EIT Digital is happy to announce that as a result of its open call and selection process six innovation centers have been selected as ARISE Europe cooperation partners of EIT Digital. The objective is to jointly stimulate, with local champions, regional growth in EU countries where EIT Digital is not present.
"The selected Innovation Centers have strong success stories and local ecosystems. We are excited to start working together and contribute to making their territories and the whole Europe THE place for digital Innovation", explains Fabio Pianesi, Research Director of EIT Digital.
The centers are:
ABC Ljubljana, Slovenia
ABC Accelerator is a regional startup accelerator of South East Europe, located in Ljubljana, Slovenia. ABC has run two programmes since it’s foundation in March 2015. It focus varies across batches (so far, Smart Cities and Smart Living & Health).
BGI Lisbon, Portugal
BGI is a deep innovation, vertically focused, global accelerator based in Lisbon (Portugal). BGI is directed at aspiring tech entrepreneurs and Innovators working on Medical Devices & Health IT, Smart Cities & Industrial Technologies, Enterprise IT & Smart Data and Ocean economy. BGI has coached over 100 ventures since it was launched in 2010, 70% of which are active, having raised €35 million is financing. The accelerator has been featured in “100 leaders accelerating the companies of tomorrow” by Hot Topic Accelerator 100, 2015. It has an ongoing cooperation with MIT and is an integral part of the MIT Portugal program.
Found.ation Athens, Greece
Found.ation is an accelerator, co-working space and entrepreneurial education provider from Athens, Greece. Founded in 2011, Found.ation has hosted or accelerated 85 different startup companies in three acceleration batches, leading them to secure more than 2 million euros in total funding by Greek and International Investors. During the same period, it hosted more than 150 education offerings, events and hackathons.
Inits Vienna, Austria
INiTS is a business incubator-accelerator designed to improve the rate of startup success in Vienna by helping academics and students conceive, launch and grow the next great company. Moreover INiTS supports and helps young entrepreneurs and startups in receiving subsidies, grants and fundraising. In 2014 INiTS was selected as one of the “Global Top 25” university incubators by the Swedish Research Initiative UBI Index. INiTS ranked No. 3 in Europe and No. 11 worldwide. INiTS has so far helped its companies raise more than 170 M€ investments of which 28 M€ last year.
RubixLab Bratislava, Slovakia
RubixLab focuses on technology start-ups from all over the world providing an 18-month incubation period in Bratislava. RubixLab was founded in 2014 and has coached their first batch of startups, successfully attracting powerful companies from across the globe.
Startup Wise Guys Tallinn, Estonia
Startup Wise Guys is the leading B2B technology startup accelerator in Europe. From their base in Tallinn, Estonia they launch innovative and ambitious startups from around the world on to global markets. SWG combines intensive mentoring, tooling and funding with access to our broad network of experts from the Europe and the US. Over the last four years, Startup Wise Guys has developed strong brand awareness in Central and Eastern Europe, and invested in 43 startup companies with founders from over 30 countries. It is a partner of CEED Tech, a consortium of five startup accelerators from Central and Eastern Europe. SWG has been featured in “100 leaders accelerating the companies of tomorrow” by Hot Topic Accelerator 100, 2015.
Cooperation boosts local ecosystems
By collaborating with EIT Digital, the selected organisations get connected to the EIT Digital partners representing global companies, leading research centers and top ranked universities. Through EIT Digital’s business developers, startups will enjoy faster access to the wider European market and investors. Practical cooperation means include joint coaching of start-ups and co-branded events to mobilize the local stakeholders like venture capitalists, academia and public authorities.
43 innovation centres applied to cooperate with EIT Digital
The ARISE Europe call for applications was open during May-June 2015 gathering 43 applications from 14 countries. The Call was open to innovation centers from countries where EIT Digital is not present. Applications came from Romania (7 applications), Austria (6), Greece (5), Slovakia (5), Poland (4), Slovenia (4), Czech Republic (4), Bulgaria (2), Lithuania (1), Estonia (1), Ireland (1), Cyprus (1), Croatia (1) and Portugal (1).
More information on ARISE Europe: https://www.eitdigital.eu/about-us/arise-europe/
