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The CoastalPro Venture Portal (vc.coastalpro.eu) is a purpose-built platform that reproduces the full discipline of a crowdfunding campaign — campaign page, pledge tiers, supporters, progress tracking and leaderboard — as a transparent simulation: no money is collected, and every pledge is a verified, non-binding expression of interest. This design keeps the learning experience authentic while generating genuine market signal, and it keeps the platform outside the scope of EU crowdfunding and payment services regulation.
The portal is the culmination of Cohort 4 (Inspiring Entrepreneurs), our open acceleration programme. The strongest pitches from the cohort, together with promising concepts carried over from earlier cohorts — including student teams from the AUTH/SJMC pilot integration — received a support package: business coaching from consortium experts, hands-on help to convert a pitch into a public campaign, and introductions to investors, hoteliers and industry stakeholders.
At the time of writing the portal hosts ten live ventures from eight countries, with more to be added on a rolling basis. Each venture page carries the pitch deck as its main content, with a name, a one-line concept, a location and a summary block describing the idea, the problem, the audience, the stage, what the team needs and the team composition.
The decision behind the simulation is pedagogical. The learning is in the process: defining a proposition, pricing support tiers, telling the story, mobilising an audience, reading traction data and holding the discipline of a campaign over months. A failed real-money campaign at this stage could end an idea that deserves a second iteration; a simulated campaign lets every team run the full experience and take away real, comparable market signal.
The campaign runs through January 2027, with the final results — public score, jury reveal and investor introductions — handled under the project’s legacy governance. Explore the ventures and pledge your interest at vc.coastalpro.eu.
