HIVE Magazine 2021 by IelizavetaSHLIAKHOVA-2911

The HIVE magazine University of Luxembourg Incubator and Entrepreneurship Programme

SUMMARY HIVE AT A GLANCE

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OUR MISSION P.5 OUR PILLARS P.6 INSPIRE P.7 DEVELOP P.15 VENTURE P.19 OUR STARTUPS P.27 MAKING THE NEWS IN 2021

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STARTUP EXPERIENCE IS AN ESSENTIAL LEARNING

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BUILDING BRIDGES P.63 CONTACTS P.64

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

WELCOME DAY P.7 JUMPSTART P.8 CO-FOUNDERS NIGHTS

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INTRODUCTION TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP

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IDEATION CAMP P.11 STUDENT SUCCESS STORIES

ALLGEMENGWUEL AGENCE

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DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS

P.15

BUILD YOUR OWN INTERNSHIP

P.17

PITCHING EVENTS

P.19

VENTURE MENTORING SERVICE

P.21

ACCELARATOR

P.23

INCUBATION

P.25

LETZ GREEN RENEWABLES

P.44

ASETS-LUX P.30

LETZMATH P.45

CHECKMATH P.31

MEET YOUR UNBORN

COGNIFYER P.32

NIUM P.47

DEEPBIOMODELING P.33

ORGANOTHERAPEUTICS

DEVSEIS P.34

OUR CHOICE P.49

DIGITALUS P.35

PATLUX P.50

DROPSLAB P.36

PEASZY P.51

EDUGAMITEC P.37

SCHILZ P.52

EMPOTECH P.38

SIMPLEVIU P.53

FOOD4ALL (F4A) P.39

TECHNOPTIZ P.54

GOLDENME P.40

THE TENNIS AGENCY

HAPPY LOCAL P.41

VISIBILITY STEM AFRICA P.56

HONEYVERSE P.42

WEDOO P.57

INTANGIBLE WORLD HERITAGE ORGANIZATION ASBL P.43

ZESTYLAWYER P.58

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P.48

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HIVE AT A GLANCE

HIVE is UNI-fying innovation for Luxembourg. Entrepreneurship Programme gives the community of the University of Luxembourg a possibility to get inspired and acquire business skills by participating in initiatives like Ideation Camp. At the University of Luxembourg Incubator, the inspired students and researchers have the possibility to put their skills into practice and turn their ideas into viable businesses. We continually thrive to build strong partnerships with the leaders of Luxembourg’s corporate ecosystem and seek their support in coaching and mentoring the future talents in their entrepreneurial ventures.

300+ MENTORS

AND SPEAKERS

50+

EVENTS, COURSES

AND WORKSHOPS

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

100+

60+

2700+

25M+

JOBS CREATED

PARTICIPANTS

STARTUP PROJECTS

STARTUP VALUATION

DR. PRANJUL SHAH

Manager of Incubator

As the COVID-19 drags on, 2021 was again a year unlike no

While ‘incubators’ around the world may have come a long

other…for all of us. We are entering a period in education

way since the Mancuso family’s first in 1959, one thing has

which is fundamentally exciting - mixing virtual, physical

not changed: like startups they host, incubators also need

and hybrid events. In doing so, we have introduced our

to be equally agile. When looking back to the year gone by,

students to a new way of thinking – a lens through which

we take pride in how we, as a team, and our community of

they can view a professional world and beyond.

entrepreneurs reacted to these extraordinary times.

Our passion and unflinching vision to inspire and empower

Through the pages of this edition, we invite you to witness and

our students to become innovative leaders, have led to

celebrate the brilliance, tenacity and entrepreneurial spirit

the integration – with the trust from Uni.lu Study Directors

demonstrated by our talented students and entrepreneurs

– of many of our initiatives into Bachelor’s and Master’s

but also cherish their failures as an important and integral

programmes, raising awareness of entrepreneurship and

part of the learning process.

connecting our growing community of students to a new world of opportunities. We acknowledge our gratitude for

As we leapfrog in all our tracked performance indicators

the many meaningful partnerships that allow for cross-

again, we also recognise that it is infamously impossible

cultural engagement.

