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 EUR500 ($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:

Neal Leavitt
Leavitt Communications
(760) 639-2900
neal@leavcom.com

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