A hackathon taking place entirely on the “Minsk-Riga Startup Train” arrives at its destination in Latvia with a cargo of 10 teams consisting of 60 entrepreneurs, developers, and mentors.
Onboard the Minsk-Riga Startup Train
The first stage of the Minsk-Riga Startup Train took place in Belarus, but now participants and mentors have traveled to Riga to continue their work on the projects. The hackathon “Startup Train” in Latvia will be held both in Riga and Jurmala, where teams will be introduced with the local startup ecosystem.
This event is a first of its kind for the Latvian ecosystem, aimed at building stronger bonds in the region and raising awareness about the many opportunities and advantages for startups in Riga.
Read More: Hackathon Express: 10 teams to compete on startup train from Minsk to Riga
On Thursday participants were welcomed by Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Economics of the Republic of Latvia Arvils Aseradens, Magnetic Latvia Startup representative and “Startup Train” organizer Olga Barreto-Goncalves, as well as representatives of Latvian Startup Association Startin.LV, and TechChill.
Arvils Aseradens welcomes the Minsk-Riga Startup Train in Latvia
“It was my pleasure to see the Minsk-Riga Startup Train approaching the platform at the Riga Train Station this morning and to meet-and-greet all the participants and organizers!” said Aseradens in a statement.
“This hackathon is a great initiative to support and I hope that this will be a beginning of a fruitful cross-border cooperation between the startup ecosystems of Latvia and Belarus. Nowadays, this kind of international partnerships is more crucial for the development of our ecosystems than ever before. I wish all the participants good luck and all our dear guests a wonderful stay in Riga. And let the best team win!” he added.
The Grand Finale is being held today, Friday, August 31 in the premises of the Overkill Ventures accelerator. The teams will compete for prizes from the TechChill, Digital Freedom Festival, and Venture Day Minsk.
The 10 teams participating in the Minsk-Riga Startup Train include:
- TripShare – working on photo and video sharing place
- Finance Flow – creating a solution that shows rentability for projects, employees, and customers
- Remuzio – crafting a service that would fight against the shadow economy in the music industry
- VAT Compliance – developing a VAT compliance platform specially for digital companies
- MAZZY – offering new products for new IoT cloud
- OpenBusiness – presenting SaaS for retailers and banks
- ARrow – demonstrating a sketch app that creates a prototype on the phone screen, based on the drawing on paper
- Smart Sneakers – working with blockchain that allows earning tokens for the physical activities and later exchange for goods
- MeetnGreetMe – making travel experience better by creating a space to meet with local people while traveling abroad
- Color emotion – planning to pass emotions to the mobile application.
Viesturs Šeļmanovs-Plešs
Participants also shared their impressions about the “Startup Train” hackathon. Latvian Viesturs Šeļmanovs-Plešs, head of team “MAZZY,” which develops new products for new IoT cloud, was amazed by the rapid growth of the Belarusian startup ecosystem.
“A society with strategic thinking is emerging directly in the community of young entrepreneurs,” Viesturs emphasized. The MAZZY representative feels that the hackathon is a great opportunity to build new products and test them, such as the goal for Viesturs and his team.
Tania Marinich, the organizer from Belarus and representative of Imaguru Minsk added, “This is the first hackathon on the train in Belarusian and Latvian history. We are very pleased that as complex as the event was, it was successfully put together thanks to the collaboration between the two countries.
Tania Marinich
“I hope that such interesting and creative events, which could be a start of launching new global tech projects together, could become a tradition. I am grateful to my Latvian colleagues for the cooperation, I appreciate the support and awareness of the importance of the development of innovative business!”
The Minsk-Riga Startup Train is organized by Imaguru Minsk and Magnetic Startup Latvia, fuelled by Investment and Development Agency of Latvia and supported by Startin.LV and TechChill.
TechChill is a key player in bringing the Baltics region closer together while pushing for cooperation between the ecosystems. The next TechChill event will take place on February 21-22, featuring startups, founders, investors from all over the region.
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