to take stock of the true impact that our startups continue to make to this country and society at large. Every passing

Our students are now much more confident about what they

day is a reminder that it is indeed a privilege of ours to

can do in their professional life, not anymore as observers

have the opportunity to shape and witness closely these

but as future leaders. All we have done is just to offer

incredibly ambitious and talented entrepreneurs who are

them some transversal skills as well as knowledge and an

the change and also the future. It is also an honour to have

outlook to observe the business world differently. One thing

the sustained patronage of our amazingly zesty mentors

became clear: when someone takes the leap into becoming

in this pursuit of building a world-class university startup

an entrepreneur or an intrapreneur, they never stop being

ecosystem.

one. Their courage and perseverance is a source of inspiration for everyone and I am very proud of their successes.

Finally, we always remind ourselves that the strength of any ecosystem is enhanced by the number of connectors

As we move forward, it is important that our extended

it hosts. Thus, it goes without saying that we need your

and vibrant entrepreneurial and startup community in

continued support to not only sustain our programs but also

Luxembourg is always there to support our students.

to take the Incubator to the next level. Join us in creating the

Throughout this magazine, you will see examples of

future: reach out to share your expertise with our students,

advisors, experts and successful entrepreneurs from diverse

partner with our startups, try their products or services,

background who help mentor our students to create their

host our students as interns, take a bet and invest in them,

own success stories. Together, we are preparing tomorrow’s

join the journey…I bet it will be fun!

leaders today.

HIVE AT A GLANCE

SIVA BACTAVATCHALOU

Manager of Entrepreneurship Programme

OUR MISSION

Entrepreneurship Programme and University of Luxembourg Incubator together form the HIVE team.

OUR MISSION

Left to right: Liza Shliakhova, Pranjul Shah, Diana Caputo, Farida Dawood, Linda Jaerling, Siva Bactavatchalou

The mission of the HIVE team is: To champion entrepreneurship education in the framework of 3rd industrial revolution in the Grand Duchy To boost startup creation in the University ecosystem by supporting entrepreneurial ideas led by our students, researchers and staff To mentor and educate entrepreneurial leaders who will create great economic and social value for Luxembourg To embed the University into the Luxembourg entrepreneurial ecosystem by building strong partnerships

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

OUR PILLARS

Our services offered to the University community are divided into three main pillars, each targeting students, researchers, recent graduates, and members of staff of the University at different competence levels:

INSPIRE

DEVELOP

VENTURE

WAKE UP DORMANT ENTREPRENEURS

SUPPORT PROCESS FROM IDEA TO BUSINESS PLAN

MENTORING UNTIL ENTREPRENEURS CAN SURVIVE INDEPENDENTLY

WELCOME DAY P.7

DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS P.15

PITCHING EVENTS P.19

JUMPSTART P.8 CO-FOUNDERS NIGHTS P.9 INTRODUCTION TO ENTREPENEURSHIP P.10 IDEATION CAMP P.11

BUILD YOUR OWN INTERNSHIP P.17

VENTURE MENTORING SERVICE P.21 ACCELERATOR P.23 INCUBATION P.25

OUR PILLARS

WELCOME DAY To celebrate the start of the academic year and offer guidance to new students, University of Luxembourg invites all new students to a Welcome Day that takes place in a relaxed atmosphere in mid of September on Belval Campus. The Welcome Day normally combines a series of social events, sports activities, workshops and info sessions. In the frame of the Entrepreneurship Programme, HIVE team organises fun activities related to entrepreneurship, including Marshmallow Challenge (a collaborative activity where students are given the task to build the tallest freestanding structure that will support the weight of one marshmallow), in addition to other team building activities.

OBJECTIVES

INSPIRE – WELCOME DAY

Ensure that all students participating in the Welcome Day activities understand that the University offers entrepreneurial support through initiatives offered by HIVE

Maximize outreach of the Entrepreneurship Programme to grow the entrepreneurial community at the University

...IN 2021

209

REGISTRATIONS

107

PARTICIPANTS

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

JUMPSTART

INSPIRE

JumpStart is a new course of the Entrepreneurship Programme which is taught online with 8 selfpaced workshops followed by the work on the team’s business ideas with a support of experienced mentors and pitching in the end of the course. Students can learn about innovation and creativity, build a solid foundation for a new business venture and learn how to be an intrapreneur or an entrepreneur. The self-paced workshops that can be taken over a semester or an academic year include short video clips interspersed with text, questions, quizzes, and reflections which allows students to actively engage within the workshop.

