At the fifth Kyiv Tech Hub conference, organized as part of the Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge project, Elai.io won first place and a prize of PLN 30,000. This platform uses advanced AI to create artificial presenters based on text in over 40 languages. Knopka and Atmosphere took second and third place, respectively. Each received PLN 10,000 to further develop their business idea. A total of 20 startups from Ukraine competed for the title. Kyiv Tech Hub is the final conference organized as part of the Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge project, implemented by the Cooperation Fund Foundation in cooperation with the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy. Its goal is to identify the best business ideas during regional meetups in Ukraine. The next stage is to accelerate startup teams through training led by experienced experts and provide them with direct contact with representatives of Polish Venture Capital funds.
“This year, nearly 100 projects from Ukraine submitted to the project, of which 30 were included in the acceleration program. The top 20 qualified for the Kyiv Tech Hub 2021 finals. All presented to a jury composed of representatives of Polish Venture Capital funds and the Warsaw Stock Exchange. During the competition, projects were evaluated based on business potential, innovative solutions, team competencies, and the quality of their presentations. The total prize pool was PLN 50,000,” says Krzysztof Grochowski, Lead Expert of the Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge.
During the first day of the conference, Activechat, Agrotop, AID, Atmosphere, AutoBI, Bumpy, Camtouch, Dandex, Elai.io, Finmap, Fruittorg, GreenBin, JobTailor, Knopka, mbakids.online, Measurme, Muscreators, Noty.ai, Pleso, and WOD Insight presented their solutions.
This year’s winners
Each startup had time to present their solution, followed by a series of questions. The jury decided that Elai.io would be the overall winner of the competition. This platform, based on artificial intelligence (AI) and SaaS (Software as a Service) technology, creates personalized videos using only text. The startup received a prize of PLN 30,000.
Second place went to Knopka, a startup that developed a nurse call system for hospitals. Thanks to the solution, they are immediately notified of a threat, and if no one responds within three minutes, the alert becomes more intense and ultimately goes to the head of the relevant department. Third place went to the startup Atmosphere – a weather data processing system used for both external and internal devices.
“This year’s recruitment for the project exceeded our expectations, both in terms of the number of applications and their quality. The 30 best startups had the opportunity to refine their ideas with our mentors. A total of nearly 150 meetings were held, during which the teams were able to refine their business model, market access strategy, financial assumptions, and intellectual property protection, among other things. For many of them, the mentoring sessions were a milestone and resulted in significant improvements to their projects in these areas,” emphasized Łukasz Wawak, project manager of the Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge.
Investor Meetings
Beyond the competition, on the first day of the conference, startups participating in the Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge project had the opportunity to connect with venture capital funds from Poland. Among them were representatives from Simpact VC, SpeedUp Venture Capital Group, VC Link, Shape VC, SMOK Ventures, ABAN fund, YouNick Mint, Inovo Venture Partners, AgriTech Hub, and StarFinder Capital Fund. This year, over 60 individual matchmaking meetings were held online and offline.
The Polish Startup Bridge is planning to publish a report on the needs of Ukrainian startups by the end of the year. This report will help promote Ukrainian projects in Poland and Ukraine and contribute to a deeper discussion on improving the conditions for the startup industry in this part of Europe. The main partner of the publication is the Ukrainian Startup Fund. The study is scheduled to be released early next year.
***
The main goal of the Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge project is to expand the knowledge of young Ukrainian entrepreneurs and academics about models for commercializing business ideas in Poland and the opportunities for obtaining financing for such projects from entities on the Polish capital market, including venture capital/private equity funds.
The Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge is implemented by the Cooperation Fund Foundation and the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy and financed by the Polish Aid program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.
Current information about the project can be found on the website: https://www.startupbridge.eu and on the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/startupbridge.eu
