How to Apply to Founders Factory in 2026

Founders Factory is not one accelerator. Its index lists 13 open corporate-partnered programs, from Aviva fintech in London to Rio Tinto mining tech in Perth, feeding four-month cohorts through one Apply Now form (Founders Factory). Terms differ per program, and no standard equity percentage is published.

The decision that matters is not whether to apply. It is which corporate partner's program you route into, because the index spreads 13 open programs across fintech in London and Milan, mining tech and nature tech in Perth, neurological care globally, maritime and logistics, media tech in Singapore and climate (Founders Factory).

Founders Factory says its team operates as co-founders for four months, alongside the capital, the investor showcases and warm introductions (Founders Factory). The partner is the product. The cohort is the packaging.

Check the domain first. This guide covers foundersfactory.com. The same search results also surface Wisconsin's Founder Factory and Founders Factory Africa, which are separate programs with separate applications.

How to apply to Founders Factory in 2026: the seven steps

1. Open the accelerator index at foundersfactory.com/accelerator and read all 13 open programs before you touch any form.
2. Pick the corporate partner whose sector and geography match what you are building, not the program with the nearest deadline.
3. Click through to that program's own page and verify the status. The index and the individual pages can disagree: Blue Action appears on the open list while its own page says applications are closed (Founders Factory).
4. Read the published terms on that page, because cash, duration and location are set per program and not group-wide (Founders Factory).
5. Submit the form that destination page points to. The accelerator page's Apply Now Typeform is the default entry point, but pages including Aviva, Fastweb, G-Force and MSWA route to partner-specific forms (Founders Factory).
6. Write the answers for that one partner. First Round's seed pitching guidance is to prepare for the specific diligence questions and to understand how the investor's decision meeting runs (First Round Review).
7. Apply once you have an MVP, a founding team and some initial market traction, and pick the program matching your industry and stage (Carta).

The 13 open Founders Factory accelerator programs

The list is the map, and it is where the routing decision is made. These 13 are labelled open on the accelerator index (Founders Factory):

Four more sit on the same index as recent or closed: Northwestern Medicine, the LANDCROS Innovation Studios Mining Challenge by Hitachi Construction Machinery, The R3sidency and the InnovateUK Hospital to Community Accelerator, for 17 listed programs in total (Founders Factory).

Do not trust the index label alone. Treat it as a shortlist and confirm status on the destination page, because Blue Action shows as open on the index while its own page says applications are closed (Founders Factory).

Founders Factory investment terms: what each program publishes

There is no group-wide cheque size, so stop looking for one. Published terms differ program by program:

Aviva, Fastweb and G-Force figures come from their program pages (Founders Factory), MSWA, Blue Action and Blue Action Canada from theirs (Founders Factory), and the two Perth programs list cash investment and follow-on opportunities without publishing an amount (Founders Factory).

Equity is the gap in the published record. None of those pages states a standard equity percentage (Founders Factory), and only Blue Action Canada is explicitly non-equity (Founders Factory). Carta puts the general accelerator range at about 3% to 10% in exchange for funding, guidance and investor networking (Carta), which is a benchmark to negotiate against, not a Founders Factory term.

Read "our team operate as co-founders" as an operating claim, not a cap-table one. The four-month co-founder framing sits on the accelerator page next to the capital and the investor showcases (Founders Factory), with no ownership figure attached. Get the equity number in writing before you sign anything, and confirm whether the four-month cohort or your program page's longer duration governs.

Pick the corporate backed accelerator partner before you pick the program

Route by the partner asset you need, not by the sector word in the title. Two of the 13 open programs are fintech, in London and Milan, and two run out of Perth in mining tech and nature tech (Founders Factory). Sector alone will not tell you which form to fill in.

The application answer that separates you is the one naming what you want from that specific corporate.

✅ Good: "We test perception models for autonomous haul trucks. The ask we would put to the partner is site access and a data-sharing agreement, which is why we applied to the Rio Tinto mining tech program in Perth." It names one partner, one asset and one reason the route is not interchangeable.

❌ Bad: "We are a leading AI platform for industrial operations and would welcome the opportunity to work with any of your corporate partners." Any of the 13 could receive this, which is exactly the problem.

Do not fire the same deck at three partner routes. The programs share a brand, not a use case, and an application written to be interchangeable gives the reviewing partner nothing to test.

Founders Factory venture studio or accelerator: which application you are filling in

These are two different entry points, and only one of them is a cohort application.

The studio and accelerator split comes from Founders Factory's own description of the group (Founders Factory), and the accelerator entry point from the program index (Founders Factory).

If you already have a company, a team and users, you want a partner program. Carta's advice is to apply once you have an MVP, a founding team and initial traction, and to choose an accelerator matching your industry and stage (Carta). Here the industry match is unusually literal, because the industry has a named corporate attached to it.

When this matters for your raise

A corporate-partnered program is a distribution bet placed at the same time as a funding bet, and the funding half is harder than it was: seed-stage startups on Carta raised 12.5% less capital in 2024 than in 2023, while the median seed pre-money valuation hit $16 million in Q4 2024, up 22% year over year (Carta). A named partner logo is the part of this that a seed investor will actually diligence, so pick the route you can defend in that meeting. Compare it against the Station F Founders Program application and how to apply to Entrepreneur First, and read raising a seed round in the UK before you commit to a London route. If running that investor list in parallel with applications is eating your week, tools like Causo keep the outreach moving while decisions sit.

FAQ

What does Founders Factory invest? It depends on the program, and no standard cheque size is published on the accelerator index. Published examples include £50,000 for the Aviva fintech program, €80,000 for Fastweb and €250,000 for G-Force (Founders Factory), plus A$200,000 for MSWA and $150,000 for Blue Action (Founders Factory). The Rio Tinto and Western Australia nature tech pages list cash investment without publishing an amount (Founders Factory).

How many programs does Founders Factory run? The accelerator index lists 17 programs: 13 marked open and four recent or closed (Founders Factory). The closed set includes Northwestern Medicine, the LANDCROS Mining Challenge by Hitachi Construction Machinery, The R3sidency and the InnovateUK Hospital to Community Accelerator. Read the index rather than a third-party list, because the open and closed labels change.

Is Founders Factory an accelerator or a studio? Both. The venture studio builds and funds new ventures from inception, while the sector-focused accelerator programs and venture funds invest in early-stage founding teams (Founders Factory). If you already have a company and a team, the accelerator programs are your route. The studio path starts at inception, so it is a co-founding conversation rather than a cohort application.

Which Founders Factory programs are open now? The index lists 13 as open: Aviva fintech (London and global), Western Australia Government nature tech (Perth), Rio Tinto mining tech (Perth), MSWA neurological care (global), HSBC Industrial Innovator (Singapore and Southeast Asia), Blue Action (Bahamas), Mediobanca fintech (Milan), Blue Action Canada, ZEBOX maritime and logistics (global), Fastweb media and telecoms (Milan), HSBC Future Industries (global), Pico media tech (Singapore) and G-Force climate (global) (Founders Factory). Verify on the destination page before applying, because Blue Action sits on the open list while its own page says applications are closed (Founders Factory).

Does Founders Factory take equity? The accelerator page and the individual program pages do not publish a standard equity percentage (Founders Factory). One program is explicitly non-equity: Blue Action Canada is a free 12-week program (Founders Factory). Carta puts the general accelerator range at about 3% to 10% in exchange for funding, guidance and investor networking (Carta), but that is an industry benchmark, not a published Founders Factory term.