The starting point
for exceptional
founders.
NextWave runs application-only cohorts for the most capable operators, engineers, designers, and domain experts. We bring you into a room, help teams form around the best ideas — yours or ours — back the strongest with a cash grant to build, then put you in front of investors, or invest ourselves from our own fund.
A cohort. A room. A company on the other side.
We select the people, align the teams, fund the build, and open the door to investors. Everything runs through our platform end to end — application to Demo Day.
You apply
One application through our platform. Tell us what you've built, where your expertise sits, and whether you already have an idea or want to find one in the room.
The room forms
40–50 vetted operators, builders and domain experts get in the room together. Structured workshops surface the strongest problems worth solving — from your ideas or ours — and you have a short window to lock in a founding team before the build phase begins.
We back the best
The strongest teams get a cash, equity-free grant, hands-on help from us, and a five-week sprint to turn the idea into something real.
You meet investors
The programme ends with a Demo Day: teams pitch to a curated room of investors, angels and operators. We make direct intros to the funds and angels in our network — and where the fit is right, we invest ourselves.
Domain experts and serious builders.
Every cohort is hand-picked from the application pool. We look for people who bring deep insight into a market, the technical or design craft to build, or the operator instinct to run a company from day one. Some arrive with a conviction of what to build. Others come to find it in the room.
Domain experts
Operators from finance, health, industry, AI — people who've seen a problem up close and want a team to build the answer with.
Engineers & designers
Technical founders and product craftspeople who can take an idea from a whiteboard to a working v1 in weeks, not quarters.
Founders & GTM
People ready to own commercial, growth, or CEO seats — whether they arrive with an idea or partner with someone in the cohort who does.
Your idea, or ours.
Some cohort members walk in with a thesis and want the right co-founders around it. Others walk in open, and pair up with a domain expert whose problem clicks. We also bring our own researched opportunities into the room — validated spaces where a great team is the missing piece.
- Cash grants, equity-free, for the strongest teams
- AI and infrastructure credits to accelerate the build
- Hands-on help from us and a bench of operator mentors
- A five-week sprint into Demo Day in front of investors
One application.
One room.
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Every submission is read. Selected candidates are invited to the next cohort day.