Start-ups

Internationally with LILA Labs. Use case: “Testfabrik AG”

Testfabric AG in IrelandTestfabrik AG is a German start-up company, established in 2013. The team was striving to enter the German market and to provide Internet Technologies based services, as webmate. “Webmate” is a groundbreaking tool for the automatic testing of web applications, with a focus on cross-browser compatibility. Until their entrance in the LILA Labs program, they had no clients.

Testfabrik AG is one of the best cases for LILA Lab session because they have a prototype of their future product, tested among other their colleagues, with very high appreciation but without any client’s interest. Their main questions were “Why?” and “What?” – why they don’t clients and what they have to improve.

Their first LILA Lab was in November 2014 in Darmstadt. INI-Novation invited the main target group that can turn into potential customers – web designers from the region.  During the session, Testfabrik AG was interested to get information about the following questions:

  1. Where do the users see webmate fitting in their work?
  2. What does the user see as the major issue for the acceptance of webmate?
  3. What do the users think about the pricing model – does it encourage or discourage the usage of webmate?
  4. Do the users need more features to be implemented in webmate?

The LILA Lab sessTestfabrik in LILA Lab sessionion was organized as a free discussion between the users and the creators of webmate.  A lot of recommendations and useful tips were put on the table, and after the session all were satisfied with the results of the meeting.

After the local lab, Testfabrik AG decided to continue their experience in the LILA Lab process but this time on international level. A road show in Netherlands and Belgium was organized by one of the contracted mentors in the LILA project,Mr. Filip Coenen. This road show actually was set up as a “multiplied LILA Lab”. Instead of getting together users in a meeting room, the company went to the users in their offices. The company received valuable feedback to adapt product’s features to the specific needs of those markets. As a result, Testfabrik AG found beta testers from Belgium and Netherlands, and committed proof of concept cooperation. This  was a real success and added value for the company.

At the end, Testfabrik AG realized that they have to accompany their final product activities with more marketing support.  INI-Novation’s marketing and PR specialists were also participants in the LILA Lab sessions. Knowing the users’ preferences, they developed the marketing and communication strategy for Testfabrik.

The goal of Testfabrik AG is in 5 years’ time to become a European leader in software quality tools for web applications with near view to the global market leadership. LILA Labs were one of the first steps toward the goal.

“Einkorn – Ancient Innovation” Conference in Darmstadt

Dr. Wolfgang Kniejski talks about the beer market in Germany

Dr. Wolfgang Kniejski talks about the beer market in Germany

On behalf of the consortium of partners in the EU project “Einkorn – Ancient Innovation”, INI-Novation GmbH organized the official Project Conference in Darmstadt, Germany, on September 10th, 2015.

The purpose of the event was to bring together mainly beer brewing but also food experts, and stakeholders, who are interested in exploring new products of a higher quality with multiple benefits. The innovation of the project is a specific malting process, suitable for less widespread culture “Einkorn”, which has proven qualities superior to other varieties.

The conference was opened by Boyan Milushev, representative of the project coordinator and Dr. Wolfgang Kniejski – an international consultant in the field of innovation management with more than 20 years of international experience as a business development manager.
The conference was focused on topics such as “Einkorn –origin, spread, composition”, “Malting and brewing of Einkorn”, “Bread and pastry with Einkorn”, market opportunities and niches. Lectors were Professor Valentin Batchvarov, Professor Gabriela Marinova – both from Agricultural Academy in Bulgaria, and Lenka Sachambula from the Research Institute of Brewing and Malt in Czech Republic.

 

Prof. Valentin Batchvarov )Agricultural Academy, Bulgaria), Prof. Gabriela Marinova (Agricultural Academy, Bulgaria), Lenka SachambulaResearch (Institute of Brewing and Malt, Czech Republic)

Prof. Valentin Batchvarov )Agricultural Academy, Bulgaria), Prof. Gabriela Marinova (Agricultural Academy, Bulgaria), Lenka SachambulaResearch (Institute of Brewing
and Malt, Czech Republic)

 

 

 

 

 

Dean Gerasimov, owner of a company, growing einkorn in Bulgaria

Dean Gerasimov, owner of a company, growing einkorn in Bulgaria

Einkorn Beer and Einkorn Pastry Testing

Dean Gerasimov, owner of a company, growing einkorn and producing einkorn products from Bulgaria, shared his practical experience on the market.

Samples of einkorn based beer, homemade einkorn bread and pastry were reached out for testing.

At the end, many participants had the opportunity to exchange ideas and more experience on a get together and networking event with glass of beer in hand.

 

Enkorn pastry

Enkorn pastry

Einkorn beer

Einkorn beer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eincorn Conference Final Einkorn Testing

The market uptake of UNCAP was kicked off in Darmstadt

On July 28th, 2015, representatives of different innovation management organisations from all over Europe met in Darmstadt, Germany, to kick off the commercial exploitation of UNCAP.

UNCAP is the abbreviation of “Ubiquitous Interoperable Care for Ageing People”. It is a pilot-centric innovation action, driven by several high-tech SMEs with support from few research centres. UNCAP aims to deliver a suite of innovative ready-to-market ICT products and services, specifically designed to help elderly people with cognitive impairments live a more independent life.

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UNCAP maximises use of standards to create an interoperable open infrastructure that leverages on location and sensor-based technologies to create radically new paradigms for service care delivery. The project is co-funded by the European Commission under the so called Horizon 2020 programme activities (reference no. GA 643555).