WORKSHOP WORKSHOP WORKSHOP WORKSHOP WORKSHOP WORKSHOP WORKSHOP WORKSHOP

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Welcome to Entrepreneurship Imagination, Creativity and Madness Spot opportunities and assess your idea Your customers The business model canvas How to pitch Build your financial model Create your company in Luxembourg in 10 steps

Master in Learning and Communication in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts (mandatory ECTS)

INSPIRE – JUMPSTART

CO-FOUNDERS NIGHTS Co-Founders Nights are organised by the HIVE team to allow students, recent graduates, staff members and researchers to get inspired by the successful entrepreneurs in the HIVE ecosystem, to network with them and each other, and to find co-founders for their venture. Some of the startups invited to present their entrepreneurial journey during the Co-Founder Nights are:

INSPIRE – CO-FOUNDER NIGHTS

244

REGISTRATIONS

112

PARTICIPANTS

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

CHEFPASSPORT HONEYVERSE LETZMATH MAANA ELECTRIC MOLECULAR PLASMA GROUP

NIUM OUR CHOICE PEASZY ROOMMATE

INTRODUCTION TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP

INSPIRE

Introduction to Entrepreneurship is an interactive 50-hours course designed to test researchers’ entrepreneurial appetite and jumpstart their entrepreneurial adventure. Whether researchers want to ignite their entrepreneurial spirit or get just enough flavor of entrepreneurship to flourish as intrapreneurs within any organization, they will learn the basic building blocks. In collaboration with the University of Luxemburg Office of Doctoral Studies, HIVE team offers this course to all PhD students across all Research Centres in Luxembourg (University of Luxembourg, LIST, LISER, LIH, etc.) The course consists of a mix of interactive workshops, discussions, problem-solving challenges tackled by researchers.

Deconstructing your PhDs: comparative analysis of researcher and entrepreneur

THE FOLLOWING WORKSHOPS ARE ORGANISED DURING Release brakes and anchor THE COURSE

Build your own Disciplined Entrepreneurship Canvas based on your specific research project How to build a financial model

motivation How to pitch Unlock your PhD project Mapping your research project with the Business Model Canvas

How to create a startup in Luxembourg

INSPIRE – INTRODUCTION TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The 6th edition of Introduction to Entrepreneurship took place in 2021 in online format. The course saw a very diversified pool of 25 PhD students from FDEF, FSTM, C2DH, LCSB, SnT, LIH and LIST.

IDEATION CAMP Ideation Camp is an intense four days long learning-by-doing course in which students get a glimpse of the life and traits of an entrepreneur by working in cross disciplinary teams to tackle challenges, come up with solutions, assess and present their ideas. In multidisciplinary teams, participants work on innovative business ideas, supported by dedicated mentors from the Luxembourgish entrepreneurial ecosystem and industry experts. On the final day of Ideation Camp, ideas are presented to a versatile jury, composed of members of the Rectorate of the University, investors and entrepreneurs. So far HIVE organized eight editions of Ideation Camp. I enjoy seeing the creative and resourceful solutions that our students are finding for the challenges of today. The Ideation Camp is an excellent transversal addition to our University programmes. Students learn to work in teams, 11

to share and to prioritise ideas, to work out how to identify a need, how to propose an answer for that need, and,

INSPIRE - IDEATION CAMP

finally, how to identify (or even to create) the market for that answer!

Prof. Catherine Léglu Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs at the University of Luxembourg We were eager to get our students involved in Ideation Camp for a number of reasons: meet fellow University of Luxembourg students who share their passion for entrepreneurship, learn more about the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Luxembourg and network with the mentors. Our expectations were not only met but exceeded. Our students had an incredible experience.

