MY-GATEWAY at the Startup Europe Campfire and Bootcamp in Paris!
Paris, 19-20 March.
All Startup Europe partners gathered in Paris to be officially presented as Startup Europe Ambassadors and to start planning future synergies!
On Monday 19th March, Krisztina Toth presented the reason d’être of MY-GATEWAY at the Startup Europe Campfire taking place at the Ile de France in Paris.
The Campfire brought together over 200 main players from European startup ecosystems and it was the perfect opportunity to learn more about all the initiatives and projects which originated from Startup Europe over the years. It was the first of a series of events piloted by the Startup Europe initiative of the European Commission DG CONNECT in order to highlight existing and future opportunities led by the 10 running programs and initiatives and foster networking amongst community partners and stakeholders such as incubators, venture capital organizations, accelerators and many others who also attended the event. The main purposes of this event were to promote Europe as a startup continent and to strengthen the links between pan-European initiatives and local and national ones.
One of the highlights of the day was the official announcement of the Startup Europe Ambassadors at midday, in which all MY-GATEWAY partners simultaneously published a press release declaring their involvement in the democratization of the startup phenomenon.
MY GATEWAY Ambassador
The following day, 20th March, had a completely different layout: first of all, it was a private event which was only directed to the 10 project partners and it took place at the Le Cargo, a startup incubator and accelerator located in northern Paris. Four workshops focused on Communication, International market access, Deep Tech and Ecosystem building took over the whole morning with the aim of producing a roadmap of activities to be organized over the following two years.
One of the main conclusions was the importance that needs to be given to cross-project communication. By communicating effectively a common Startup Europe identity, identifying and producing targeted information for startups and even co-attending important entrepreneurial events can really help Startup Europe continuing making a difference and keep building a startup continent.
About MY-GATEWAY
MY-GATEWAY is an initiative of Startup Europe that aims to strengthen the capacities of high-tech start-ups and innovative SMEs in the CEE region to become better connected, gain higher market exposure, and have improved, streamlined access to funding opportunities and talents.
About Startup Europe
Startup Europe is an initiative of the European Commission which falls under its priority of the “Digital Single Market”. Startup Europe’s goal is to democratise the startup phenomenon so that every citizen has a fair chance to become a successful entrepreneur wherever they are located in Europe. In addition, Startup Europe helps startups in their growth phase to scale-up across Europe and internationalise worldwide. Startup Europe’s first priority is to develop high quality ecosystems based on talent and high level of connectedness among the players of the ecosystems at EU level.
Startup Europe has mobilised the tech entrepreneurship ecosystem and helped them to have their voice heard at EU institutions. It has helped to gain a better understanding of this environment and has raised political awareness on the subject. Within the Horizon 2020 framework, 2018-2020 timeframe, 7 projects are working together in terms of financing, skills, entrepreneurial events and growth advice. Startup Europe’s programmes focus on helping startup communities, increase collaborations between startup ecosystems, encouraging entrepreneurship, startup creation and scaling business.
Road Trip to Africa – Nigeria
- Thursday, 23 November: Arrive in Lagos and set up event
- Friday, 24 November: Boot Camp for 15 African start-ups. As above, we are asking for start-ups that have either at least $100,000 in annual recurring revenue or at least $100,000 in investment. The Boot Camp will be hosted at Leadspace, a local co-working space with 7 locations in Nigeria that has been highlighted on CNN Africa.
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Saturday, 25 November: An event open to the entire start-up ecosystem, both in person and virtually, will also be hosted at Leadspace. The format will be similar to the Cape Town event: 4 blocks and 1 inspirational keynote. The 4 blocks will again be:
- How to raise capital in Europe and Africa;
- What investors look for in Europe and Africa;
- How to work with corporates in Europe and Africa; and
- How to build a brand and a network in Europe and Africa.
The inspirational keynote will be on “How to create an African Bill Gates” and will be given by a top digital entrepreneur in Western Africa.
Later that evening, we will host the finals to select the best start-up from among the 15 semifinalists at the Olesegun Obasanjo Presidential Library. President Obasanjo will host the event, and relevant foreign dignitaries will be invited.
As with the Cape Town event, the winner of the start-up competition will get various prizes, including €76,000 in investment from Wayra and the chance to pitch at St James Palace before HRH, The Duke of York and possibly the Queen of England. Other partners, including Amazon, Google and Facebook, will provide prizes such as €1000 of free Facebook marketing, etc. If the winning start-up is a preventative health start-up, MSD, the world’s 4th largest pharmaceutical company, may match Wayra’s investment with a €76,000 grant.
The time Is Now.
Market, Partnership and Investment Opportunities in the USA Await You!
