Combell supports start-ups with the Cloud Angel Fund

The BeNeLux region counts many promising Internet start-ups. The major challenge for young businesses is often an efficient and reliable hosting infrastructure that serves as an essential foundation for them to host their SaaS applications (Software As A Service) or other (web) apps. Combell wants to help these start-ups and offers € 1,000,000 worth of free hosting infrastructure via the Combell Cloud Angel Fund.

Combell, which was once a start-up too, wants to give a little help to the start-up scene in the BeNeLux. This is why the Combell Cloud Angel Fund was born. No business incubator or venture capitalist, but a separate division for which Combell will offer free hosting in collaboration with several incubators for a period of one year.

Hosting expenses are often a significant part of the total budget

“Hosting is not meant to be used in the development phase. At that point, expenses are not too high yet. The problem with many start-ups is that once they start growing, often after a capital injection, hosting expenses become a significant part of their total budget”, says BetaGroup Managing Director Julie Foulon.

Focus on Saas, e-commerce or application hosting

“The criteria for submitting an application are clear. First of all, the company must be a start-up, not an existing business. Then, we will focus on SaaS, e-commerce or application hosting and, finally, the start-up must be a member of BetaGroup”, says Combell CEO Jonas Dhaenens.

“The total budget for the fund amounts to 1,00,000 euros. Combell requires no participation in the companies that benefit from free hosting. Start-ups that meet the aforementioned criteria can submit their application via the Cloud Angel Fund website. The Cloud Angel Committee will then review the applications and make a decision. After that, selected applicants will go through the presales stage in order to design a solution that suits their needs.

After a period of 12 months, start-ups are free to either renew their hosting services or transfer them to another hosting company with the help of our team of experts”, says Dhaenens.

Collaboration with incubators

In a first phase, there will be collaboration with BetaGroup. In the next months, collaborations will be initiated with other incubators. “As a tech community, we can only applaud this sort of initiative. This one will be a godsend for the start-up community in Belgium”, says Foulon.