ENRICH in the USA Announces Winners of Virtual Pitch Competition for European Tech Entrepreneurs

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The European American Enterprise Council (EAEC) is pleased to announce the winners of the ENRICH in the USA Ecosystem Showcase pitch competition.

A series of three consecutive events, held in July and August, featured innovative European startups presenting game-changing solutions to panels of judges from 10 U.S. regions across three industries. The 10 winning companies received €500 ($529 US), along with facilitated access to U.S. accelerators.

Each U.S. ecosystem (Boston, MA; San Francisco and Silicon Valley, CA; Washington D.C.; Fairfax, VA; Philadelphia, PA; New York State; Austin, TX; St Louis, MO; and Atlanta, GA) was represented by university partners, industry experts, seed investors, and city/state representatives, who gave an overview of the market potential, their infrastructure, and the investment funds available for European deep-tech, high-growth startups and scale-ups. Selected entrepreneurs (by each U.S. ecosystem) also had the opportunity for one-on-one meetings to pitch and receive feedback from the ecosystem experts and investors.

The featured pitch categories included Tech4Good, which brings tech and social impact sectors together; Smart City, including public safety, transportation, and utilities management sectors; and AgTech and FoodTech, covering technologies that target food production, supply chains, and retail.

The winners for each category include:

Tech4Good

• APP&TOWN (Spain): A free multi-language app designed for route planning, guidance and supervision of people with special needs (including disabled, senior citizens and even refugees) when going around the city, improving their mobility, quality of life and social inclusion. The app provides an accessible guidance system paired to real-time location monitoring that enable supervision and guarantee reliability and a quick response in case of disorientation or getting lost.

• STIMIT (Switzerland): STIMIT is developing the first non-invasive solution to activate breathing function (via diaphragm stimulation), thereby empowering patients to breathe naturally. The startup's first therapy goal is to cut 40% of time on ventilation, thus allowing critical care units worldwide to treat more patients in less time.

• WINDHUNTER (France): The Windhunter® system is an air protection and control system used against variables such as wind, smoke, and pollution. The startup is currently using its technology to develop a wearable device in response to COVID-19.

Smart City

• APP&TOWN (Spain): A free multi-language app designed for route planning, guidance and supervision of people with special needs (including disabled, senior citizens and even refugees) when going around the city, improving their mobility, quality of life and social inclusion. The app provides an accessible guidance system paired to real-time location monitoring that enable supervision and guarantee reliability and a quick response in case of disorientation or getting lost.

• Crowdaa (France): Allows marketers to create their own mobile content app without writing a single line of code. They can then publish their content on the app and target their audience based on user preferences and geolocation. Cities in Europe and top music artists in the USA count among Crowdaa's clients.

• Short Edition (France): A community publisher of short-form online literature has installed free story dispensers at restaurants, universities, government offices and transportation hubs around the United States to deliver fiction at the push of a button. Short Edition aims to bring literature to unexpected places, engage communities by inviting people to read and to write, and highlight the importance and timelessness of literature.

• SignAll Technologies (Hungary): SignAll has developed a technology leveraging AI and computer vision that is able to recognize and translate sign language to be employed for both business and education. Two products are already available on the market. SignAll Learn Lab is a one-of-a-kind interactive system that provides immediate response to users' signing; it is used to automate learning and practicing. SignAll Chat is the first and only system for automated translation between American Sign Language and English.

• Tresoil Biofuels (Romania): Within 10 years, Tresoil plans to develop a network of up to 50 waste-to-electricity or hydrogen plants in Europe, and further explore the potential for the technology. The plants are compact, modular and factory built, so they can be erected close to the source of waste, and do not produce harmful by-products or require a smokestack. The startup's vision is to propel Europe's burgeoning hydrogen economy while purging the EU of the scourge of plastic waste and other toxic waste.

AgTech and FoodTech

• BeeSecure (Italy): Thanks to digital IoT devices that collect data from bees (by translating bees' vibrations and sounds), BeeSecure can provide real time data analysis to beekeepers and farmers, as well as consumers and businesses. Combining AI and Big Data, BeeSecure helps farmers and beekeepers to better track and manage honey production, bees' health status, and overall pollination activity and impact. This data helps researchers on their quest to sustain the world's recolonization of bees.

• D4 Smart Farming (Spain): D4SmartFarming helps farmers make more accurate decisions for their farms. The team of agronomists, technicians and computer scientists are dedicated to smart farming. D4SmartFarming generates hypertemporal images from satellites, sensors and drones. These images provide valuable information about crop production, terrain topology, organic matter content, humidity and nitrogen levels in soil, and pests.

• OmniOpti (Slovenia): Transportation challenges are present in many aspects of our lives, from daily commuting, to distribution of goods. OmniOpti is an expert in route optimization, solving the vehicle routing problem, and taking into account linked pick-ups and deliveries, time windows, vehicle capacities and properties. It has developed a new fast and robust multi-objective optimization algorithm, which provides many Pareto-Optimal alternative paths in a network.

"We are excited to recognize and celebrate this new virtual pitch series' winners as they continue to evoke positive change through their technologies amid COVID-19," said Sebastien Torre, president of San Francisco-based European American Enterprise Council. "Europe's top researchers and innovators have a lot to show and to share with their counterparts in the United States."

About ENRICH in the USA

Launched in April 2017, the mission of ENRICH (European Network of Research Innovation Centres and Hubs) in the USA (ENRICH in the USA) is to provide collaboration and commercialization support services to European researchers and innovators, and facilitate their access to university centric soft landing ecosystems, to maximize their chances of success in the United States.

Promoted by the European Commission through Horizon 2020, the ENRICH network currently offers services to connect European research, technology, and business organizations with three global frontrunner innovation markets: Brazil, China and the USA.

ENRICH in the USA is represented in the USA by the European American Enterprise Council (EAEC).

The Ecosystem Showcase Series was co-organized with InBIA, an ENRICH in the USA consortium partner, and supported by the European Investment Project Portal (EIPP).

About EAEC

The European American Enterprise Council (EAEC) is a private member-driven social enterprise and network (eight US and EU chapters). EAEC is part of the European Commission's Enterprise Europe Network (600+ organizations in Europe, and a worldwide presence), and aims at promoting transatlantic collaboration, trade and investment between European and North American companies, institutions and economic regions while fostering global innovation and entrepreneurship.

Media Contact:

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SOURCE ENRICH in the USA

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https://usa.enrichcentres.eu/