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The German business acceleration company INI-Novation GmbH welcomed its international guests as leader of the work package and highlighted the goal to develop relevant business and service delivery models addressing the private and the public eCare sector. The UNCAP products and services will be underlined by business concepts to achieve market attention, market and investor’s readiness, market entries as well as market expansion and scalability.

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The international team to accomplish the UNCAP access-to-market

In addition, it is intended to stimulate the relevant protection activities (patenting, trademarking etc.) and to establish a library of reference agreements, such as licensing agreements, reseller agreements, service level agreements, business development agreements, or investment terms. Standardisation activities shall accompany the measures.

This will lead to the establishment of a transnational innovation ecosystem for eCare, in which innovation management and business spin-off tasks shall be performed in a global scale Thus, return-on-investment potential will be generated and sustainability of UNCAP will be achieved.

PST Start-up CHINO.IO wins the UNCAP Award in Darmstadt

CHINOOn July 29th, 2015, representatives of different innovation management organisations from all over Europe met in Darmstadt, Germany, to grant the four best start-up companies of an international eCare innovations pitching event the UNCAP 2015 INNOVATION AWARDS.

UNCAP is the abbreviation of “Ubiquitous Interoperable Care for Ageing People”. It is a pilot-centric innovation action, driven by several high-tech SMEs with support from few research centres. UNCAP aims to deliver a suite of innovative ready-to-market ICT products and services, specifically designed to help elderly people with cognitive impairments live a more independent life. UNCAP maximises use of standards to create an interoperable open infrastructure that leverages on location and sensor-based technologies to create radically new paradigms for service care delivery. The project is co-funded by the European Commission under the so called Horizon 2020 programme activities (reference no. GA 643555).

CHINO , Angela IvanovaUNCAP targets the establishment of a transnational innovation ecosystem for eCare, in which innovation management and business spin-off tasks shall be performed in a global scale. In this context, the first UNCAP INNOVATION AWARD event was organised to provide eCare innovators and entrepreneurs the floor to introduce their technologies underlining future eCare solutions. An international jury recruited of market and technology experts evaluated the presentations, ranked them and selected the four best pitches for the UNCAP INNOVATION AWARD. The first price was awarded to “CHINO.IO” (Italy), providing secure API and storage for health data according to EU laws and regulations. The winner, Jovan Stevovic, received the award from the UNCAP co-ordinator, Dr. Giuseppe Conti (Trilogis) and from Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Kniejski (EIT Digital Business development Acclerator), Chairman of the UNCAP Innovation Management Team.

The UNCAP INNOVATION AWARD 2015 grants a free participation in the UNCAP Conference in Nottingham (UK) in September 2015 (including travel and all related costs) as well as a free booth at the conference exhibition and promotions support. Impressed by the vast knowledge that CHINO’s Managing Director proved during his presentation, the UNCAP management team decided spontaneously to accept CHINO as an associated partner and to grant a subcontract for consulting services in the area of regulations and requirements in commercialisation of eHealth and eCare applications. “I am proud and happy that the winner of our UNCAP INNOVATION AWARD 2015 will play a significant role in the project activities”, the leader of the business modelling work package, Ms. Angela Ivanova, stated during the award ceremony.

 

INI-Novation presents 4 innovative technologies


Four innovative web solutions were presented on LILA lab sessions on December 3th in Darmstadt. Most of them are not on the market yet. These technologies of the future need to be further developed and turned into successful products for the market with the potential customers’ and users’ help. The users’ feedback is very important on the early stage of development, that’s why the inventors had a lot of questions to discuss with the invited users who were active and creative in sharing their opinion.

At the end, all participants left satisfied with what they have learned and richer with the shared knowledge. The sessions were organised by INI-Novation GmbH, the German partner in the LILA Project.

Information about the presented web solutions:

YoStar App is the first of its kind Android application, which main purpose is to navigate the position of a telescope towards a space object and to facilitate its adjustment. NaviScope will enter the German market now. INFOZONE App is an innovative mobile application that will be launched on the German market soon. The goal of INFOZONE is to provide easy and time saving life for the tourists and people living in the cities. The application can show you the nearest points of interest with promotion discounts, or according your preferences. DeeD Platform is a new web platform for fun and team-building, allowing different organizations and teams to bond their members via small but regular challenges.It iis going to be launched in the German market. Searching engine “Cognica” – a fuzzy search engine. Еxamples will be presented for use of fuzzy search engines for fast and authentic language translation and fast semantic search in web pages.

December 9, 2014 1:56 PM,

For more information click here 

How to Finance your start-up business?

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You’re a start-up, and you’re looking for investors to support your business. This seminar is for you!

INI-Novation organises on 2 December 2014 in Darmstadt (Germany) a seminar targeted at young entrepreneurs and start-ups who are looking for financing sources in the pre-Seed, the seed, the start-up and the expansion phases.

Besides providing theoretical knowledge regarding financing models, concrete real-life scenario examples will also be used to illustrate strategic financing and the different alternative action steps. Current challenges faced by the participants will also be taken into consideration for the analysis of different financing possibilities. Practitioners will give insides to support entrepreneurs accessing proper financing models. At the end of the seminar 5 start-up concepts will be pitched, reviewed, commented by experts and presented in front of users on a LILA Lab on 3.12.2014 .

November 28, 2014

For more information click here