Fresh Water Nature: the Spanish clean-tech startup proposing a more efficient usage of natural resources
Fresh Water Nature is one of the supported startups in the first S3E Charge Accelerator Programme.
Fresh Water Nature aims to provide the change on ultra-pure water production for Green Hydrogen generation with its technology Cool Steam. Cool Steam units profit from waste heat from electrolyzers (30%) to vacuum distill high quality water to be fed as raw material for electrolysis.
Using Cool Steam to desalinate seawater for Green Hydrogen allows saving 50% electricity compared with Reverse Osmosis based plants, enhancing electrolyzers efficiency by dissipating its waste heat and producing from it 5x extra water as by-product with 10x higher quality. This extra water may be valued for other industrial uses. Cool Steam is a patented disruptive solution that promotes circular economy, sustainability and cost-effectiveness in the ultra-pure water supply process, improving the value chain of GH production.
Learn more about Fresh Water Nature by watching the pitch done by their R&D Manager, Naeria Navarro, during the Charge Open Day on 6th July 2023.
https://youtu.be/frHCqWESVu0
Would you like to get in touch with them? Let us know! Email us at info@south3e.eu
Looking forward to exploring synergies and creating a long-lasting collaboration.
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Distinkt: smart security inks using nanotechnology
Distinkt is one of the supported startups in the first S3E Charge Accelerator Programme.
Distinkt has created a revolutionary smart, dynamic ink based on nanotechnology to prevent counterfeiting. The inks change their color or fluorescence when irradiated with Near Infrared light (NIR). The ink can be programmed to interact with the light source in a unique and personalised way. They're made of tiny particles (of a tuneable size from 200 nm to 10 µm) with different components (confidential recipe, patent protected) that react to the NIR light in a cascade effect generating a color or an emission change. Moreover, the inks can be easily customised and different parameters can be adapted.
With Distinkt inks, companies can create unique identifiers for banknotes, ID documents, Tax Stamps and luxury goods. Their QR Codes, Bar Codes or Sequence Numbers cannot be detected or read by third parties. Distinkt can pair its physical uniqueness with a blockchain supported software which is specifically designed to detect and read our inks. By working in both the physical and virtual world, they provide customers with best in class end-to-end authentication solutions.
Learn more about Distinkt by watching the pitch done by their Founder and CEO, Luca Venza, during the Charge Open Day on 6th July 2023.
https://youtu.be/erItiR0f-BE
Would you like to get in touch with them? Let us know! Email us at info@south3e.eu
Looking forward to exploring synergies and creating a long-lasting collaboration.
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Digital Bites: the startup that conducts product and consumer research with Virtual Reality
Digital Bites is one of the supported startups in the first S3E Charge Accelerator Programme.
Digital Bites is a B2B platform that allows the developers of physical products to test their concepts on their target audience before having to build them. This is possible with the use of our Virtual Reality based consumer experiments that can test, capture, and analise the conscious and unconscious behaviour of a product’s real target audience in a fast and accurate way.
Consumer insights experts, marketing departments or NPD teams can validate new product concepts easily and rapidly, measure the attraction of designs or predict the performance of their product against its competition.
Through the Digital Bites platform, any physical product, building facility or experience can be tested or validated for different aspects (e.g. attraction, usability, feedback, etc) very easily. The major competitive advantage over their competitors is that product and consumer experiments conducted with the Digital Bites platform require no trade-offs; they are fast to conduct, extremely accurate in their results and require less resources to design and execute. This is achieved by:
1) Enabling the testing of product prototypes that have not yet been developed physically,
2) Gathering more data from a 90% smaller than normal consumer sample, and using AI models to create “virtual consumers”,
3) Having a controlled “closed-system” experiment in which zero-party data are collected extremely accurately.
Learn more about Digital Bites by watching the pitch done by their Co-founder and CTO, Loukas Kakalis, during the Charge Open Day on 6th July 2023.
https://youtu.be/H-IQqk3Oe4w
Would you like to get in touch with them? Let us know! Email us at info@south3e.eu
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Bluana Foods: the Romanian startup that has developed a chef-made plant-based sashimi
Bluana Foods is one of the supported startups in the first S3E Charge Accelerator Programme.
