Seven awesome early stage startups from Baltics and Poland have successfully completed first phase of EIT Digital Venture Program in the Baltics, jointly organised with us, Startup Wise Guys (SWG).
There were 16 active participants in the program and many of the teams moved their business journey significantly forward during the program – KIDNGO have their first paying clients, Ruupi launched a pilot project, and Recovery Companion won the LAPhack Health hackathon and Grand Prix in StarterTallinn. As you can tell – the teams have already progressed and we believe they are definitely “worth to watch” in the coming year!
Startups that participated in the program: AIRDAS (Latvia), KIDNGO (Lithuania), Recovery Companion (Estonia), Ridely (Latvia), Ruupi (Lithuania), Styleshark (Estonia), Subjective Guide (Poland).
During the first program phase, founders received initial investment and spent more than 30 hours in mentoring sessions, as well as at an intense 2-day live Bootcamp with pitching and mentoring. Now the startups are expected to finish their MVP and register as a company to apply for the next stage of the EIT Digital Venture Program, which also includes eligibility for additional 10K EUR investment.
SWG and EIT Digital Venture program was the best experience a startup could have in very early stages. KIDNGO got very lucky to take part in it. It was organized really well and from day one the content was super engaging and useful. We enjoyed every online session followed by an amazing time in Riga, where we had two-day Bootcamp with inspiring and super smart people, who are willing to share the best of their knowledge. The SWG team is all about values and deep passion for what they do, and their passion is contagious. It was an honor and privilege to get to know them and an amazing opportunity for us to get the best mentoring and access to a wide network of professionals. This experience is definitely going into my future memories list.
Indre Jurgaite, Founder of KIDNGO
The mentor pool was as international as the participating teams. Startups received advice from SWG top mentors like Patrick Collins (UK/Lithuania), Mario Krivokapic (Serbia), Petra Wolkenstein (Austria), Florian Kendler (Austria), Oscar Sanjuan (Spain), as well as Jasmina Popovska from EIT Digital, and Baltics based alumni and team members of SWG accelerator. Special shout-out to our Online Preaccelerator team power-ladies – Alona Belinska and Karina Lapina.
The program was an invaluable resource of information for our startup, empowering us to understand all facets of the startup journey and giving us the opportunity to pitch Recovery Companion to a diverse and engaged audience. We are extremely grateful for being included in the program and more importantly, for creating new friendships with our startup peers and the Wise Guys team.
Eric Jackson, co-founder of Recovery Companion
The EIT Digital Venture Program supports entrepreneurial teams from 19 countries with deep tech business ideas to finalise their MVP and start their venture. Program provides up to 15K EUR financial support and a six-week Pre-Acceleration Phase executed by four regional partners in Greece, Latvia, Portugal and Slovenia.
EIT Digital is a leading European digital innovation and entrepreneurial education organisation driving Europe’s digital transformation. EIT Digital delivers breakthrough digital innovations to the market and breeds entrepreneurial talent for economic growth and improved quality of life in Europe. It does this by mobilising a pan-European ecosystem of almost 200 top European corporations, SMEs, start-ups, universities and research institutes.