NearUS, the H2020 initiative aiming at building upENRICH – European Network of Research and Innovation Centres and Hubs – in the USA announces the opening of the following calls
- NearUS Match & Pitch at CES 2018 (January 7-11, 2018)! (click here)
- NearUS Innovation Tour to San Francisco, Sacramento and Silicon Valley (January 15-19, 2018)! (click here)
- NearUS Research2Market (R2M) Bootcamp in Boston, with an individualisedprogramme across the USA (March 4-16, 2018) and a pre-departure workshop in Brussels in February 2018! (click here)
- NearUS Business2Business (B2B) Bootcamp in Boston, with an individualisedprogramme across the USA (March 4-16, 2018) and a pre-departure workshop in Brussels in February 2018! (click here)
Are you an early stage entrepreneur, early stage Startup founder,researcher, research organization, SME, or cluster looking for market information, market opportunities,partners, investment opportunities and feedback on yourinnovations?
Then you should definitely visit us at https://near-us.eu/opportunities to learn more about the calls
Deadline for applications is:
November 12th, 2017 23.59 CET for the NearUS Match & Pitch at CES 2018 and the NearUS Innovation Tour to the West Coast
December 5th, 2017 23.59 CET for the NearUS Bootcamps in Boston
Attend National Roadshow BioInItaly Investment Forum with TWIST!
Have the chance to pitch at BioInItaly Investment Forum with Startup Europe project, TWIST project!
One of the partners of TWIST project, Lazio Innova, is a key local partner in Rome of the National Roadshow BioInItaly Investment Forum, the event organized by Assobiotec in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo Start-Up Initiative that will take place in Rome next January 18th 2017.
In Rome at each stage of the roadshow, a jury of experts will select the Best Presentation in Healthcare Biotech / Biomedical.
The projects and / or start-ups that will be awarded have the opportunity to enter the boot-camp that will be held in Milan at the headquarters of Fondazione Filarete- Intesa San Paolo on 27 and 28 February and will pitch at the BioInItaly Investment Forum & Intesa Sanpaolo Start-Up Initiative 29 and 30 March 2017 in Milan .
Applicants wishing to take part in this initiative must meet the following requirements:
• Contestants must present a company or project that fits within the target biotech and nanobiotech tracks of Red Biotech and Green & White Biotech. It is not required for the applicants’ project to refer to an incorporated company.
• International applications are welcome – please be aware that at least 50% of the projects admitted to Phase 2 must be Italian or planning to open up a main office in Italy within 2017.
• Contestants must indicate their fund raising objectives and financial needs (the typical equity ask range for our investment forums is between € 200K and € 3M)
• Participants from previous editions will be considered only if they can demonstrate a significant evolution in their business plan or market validation.
The application form should be sent before January 16th to
StartupOnStage – Training Bootcamp in Rome for Lifescience startups
Startup on Stage, an event organized by a Startup Europe project, Twist and Meet in Italy 4 life Science, took place in Salone delle Fontane, a monumental building placed in the EUR area, in the south of the Italian Capital. Startup on Stage consisted in a bootcamp on medical device, e-health and pharma startups spread across two days.
The bootcamp started on the 25th October afternoon with a very interesting workshop on Marketing Trends and sales strategy for medical devices, run by Roberto Ascione, CEO of Healthware International.
Once this workshop was over another one on ‘How to pitch’ started. This very short but intense session on the key steps of pitching led by Mario Caria, Sofimatic partners, and Salvatore Mayorana from the Italian Institute of Technology, resulted in being extremely useful as it was the starting point for startups who needed some polishing in their pitching skills, something which is often overlooked.
Following this quick workshop the selected startups spent the whole afternoon with different mentors who carefully listened to their pitch and gave top-notch feedback!
In case you’re wondering, here’s the list of mentors:
- Roberto Ascione, Healthware International
- Simone Demelas, Startup Weekend
- Francesco De Seta, Medtronics
- Salvatore Majorana, Italian Institute of Technology
- Nicola Mattina, Digital Magics
After the feedback, most startups were interviewed by the Startup Europe press office to see their thoughts on the mentoring offered and we were happy to hear that, although most of the times they were asked to scrap their current pitch and basically redo it, their opinions were all very positive! They figured out new ways of presenting their idea and business model that would surely help them get some extra points in the eyes of the investors the following day.
The following day, Wednesday morning, 26th October, startups had another chance to present their freshly revised pitch in front of Michela Michilli, head of the Twist project, and the other mentors. After listening to the latest version of the pitch, this is what mentors said:
“The improvement was increadible! from being very scientific or descriptive, they all managed to get one step closer to the perfect pitch!”
The meeting with the investors on Wednesday afternoon was just around the corner, and after a quick lunch with some more networking, Gian Paolo Manzella, councilor at the Parliament of the Lazio Region, moderated the pitch session in front of investors.
Hopefully we’ll soon update you with some good news! We’re sure some ideas raised great interest.
Find out more on the Twist Project and its bootcamp for startups in the science sector!
Check out this video of the different startups who took part in the bootcamp!