Six teams have emerged successful from the 31 March-5 April 2019 Wild Card Hackathon, which saw 35 hopeful entrepreneurs from across Europe convene in Amsterdam to work through a number of tasks designed to encourage teamwork and improve business skills.
A total of 19 participants belong to the EIT Health Wild Card teams that have been selected to continue to the next stage of the programme, which will be held in Paris starting in May. This upcoming Business Model Validation stage will be a ten-week journey of intensive mentoring and customer discovery that participants go through before entering the final pitch contest in July. The two teams winning that pitch contest will share in a total of EUR 4 million in funding and receive further support in bringing their innovative products or solutions to market.
Digital Biomarkers: Improving early diagnostics with the application of digital biomarkers.
Brain and Mental Health: Improving prediction, diagnosis and treatment to fight mental disorders and strengthen brain health.
'During the Hackathon, the participants were tested on their team-building qualities as much as their business healthcare innovation proposals,' EIT Health Director of Innovation Jorge Fernandez Garcia said. 'We have selected teams who have shown real potential to perform well together, in order to identify the specific unmet needs within the Wild Card challenge areas and find feasible, impactful solutions to address them.
BioDTek: Enrique Hernandez, Eduard Guerrero, Erika Plata, Francisco Jesus Aloa and Edilberto Ojeda.
Pipra: John Klepper, Nick Gklezakos, Nayeli Schmutz and Benjamin Dodsworth.
Starting in early May, in Paris at the ICM (Brain and Spine Institute), the finalists will work more closely with their mentors to test their hypotheses, validate and develop value propositions, and identify appropriate business models for their proposed solutions to meet the Wild Card healthcare challenges. The mentors will be supporting the teams through a series of sessions looking at key issues in innovation and entrepreneurship, such as intellectual property, de-risking projects and business economics.