Bluana is a pioneering startup that is revolutionising the plant-based food industry by offering a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional fish-based seafood products. Their unique and proprietary technology allows them to develop a new type of fish substitute that addresses several pressing challenges in the seafood industry.
Firstly, Bluana tackles the significant environmental impact of the fishing industry, including overfishing and the destruction of ecosystems. By utilising their innovative approach, they can reduce the reliance on wild-caught fish and help preserve marine biodiversity.
Secondly, it address the negative consequences of intensive fish farming, such as the overuse of antibiotics, antibiotics resistance, and the use of processed feedstock. Bluana's plant-based seafood substitute offers a healthier and more sustainable alternative, free from these concerns.
Moreover, its solution significantly reduces GHG emissions associated with global seafood transportation and cold chain management. By enabling local production with minimal setup costs, Bluana products contribute to a more efficient and eco-friendly supply chain.
In addition to these environmental benefits, Bluana offers an exceptional customer experience. Their plant-based seafood substitute, initially focusing on salmon, provides a shelf-stable product that can be stored at room temperature. This eliminates the need for extensive cold chain logistics and reduces food waste due to the short shelf life of fresh seafood.
Bluana's commitment to quality extends to taste and nutritional value. Their product has been rigorously tested through blind tastings, confirming its superior taste compared to other plant-based seafood substitutes and achieving the same or even better taste compared to fish meat.
From a business perspective, Bluana offers a substantial advantage to value chain stakeholders. With higher margins compared to both traditional seafood and existing seafood substitutes, Bluana presents an attractive opportunity for retailers, distributors, and foodservice providers.
Overall, Bluana is poised to disrupt the seafood market by providing a sustainable, high-quality, and delicious plant-based alternative that addresses environmental and social concerns, meets customer expectations, and offers attractive business opportunities.
Learn more about Bluana Foods by watching the pitch done by their CEO, Florin Irimescu, during the Charge Open Day on 6th July 2023.
https://youtu.be/zLNENEv2l-k
Would you like to get in touch with them? Let us know! Email us at info@south3e.eu
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ARCAN: the Italian startup that helps you decide when and how much to invest in software quality thanks to AI
Arcan is one of the supported startups in the first S3E Charge Accelerator Programme.
Estimating software development costs is difficult because there are so many factors to consider. One crucial factor that is always overlooked is technical debt, which indicates the quick and dirty solutions put together by (usually) software developers when they are in a hurry. Technical debt impacts software quality, such as reliability, security, and also sustainability, since poor quality software wastes more energy than good quality one. All around the world, technical debt costs 500 billion dollars.
Software companies still struggle to tackle the problem because they cannot project the benefit they can get in "repaying" the debt (fixing the software). Thus, they tend to avoid acting until it's too late and experience project delays, enormous maintenance costs, and frustration. Arcan wants to give companies the necessary forecasting data to push investment in improving their software sustainability and let them save thousands of dollars in software development. Specifically, Arcan is a SaaS B2B platform that can be deployed on-premise and in the cloud.
Arcan scans the source code of a software application, automatically detects technical debt and finally projects the costs of future maintenance. Software houses can use Arcan continuously to save development time and money; non-software companies can use Arcan to assess the sustainability and maintenance costs of software assets, for instance during M&A processes.
Learn more about Arcan by watching the Pitch done by their Founder and CEO, Ilaria Pigazzini, during the Charge Open Day on 6th July 2023.
https://youtu.be/tGtYbm7dCuA
Would you like to get in touch with them? Let us know! Email us at info@south3e.eu
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S3E partners meet in Lisbon to celebrate the project’s first anniversary and plan for the year ahead
The South3E consortium hosted a hybrid project meeting on 21st July 2023 at Labs Lisboa incubator space, after wrapping up the first editions of the S3E Charge and S3E Start programmes.
The HiSeedTech team welcomed representatives from International Development Ireland and Australo in the beautiful city of Lisbon, while the Institute for Sustainable Development at EPLO team joined online from Greece.
After hosting two very successful Open Days this summer, where the selected startups and research teams from Southern Europe presented their deep tech solutions, the consortium took this meeting as an opportunity to celebrate the successes of the first S3E cohorts, and to reflect on the lessons learned since the launch of the project in September 2022.