Prof. Glenn Platt Director of Armstrong Institute for Emerging Technologies at Miami University It is an honour for me to be a part of this initiative. I am always impressed by the level of the projects presented at the Ideation Camps. This underlines the importance of these events, and how useful they are to boost the competences of our students and to prepare them for their future career.

Erica Monfardini Director of Administration and Finance at the University of Luxembourg Master in Entrepreneurship and Innovation (elective ECTS) IC7 Interdisciplinary Space Master (mandatory ECTS) IC7 Bachelor en Cultures Européennes (mandatory ECTS) IC8

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

INSPIRE

40% FEMALE AND 60% MALE PARTICIPANTS

313

TOTAL MENTORS

369

PARTICIPANTS

25.7

TEAMS FORMED

AVERAGE AGE OF

PARTICIPANTS RECOMMEND

133

PARTICIPANTS

UNIQUE MENTORS

THE IDEATION CAMP TO PEERS

POSITIVE FEEDBACK

FROM MENTORS

IC7 WAS THE FIRST-EVER ONLINE IDEATION CAMP AND THE FIRST IC TO WELCOME STUDENTS FROM INTERDISCIPLINARY SPACE MASTER (FSTM) IC8 WAS THE FIRST IDEATION CAMP EVER TO WELCOME A STUDENT DELEGATION FROM MIAMI UNIVERSITY

INSPIRE - IDEATION CAMP

EDITIONS

STUDENT SUCCESS STORIES We are very proud when our courses, events and initiatives give students the best possible chance in their careers. Not everyone is destined to become an entrepreneur but with all the transversal skills, networking opportunities and support, our students are bound to succeed! Some meet their future employers at one of our events, some get internship opportunities within one of our startups, others get the right skills and courses into their CV to work for top companies in Luxembourg.

INSPIRE - INSPIRED STUDENTS

Here just some of the students who come to mind when thinking about successful start of their career.

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

INSPIRE

Mikael DaSilva, winner of the Ideation Camp 5, Marketing and Business Developer at RoomMate: “I am forever grateful for the opportunities and warm welcome I’ve always received from the HIVE team. Through their incredible network, I was able to get a life changing internship at Luxembourg Business Angel Network that has opened doors I could have never imagined!”

Maroun Altekly, winner of the Ideation Camp 7 and member of the founding team of a startup BlocHome: “This was one of the best experiences I had in my life and Ideation Camp even followed me after it was finished: I had an interview and, at some point, they asked me if I am able to pitch and I told them about my experience with the Ideation Camp, it had a big impact on the decision of the co-founders and I am now a part of the founding team of a fantastic startup”

Ranjani Polepeddi got her internship with our startup CheckMath after participating in Ideation Camp 7: “I took part because I wanted to see how I fare in the realworld simulation that Ideation Camp provides. There was a lot of learning packed into such a little time. You get to discover a lot about yourself too and that was the most enduring learning for me. Ideation Camp helped me build connections that matter, broaden my horizon and grow my confidence”

INSPIRE - INSPIRED STUDENTS

Maria Kritsotaki participated in Ideation Camp 7 and got inspired by the startup ecosystem through her internship with HIVE team, she is now working as a Psychologist at LuxAI: “Although having my own company might not be my path, I realised that I would like to work for a startup. Ideation Camp is something to add to your CV, as it shows an entrepreneurial side of you which is a good thing when looking for a job”

DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS In order to develop students knowledge in entrepreneurship and to better prepare them to build and run a successful business, HIVE recently organised the following workshops: MAKING YOUR CASE FOR FUNDING TO INVESTORS for startups with Paul Townsend, Director and Consultant helping organisations to grow and manage change, which was attended by 15 of our startup founders in phigital format (a few of our startupers came to the Incubator to participate while others joined online from their respective locations – be it home, library or even their workplace - this way we could accommodate everyone while staying safe); first, startup founders had an opportunity to introduce their ideas, which was followed by some valuable insights from Paul on different types of investors, how to pitch to each of them, and a typical annual investment funnel; in the end, startuppers pitched again based on these insights with Paul providing feedback and further comments on the content of the pitch, best practices, dos and don’ts;

