Cardeal Saw 600% Improvement in Sales as a Result of Participation in 500 Georgia
Two years ago, the entry of the world-class top-accelerator 500 Global in Georgia completely changed the reality, growth rate, and perspective of startups. Startups were given a historic chance, with the help of professional international mentors, to significantly increase efficiency and scalability, to get to the US, the dream place for startups in Silicon Valley, and attract the attention of large investors.
The project was carried out with the support of the Bank of Georgia and the Georgian Innovation and Technology Agency GITA. The results of the two streams exceeded expectations: more than 32 million GEL of investment, and more than 627,000 registered users... Based on the help of the accelerator, the startups received more than 10 million GEL of income, and the total number of their subscribers exceeded 4,400. In total, the startups were able to acquire 89 partners and employ 354 people.
Soon, the selection of startups for the third stream of 500 Georgia will begin. That is why one of the winning startups evaluates the experience gained in 500 Georgia and the growth they achieved through it.
"500 Global is a world-class top accelerator. From the first day, when we heard about its arrival in Georgia, getting here became a top priority; At that time, we were already in the market and knew our customers, but we did not have the most important thing - the growth rate. We started working in this direction from the very first day of the program and by the end of the program we have already achieved a significant improvement, despite the fact that the pandemic crisis was not yet over at that time", says Zura Bakuridze, co-founder of Cardeal, at Marketer.
As Zura Bakuridze explains, 500 Georgia plays a crucial role in Cardeal's success. They even divide the periods: Cardeal before 500 Georgia and Cardeal after 500 Georgia, because the real growth started right after they got here. This is also confirmed by the numbers. The growth is in many directions, but most importantly, Cardeal has a 600% improvement in sales. Today, the startup's monthly turnover exceeds 2 million GEL and we have been working on profit for more than 1 year.
''It was not just a program focused on solving any specific problem, change and improvement touched almost every direction, be it marketing, sales, product development, investment, or any other; Most importantly, the mentors worked with us to solve specific problems.
We had a major improvement in terms of product development, as we had already launched the update 2 times before, but we did not get the desired results. The third update, which happened during 500 Georgia, was very close to product market fit, and after 2 weeks, we got 30-40% growth in almost all metrics,'' said the co-founder of Cardeal.
Any type of startup can participate in 500 Georgia, from any industry, but it is necessary that the startup knows its customers and has already started sales.
Source: Marketer