of startups apply with the same “$1 billion market” slide. Statistically, only a few will deliver, and that’s normal. What we look for is proof that you’re authentic and can actually do it.

The other classic is describing the product instead of the customer: three paragraphs on features and one line on who pays and why. Flip it. And tell us what help you actually need. “Access to investors” is not an answer. “Two pilot customers in German insurance” is.

Many Croatian startups have a strong product but a small home market. What are the first realistic steps towards markets like DACH and the UK?

Europe looks like one big market, but it’s really a set of very different ones, and the right first market depends on your product and your buyer. Pick one. Not “Europe”, not both at once. Then validate before you book flights: 15 to 20 conversations with real potential buyers, done remotely, will tell you more than any market report.

The UK is usually the faster test. It’s welcoming to outsiders, there’s no real language barrier, buyers are more open to discussing new things, and traction there is a strong signal for investors. DACH can be more regulated and tends to want conventional proof points and references, but customers are loyal once you’re in. Southern Europe is a different game again, often with a language barrier. Wherever you go, you need one anchor customer or partner who makes the next ten conversations easier. Start light: an advisor or partner on the ground, not an office.

What would you tell local companies, banks and corporates in Dalmatia? How can they benefit from the program?

This is the cheapest way to see the best startups in your region up close and test them on a real problem, before your competitors do. Bring us a concrete challenge, and we’ll make sure the right teams are in the room.

Join the partner day in Split in late November and meet the teams. For banks and investors, it’s an early look at companies that will be raising next year. For corporates, it’s a low-risk way to run a pilot. Ping Lana or me if you want to get involved.

Applications close on 23 October. What is your message to founders, and what would you like to see in December when the program ends?

Apply before 23 October. It takes less time than you think, and we read every application properly.

In December I want to see seven teams on stage at demo day with real pipelines, not just good slides. Founders who know exactly which market they’re going after, with people on the other side already waiting for their follow-up. And ideally, at least one signed deal we can all celebrate in Split.

Applications for the Innovate Accelerator are open until 23 October via [APPLICATION LINK].