End of March, DIGIT PRE’s second ELIS Pitch Stop Event took place, this time in Malmö, Sweden. Eight selected sub-projects, with consortia of 2-3 SMEs, got together to pitch their digital solutions – that in different ways meet public health challenges. All participating companies have advanced in DIGIT-PRE’s Open Call, and will take part in the projects Innovation Support Program the coming 15 months.
The ELIS Pitch Stop Event in Malmö served as a kick-off for participating sub-projects and lasted for two half days. Prior, a similar event was held in Porto. For many of the collaborating SMEs, this was their first opportunity to meet in person before they embark on this journey of developing a joint solution together. A pitching session where each sub-project presented their product or service was the first topic on the agenda, closely followed by a round of “Carrousel tables”, where all sub-projects met with experts who took the pulse of the companies and their projects. The tables covered six main areas, in which potential gaps were to be discussed and determined:
- Team & organization
- Technology & design
- Business/revenue (model) and validation sales & distribution
- Financial model & investments
- Proposition, data & customer interaction
- Communication & branding
The discussions allowed the experts to measure the temperature of each sub-project, with the end goal to provide feedback and a deeper understanding of what support and services that the respective sub-project can benefit from in their solution development. As a part of the support received by DIGIT-PRE, all sub-projects have been assigned a dedicated Key Account Manager (KAM), who also took part in in the carrousel discussions and will continue to provide guidance to the companies throughout the project.
It is exciting to be part of this process as one can see how partnerships between SMEs from different parts of Europe have come together to tackle public health challenges head-on. For this, the role of the KAM emerges as a catalyst for growth, nurturing relations and providing tailored support to help drive each venture forward, by, among other things, translating each venture’s needs to actionable support from the consortium’s expertise and network, says Aldo Vermiglio, Innovation Manager at Innovation Skåne and KAM within DIGIT-PRE.
In the final part of the event, the service catalogue was presented as part of the DIGIT-PRE Innovation Support Program. This section also included discussions on the feedback provided by the experts as well as a dialogue on the action plan for each sub-project.
The Sub-projects who participated in Malmö:
- A Healthier Tomorrow, by Lifesify (SE-Skåne) & En Frisk Generation (SE-Västerbotten)
- Impacting Post Stroke, by Imvi Labs (SE-Skåne) & Accelerated Growth Lab (RO
- Accelerated preventive elderly care and increased quality of life, by Hestia Agora (SE-Skåne) & Inlisol (FI)
- Confidence, by Promptly (PO) & Canarybit (SE-Skåne)
- Magic Trailz, by InnoBeweegLab (NL-South), EstiMates (FI) & Dutch Rose Media (NL-South)
- DCDCare, by ReMotion (FR-Hauts-de-France) & Lumenart (NL-South)
- Towards Adherent, by Ai2Ai (FI), Scandinavian Phystec (SE-Skåne) & Carna eHealth (FI)
- MoVR, by SportsImproVR, (NL-South) & MiTale oy (FI)
