AngelCube, the Melbourne-based incubator, will open applications for its second round of start-ups tomorrow, increasing its intake to eight teams, with a special interest in marketplace concepts and software-as-a-service.

AngelCube, founded by entrepreneurs Andrew Birt, Adrian Stone, Nathan Sampimon and Richie Khoo, is based on the Y Combinator model in the United States.

Last year, it chose four start-ups to participate in its inaugural six-month program. For its next round, which will kick off in April, it has doubled its intake and will accommodate eight teams.

AngelCube has also welcomed a raft of new mentors and is looking to join the Global Accelerator Network, which consists of organisations that operate high-quality start-up accelerator programs.

The network provides professional development, networking opportunities, training, consulting and ongoing support for its members. It is therefore a major coup for AngelCube.

Birt says it’s pleasing to be able to assist a larger group of start-ups in its second round.

“Initially, we wanted to do two batches [of start-ups per year] but December and January is such a hard time for approaching customers and investors – it’s not a smart time to finish,” Birt says.

“We decided to make it annually. Eight start-ups kick off on April 10. Applications open this Thursday.”

“They will each get $20,000 like last year but they’ll have access to more sponsorship, including Microsoft’s Azure $60,000 [cloud computing] program.”

Birt says because last year’s start-ups were all run by sole traders, there will be more of an emphasis on start-ups with two or three founders.

“One of the things we learnt from the last program was that the guys learn a lot from working with one another. There’s a good camaraderie among the teams,” he says.

“In this bigger round, there will be more colleagues to bounce ideas off.”

“We will definitely be encouraging more of a team-based approach but we’re also running co-founder events so people can meet potential co-founders.”

Birt says the ideal projects for AngelCube are transactional, early stage web businesses, identifying marketplace concepts and software-as-a-service as two major areas of interest.

He also expects applicants to do some of the groundwork beforehand.

“Last year, a lot of people applied and didn’t have any links of anything they could show us. This year, we’re encouraging them to have a URL set up,” he says.

“Even if it’s just a basic landing page, which says ‘Coming soon’ to show some effort has been put into the brand, and a two-pager or some slides to show they’ve thought through the business a little more.”