Start4big, Europe’s first cross-sector open innovation initiative promoted by Aigües de Barcelona, CaixaBank, Naturgy, SEAT and Telefónica, is entering the final phase of its first edition. The 40 finalists have now been selected after they submitted innovative solutions during the Pitch Days to a panel of expert judges who work for the businesses that make up Start4big. These companies are present in more than 80 countries, are staffed by a total of 200,000 employees and have a significant customer portfolio of over 380 million people worldwide.
The finalists proposed solutions to personalise everyday products and services.
The call for proposals closed with 139 participating start-ups, which generated a total of 173 applications (as individual start-ups could apply to one or more of the challenges put forward). Of all these applications, 57% are Spanish start-ups and the remaining 43% hail from countries such as Germany (11), France (6), or Israel (5), among others.
Created with the goal of enhancing innovation and strengthening the national and international business fabric, the programme will announce the winners next September. The selected start-ups will have the opportunity to begin negotiations with the partners of the initiative in order to implement a pilot project that has an impact on the business sectors and society as a whole. Slopes: The Hill Descent Control (HDC) plays a vital role both in the snow and sand, for however steep the slope, the car is able to manage its speed.
Finalists of the first Wave of Innovation
The finalist start-ups successfully completed a selection process which began in December with the launch of 4 challenges: 3 cross-sector ones where they have the opportunity to work with two or more Start4big partners; and a transversal one where they can ultimately develop a pilot with all the businesses involved. A jury panel made up of 32 international judges, experts in several areas of technology and innovation, as well as 76 internal judges who work for the business units of each of the companies included in Start4big, evaluated the submitted projects. The best 40 applicants now enter the final stage of the competition. Click here to see all the finalists.
Cross-sector challenges:
How to help users control and better manage their household energy consumption?
The finalists in this challenge are: Smart IoT Labs; Lhings; Fresh Energy; Atriom Service Platform; Sensing & Control Systems; BIM6D; Xunison; Wattiocorp; GreenPocket GmbH; Greenbird Integration technology.
How to enhance the customer experience and reduce the cost of online transactions?
Finalists: Caelum Labs; Digiteal; NFCSound; Vottun; Lang.ai; Thinkcloud; PlayFilm; Mitek; Serimag and Electronic IDentification.
How to offer new services by connecting devices, vehicles and/or infrastructure?
Finalists: WiTrac; igloohome; eccocar; Greenbird Integral; SolarEdge; Muutech Monitoring Solutions; Finboot; SmartMonkey.io; Vottun and Unmanned Life.
Transversal challenge:
How to personalise the customer experience by following their activities in real time?
Finalists: 20face; Sogetel SRL; Unishoper; GAMCO S.L.; Lang.ai; Balandra SoftwareSL; Conver.fit; Fresh Energy; Twyla; Sentisis Analytics.
In the areas of technology, the most frequent are in the categories of software, Big Data, the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence.
The winners will be announced in September at an event that will also kick off the initiative’s second Wave of Innovation, where again four new challenges will be aimed at the global entrepreneurial community.
No set number of winners has been established- All those start-ups that the Start4big partners consider interesting will be selected to begin a pilot project with.
About Start4big:
Start4big is the cross-sector open innovation initiative promoted by Aigües de Barcelona, CaixaBank, Naturgy, SEAT and Telefónica. It gives start-ups worldwide the opportunity to work with these large corporations to develop and test prototypes in real environments and access the market much more quickly. It aims to attract national and international talent to strengthen the national and international business fabric, as well as offer its customers and society valuable solutions. This is the first time in Europe that five large corporations that operate in strategic sectors join forces to take open innovation to another level: a collaborative, cross-sector model in which to develop technological solutions that impact all the areas that these businesses work in.
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