You might have heard about our collaboration with Latvian State Forests (LVM), the holding company that administers and manages public forest land in Latvia to foster innovation in the Forest Tech sector with an accelerator program called SilvaTech. We have been working hard since last summer and we are proud to let you know that the program is entering its fourth and final stage – the Growth accelerator with 10 selected teams.
We have been preparing for this final stage since September through exploration of startup ideas, forestry challenges, and scoping future solutions together with our employees and external innovators. I am particularly proud of seeing the interest of international teams to actively participate in various stages of our program. In the final stage, we have selected 10 teams, seven are from Latvia, including our internal ones, however, the rest are from China, US, and UK.
Zita Baranova, Innovation Lead at LVM.
In the first two stages of the SilvaTech program – Idea Hacks and Online Hackathon – we had 130 participants from Latvia, Russia, India, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Turkey, Estonia, Ukraine, Iran, and Romania. 19 teams continued more profound work in the third phase of the program – online pre-accelerator that, through mentorship, helped to polish the idea or product and have meetings with LVM experts to validate the forestry sector needs and potential collaborations.
We have just entered the program’s final phase, where 10 selected teams are validating their solutions in various areas such as visualization of geological data, internet coverage in remote areas, seed protection, forest analytics, and similar. SilvaTech Growth accelerator will finish on March 31 and teams will be presenting their progress in a Graduation event. If you would like to see them, follow our social media for updates.
SilvaTech is a hybrid (online & offline), 8-month-long acceleration program divided into four stages, covering everything from idea shaping to building market-ready solutions. Participation in the program is equity and cost-free. Program participants are given access to the combined entrepreneurial and forestry expertise of Startup Wise Guys’ and LVM’s mentors, as well as forestry data and insights to help tackle the current challenges of one of the largest forestry players in the region. LVM is explicitly hoping to find internal developmental partners through this new accelerator program.
Latvijas Valsts Meži (LVM) is the first digital forestry management company that operates on the edge of innovation and sustainable development. LVM works toward the administration of state-owned forest property and the management of public forest, ensuring preservation and increase of its value and generation of revenue for its owner – the State of Latvia. With cutting-edge technologies already being at the heart of LVM’s business, they are always on the lookout for new solutions that will help them bring their vision to a more sustainable future and more engaged communities to life.
