The Spring 2025 Accelerator Programme open call is part way through, and so is cohort 19. We asked the team at Safest Way to share their perspectives on joining the latest cohort to inspire the next intake.

For Alesja Gilvear and Ilya Ilyankou, the programme has proven to be a transformative experience both personally and professionally. Among the many benefits of tailored support on offer, the suite of workshops have been instrumental in refining business models, and the equity-free funding has been crucial in advancing product development.

How I came to apply

I applied to the Geovation programme after my academic advisor spotted the opportunity on the F6S platform. Unlike most accelerators, Geovation stood out with its unique focus on geospatial technology and its connection to Ordnance Survey, making the programme incredibly appealing.

The interview process was intense, but discussing the problem I’m trying to solve with experts in the field was amazing. The intensity of the conversation felt like a bonus.

My mindset going in was: I probably won’t get in. As a solo, non-technical founder, I knew my chances were slim. But I decided to make the most of the opportunity, bringing every ounce of passion and knowledge I had to the table and simply enjoying the experience. To my delight, it worked!

What I didn’t know was that getting into the programme would lead to one of the most pivotal moments in my startup journey: finding my co-founder. Interestingly, this was a first for Geovation—it’s not a co-founder matchmaking programme, after all!

Programme

On the first day of the programme, just before heading home, my advisor spotted a familiar face in the crowd. She introduced me to Ilya, a PhD student researching LLMs for complex routing problems. He immediately showed interest in the problem space and the solution—a routing algorithm designed to handle complex constraints. We met for dinner the following day and decided to explore working together as co-founders.

Since then, it’s been a real game-changer.

Since we just crossed the half-term in our Geovation active programme (three months), we can confirm—it’s totally worth it. The workshops run by the Geovation staff and outside consultants are no-nonsense, very practical, and extremely useful.

We understood better who our customers are. That, in turn, sparked further conversations on future product development and how to accommodate additional use case scenarios we hadn’t considered.

Workshops

• The workshop on raising investment gave us a much clearer idea of where the money is and how to approach potential investors.
• The workshops on monetisation and pricing made us reconsider our B2C model and start thinking about a B2B offering, which was quite a dramatic shift. Before that discussion, we assumed our customers were individuals who cared about walking safely and would pay for a safety-first routing app. We didn’t think beyond this B2C subscription model.
• During the workshops, however, we realised that businesses in the night-time economy (pubs and other hospitality) or those whose employees travel frequently (e.g., real estate agents or solicitors) were also likely customers, as they could provide this as part of an employment benefits scheme.

And then, of course, the equity-free grant money from Geovation helped us restart our product development, allowing us to progress towards our Beta-Release last month.

Notes to editors

Applications are divided into two tracks—GeoTech and PropTech:

• Apply to GeoTech f6s.com/geovation-spring-25-geotech/apply 
• Apply to PropTech f6s.com/geovation-spring-25-proptech/apply

Applications close midnight Sunday 2 March.

Geovation is an Ordnance Survey initiative, in association with HM Land Registry.

For more background, visit Geovation Accelerator Programme.