Last Thursday, the startup accelerator EuropeanPioneers celebrated its second batch of startups at an exciting Demo Day in Berlin.
“It’s maybe the most attractive accelerator in Berlin, which I know right now”, stated Thomas Hessler, the founder of Zanox who also actively invests in startups. Thomas Hessler was one of the keynote speakers at last weeks Demo Day. For him, and most of the 250 guests at the final pitch event of the EuropeanPioneers accelerator, it was the first time they actually saw/met the startups of the second batch. Due to the co-funding by the European Commission, 25 startups from 11 EU countries and Israel received funding of altogether €4.5 million without giving up equity. The accelerator was founded in 2014 and runs 8 months in total. Contrary to many other accelerators, EuropeanPioneers is diverse in its market approach and EU-focussed.
Laura Kohler, Director of EuropeanPioneers and Founder of European Innovation Hub, the Berlin-based company that manages the accelerator, explains: “We choose very diverse startups on purpose. Although they are active in different markets, they face the same challenges: They all have to validate their products, they have to reach out to customers, they are refining their business models, they are looking for the right go-to-market strategy. During our trainings days in Tel Aviv, London and Berlin they could exchange ideas and get expert advise from our EuropeanPioneers mentors.”
More than 660 startups applied, 40 made it onto the shortlist, 13 were invited into the accelerator. At the Berlin coworking space Ahoy!Berlin, these 13 teams from the second – and currently last batch – of EuropeanPioneers graduated by pitching their startups that reached from new messaging apps, indoor farming to IoT, EdTech and Smart Retail.
The EuropeanPioneers startups at a glance
–BEACONinside is a vendor-agnostic iBeacon and Eddystone-beacon management platform provider to enable enterprise customers to set up large- scale beacon solutions in days, not months.
–Splash is the first app to capture and and share 360° videos in seconds using your phone. The team is aiming to become the leading Virtual Reality social communications platform.
–Infarm is a Berlin based-startup that developed a technology to shape the future of city farming which allows their private and business customers to grow edible plants and greenery all year long.
–Tracktics developed a system (including a wearable) that enables football teams and players to track athletic performance data including distance, acceleration, speed and more on the pitch.
–Watly developed the world’s most advanced solar-water treatment plant, including a micro-power station.
–AudioTube is a digital distribution company that enables artists to automatically distribute their music to services such as Google Play, YouTube, RDIO, Spotify and more.
–ChopChop is a dynamic learning & task management app for cooking of more than one course meals.
–ChangeAlert built a sensor for continence pads, which alerts on a web platform when the pad needs changing.
–DooWapp is a music messaging technology that lets you add playable song lyrics to any part of your message, tweet or post to express yourself better.
–RezGuru digitizes restaurants and allows them to market their availability across multiple online channels in real-time using revenue management strategies through flexible pricing in addition to a powerful analytics tools.
–Pico is the first real-time engagement tool for brands. Pico collects the pictures taken by a brand’s fans during a live event, such as a sports game or a concert, into one collaborative, real-time photo album directly on the brand’s Facebook page.
–Lingualy is a language learning system that combines real time coaching sessions with adaptive scalable tools.
–Fitfully’s 3D Virtual-Fit-as-a-Service platform enables online consumers to virtually try on shoes they intend to purchase.
Check out the video below to get a better feeling of what the Demo Day of EuropeanPioneers was like:
