15 ambitious teams were selected on the 10 of December at Kaleidoskoop pre-selection to present their ideas at Kaleidoskoop Final and at Delta X Finals.
One of the biggest students’ pitching competition Kaleidoskoop pre-selection took place for the 15th time and brought together 30 teams from different fields and locations such as Tartu, Pärnu, Narva. The event was hosted via Zoom and could also be seen live on the University of Tartu sTARTUp Lab Facebook page. Each team had 3 minutes to pitch their product or service to the jury who had 2 minutes for questions and comments. The pitching rounds were intense and there were a lot of good ideas. Out of 30 teams that applied 5 best teams now get to pitch at the Kaleidoskoop Final at the International business festival sTARTUp Day 2021. In addition, 10 teams got direct pass to the Delta X student competition, 5 teams in new start-up idea category and 5 teams in social innovation category.
“Being responsible for the business idea development programme STARTER at the University of Tartu it makes me happy to see that STARTER teams stood out in every category. Their commitment and willingness to learn new things hands-on paid off. Kaleidoskoop finalist have once in a lifetime opportunity to pitch at sTARTUp Day in front of the international audience and it may lift them to new heights. The festival will be held in August as an epic summerfest. This means that Kaleidoskoop winning teams were lucky to get extra time to prepare and develop their products,” comments Head of the sTARTUp Lab Maret Ahonen.
Selecting 15 teams to different finals wasn’t easy for the jury. Introwise co-founder and the jury member Evgenia Trofimova commented, “As a woman founder myself, I was so happy to see so many women participating in the competition. It was a big pleasure to see the progress the teams had made during STARTERtartu season. Many came with just an idea, and through the workshops, customer discovery, and mentor feedback, they came close to their first version of the product. I hope all the teams continue working on their ideas and with such huge support that Estonia provides, it is easy to turn your idea into reality.” The jury consisted of the three well-known mentors in the start-up community: Kristian Sägi, Evgenia Trofimova and Sven Parkel.
Kaleidoskoop Finalists:
BerryBot- Berrybot is making an autonomous strawberry picking robot. It helps farmers cut down labor force and minimize harvest loss.
Checky- Checky is developing a cloud-based platform to make accounting easier and more environmental-friendly by eliminating the need for paper checks.
Dexi.ee– Dexi is developing an app to battle drunk driving. The mobile app helps car owners find a sober driver.
ELORA- Elora is making a Pokemon Go-style app that provides information of health tracks and encourages people to spend time outside.
Eventive – Eventive is developing interactive 3D models of concert and sports halls, to make it easier for organisers to plan an event without going to the venue itself.
Delta X Finalists’ in new startup idea category:
HAIP!- HAIP! is creating a rap-community in Estonia through making podcasts, hosting live events and selling merch.
Healthshape – Healthshape is creating Airbnb structured digital platform where health complementary therapists and their services are united under one roof.
Konnekt- Konnekt is making a mobile app, where all service cards are all together and the need for wallets is minimal.
Mycoo – Mycoo is building an organic gourmet and medicinal mushroom farm in Tartu. This would provide a fresh supply of locally grown mushrooms as well as an opportunity to research environmental and medicinal mycosolutions.
Pillbox- Pillbox is making a custom-made pill dispenser. They use removable pill containers with sensors under them so every time the container is removed the information will be sent automatically to the caretaker’s phone.
Delta X Finalists’ in social innovation category:
Arqedo- Arqedo brings life back into old houses through one of a kind reoccurring events.
Infinder- Infinder is a developing a platform that mediates internships between businesses and interns.
Õpipoiss- Õpipoiss is developing an online platform, where students can find themselves a private tutor.
Särasilmad- Särasilmad is helping people to regain their vision by courses where people learn to take care of their eyes.
Wirdos Academy – Wirdos Academy offers an educational and mentoring programme for students to prepare them for school.
Head of the team Eventive Karl Vaba commented, “Feedback after our pitch was unexpectedly good and we were very happy about that. The whole STARTER programme gave us a big push and was very important for us in validating the idea. Now we are confident that our solution really deserves to be developed and being selected to Ajujaht Top30 is motivating too.“
The Kaleidoskoop was funded by the European Social programme, Edu & Tegu and EIT Health.
Further information: Andres Vaher, Marketing and Communications Specialist, sTARTUp Lab, University of Tartu, +372 5558 7359, andres.vaher@ut.ee