The 5th edition of Pitch Your Startup powered by Farvest, and partners such as Docler Holding, Luxinnovation, Luxfactory.com, the Luxembourg City Incubator, Luxinnovation, the LHoFT, BIL, The Office and Silversquare Luxembourg took place during 2019 edition of ICT Spring. Last year’s winner, Empath Inc., was chosen from among 15 other startups. This year, the rules have changed with 75 startups selected from all over the world!
(Featured Image: Vitaly Bondar, CEO of Apla, is the big winner of Pitch Your Startup 5th edition / Image Credit © Farvest)
New edition, new rules
The 5th edition has reached another level this year, with a split of the 75 startups in 5 different categories. One rule hasn’t changed though: the startups only had a strict 3.33 minutes pitch session, followed by a 2 minutes Q&A.
A €20,000 prize was awarded to one startup in each category:
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Fin- & RegTech: 12 startups selected;
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Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & Big Data: 15 startups selected;
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Smart Living: 12 startups selected. The meaning? Any startup whose primary technology or service aims to create solutions in the domains of health, transportation, construction and/or energy by exploring uncharted fields on Earth and beyond;
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Cybersecurity: 13 startups selected;
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Luxembourg-based Startups: 15 Luxembourg selected.
And the winner is…
The big winner of the night was the Luxembourg-based startup, Apla, who went back home with 3 prizes. The startup won the “best overall” special prize offered by Docler Holding and took home a check for 50,000 euros, together with the 20,000 euros prize in the FinTech vertical and a special
prize from the LHoFT!
Apla is a full-service blockchain technology company that enables governments and businesses to work faster, safer and with greater impact. Apla develops solutions based on its own, proprietary blockchain platform. Voting system, land registries, financial services, medical records, IP rights distribution, donation and other social good market places, this is a short list of proven use cases of the Apla’s blockchain protocol.
The_LHoFT: Congratulations to #LHoFT member and NadifinHQ Fintech Accelerator participant AplaBlockchain for winning the #Fintech and #Regtech category of the Pitch Your Startup Competition at #ICTSpring2019! ???? pic.twitter.com/PTaSl7JwmL
— Nasir Zubairi (@naszub) 21 mai 2019
“The first program using our technology will be launched at the end of the month. It is a platform for managing corporate governance services in communication with a company and its shareholders. We will dedicate our prize to the continuation of our research and development activities,” rejoiced Vitaly Bondar, CEO of Apla.
“We consider thorough technological solutions the cornerstone of competitive and durable companies. Apla’s blockchain solution demonstrates a novel approach to their industry, and its team reassures us of their continued passion in bringing the solution to mass market,” explains Marton Fülöp, CIO at Docler Holding.
More winners…
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Smart Living, sponsored by DeepBlue: Loro was awarded the first place and cash prize of €20,000.
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Cybersecurity, sponsored by securitymadein.lu: EAGLYS was awarded the first place and cash prize of €20,000.
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Fin- & RegTech, sponsored by Escalion: Apla was awarded the dedicated €20,000 cash prize, but also the Docler Holding cash prize of €50,000 and a special gift from The LHoFT: a free startup exhibition booth at Global Venture Summit.
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Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & Big Data, sponsored by Deloitte: PatchAI won the first prize, while Seeing is Hearing got a special “Coup de Coeur” mention from the sponsor.
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Luxembourg-based Startups: Passbolt was awarded the dedicated €20,000 cash prize.
In addition, Pitch Your Startup 2019 partners gave gifts to startups of their own choosing:
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SPICA Technologies Ltd won 6 months of free hosting in the coworking space, as well as a full social media marketing campaign and a professional promotion video from The Office;
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ANote Music won a ticket and accommodation to participate in one of the upcoming formats of their international startup supporting events as part of the Luxembourg Trade and Invest delegation from Luxinnovation;
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Yspace and Adok both won three months of free desk within the coworking space of the Luxembourg City Incubator;
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STOKR won a ticket to accompany Luxfactory to CES 2020;
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UBIRCH won four months of free access to Technoport’s open space in Belval as well as 32 hours of coaching from the team during that time;
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Finally, Silversquare awarded the winners of the first prize of each category with 2 free desks during 6 months at their co-working space.