Last Thursday West Swedish Incubators and the #greenUps network invited startups, financiers and industrial companies to the Brewhouse for their regular matchmaking event.
Nine selected speakers pitched to startups and there were one-to-one meetings between startups and the participants.
The event focused on new innovative technologies, products, services or model solutions mainly in Industry 4.0. The day ended with afterwork and mingling between the participants, who also got to listen and enjoy a live performance by a band.
The hostess Charlotte Odbjer, operations manager at Brewhouse, welcomed all the participants and presented the activities at Brewhouse, which currently houses 8 musictech companies.
When the moderator of the day, Klementina Österberg, took over, she introduced all the other participating incubators and science parks, respectively the startups, that participated in the matchmaking event. The incubators are currently developing around 300 new projects and companies, some of which participated in the matchmaking and others are continuously matched with industry players.
On stage, Klementina presented how the incubators work together and what each incubator focuses on, and Katarina Nordström, Johanneberg Science Park, and Håkan Axelsson, Chalmers Ventures, presented the #greenUps network, which they run together with GU Ventures. In addition, they explained what is offered to this group of #greenUps on behalf of the Swedish Energy Agency, which includes support in application processes, business development and internationalisation.
The entire morning was then devoted to the participating industrial companies and the Swedish Energy Agency making so-called “reverse pitches” on stage in front of the participants, focusing on what their business is, where they are in their innovation work, what solutions they are looking for, how they want to collaborate with startups and what they have for their own incubation and investment activities in-house.
On stage for so-called “reversed pitches” were:
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Collage of pictures taken from the event at Brewhouse in Gothenburg. Photo: Melisha Linnell
Markus Hellqvist, Development Director, Skanska
- Lars-Erik Lindberg, Innovation Leader, Ericsson
- Amanda Dalstam, Strategy & Business Innovation, GKN Aerospace
- Ola Gustavsson, Manager Production Development, Xylem Inc.
- Martin Svensson, Head of Sustainable Business Development, Swedish Energy Agency
- Jan Utas, Senior Scientific Advisor, Wellspect HealthCare
- Frode Langmoen, Technology Executive Ecosystem developmnet, IBM
- Pontus All, Senior Venture Development Manager, Volvo Group and
- Claes Radojewski, Inception programme manager, NVIDIA
In addition, EIT Manufactoring, EU SME Support and ESA BIC from the space industry participated, who also had individual discussions with all participants.
- “It is golden to gather all these knowledgeable and competent people for a focused day of matchmaking and collaboration discussions. I would like to thank all the participants for their efforts, partly the work of internally preparing their presentations on the areas they know they are looking for solutions in and screening all the contacts we connect them with”, says Helena Ströberg, GU Ventures business developer and work package leader within West Swedish Incubators, who was responsible for the implementation of the day in collaboration between many business coaches.
- “The standing and recurring feeling when we conduct our matchmaking days, we have found is that industrial companies have in recent years accelerated somewhat tremendously in terms of establishing new solutions for better sustainability and digitalization. It’s very inspiring to see. They are also looking for the speed and agility that characterises startups, not just the innovations that these bring to market. At the same time, industry says that they themselves need to become more ‘startup-ready’ and also that startups need to be prepared to scale up properly, in order to satisfy demand, says Klementina Österberg, CEO GU Ventures, chair of the steering group in West Swedish Incubators, and also a participant in the #greenUps work.
In the afternoon, all participants took part in valuable one-on-one meetings with the goal that it will lead to new collaborations and that more innovations can grow and reach the market.
- “The standing and recurring feeling when we conduct our matchmaking days, we have found is that industrial companies have in recent years accelerated somewhat tremendously in terms of establishing new solutions for better sustainability and digitalization. It’s very inspiring to see. They are also looking for the speed and agility that characterises startups, not just the innovations that these bring to market. At the same time, industry says that they themselves need to become more ‘startup-ready’ and also that startups need to be prepared to scale up properly, in order to satisfy demand, says Klementina Österberg, CEO GU Ventures, chair of the steering group in West Swedish Incubators, and also a participant in the #greenUps work.
In the afternoon, all participants took part in valuable one-on-one meetings with the goal that it will lead to new collaborations and that more innovations can grow and reach the market.