DEVELOP – DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS

MARKETING WORKSHOP for all the University students where they learned the best practices and steps to facilitate and ease their marketing efforts from Ruchi Jaju, experienced Sales and Marketing Consultant; the workshop was conducted online in 3 sessions of 3 hours each, covering market research and its importance in making or breaking a business (including the definition, different components and types of market research), gaining attention of the target audience by applying an effective content marketing (including strategies, customer/buyer persona, content planning tips and templates), different effective tools for market research and content marketing

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

DEVELOP

designed exclusively for our VMS startups, including

SLICING PIE: FUNDING YOUR COMPANY WITHOUT FUNDS by Gira Szakmár (CEO and Founder of EduGamiTec);

HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT CANDIDATE USING 3 KEY SHIFTS by Dr Nuria Soler Aguilar (HR Senior Executive at European Investment Bank and our VMS Founding Mentor);

TAX FILING FOR STARTUPS with Irvin Dulberg (owner of accounting company Advensys Conseil)

DEVELOP – DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS

VMS INTERACTIVE WORKSHOPS

BUILD YOUR OWN INTERNSHIP In 2021 the Entrepreneurship Programme organised the 2nd edition of Build Your Own Internship – an immersive and interactive 10-weeks internship preparing participants for real-life situations through providing a comprehensive mix of theoretical and practical know-how. This initiative started beginning of June with a very diversified pool of 15 Bachelor and Master students from all the three faculties of the University of Luxembourg.

DEVELOP – BUILD YOUR OWN INTERNSHIP

All of our students need to do an internship and with the Covid crisis, we could not organise this as we used to. I thought it would be a good experience for our students to participate in this course: they are really taken out of the academic comfort zone and learn very useful skills like communication, working in a group, etc. They also got to experience new type of interaction which takes place between the mentor and the group and is not like the teacher-student relationship but more of a professional interaction. For our students from Humanities tracks, it was the whole new universe: to do a financial report, market study - this is very new to them. I think it’s one step closer to the real life and that’s what university should provide.

Prof Tonia Raus Study Director of Master en études franco-allemandes

After learning the foundation for entrepreneurship with 8 self-paced workshops, participants were working on their business ideas supported by a number of great mentors and presented their pitch to the jury in the end of the course. Build Your Own Internship is an online course which brings students of the University of Luxembourg 10 ECTS towards their degree. The first edition of Build Your Own Internship was created as a response to many cancelled summer internships in 2020 due to the pandemic.

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

DEVELOP

DEVELOP – BUILD YOUR OWN INTERNSHIP

Master en Études Franco-Allemandes: Communication et Coopération Transfrontalières (mandatory ECTS) Master in Learning and Communication in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts (elective ECTS) Bachelor en Cultures Européennes (elective ECTS)

PITCHING EVENTS Incubator supports ventures in every possible way until entrepreneurs can survive independently in the business world. One of the good stepping stones on this stage of their journey are pitching events.

VENTURE – PITCHING EVENTS

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

VENTURE

WORLD SUMMIT AWARDS: LetzMath with their early-maths learning solution Magrid became the first Luxembourgish company to ever be selected for WSA and became a global champion in their category PAPERJAM STARTUP STORIES: In 2020 Asets-Lux, EduGamiTec, Nium, digitalUs, and LetzMath pitched at the event, with Nium winning Round 3 and digital Us winning Round 4; in 2021, Paperjam Luxembourg Startup Stories Round 4 saw impressive startup pitches of our 8 startups, including CheckMath, Devseis Consultancy, Meet Your Unborn, OrganoTherapeutics, and Peaszy, Our Choice won the 1st place and Schilz the 3rd place EIB INSTITUTE’S SOCIAL INNOVATION TOURNAMENT Magrid Learning Solution won the 1st prize FIT4START: in 2021 OrganoTherapeutics graduated from Fit4Start #10 and LetzMath got selected for Fit4Start #11

