On June 2, the gala event of the second season of the RBS business acceleration program “Innovation Academy” – Demo day – will take place as part of the Tech Picnic at the art centre Noass. 33 teams from the “Innovation Academy” will pitch. During the Demo day, teams will present the projects that they grew during the pre-acceleration program.
For 16 weeks, 40 teams – authors of business ideas and new entrepreneurs worked to develop their solutions in the start-up ecosystem of experienced mentors and under the guidance of internationally recognized lecturers. During the training, teams and submitted ideas received support in research, idea development, prototyping, and help in turning business ideas into competitive business projects. As part of the program, more than 60 mentors worked with the teams, including Anna Andersone, CEO, Riga TechGirls, Ernests Štāls, Co-Founder, Starwatcher.io, Julia Gifford, Co-Founder and CEO, Truesix, Emīls Sjundjukovs, Co-Founder and CEO, Longenesis and others.
During the pre-acceleration stage of the “Innovation Academy” teams were divided into three groups – Physical products, Applications and IoT solutions, as well as Platforms and B2B solutions. In these groups startuppers worked on developing innovative and science-intensive solutions for various industries, for example, GreenTech, HealthTech/MedTech, AgroTech, EdTech and BioTech, as well as EnergyTech. The most frequently used technologies are Artificial Intelligence/machine learning, IoT (internet of things) and new materials.
Viesturs Sosārs
“Innovation Academy” Director and Riga Business School Entrepreneur in residence
Innovation Academy” has proved itself as a great platform for experiments with new approaches in the creation of technology designs, development of innovative business models, team building and organizing of their work. Lecturers and mentors of the “Innovation Academy” help to see beyond the traditional mindset and surpass the existing limits of imagination. At the same time, they facilitate growing the viability of the boldest ideas in the market conditions.
Andrejs Berdņikovs
Head of the Technology Business Centre, Investment and Development Agency of Latvia
“Start-up Orbit8 entered “Innovation Academy” intending to validate our business idea and find potential partners. “Innovation Academy” was an opportunity to meet experts who gave us good recommendations to help validate the ideas of Orbit8. “Innovation Academy” provided high-quality experts from different areas of company development which allowed us to move more efficiently toward creation of the prototype. The entire process was well-organized and managed with the proactive involvement of supervisors and 24/7 support
Pauls Irbins
Founder, Orbit8
Read more about the event here: https://ej.uz/TechPicnic
The program is implemented by Riga Business School as a structural unit of Riga Technical University with the support of LIAA Technology Business Centre and EEA Norway Grants Latvia.
More information about the “Innovation Academy” is available here: https://www.inovacijuakademija.lv/
More information:
Program Director and Riga Business School Entrepreneur in residence Viesturs Sosārs, viesturs.sosars@rbs.lv
Program Manager Jānis Altgauzens, janis.altgauzens@rbs.lv
