Five start-ups awarded €22,000 each to develop their innovative ideas
Written by Melvin Farrugia, MITA Social Media, PR and Communications Executive
During a pitching event organised by MITA's Innovation Hub, five start-ups were selected and each awarded a pre-seed investment of €22,000 to develop their innovative ideas. A record number of 19 start-ups submitted their ideas and took part in this event which was held at MITA Data Centre in Santa Venera on Saturday 8th October.
Three start-ups, Riix Software, ThatSpace and Freshy, were chosen to develop a business idea that addresses a defined problem. The other two start-ups, GreenIT and Placeholder Interactive, will develop a digital serious game designed to support the learning of science subjects.
All the selected teams will now follow a programme during which they will be mentored on various aspects related to market research, customer segment validation, content development, prototyping, refining their product and testing to mention just a few. They will also receive training on understanding the mechanics on how to start and manage the growth of an enterprise.
The YouStartIT call was launched last July. In the run-up to the deadline by which they had to pitch their business idea, they were offered support activities such as an explanation of the objectives, scope and conditions related to the call, opportunities to network with one another, Design Thinking workshops to help with ideation and validation, a seminar on business incorporation by PwC and some counselling on their business idea and pitch. Up to 38 startup founders attended.
19 teams were eventually shortlisted to pitch their ideas before a panel of three judges for each of the two thematic areas of the call.
The event was organised last Saturday and attended by over 80 people. From the 19 start-ups that pitched their ideas, 15 presented a business idea based on a solution to a defined problem using digital technologies. The other four start-ups proposed their concept of how their digital serious game would facilitate the learning of science subjects in schools.
Evaluating so many innovative ideas at one go, proved challenging for the judges. Ideas were many and varied. Among them the application of the Internet of Things and Programmable Logic Controllers to home use, online home remodelling and interior design services, an online cultural travel platform, the application of augmented reality to learn about clouds, online fashion platforms, a notification and bulk SMS Marketing Platform, a polling platform and educational games on chemistry, physics and the human body.
The selected start ups will be developing a discreet anti-bullying incident reporting system for the young; an app for the remote booking of restaurants and cafeterias doubling up as co-working spaces, and an app addressing food wastage in the catering industry. The other two start ups will develop an educational game on climate change and another game on light as part of physics.