VMS MEET AND PITCH SESSION organised to allow VMS startups to practice their pitching skills in front of the executive jury formed out of VMS mentors WCIW HEADQUARTERS’ INTERNATIONAL SUMMIT: as a part of World Creativity & Innovation Week, our startups Visibility STEM Africa, IWHO, LetzMath, and Our Choice, were invited to present their sustainable projects at the WCIW Headquarters’ International Summit CIRCULAR BY DESIGN CHALLENGE: Our Choice won the mobility category of this challenge of Luxinnovation ÉPISTÉMÊ ENTREPRENEUR, the podcast that gives voice to scientist entrepreneurs, interviewed founders of our startups CheckMath, Devseis, DeepBioModeling, Visibility STEM Africa, Food4All, and LetzMath MY GLOBAL VILLAGE: Asets-Lux was selected to pitch for the IA pitching session of My Global Village organised by the Chamber of Commerce MINDCET ACCELERATOR DEMO DAY included a presentation of EduGamiTec which participated in the first acceleration cycle INFOGREEN 4X3 EVENT saw a pitch by HappyLocal

VENTURE – PITCHING EVENTS

FARAD FINANCE FORUM 2021 saw engaging interviews of our startups Food4All, Our Choice, IWHO, and Visibility STEM Africa by a fantastic suite of experts followed by the presentation of the Incubator itself

VENTURE MENTORING SERVICE Venture Mentoring Service (VMS) of the University of Luxembourg Incubator helps University’s entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into thriving businesses by leveraging on the experience of seasoned entrepreneurs and corporate leaders.

I decided to become a mentor because throughout the course of my career, I was very fortunate and grateful to have some incredible mentors who made an impact on me from a professional and personal perspective. And that really helped me develop my career and grow as a person. I am a firm believer in giving back when we can

Alberta Brusi

VENTURE – VENTURING MENTORING SERVICE

Developed under licence of MIT’s mentoring service, VMS provides timely, tailored support and access to a team of industry experts relevant to the imminent needs of the ventures. The VMS has a goal to provide entrepreneurs with the tools, knowledge and network to boost their chance at success, whether they are serial entrepreneurs working on their next big thing or if they have no previous experience of starting a business. There are three stages to the Programme: Pre-Seed, Seed and Venture. At the Pre-Seed stage, the mentoring team works with entrepreneurs on market research, opportunity validation, business models and strategy. At the Seed stage, VMS team prepares startups for more actionable steps after market validation, building prototypes and launching a pilot.

Mentoring saves a lot of time for the mentees as it helps them to avoid some of the pitfalls. My contribution is to show them shortcuts or call out risks which they should be aware of, I think it makes their journey safer and faster

Attila Lengyel

What I like about the VMS setup is that we pay close attention to the real needs of the startups which are evolving over time and the

Once a successful pilot has been launched, the entrepreneurs move onto the Venture stage where they start operating as a small business and eventually grow. This way VMS team makes sure that they support entrepreneurs through all the phases from ideation to international scaling.

Incubator really makes sure that the people around the table mentoring are bringing the required expertise at any point in time. I think for mentees it’s really beneficial because they get what they need when they need it

Cécile Burghard

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

VENTURE

TOTAL MENTORS

STARTUP PROJECTS

700+ YEARS OF

COMBINED EXPERIENCE

200+

MENTORING SESSIONS

40%

FEMALE MENTORS

OUR NEW MENTORS DOMINIQUE DUVAL

MARCO CALDANA

OLIVIER KEISER

MENTOR COMPANIES

VENTURE – VENTURING MENTORING SERVICE

ACCELERATOR University of Luxembourg Accelerator was launched in partnership with the University of North Carolina and Tel Aviv University. The Accelerator is funded by the National Research Foundation of Luxembourg via a Knowledge and Innovation Transfer (KITS) grant. The Accelerator is further supported by a generous donation from the Aureus, Ars et Scientia Foundation. It is a sector agnostic accelerator helping top aspiring University of Luxembourg entrepreneurs to scale their business and be investment ready. The Accelerator focuses on working with the selected startups on three directions following the 3T Methodology:

TEAM

VENTURE – ACCELERATOR

TRACTION

BUILD STRONG ENTREPRENEURS WITH A SOLID TEAM FOR THE INITIAL STAGES OF VENTURE CREATION AND MARKET POSITIONING

IMPLEMENT MARKET TESTING STRATEGIES TO CLEARLY IDENTIFY THE CUSTOMER AND EXECUTE A PRODUCT LAUNCH STRATEGY

TRANSITION

EXECUTE A CONCRETE FUNDRAISING PLAN AND SMOOTH TRANSITIONING INTO BECOMING A GROWTH VENTURE

The outcome for the participating startups will be international exposure, customised strategy and eventually commercialisation.