Our achievements so far… (in a nutshell)
Since announcing our first Open Call for the three South3E tracks — Charge, Start and Reverse* — in November 2023, we have provided online training, webinars, mentoring and one-to-one support to and (working in collaboration with various TTOs) from 7 countries, including: Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Slovenia, Romania and Turkey.
And, overall, we have engaged with 500+ representatives and stakeholders from across the entire European entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems, through online and in-person informative sessions, events, conferences and project roadshows.
What’s next for South3E?
The joint hybrid meeting proved to be a perfect occasion for exchanging different perspectives on what has made S3E successful during its first year, but it also provided a safe space to discuss some of the challenges we have encountered along the way so far.
In the next months, all four partners will be working together to prepare the launch of the second Open Call to welcome a new cohort of SMEs, startups, researchers and TTOs into the S3E programme in 2024. We will be doing things a bit differently this time, taking into account the valuable feedback we have received from those who participated in the programme this year, but the energy and the enthusiasm levels remain the same (or even higher!) as when we were preparing to launch South3E and our first open call back in 2022.
We can’t give away too many details yet, as the engines are running in the background while we finalise all the details for our next open call, but for those who may be interested in applying to join one of the S3E tracks, we can tell you one thing… keep an eye out for the announcement coming out in September! Remember to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and subscribe to our .
We look forward to continuing unlocking the innovation potential of Southern European deep tech 🚀
* The S3E Reverse programme is still active and we will soon share more details about the corporates and the SMEs selected, and the challenges they're tackling through their deep tech innovations.
S3E is proud to have supported its first cohort of South European deep tech innovations
In July 2023, the South3E consortium hosted the two most important events of the year — the Open Days for our S3E Charge and S3E Start programmes!
Two successful online events that brought together more than 200 attendees from all across the European innovation ecosystem — including international investors, business angels, innovation hubs, higher education representatives and the general public — to showcase the deep tech solutions and ideas developed by the startups, research teams and TTOs selected to participate in these EU-funded programmes co-developed and led by the S3E partners.
For those who couldn’t join us on the events of 6th and 20th July, we have prepared two booklets where you will find all the key information about the teams who pitched during the open days and their innovations. Follow the links below to grab your copy!
S3E Charge booklet
to download the S3E Charge booklet and meet the 12 startups who pitched their deep tech businesses during the open day on 6th July 2023.
S3E Start booklet
to download the S3E Start booklet and meet the 13 research teams who presented their deep tech projects during the open day on 20th July 2023.
During the following weeks, we will be sharing detailed articles to highlight the research projects and the startups who pitched during both open days, including the video recordings of their presentations. So stay tuned! Make sure you're following us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and sign up to receive our .
Press Release: S3E celebrates the Start Open Day to present the deep tech projects of the selected research teams
The EU-funded project S3E is hosting the Start Open Day on Thursday 20th July 2023, at 10.00 CET, where the participating South European research teams will pitch their deep tech projects.
The consortium of S3E–Southern European Entrepreneurship Engine is pleased to officially announce the celebration of the S3E Start Open Day. During the last months, the S3E project has deployed the S3E Start program: an 18-week hands-on training program on science-based entrepreneurship, designed for research teams that want to explore the path from the lab to the market. Paired with these teams were technology transfer offices (TTOs) that learned the methodology to foster science-based entrepreneurship and technology commercialisation within their organisations.
Read the official press release
On this virtual pitching day, the selected 18 research teams and 12 TTOs from all across Southern Europe (including Italy, Spain, Greece, Slovenia, Romania, Portugal and Turkey) will introduce their deep tech projects to the entire EU innovation ecosystem.
When and where
The event will take place virtually on Thursday 20th July 2023, at 10.00 CET
How to participate?
The S3E project kindly invites Investors, Business Angels, Business Support Organisations, Innovation Agencies, Accelerators and Innovation Hubs to register to the event via Eventbrite.
