On Thursday 3 October, more than 400 people attended the 9th edition of the Fit 4 Start Selection & Graduation Day at Kinepolis Kirchberg. This year, 20 start-ups from ICT, healthtech and space were selected for participation.
The start-up pitching event of this autumn once again fulfilled all expectations. Almost 80 start-ups from all over the world gathered for a full day of pitching their solutions in 4 minutes to one of the three juries – ICT, healthtech and space – of the 9 th edition of Fit 4 Start. An intense experience for these entrepreneurs, some of whom came to Luxembourg for the very first time.
The Fit 4 Start programme is managed by Luxinnovation with the support of the Ministry of the Economy, in collaboration with the Technoport and Luxembourg City Incubator, the Luxembourg Space Agency and the House of BioHealth. For the first time, it includes three different verticals: ICT, healthtech and space.
A successful move, since with nearly 300 applications received, Fit 4 Start has become Luxembourg's main pitching event. "The Fit 4 Start Selection & Graduation Day has become the key event on the agenda of Luxembourg's start-up ecosystem", added Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Economy and Minister of Health Étienne Schneider, in his speech preceding the announcement of the selected start-ups.
One of the highlights of the evening was the intervention of Peter Platzer, CEO of Spire, a company active in the space sector that will give access to its “data lake" to the start-ups selected for the space vertical. "There is no investment in space, but there is investment in companies trying to solve problem on Earth using space. Space is a medium and not the product," he told the start-ups.
And the selected start-ups are…
In the end, 20 start-ups (10 from the ICT, 5 from the healthtech and 5 from the space field) were selected by the jury members to participate in the 9th edition of Fit 4 Start. The new promotion consists of (in alphabetical order):
ICT:
- Anote Music (Luxembourg)
- CheckMath (Luxembourg)
- Cubbit (Italy) - DataCue (Singapore)
- I-Warranty (United Kingdom)
- Quantego (Luxembourg)
- Rebolet (Germany)
- Symvio (Luxembourg)
- Vocally.fm (Italy)
- WearHealth (Germany)
HealthTech:
- Cohesys (Canada)
- Nium (Luxembourg)
- Nutrihumix (Luxembourg)
- Sanascope (Germany)
- ViewMind (Argentina)
Space:
- 3Dfarms (United States)
- GlobeEye (France)
- Ilumbra (Luxembourg)
- RespectUS (Luxembourg)
- WEO (Germany)
All these companies will join the 16-week coaching programme starting next month and will receive a €50,000 subsidy from the Ministry of the Economy.
The Selection & Graduation Day was also an occasion to reward the start-ups that successfully completed the Fit 4 Start #8 programme after 4 months of intensive coaching.
As specified in the competition rules, their successful graduation gives them access to an additional €100,000 provided they manage to raise at least €50,000 of private investment.
The 6 graduates of Fit 4 Start #8 are:
- Abar
- F4A
- FireFly
- Gamma AR
- RoomMate
- Rafinex
Fit 4 Start - Launched by the Ministry of Economy and managed by Luxinnovation in collaboration with Technoport and Luxembourg City Incubator, the Fit 4 Start programme helps young innovative companies to launch their business from Luxembourg, transforming innovative ideas and the entrepreneurs’ strong will to succeed into companies with high growth potential. www.fit4start.lu
Luxinnovation is Luxembourg’s national innovation agency. It encourages and supports companies to innovate and to grow, whilst facilitating their collaboration with public research players. Luxinnovation offers a wide portfolio of services to companies and public research organisations in order to foster innovation, thus supporting the Government’s economic development objectives. The agency also ensures that Luxembourg continues to attract international investment, companies and skills that are a perfect fit for the country. Luxinnovation is a public-private partnership composed of the Ministry of the Economy, the Ministry for Higher Education and Research, the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, the Luxembourg Chamber of Skilled Crafts and FEDIL – The Voice of Luxembourg’s Industry. www.luxinnovation.lu
Released by the Ministry of the Economy and Luxinnovation