EIT Health InnoStars celebrates European Day in Budapest

On 12 May 2019, EIT Health InnoStars, together with EIT and two EIT Health-accelerated start-ups, joined European Day in Budapest – a national celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of Hungary becoming a member state of the European Union.

EIT and EIT Health InnoStars joined a national celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of Hungary becoming a member state of the European Union. This year EIT Health Innostars – along with two EIT Health-accelerated start-ups, and winners of previous InnoStars Awards – had an opportunity to exhibit during European Day. DiabTrend and YogaNotch presented their innovations to potential end users, and to gather valuable feedback about their solutions which are already on the market.

• DiabTrend, the winner of the 2018 EIT Health Innostars Awards, is an innovative firm in the field of diabetology. The start-up has resulted in a special application aimed at controlling glucose levels in the blood circulatory system and to easily maintain a diabetes diary. The journal is based on data that includes blood glucose level measurement, insulin intake, food intake, sleep and physical activity. The application is personalized, intuitive to use and easily downloadable from the app store.
• YogaNotch is a personal yoga assistant powered by smart devices and artificial intelligence (AI). Behind the idea of YogaNotch is Notch Interfaces, the winner of the 2016 EIT Health Innostars Awards. The application allows users to launch Interactive Yoga Classes, to receive immediate  feedback from accomplished exercises, to track yoga performance and to increase knowledge of this discipline. The application is based on the Notch 3D motion sensing technology which permits analysis of human movement.

Budapest as the “go-to city”

Budapest, the headquarters of EIT and EIT Health InnoStars, has been recently named the number one city in which to launch a post-Brexit business[1]. Since joining the EU, this vibrant start-up hub has attracted a growing number of business accelerators and funding sources. EIT Health InnoStars coordinates several pan-European flagship programmes from Budapest for start-ups, along with small and medium enterprises coming from Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. In addition, the InnoStars team coordinates the Regional Innovation Scheme, a unique European programme that involves the more remote destinations within the EIT Health network.

Today, the RIS programme covers almost half of Europe and is being coordinated from Budapest, but what does it mean for start-ups? Budapest is often chosen, as a leading, or at least, one of the top bootcamps and summer school destinations for the best European start-ups. A good example is the Health Venture Lab, a six-month accelerator programme for early-stage healthcare start-ups, which is the fruition of a collaboration of EIT Health and its core partner, GE Healthcare. More recently, Health Venture Lab was listed among the top healthtech accelerators in Europe[2].