After the completion of the third cycle of the “INVENT ICT” innovation and start-up support programme, the results of the programme are encouraging, as 75% of the participants have managed to establish a business, creating new value and new jobs.
In particular, 32 ventures have managed to become independent from the “incubator”, while dozens of innovative start-ups with excellent returns have emerged, attracting funding, totalling more than €1.1 million . Of these, 340,000 came from NSRF, 700,000 from venture capitals, 100,000 from competitions and other programmes and 20,000 from Business Angels.
INVENT ICT promotes the development of high value-added products and services by deep tech companies and the creation of an ecosystem of young entrepreneurship, which can be a help in restarting the economy and strengthening the country’s extroversion.
It is a project that links research, business, engineering schools and the startup ecosystem, creating significant value, experience and legacies for such collaborative models that promote the essence of innovative entrepreneurship by translating research into partnerships.
In the 3 cycles of the programme, more than 134 proposals were submitted for inclusion in the pioneering programme by research teams, which benefited manifold with:
- personalised coaching and mentoring
- participation in international and national events
- networking with programme partners and potential clients
- seminars and training workshops
- access to funding
The ideas
Drones and satellites to cultivate estates; lights, heating and shutters that open… by themselves; thermo chambers that keep food at an ideal temperature from the shop to the customer’s door; coffee residues made into usable raw material by cosmetology.
These are just a few of the start-up ideas that are evolving into innovative businesses.
The teams participating in the programme submitted proposals for research results that can be commercially exploited and relate to IT and communication technology solutions in different sectors such as health, travel, agriculture, infrastructure, etc.
For example, the Joy Foundry team has developed the Keyonic platform, which allows the management of building facilities with a single click from a mobile phone, Scientia Maris software, which is essential for engineers to design sustainable projects in the marine environment, and for public authorities (ministry directorates, regions and municipalities) for the integrated management of the coastal zone, Airbots Agri-Tech integrates cutting-edge technologies such as drones and satellite information in agriculture, reducing the environmental footprint; Coffeco utilises organic coffee residues by extracting the nutrients hidden in them; and HyBox has built a food transport thermochamber so that it can be delivered to the customer without temperature loss.
The account
Taking stock of how much they benefited from it, the participants documented their experience in a video, demonstrating the importance of proper mentoring in emerging start-ups.
“We had mentoring in our first steps”, “You are part of a strong network, the people who are in the network offer you a lot of opportunities” “It showed us how to find the market, it helped us to focus on the marketing and business part” said the representatives of the groups during the event on the completion of the 3 cycles. (You can watch the video here)
The report of the third cycle, after more than 850 hours of support, reflects in practice that Invent ICT – incubator is a reference point for connecting entrepreneurs, investors and start-ups from the national and international ecosystem and a key communication channel between business and academia(more than 370 participants in the teams). The incubator also provided technological solutions through the exploitation of important research results and more broadly of the knowledge generated in polytechnics, universities and research centres.
The project was implemented by the Research and Entrepreneurship Interface Structure (RI.noo) of the National Technical University of Athens and Industry Disruptors – Game Changers (ID-GC) with the support of the Association of Mobile Telephony Companies (MCC).
You can see snapshots of the incubator’s debriefing event here, which was graced by the presence of the Deputy Minister of Development & Investments Mr. Christos Dimas and the Deputy Minister of Education Mr. Angelos Syrigos.
The article INVENT ICT Report.
