The Austrian teams who participated at the 100-day training programme Startup Camp were able to prove themselves and their newly acquired business knowledge on the glamorous stage of the Parkhotel Schönbrunn in Vienna. As if the first presentation of a new product weren’t enough excitement, the fact that the audience mostly consisted of business angels and possible investors was an additional adrenaline kick but also a great opportunity for the motivated entrepreneurs to be.
“It is our task to open doors for our startups. On the Demo Day they get attention, lots of contacts and opportunities for financial support. The success after the previous round of Startup Camp was obvious – since the first Demo Day in June the participating startups could secure around one million euros,” Elisabeth Heiserer, programme manager of the INiTS Startup Camp, described the promising facts.
Closure of the second round of Startup Camp
Irene Fialka, INiTS CEO; Photo credit: inventures
While this was already the second INiTS Demo Day this year, it was the first one that gave all of the INiTS startups the chance to benefit from the closing event of the training programme. In the luxury halls of the venue, teams that included Solabolic or Blue Danube Robotics could show their product, discuss their business model and chat with those interested to invest in the Austrian startup scene.
The stage was opened by INiTS CEOIrene Fialka who not only talked about past success stories of the Vienna based incubator but also highlighted the future potential of the current batch. She encouraged the jury, consisting of Sabine Fleischmann (Constantia Industries), Oliver Holle (SpeedInvest), Thomas Ecker (Tecnet Equity) and Dieter Meinhard (Quando), as well as the audience to provide constructive feedback.
Demonstrating Innovation
Despite the fact, that some topics outweighed on stage, the graduates of Startup Camp are having very diverse projects in mind. Patchbox came up with the idea for a cable management system for server racks and tried to convince the jury with their neatly organised box of wires. The team of GUH, which stand for Gear Up Your Home, on the other hand, presented their well-designed button that connects and manages several electronic devices in your home. “I like the idea, but maybe you should try to focus your project on one specific area,” was the helpful advice from Oliver Holle that was not only directed to the GUH team. Also Spumix cares for the maintenance of your house but with a different approach. Their isolation solution is based on ceramic foam and is supposed to be more sustainable and at longer than, for example, polystyrene.
It is our task to open doors for our startups. On the Demo Day they get attention, lots of contacts and opportunities for financial support.Elisabeth Heiserer, programme manager of Startup Camp
LassMachen, then again, jumped on the marketplace bandwagon and created a platform for connecting service providers and those looking for mechanics, housecleaners or expert staff.
Two of the projects were asking very different questions to the medical profession. While HappyMed aims to enhance the patients well-being during treatments by providing wireless entertainment stations, BrainReader wants to boost microscopy in neuroscience.
Healthy life-style and good nutrition was the most popular topic on stage. All in all, four startups aimed to lead Austria and the DACH region to a longer a better life with a sportsclub card you can use for several locations with various sports (Myclubs), a sensor solution to monitor your activity in fitness studios (Fittrack), a team that aims to provide whole-food snacks in vending machines (EATegrity) and a startup that provides information about allergens and nutrition for restaurants (Foodnotify).
The journey continues
Also after the successful evening, the INiTS incubator keeps on boosting Austrias startup scene. The application window for the next Startup Camp is already running and will close on 16 December. If the many ideas of Demo Day made you curious and you are willing to get your own projects ready find out how to apply here.
This story is brought to you in partnership with AplusB, a programme funded by FFG.
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