26th November 2020
The winners of the EIT Jumpstarter 2020 competition are unveiled. 36 teams from all over Europe competed for the prize pool worth over €160 000. Amongst them 3 EIT Health start-ups coming from Portugal and Croatia.
During the 4. editions EIT Jumpstarter upskilled 335 innovators. EIT Jumpstarter is the flagship, cross-industrial pre-acceleration programme of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT). During the 2020 edition teams from Central, Eastern and Southern Europe have been invited to compete in the grand final which took place on 25 November 2020. During the virtual event 36 out of 120 start-ups who took part in the competition showed their business ideas related to 6 key sectors: Health, Food, Raw Materials, Energy, Manufacturing and Urban Mobility, to the potential investors and jury of experts. The best projects were awarded cash prizes in the total amount of €162 000.
“EIT Jumpstarter is a unique European competition which helps to develop the most promising and innovative business ideas form across Europe. We have summoned an exceptional set of tools and a panel of experts, who can help the participants gain business knowledge, develop a better understanding of market segmentation, create a good value proposition, improve competitive advantage, and get funds to move their ideas further into the real world. I am really proud that throughout its 4 years of existence, the program has created an opportunity to develop many innovative businesses and has trained 335 innovators.” – said Dora Marosvolgyi, EIT Jumpstarter Programme Manager.
2020 EIT Jumpstarter winners
All winners chosen in six categories are available here.
EIT Health winners
Fetalix from Portugal proposing first regenerative fetal-inspired solution to treat low back pain through a minimally-invasive application took first place in the Health category, with MMD3D from Croatia coming as a runner up and Axodynamic from Portugal on the third position.
Fetalix provides the first regenerative fetal-inspired solution to treat low back pain through a minimally-invasive application. Its developed and patented natural biomaterial is obtained from a mammalian fetal source offering unique regenerative properties. This injectable and off-the-shelf material provides veterinaries and orthopaedic surgeons a new and preventive treatment for intervertebral disc degeneration, eliminating the need for surgical procedures and reoperations, while reducing intervention time by 90% and hospital stays by 70%. The team claims that production is simple, safe, affordable and scalable and promotes circular economy by creating value from animal waste.
- First prize – Fetalix (Portugal)
- Second prize – MMD3D (Croatia)
- Third prize -Axodynamic (Portugal)
- Impact prize – VocDec (Estonia)
- Audience award – VocDec
EIT Jumpstarter is a pan-European pre-accelerator initiative for early-stage innovators supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). It is one of the most cross-disciplinary programmes that involves six unique innovation communities from EU: EIT Health, EIT Food, EIT RawMaterials, EIT InnoEnergy, EIT Urban Mobility and EIT Manufacturing, which have one common goal: to turn the best innovative ideas into budding businesses. The programme is coordinated by EIT Health InnoStars and was awarded as the Best Association Training Initiative category in the European Association Awards and with the Emerging Europe Award in the Young Empowerment Initiative category.
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