As our deep tech startup community eagerly waits for 2021, we are happy to share our challenging journey through these years. A lot has been done – starting with the run of webinar series and ending the second call for startups eager to join Investment Readiness Programme.
Let’s start with 8 kick-off webinars for those wondering what the deep-tech startup community and latest trends in this industry is. The first one was dedicated to the deep-tech innovation in EU in 2020 and beyond. Later we dived into the corporate venturing to find out about the rules of the game. Corporates play an important role encouraging startups to develop joint innovation and broadens the general scape of the industry’s needs. While joint innovation development requires some certain skills and procedures, partners from Tehnopol explained this process.
Later webinars focused on the importance of venture capitalists and investors support for deep-tech scaleups. Expanding your business to the different regions in Europe were analyzed – starting from the New Nordic, and moving through Central and Eastern Europe to South of Europe. The final series were released in July, summarizing the practices of growing deep tech startups for the future.
During the first lockdown of the pandemic, we have created a comprehensive Startup deep-tech Ecosystem Guide to provide high-quality resources available to startups, investors and corporates looking into establishing their businesses in the Danish, Estonian, Lithuanian, Polish, and Spanish flourishing scenes. We have compiled a set of available resources such as the best co-working spaces, hubs, accelerators, incubators, investors, and funding entities, as well as the most relevant events and activities in these five vibrant countries.
This summer the first batch of the Pan-European Online Incubation Program has attracted 22 startups to grow with the help of business workshops and consultation sessions. The teams aim to disrupt and change the healthtech sector, suggesting personalized, AI-based gadgets for health monitoring, fighting diseases, or improving the cancer treatment routine. The startups have already met with export and business development experts in online workshops and design their way to expand the market in Denmark, Poland, Spain, Estonia, and Lithuania.
In addition, Startup-Corporate Collaboration Program was released, enabling a powerful challenges-based work. This November, during Virtual Knowledge Summit event 21 corporates pitched their main challenges and was reverse pitched by 61 startups with their unique solutions in the categories Smart Cities, Industry 4.0, FinTech, MedTech and GreenTech. The Summit has matched ambitious companies and corporates with scale-up ready deep tech startups and talents. The corporates have selected 38 startups they want to match with for the Corporate and Start-up Acceleration Programme in the coming 3-6 months.
Scale-up Champions are excited for networking with Venture Capitalists and Business Angels. After finalizing the recruitment and startups evaluation process, during the first batch of the Investment Readiness Programme coordinators have chosen 26 startups to engage into a set of training activities and networking events to increase the fundraising capacity. The startups are ready to accelerate their growth with the help of business mentors and couches as well – in this case, the experts provide legal advice, financial plans, and even detailed schemes of converting venture capital into a startup fuel. As it comes to the deep tech community, more than 70 VCs funds and Business Angels have joined the Scale-up Champions Program.
The upcoming Year already brings a great opportunity for the deep-tech startups, scouting for the investment. The call for startups to the second batch of Investment Readiness Programme is open till the 10th of January 2021.