Second year in a row we are partnering with EIT Digital on their Venture Program aimed at supporting early stage tech founders. This year we were covering Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine as our target region.
In total there were more than 40 applicants from these countries and 5 teams were selected to the program and initial 5K eur financial support. Currently they have started the program and gone through a 2-day online Bootcamp with workshops, tech drills and 1-on-1 mentoring.
Clear advantage of online programs is that teams participating at it can do so at times and format convenient for them. And as in this case for programs targeting pre-MVP teams, this allows founders to combine pre-accelerator with their studies or full-time day job. This also allows to attract higher level international mentors to work with early stage teams as there are no travel costs and time spent in travel.
However, any such program also has certain disadvantages, especially in terms of teams’ engagement, peer-to-peer support and also simply in intensity and comprehension – as a 4 hour workshop on-site is a very different beast from the same workshop online. Last year’s program combined online and on-site format and we could see friendships and networking in action right before our eyes, after teams met for Bootcamp and Demo Day.
Alona Belinska, Manager of EIT Digital Venture Program at Startup Wise Guys
5 early stage startups selected to the program
Abucco (Estonia)
We are providing analytics and AI solution to detect opportunities for efficiency increase and cost reduction of solar power plants based on different available data sources (inverters, meters, sensors, smart grid data). This would enable large renewable energy companies reduce the need for subsidies – therefore increasing opportunities at national renewable energy auctions and reducing costs to end users and European tax payers.
BuildrLink (Estonia)
BuildrLink helps general contractors and estimators work more efficiently and improve their procurement processes by digitizing price request, automating bid leveling and centralizing communication channels. We not only provide value for the general contractors, but we connect contractors, suppliers and builders through an easy-to-use platform to streamline and automate the bid and risk management process.
Motion (Lithuania)
Motion aims to build decentralised and open network that connects digital account receivables to better financing. It will allow users from gig economy platforms to get short-term liquidity and investors to invest into new type of asset via open blockchain network.
Revolab (Lithuania)
Revolab – mobile app to track your health indicators based on blood test results.
Teamshape (Latvia)
We’re building a people analytics platform, to empower team managers with data about their employee’s, for higher retention and engagement levels.
In total there were 33 teams selected to the EIT Digital Venture Program across five regions. You can see the full list on the startups here.
Second year in a row EIT Digital and Startup Wise Guys are running a Venture Program, where non incorporated idea stage startups can compete for up to 25K eur financial support per startup, along with 8 weeks online pre-accelerator program. The main criteria for startup eligibility is at least 2 team members that are legal residents of Baltic countries or Ukraine, not incorporated yet and working on innovative ideas. While Startup Wise Guys is the local partner in particular 4 countries, in total EIT Digital Venture Program is run in 20 European countries with 4 other local partners.
Upon enrolling in the program, startups will receive 5K eur cash, afterwards follow on investments of total of 20K eur are possible, based on progress and meeting certain KPIs like registering the company and attracting additional investors.
Online pre-accelerator program is run entirely online with video content, live webinars with coaches and 1-on-1 mentoring calls. Mentoring is carried out by a large pool of international mentors from Startup Wise Guys network.
Last year 7 startups successfully completed the EIT Digital Venture Program in Baltics, Poland, Slovakia, and Czech. A year later all of these companies are still active and all were eligible for full financial support from EIT Digital.
EIT Digital is a leading European digital innovation and entrepreneurial education organization driving Europe’s digital transformation. Its way of working embodies the future of innovation through a pan-European ecosystem of over 200 top European corporations, SMEs, startups, universities and research institutes, where students, researchers, engineers, business developers and entrepreneurs collaborate in an open innovation setting. More information: www.eitdigital.eu
