The Chamber of Commerce and the City of Luxembourg officially inaugurated the premises of the Luxembourg-City Incubator (LCI) on Monday 1st October, in the presence of Lydie Polfer, Mayor of the City of Luxembourg, Michel Wurth, President of the Chamber of Commerce, Carlo Thelen, General Manager of the Chamber of Commerce and Martin Guérin, CEO of LCI. On this occasion, 8 of the 22 startups currently hosted in the incubator presented to the guests their projects during a pitching session. 13 additional startups were accepted in late September and will join LCI shortly. A total of 35 startups are expected to settle down at the incubator by the end of the year.
(Featured Image: Martin Guérin, CEO of the Luxembourg-City Incubator / Image Credit © Chamber of Commerce Luxembourg)
Meet the challenges of the economy of tomorrow
Launched by the Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the City of Luxembourg, LCI opened its doors in April 2018, to welcome its first startups. With an area of approximately 2,000 m2, the incubator offers space for all startups, with priority given to urban technologies, environment, trade, construction, tourism or logistics. It supports the companies in their startup and growth phase, by offering them support in terms of accommodation and advice. LCI also provides a gateway to the House of Startups (HoST) services that makes it easy to connect with investors and potential customers to enable these startups to grow.
In his welcoming speech, Michel Wurth, president of the Chamber of Commerce, pointed out that this October 1st coincided day to day with the 177th anniversary of the Chamber of Commerce! He recalled that the institution remained fully committed to building and promoting Luxembourg as a Startup Nation. The creation of the House of Startups (HoST), where LCI is hosted, was one of the first steps in this process. With the marked determination to make the HoST a real place for exchanges, cooperation and knowledge sharing between startups and so-called “traditional” companies, the Chamber of Commerce has laid the foundations for Luxembourg to meet the challenges of the economy of tomorrow. Michel Wurth emphasized that LCI’s mission is to support startups from key sectors of the economy to make them successful.
“The projects supported at LCI focus in particular on the major challenges of the capital of tomorrow, areas where smart solutions will provide their answers for the smart city of tomorrow.”
Let’s make Luxembourg shine internationally
The strong demand from startups to settle in the LCI is for Ms. Polfer, Mayor of the city of Luxembourg, an undeniable proof of the dynamism and the entrepreneurial spirit in place, fundamental elements to offer a diversified economic fabric to all the players in the field. maintaining a competitive position vis-à-vis other capitals. She also highlighted the opportunity of the geographical location of the incubator, in the heart of a capital that offers an environment gathering a real pool of talents, multi-competent and multilingual at the same time, and represents a huge opportunity for startups considering expanding to neighboring countries. Also, the projects supported at LCI focus in particular on the major challenges of the capital of tomorrow, areas where smart solutions will provide their answers for the smart city of tomorrow, by offering a range of innovative, practical and effective services improving daily the quality of life for all citizens and visitors.
Last but not least, Martin Guérin, CEO of LCI, praised the courage of entrepreneurs who embarked on the adventure. Everything has been implemented within LCI to support them during their phase of strong growth, thanks to the support of a specialized and qualified team. Startups can benefit from training, mentoring advice, fundraising experts and other professionals in the House of Entrepreneurship, House of Startups and House of Training (accountants, human resources specialists, marketing, design , etc.). Martin Guérin said he is convinced that LCI and the startups it supports will be dynamic catalysts for the development of the city and the country; its mission being to develop young talents and thus help to make Luxembourg shine internationally.
Official Opening of the @LuxCityIncub ???? #startups #host2innovate #innovation pic.twitter.com/uzDCAVdeE3
— House of Startups Luxembourg (@host_lu) 1 octobre 2018
Startups and diversity
Finally, 8 startups got the privilege to pitch their products and services front of the audience and testament the exceptional diversity of the Luxembourg ecosystem. Get to know them!
SALONKEE
Salonkee has a simple mission: bringing digitalization and innovation in today’s yet so analogue hair/beauty sector with real-time online bookings, smart stock management, POS, online payments and more.
Find out more: salonkee.lu
BIM-Y
BIM-Y has been designed to allow existing or under construction buildings to benefit from the BIM, step by step and without significant investment.
Find out more: www.bim-y.com
SUMY
SUMY is specialized in eco-logistics and sustainable transport services for the cold chain products such as pharmaceuticals and sensitive foods.
Find out more: www.sumy.be
DAANUU
Daanuu offers one single fully featured SaaS solution to manage and optimize field services. Enabling any SME managing daily their field workers to compete with tech giants.
Find out more: www.daanuu.com
CAPTAINJET
CaptainJet is a simple and intuitive marketplace that aims to promote a new vision of private jet aviation. Transparency, qualits, efficiency and optimization are the key values of the company.
Find out more: www.captainjet.com
ZERO.1
Zero.1 is the first leading company to provide LaaS (Light as a Service) with LiFi. The software solutions and cloud connect any smartphones through the camera to liFi access point and services.
Find out more: www.zero1.zone
ZAP
Zap is an independent software vendor specialized in Enterprise Social Collaboration solutions.
Find out more: www.zap.lu
FIRIS
iDATI is a system for worker protection and accident prevention in industry.
Find out more: www.firis-system.com