Programme
- 10:00 Opening session by Daniel Gassmann, Head of Sector Ecosystems and EIC Prizes at EISMEA - European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency
- 10:10 Welcome to S3E Deep Tech Revolution with Pedro Vilarinho, Managing Director at HiSeedTech
- 10:20 Deep tech projects presentation I
- 11:20 Industry talk: ‘Deep tech entrepreneurship’ by Roger Debo, former Director of the Collaborative for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (CTEC) at Rutgers University
- 12:30 Lunch break
- 14:00 Welcome back
- 14:05 Deep tech projects presentation II
- 15:15 Closing remarks by Mário Freire, President Board of Directors at HiSeedTech
Register now!
Research teams participating in S3E START test their business skills during the Value Proposition Pitch
On May 30, from 15:00 CET to 18:30 CET, the research teams participating in the S3E START programme had to present their deep tech projects value proposition in front of a panel composed of the HiSeedTech team - Cláudia Barbosa, Cristina Simões, Nuno Falcão e Cunha and Pedro Vilarinho. The event took place online with an audience of 50 people and was open to participating teams and the technology transfer officers, mentors, and S3E partners (AUSTRALO, EPLO, and IDI).
The session was held midway through the programme implementation and was intended to: (i) serve as a proxy for the Open Day that will take place on July 20; (ii) provide feedback to the teams and test the robustness of the work done to date; (iii) improve their business skills and familiarise them with the types of questions that might arise during real presentations to investors or other stakeholders.
Each research team had 5 minutes to present their value proposition, which included: defining the problem they are solving and the need behind it, defining the technology, the solution they have and identifying the market, the competition and the team behind it.
The pitches were made in the following order:
- BioMEMs: Júlio Rocha, Aveiro University (PT), , Portugal
- BUCKS: Kun V Tian, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
- Cancer Therapeutics: Kanwal Asif, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy
- CAVI: Jurij Gostisa, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
- CE4Land: Ivana Pajčin, Faculty of Technology Novi Sad, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
- DVS: Rossela Zaffino, ICREA/ICMAB-CSIC, Spain
- EditUp: Davide Ederle, Fondazione Hub Innovazione Trentino (HIT), Italy
- HTS-INKS: Mar Tristany, Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Spain
- MARCIA: Clotilde Costa, Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
- MET LAB: Diogo Silva, ITQB NOVA - Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Portugal
- Nano-ink: Elif Begum Elcioglu, Eskisehir Technical University, Turkey
- Sumatrix Biotech: Semra Unal Yildirim, Sumatrix Biotech, Turkey
- Breast 4.0: Tiago Marques, Champalimaud Clinical, Portugal
The teams are doing great progress and they still have the following seven weeks to focus on improving their value proposition and presentation to have the business model ready for the S3E START Open Day!
Looking forward to exploring synergies and creating a long-lasting collaboration.
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S3E at WARM, the Worldwide Accelerators Rally at Matosinhos
WARM, the Worldwide Accelerators Rally at Matosinhos is an event that brings together innovation acceleration programs, incubators and TTOs with investors, companies, and startups.
This year edition was organized by RESOLVE-Health. RESOLVE-Health is a technology-based acceleration program designed to provide support and management tools to early-stage projects and start-ups in the health sector, focused on transforming innovative research into profitable ventures. The aim is to foster knowledge transfer, ultimately leading to licensing patents or launching start-ups. This is done by teams of researchers and entrepreneurs involved in this area. RESOLVE-Health is an initiative from I3S - Institute for Innovation and Research in Health in Porto.
WARM goal was to foster a collaborative movement in the health innovation ecosystem and took place on May 25, at Terminal de Cruzeiros do Porto de Leixões, in Matosinhos.
Our team member HiSeedTech had the opportunity to participate and present the S3E program with the focus on S3E Start and share some testimonials of researchers that have already been impacted by our methodology during the panel "Testimonials from Teams Supported by Acceleration Programs!". Claudia Barbosa, S3E Project Coordinator received valuable feedback from the audience and especially from researchers who have seen a change in their lives and the way they look at science, which was truly inspiring. Claudia invited the more than 100 participants to join the S3E community and to be alert for the upcoming Open Call after summer, which will bring new opportunities for researchers and startups from Southern Europe to bring their deep tech ideas into the market.
More info about the event: click here,