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EIT Digital Venture Program 2021 invests €115.000 in 9 startups

No other program has invested in early-stage startups more than the EIT Digital Venture, supporting entrepreneurship in Greece and Eastern Balkans.

Startups in Greece, Cyprus and Romania are ready to embark on their entrepreneurial venture, after participating in the 4th edition of the EIT Digital Venture Program, an acceleration program implemented by the Found.ation with the support of the EIT Digital (part of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology). An amount of €115.000 was invested in 9 startups in 2021, raising the total amount invested for the 4 years of the program, to €465.000 (33 benefited startups in total, coming from Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Cyprus).

Structure of the EIT Digital Venture Program

Due to the pandemic, the EIT Digital Venture Program, which started in May and was completed in September, was again exclusively implemented online. The new norm did not affect the 7 teams who graduated from this year’s program. A Virtual Bootcamp, organized by the Found.ation, including workshops and speeches, equipped the teams with knowledge on how to overcome the challenges in the way. The teams were supported throughout the program by dedicated mentors. They also had the chance to attend a series of webinars about subjects that truly matter to a startup company such as business strategy, sales strategy, legal support, pitching techniques, prototyping and more. Networking opportunities were also offered to the teams.

The work done was presented during a Virtual Demo Day in July. The 9 teams presented the progress of their projects to potential investors, journalists and business executives interested in smart solutions. The final evaluation of their progress and the legal establishment of the companies took place in September. Out of the 9 startups that embarked on the Program, 7 of them managed to present a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), were legally established and supported with an extra amount of €10.000.

The 7 teams that graduated in the EIT Digital Venture Program 2021, were:

  • SciDrones is detecting and monitoring marine litter on coastal zones.
  • WowMind is a micro video-based e-learning platform perfectly adapted to the digital generation, adding new dimensions to formal education and bringing a systemic approach to learning.
  • Enforge  is a factory digitalization solution to enable manufacturers, mass-deliver personalized products, faster & at a lower cost.
  • Deepconomy is a solution that automates your accounting workflow using Artificial Intelligence.
  • Plantee aims to offer tree-planting as a service, making it as easy as a click to help grow your business and change the course of carbon removal.
  • Silent Inbox is a Gmail plugin that lets you regain control of your inbox. You can control how frequently you’ll see promotional emails and when you want to view them with a click of a button.
  • Renthis2me offers a platform that facilitates the act of borrowing and lending items between two parties. In a single phrase we could be characterized as the “Airbnb” for items.

The EIT Digital Venture Program described by the words of participating teams:

 

The program is very useful for a new startup. It’s thorough and covers a lot of topics necessary for the startups’ success, like how to build the right team, how to tackle legal issues and how to transit from the idea to market. – Deepconomy

 

Amazing and valuable experience for such a short time! -Renthis2me

During the 4 years of the program, 93 startups have been created with the support of EIT Digital at a European level, in which more than 200 young entrepreneurs are involved.

The next edition of the EIT Digital Venture Program is expected to launch in February 2022. Keep in touch with all the developments regarding the upcoming program, following the Found.ation on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Linkedin!