InnoStars supported start-ups presented at the Startup OLÉ event in Salamanca

Eighteen semifinalists from the InnoStars Awards program and 10 teams selected from the RIS Innovation Call showcased their innovative solutions at one of Europe’s most prominent technological events, scheduled from September 4th to 7th in Salamanca, Spain. 

Participants of the EIT Health InnoStars accelerator programmes presented a range of solutions in therapeutics, medical technology, digital technology, and biotechnology during the Pitch Competition and Startup Fair, alongside two hundred other founders and leading national and international investors. The pitch competition concluded with a resounding success as the Portuguese team BEAT Therapeutics emerged as the winners in the bio/pharmatech category.

The dynamic duo behind BEAT Therapeutics, Ângela Carvalho and Hugo Prazeres, has developed a first-in- class therapy targets a key cancer pathway. Precise, less toxic and effective in chemotherapy-resistant cells, will redefine oncology standard care. It aims to implement a phase 1 clinical trial to reach patients in need.

This participation at the Startup Ole event forms an integral part of the second training phase for both programs, offering invaluable opportunities for expert mentoring and networking within the vibrant business and investor ecosystem assembled in Salamanca.

The first round of the programme bootcamps, hosted and designed in collaboration with the InnoStars partner, Instituto Pedro Nunes( IPN), took place in Portuguese Coimbra, at the end of July. They aimed to equip the teams with the required knowledge and tools needed to go through the entrepreneurial journey.

For the RIS Innovation Call teams the first cycle consisted of five weeks, where at the end, the teams had the chance to travel to IPN campuses in Coimbra to meet different experts face to face and pitch in front of a professional panel, getting feedback for the aim of improving their pitches.

Following the completion of the ‘Mentoring and Boothcamping’ phase, the ten selected startups from the InnoStars Awards Programme and all the RIS Innovation Call teams will be invited to the final pitch at the InnoStars Grand Finals, scheduled for November 2023 in Milan, Italy.

InnoStars Awards

The EIT Health InnoStars Awards is a key acceleration programme for early-stage start-ups, primarily from Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe, where the pace of innovation is more moderate.

The programme helps transform prototypes into healthcare solutions or products and bring them to the market. Over the last seven years, more than 100 start-ups have been trained, and more than half have been successful in the market.

RIS Innovation Programme

EIT Health RIS Innovation Call aims to fund the Proof-of-Concept phase of high-quality, strong, balanced projects, targeting EIT Health’s focus areas to be developed by local actors, including both business and academic/research/healthcare institutions.

Each partner must be established in the same country. Eligible RIS countries are (Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia)

The program offers access to financial support, mentoring, bootcamping, and networking opportunities. 68 teams have been supported since 2019 till this year.