REACH Incubator welcomes the last batch of Big Data startups to join the programme!
REACH Incubator held its last incubation Kick off meeting on 3 April 2023, during which the 40 startups to join the third and final iteration of the programme had the opportunity to present themselves and their experiments.
We are excited to share with you some stats behind the new additions to the REACH community!
Between 22 November 2022 and 21 February 2023, 152 applications were submitted during the final REACH Open Call for startups.
The selection process was tough, and the competition was fierce, with each SME vying to impress the evaluators with their innovative solutions. However, those who made it through managed to catch the eye of the jury with their creativity, technical expertise, and business acumen. They have now earned a spot in the final REACH incubation round, where they will receive mentorship and support to further develop and refine their ideas.
Let’s take a closer look at the statistics related to the startups that were selected!
Out of the 40 selected SMEs, the majority (23) have chosen to pursue the Ready Made track (Track 2). This means that they will focus on solving the big data challenges identified by the REACH Data Providers based on the needs of their respective markets. This suggests that these SMEs have a strong interest in addressing real-world business problems and are willing to work closely with industry partners to do so.
On the other hand, 7 SMEs have chosen the Theme Driven track (Track 1), indicating that they are keen to collaborate with the REACH consortium and the leading European Digital Innovation Hubs to tackle cross-sectorial Data Value Chain (DVC) themes.
Finally, 10 SMEs have opted for the Free Choice track (Track 3), suggesting that they have a clear vision for their own DVC joint challenge and have secured the support of their Data Provider/s to tackle it. Overall, the distribution of SMEs across the tracks reflects the diversity of approaches and strategies that participants bring to the REACH incubation programme.
The selected startups for the REACH incubation program have identified a range of challenges to tackle within Track 1.
These challenges are:
- RES forecasting (CERTH 4.1), with two SMEs working on this challenge;
- Digital Product Passport (CEA 1.1), with one SME working on this challenge;
- Speech/no speech activity detection (CERTH 4.1), with one SME working on this challenge;
- Optimization of visual inspection process (CERR 8.1),with one SME working on this challenge;
- IoT platform for data sovereignty and data exchange between organizations (CONNECT5 10.1), one SME working on this challenge;
- Optimization of Bilbao firefighters’ interventions (CONNECT5 10.3), one SME working on this challenge.
The top five most chosen challenges from Track 2 are:
- Demand analysis and occupancy prediction in Bilbobus (Bilbao 1), selected by 3 SMEs;
- Energy cost assessment and forecasting (SMAT 1), selected by 2 SMEs;
- Forecast of production needs (Grupo AN 1), selected by 2 SMEs;
- Product recognition in pharmaceutical logistics (Cofares 2), selected by 2 SMEs;
- Object detection from images (Migros 3), selected by 2 SMEs.
REACH Incubator has selected startups from a wide range of European countries. The selected startups include:
- Six from Spain;
- Five from Portugal;
- Four from Italy;
- Three from Germany,Greece, Serbia and the UK respectvely;
- Two from Ireland and two from Turkey;
- One from Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, and Slovenia each.
This diverse range of countries highlights the broad reach of the REACH programme and the importance of collaboration across different regions and industries. By bringing together startups from across Europe, the REACH incubation programme aims to foster innovation and drive progress in the field of big data.
The selected startups for the REACH incubation programme have a wide range of experience with big data and AI. The majority of the startups noted their acquaintance with these technologies as very high, with a total of 21 SMEs stating so.
13 SMEs stated that their acquaintance with big data and AI is high, indicating a solid understanding of these technologies.
Additionally, 5 SMEs mentioned that their acquaintance with big data and AI is medium, suggesting that they have some knowledge of these technologies but may require further development.
Only 1 SME stated that their acquaintance with big data and AI is low, indicating that they may require additional support and training to fully engage with the program.
The selected startups for the REACH programme have a diverse range of tech statuses for their products.
The majority of startups, 17 in total, mentioned that they have a fully functional product. Meanwhile, 14 startups stated that they have a beta minimum viable product (MVP), suggesting that they are actively testing their products in the market and are working to improve them. Additionally, 7 SMEs stated that they are at the prototype stage, indicating that they are in the process of developing their products and testing them. 1 SME mentioned that they have a mockup, which suggests that they have a conceptual design but have not yet developed a functional product. Lastly, 1 startup noted that they haven’t built anything yet, indicating that they are at the earliest stages of development.
Overall, the diverse range of tech statuses highlights the variety of projects in the program and showcases the potential for growth and development throughout REACH Incubator.
All this data is great, but who in fact are the 40 lucky startups that will be with us in the upcoming months? Let’s take a look.
Track 1 – Theme Driven
Track 2 – Ready Made
What’s next?
The 40 teams are now in the EXPLORE phase and will be working on their idea validation. This phase will culminate with the Datathon event in Paris in May, where the 10 best startups will then move on to the next phase – EXPERIMENT. All teams in the Datathon event will be awarded €5,000 for being in the top selection, investing their resources on developing their concept and actively taking part in the EXPLORE phase.
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