The founders of 16 startups marked the end of a rewarding accelerator programme at an official graduation ceremony at ICT Spring on Friday.
The 16 part of an initial cohort of 20 startups selected for the Fit4Start programme from a pool of 214 applicants spanning some 42 countries. Each received specialised support over an intense six-month period, as well as €50,000 in state aid.
A novelty for this edition was the HPC and data analytics vertical, leveraging Luxembourg’s Meluxina supercomputer.
“The additional contribution of the HPC dimension and the enthusiasm of the candidates showed how interesting this type of support is for start-ups. More than ever, they are key players in the development of our national ecosystem centered around data,” said Sasha Baillie, CEO of innovation agency Luxinnovation, which manages the programme.
Altogether three of the startups were given access to MeluXina’s computing and data analysis capabilities.
Launched by Luxembourg’s economy ministry, the Fit4Start programme is managed by Luxinnovation in collaboration with Technoport, Luxembourg City Incubator and the Luxembourg Space Agency. Graduating companies that succeed in raising funds will be able to receive up to an additional €100,000 in state aid.
“The performance has been extraordinary and the passion for their products very contagious,” said Luxinnovation’s head of startup acceleration Stefan Berend, adding: “I am very confident that some of them will far exceed expectations, their traction will confirm this.”
Speaking after the ceremony, serial entrepreneur Patrick Kersten said the programme was one of only a few in Europe to offer coaching without having to give equity. “That’s very important for founders and co-founders”. He also pointed out the importance of Luxembourg’s English-speaking startup ecosystem, which he said was “another unique point for Luxembourg.”
The graduated companies are as follows:
Health tech
AkknaTek (Germany)
Akkna Tek’s patented technology is the missing piece of the puzzle to bring cataract surgery to the next level. For the first time, it is possible to control the implantation accuracy through all treatment phases, ensuring predicted results for every lens implanted.
Dropslab Technologies (Luxembourg)
Dropslab’s platform is designed to help healthcare staff to create a more efficient work environment uses Augmented Reality to empower surgeons, medical device specialists, and other experts to work together remotely.
Dynaccurate (Luxembourg)
Dynaccurate’s technology allows health data to become semantically interoperable between different systems, regardless of where the health data originated.
Voicemed (Luxembourg)
Voicemed monitors health and wellbeing combining sound and AI, through a rapid and accurate digital health app. We empower people to know their health from everywhere, and empower telemedicine and pharma to provide efficiently remote screening and monitoring.
HPC and Data Analytics vertical
Mopso (Italy)
Mopso Brain improves anti-money laundering controls integrating a huge amount of data, internal and external, to financial institutions, finding connections and risky patterns inside customers’ behaviour, thus reducing false positives and identifying suspicious activities.
RSS-Hydro develops bespoke geospatial products for a better informed decision-making in meeting the SDGs, particularly focusing on water risks.
ICT vertical
Circu Li-ion (Luxembourg)
Circu-Li-ion’s technology aims to maximise the lifetime of each Lithium Ion cell by automating the dismantling of battery packs.
ITC City’s technology helps to prevent traffic jams, by managing them before they start to build up.
RiDERgy (Germany)
RiDERgy has developed B2B Software for lowest E-fleet costs via AI-optimised, automatic and flexible APIs, steered charging schedule anywhere adapting to renewable energy fluctuations by leveraging power market earnings and large and diverse mobility.
Smart Beehive (United Arab Emirates)
Smart Beehive uses sensors and IoT technology to solves the number one problem for beekeepers globally, the varroa parasite. Their solution uses no harmful chemicals and at the same time increases productivity, and margins and optimises operations.
Vestis Labs has developed a cloud-based platform for product development, sourcing, and productivity tools to help small and medium-sized fashion brands develop their collections with minimum waste, time, and costs by using 3D technologies and machine learning.
Space vertical
AM 4 AM (Luxembourg)
AM 4 AM manufactures aluminum powder for additive manufacturing allowing production of parts with unprecedented properties valued in its target industries.
Digantara (India)
Digantara builds sustainable space by providing high-fidelity orbital insights.
Hypernova (South Africa)
Hypernove builds infrastructure for satellites in space.
Ride! (France)
Ride! digitalises and simplifies the access to space by connecting satellite operators to the whole launch value chain.
The Lunar Grid (Luxembourg)
The Lunar Grid provides a continuous and high power supply to all actors across the lunar surface, the company empowers a completely disruptive way of planetary operations enabling efficient lunar resources utilisation and extended lunar exploration.
