5 European Deep Tech Ventures To Watch Out For In 2018

Sensors that enable drivers to find free parking spots faster and thus make cities cleaner. A low-cost assessment tool for detection of dyslexia at an early age to provide timely support. These are only two of five deep tech scaleups that EIT Digital has awarded in the EIT Digital Challenge 2017 to support their international growth in 2018 and beyond. The annual contest sought for the best scaleups – fast-growing startups ready to scale their operations – in five key areas: Digital Industry, Digital Wellbeing, Digital Cities, Digital Finance and Digital Infrastructure. The winners received a prize package worth €100,000 consisting of one year support in the EIT Digital Accelerator program worth €50,000 and €50,000 in cash.

The 5 Deep Tech Scaleups To Watch Out For In 2018:

• Digital Cities: Cleverciti provides a sensor technology that points drivers via an app to free parking spots in cities to reduce search traffic and air pollution and improves the quality of life in cities.
• Digital Industry: trinckle 3D eases the entire design process of 3D printed products and lowers the entry barrier to 3D printing significantly with their cloud-based platform ‘paramate’.
• Digital Wellbeing: Lexplore has developed a technology using artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify dyslexia in a child as early as in elementary school.
• Digital Finance: OptiopPay revolutionize the way people receive money with a platform that enables businesses to offer beneficial payout options such as higher-value gift vouchers to their clients.
• Digital Infrastructure: ApiOmat enables companies to integrate their enterprise IT systems with mobile devices and wearables, allowing them to rapidly create apps that innovate their business.

EIT Digital’s pan-European contest aims to identify the most promising scaleups in the field of deep technologies (deep tech), complex and disruptive solutions that are built on unique and differentiated scientific or technological advances. In total 136 scaleups from 20 EU countries applied. “We’ve set this year’s eligibility criteria very high”, says Dominik Krabbe, Lead of the EIT Digital Challenge. “The quality of the finalists and their technology solutions were impressive. We have seen excellent companies with a great potential to scale up internationally. We will be working closely together with them to accelerate their growth in 2018 and create the next European success stories.”

ApiOmat, the scaleup from Leipzig, Germany, provides a Backend-as-a-Service solution that speeds up the development and integration of digital services across all channels such as app, web, wearables or chatbots. “There are few awards or competitions that support deep tech startups and even fewer that focus on companies that have built successful and scalable business models. The prize in combination with the EIT Digital Accelerator program will help us expand our business internationally”, says Marcel Etzel, CEO and Co-Founder of ApiOmat.

Oliver Oster, Co-founder and COO of OptioPay has a similar opinion, as he points out “Payments are made everywhere in the world. We look forward to working with the EIT Digital Accelerator as the international team will support us to adjust our offer to local conditions and make crucial business contacts.”

“Thanks to us participating in the EIT Digital Challenge, we have a lot of new contacts and it was rewarding to learn about the other great companies participating in the challenge. And this is only the starting point: the big value will be next year when we will be part of the EIT Digital Accelerator”, Lexplore co-founder Fredrik Wetterhall concludes.

The five awarded teams will enter the EIT Digital Accelerator program that comprises a team of around 40 experienced business developers and finance experts operating from 13 cities across Europe, along with a hub in Silicon Valley. Since 2012, the EIT Digital Accelerator has supported more than 260 startups to access new markets and helped them raise more than €90 million in investment to date. Accelerator alumni companies have gone on to raise over €300 million in total investment.

Fostering Digital Innovation For Economic Growth

EIT Digital is a leading European open innovation organization. Its mission is to foster digital technology innovation and entrepreneurial talent for economic growth and quality of life in Europe. EIT Digital brings together entrepreneurs from a partnership of over 130 top European corporations, SMEs, startups, universities and research institutes. Furthermore, the organization invests in strategic areas to accelerate the market uptake of research-based digital technologies and to bring entrepreneurial talent and leadership to Europe. Innovation and education activities are organized in and around co-location centers, where students, researchers, engineers, business developers and entrepreneurs come together to drive the digitalization of society.

Since 2010, EIT Digital is consistently mobilizing talents, ideas, technologies, investments and business across Europe and beyond to stimulate disruptive digital innovation. The headquarter is located in Brussels with co-location centers in Berlin, Budapest, London, Helsinki, Madrid, Paris, Stockholm, Trento, as well as a hub in Silicon Valley.

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