Fit 4 Start #12: Stronger Local Appeal, Fewer Women

Franz Fayot, Minister of the Economy (Photo © Luxinnovation)

Luxembourg’s twelfth edition of Fit 4 Start achieves some notable firsts, including welcoming startups in the newly created HPC and data analytics track.

While the number of applications received, 214, was lower than in previous editions, largely thanks to the pandemic, the quality and maturity of the projects was far superior.

Speaking at the programme’s formal launch on Thursday Luxinnovation startup acceleration senior manager Stéphanie Silvestri regretted, however, the lack of gender diversity.

She said: “Our participants span a wide range of ideas, skills, sectors, backgrounds and nationalities. But there’s one key element that is missing: we seriously lack female applicants,” Silvestri said on a virtual broadcast, adding: “It’s something we need to address and encourage more women to take part and put themselves out there.”

After the conference, Silvestri told Silicon Luxembourg that more work was needed to explore the reasons why there were limited numbers of applications from female entrepreneurs in order to take action and improve female engagement.

She said: “We need to reach out to partners with experience and knowledge in addressing these challenges and work with them to adopt solutions that really can make a difference”.

There was considerable excitement surrounding the new track, which joins the ICT, space and health tech focuses established in the programme in previous years. Selected startups for the new track include RSS Hydro, Databourg Systems, both from Luxembourg, and Mopso, which will all be given training and support to leverage the MeluXina HPC. Unlike most research HPCs, Luxembourg’s high performance computer, which was inaugurated in 2021, makes 65% of capacity available to businesses. Meanwhile, the State has made available R&D and innovation funding for projects involving the HPC.

Economy minister Franz Fayot (LSAP) said: “The deep tech startups that based their business models on the use of big data often develop tech solutions that require substantial scientific or engineering efforts and need more time to reach the market. This new track demonstrates the importance of long-term thinking also in startup support. It is essential to invest in measures which have a potential to bring benefits to our ecosystem and economy over time.”

Lastly, Fayot observed the local character of the programme finalists, which he credited in part to the pandemic travel restrictions. He added that it was also “evidence that applications received from Luxembourg and the Greater Region having increased in quality and substance.”

The 20 finalists will benefit from coaching, funding of up to €150,000, free access to co-working office space in Luxembourg and networking opportunities.

Finalists of Fit 4 Start #12 are:

ICT

Circu Li-ion – (Luxembourg) Enabling the lifetime maximisation of each Lithium Ion cell by automating the dismantling of battery packs.

Devseis Consultancy – (Luxembourg) TrustChain is a reliable and cost effective cloud solution for a High Performance Computing (HPC) provider to create and share “Type 1” reports on GDPR compliance with the users so that they feel legally safe when processing personal data on the HPC.

ITC – (Israel) The ability to prevent traffic jams, by managing them right before they start to build up.

Recube – (Luxembourg) Recube is 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.

Rejustify – (Luxembourg) Rejustify Data Hero is a service to prepare statistical datasets automatically. It employs machine learning to find, access and merge data from multiple sources, simultaneously, in appropriate formats, in real-time.

RiDERgy – (Germany) B2B Software for lowest E-fleet costs via AI optimised, automatic & flexible APIs, steered charging schedule anywhere adapting to renewable energy fluctuations by leveraging power market earnings & large and diverse mobility data.

Smart Beehive – (United Arab Emirates) A technology-enabled beehive that solves the number one problem for beekeepers globally, the varroa parasite, without harmful chemicals and while increasing productivity, margins and optimising operations through sensor and IOT technology.

HealthTech

AkknaTek –(Germany) AkknaTek’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) Platform designed to help healthcare staff to create a more efficient work environment, using Augmented Reality to empower surgeons, medical device specialists, and other experts to work together – remotely.

Dynaccurate – (Luxembourg) Technology allowing health data to become semantically interoperable between different systems, regardless of where the health data originated.

KidnAI – (Luxembourg) Scintigraphy analysis tool that leverages AI to drastically improve the accuracy of diagnosing kidney diseases, especially for babies, giving the physician an additional comfort to decide to proceed with surgery.

Voicemed – (Luxembourg) Monitoring health & wellbeing combining sound and AI, through a rapid & accurate Digital Health App. The system empowers people to know their health from everywhere, and empower telemedicine & pharma to provide efficiently remote screening and monitoring.

Space

AM 4 AM – (Luxembourg) Development of best-in-class aluminum powder for additive manufacturing allowing production of parts with unprecedented properties valued in the target industries.

Digantara – (India) Building sustainable space by providing high-fidelity orbital insights.

Hypernova Space Technologies – (South Africa) Building infrastructure for satellites in space.

Ride! – (France) Digitalisation and simplification of the access to space by connecting satellite operators to the whole launch value chain.

The Lunar Grid – (Luxembourg) Provision of a continuous and high power supply to all actors across the lunar surface, empowering a completely disruptive way of planetary operations enabling efficient lunar resources utilisation and extended lunar exploration.

HPC & data analytics

Databourg Systems – (Luxembourg) Providing affordable and accessible rain data using its innovative technology.

Mopso – (Italy) Improving of anti-money laundering controls integrating a huge amount of data, internal and external, to financial institutions, finding connections and risky patterns inside customers’ behaviour, reducing false positives and identifying suspicious activities.

RSS-Hydro – (Luxembourg) Development of bespoke geospatial products for a better informed decision-making in meeting the SDGs, particularly focusing on water risks.

Graduated companies from the eleventh edition, were:

ICT

AiVidens, Cascade Lab, ChemChain, Kodehyve, LetzMath, No Big Deal, to Stories.

Space

Blackswan Technologies, Clutch Space Systems, Mission Space, Novo Space, Plus Ultra Space Outposts,


Pre-registration is now open for the next edition of Fit 4 Start, details for which can be found by visiting fit4start.com

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