Wearable World, best known as the San Francisco-based conference and media site, is to launch what it claims is the first ever purely wearable technology accelerator and incubator programme in Europe.

The Labs will be headed up by Marcus Sandberg, a co-founder of Proleads (and a former member of the Swedish Special Forces). Sandberg will lead a team of 5 at the incubator, which launches on 22 of October during its first London-based GLAZEDcon event next week.

Redg Snodgrass, CEO and co-founder of Wearable World, said the reason for establishing the accelerator was obvious given that “over 30 per cent of the companies in our current programme are from outside the US” and the often difficult funding environment for wearables in Europe.

Wearable World Labs claims that its success rate in its U.S. operation is a “90 per cent fund rate and a 100 percent crowd funding rate” for its first cohort of startups. The 35 companies on the Labs programme have collectively raised more than $9 million in investor backing, and more than $5 million from crowdfunding.

European companies involved in the U.S. programme already include: Sensum, which has developed a technology to capture “emotional data”; CreoPop, which is working on a 3D printing pen; and MiriQ, which has created Ripple, an intelligent smartphone charger and lifestyle accessory.