BoostUp! RIS 2021 – two-day ride with outstanding manufacturing innovations!

On 11-12 May 2021, the BoostUp! RIS 2021 event took place during the Manufacturing Days at ViennaUP’21, one of the largest startup festivals in Europe. 16 startups and teams pitched their innovative solutions to the international audience, the best ones were awarded with growth support packages and cash prizes.

BoostUp! started in 2020 as a flagship event in EIT Manufacturing’s Business Creation pillar. As inclusiveness, openness and collaboration are the cornerstones of BoostUp!, this year’s competition had a special focus on RIS countries. This was done specifically to ensure that all local and regional ecosystems are equally represented in the EIT Manufacturing innovation community, regardless of the maturity of their local innovation support infrastructure. This year, a special attention and growth support was given to the startups that may not have all the needed local resources for scaling but are still thriving and have accomplished extraordinary results.

Many high-quality applications from teams and startups from 15 RIS eligible countries have been submitted. After an external jury evaluation, 11 startups in the category ACCELERATE and 5 startups in CREATE were invited as finalists to pitch their ideas on the virtual BoostUp! RIS stage.

The pitches were evaluated by an external expert jury, consisting of venture capitalists across all five CLCs: Johann Hipfl (HIBEG GmbH), Greta Monstavice (Katalista Ventures), Iñaki Lasa Arratibel (ie Team), Maria Cristina Odasso (LIFTT), Elisabeth Schrey (btov Partners) and Linda Krondahl (THINGS).

Of the 57 submitted applications, more than 70 % addressed two EIT Manufacturing flagships “Digital & Collaborative Solutions for Innovative Manufacturing Ecosystems and Low Environmental Footprint Systems” and “Circular Economy for Green Manufacturing”, and half of all applications were related to the following three technology domains: Connectivity and IoT Infrastructure; Data analytics/AI, and Additive Manufacturing (3D printing).

In addition to the pitching competition, the BoostUp! RIS 2021 event programme was complemented by keynote speeches, panel discussions, interviews, presentations, and fireside chats on topics such as green manufacturing, IP management, smart manufacturing, efficiency and safety in manufacturing as well as the importance of communication to attract investors.

To open the BoostUp! RIS event, Thomas Fellger, CEO of iconmobile, took the audience on a journey through his own career and gave all entrepreneurs and startups one important message – to be passionate about what they do, as this is the key to be successful in a startup world. Besides this, winners from last year’s BoostUp! were invited to talk about their experience.

The winners of the BoostUp! RIS 2021 were awarded with “growth packages” of 4-months dedicated support services in coaching, mentoring and IP management provided by the EIT Manufacturing Business Creation team as well as financial prizes of EUR 10.000 for the first place winner, EUR 7.000 for the second place and EUR 5.000 for the third place.  In addition, LMS (Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems & Automation, University of Patras, Greece) as a BoostUp! RIS supporter provides tech expertise & mentoring related to a proof of concept or product development for the first place CREATE winner.

The BoostUp! RIS 2021 edition has been supported by an international investor community: Gellify, HIBEG, ie Team, Join Capital, Katalista Ventures , Kolektor Ventures, LIFTT, Venture Factory and Things.

Winning teams in the category ACCELERATE:

1. Place: Neuron SW (Czech Republic)

Neuron soundware reshapes machine diagnostics and predictive maintenance. Their powerful AI recognizes sound patterns in real-time and provides unparalleled insight into how mechanical systems operate, so potential failures can be detected early.

Website: https://www.neuronsw.com/

2. Place: UP Catalyst (Estonia)

UP Catalyst produces novel and sustainable carbon nanomaterials and graphite, mainly for energy storage applications, through a sustainable CO₂ capturing electrolysis process.

Website: https://www.upcatalyst.com/

3. Place: Vottun (Spain)

Vottun has developed a complete functional enterprise blockchain platform that improves current traceability enterprise processes enabling entities to publish, certify, verify and distribute data using blockchain and smart contracts technology.

Website: https://vottun.com/

Winning teams in the category CREATE:

 Place: ArcLub One (Slovenia)

ArcLub One is the innovation for sustainable and clean CNC (cryogenic metal cutting) machining. In addition, the tool life can be prolonged by more than 200 % and the production costs can be reduced up to 50 %. These benefits are produced with low energy and CO₂ consumption.

2. Place: AutoTAG (Italy)

AutoTAG develops an automated, easy to use, AI and Deep-Learning based leather quality control software.

3. Place: enforge (Greece)

enforge is a factory digitalization solution to enable manufacturers mass-deliver personalized products, faster and at a lower cost.

If you missed it or would like to watch any of the sessions from BoostUp! RIS again, you can do so here.