FUNDING

OPPORTUNITIES

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

1-1 TAILORED GUIDANCE

NETWORKING

ACCESS TO PARTNERS

WORKSHOPS

VENTURE

For the first iteration, the following startups were selected:

VENTURE – ACCELERATOR

Dr. Ted Zoller gives training on his 6M Venture Circuit© during the Accelerator training week

INCUBATION Regardless of their faculty, industry sector or stage of their project, any of the University students researchers, recent graduates and staff members can unlock doors to the whole range of trainings and services offered by the University of Luxembourg Incubator. The Incubator has become the bridge connecting University research to innovation by widening horizons for our students and researchers. We inspire our changemakers and student leaders to act definitively. Every startup project receives tailored support and advice via expert mentoring fitted to their individual needs. Additionally, the startups can leverage the local and international network of the Incubator to test their product’s market-fit, accelerate their growth, enhance their visibility and find suitable investor connects.

VENTURE – INCUBATION

The startups greatly benefit from the local startup ecosystem in Luxembourg. The University of Luxembourg Incubator acts as a bridge to also ensure that - when ready - mature startups transition to the local partner incubators or acceleration programmes and benefit from their market positioning.

— Incubator is not just a place, it is a community of people passionate about innovation

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

VENTURE

THE PACKAGE FOR THE STARTUPS INCUBATED AT THE BELVAL CAMPUS COMPRISES OF: Office space Access to the full infrastructure at the Incubator building Access to the greater University infrastructure

Access to a widespread business network inside Luxembourg and even beyond the national borders Access to the Media lab with the latest equipment for filming and photography Administrative support Visibility through the University of Luxembourg media channels Access to business books and magazines library Visibility via showcases at other events organized by the Incubator and their partners Access to state of the art prototyping facilities at our Fab lab

VENTURE – INCUBATION

Mentoring with experienced entrepreneurs and professional experts

OUR STARTUPS BIOTECH DEEPBIOMODELING ORGANOTHERAPEUTICS

FOODTECH FOOD4ALL (F4A) HAPPY LOCAL HONEYVERSE

OUR STARTUPS

EDTECH CHECKMATH EDUGAMITEC

GREENTECH

LETZMATH

LETZ GREEN RENEWABLES

WEDOO

OUR CHOICE

FINTECH DIGITALUS

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

SCHILZ

HEALTHTECH NIUM

SOCIAL

ASETS-LUX

ALLGEMENGWUEL AGENCE

COGNIFYER

GOLDENME

DROPSLAB

INTANGIBLE WORLD HERITAGE ORGANIZATION ASBL

EMPOTECH TECHNOPTIZ

PATLUX PEASZY MEET YOUR UNBORN

LEGAL DEVSEIS ZESTYLAWYER

VISIBILITY STEM AFRICA

SPORTS THE TENNIS AGENCY

TOURISM SIMPLEVIU

OUR STARTUPS

INDUSTRY AUTOMATION

ALLGEMENGWUEL AGENCE Allgemengwuel Agence (Agency for the Common Good) specialises in sustainability reporting and incentivises companies to maximize their contribution to the common good. Allgemengwuel Agence helps their clients to define the common good, to analyse their contributions, to make progress, to communicate their efforts, and to receive ECG certifications. Allgemengwuel Agence organises workshops, conducts interviews, writes reports and spreads the word through social media and the press.

OUR STARTUPS

DR. GREGOR WALTERSDORFER

CEO

— “VMS programme helped me to summarize and reflect on what I did over the last few years and what the potential could be”

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

The founder of Allgemengwuel Agence, Dr. Gregor Waltersdorfer, four years ago became self-employed with the topic of his PhD from the University of Luxembourg. Gregor is particularly proud that Allgemengwuel Agence helped the first commune in Luxembourg to become a commune for economics. “There were only nine out of the worldwide communes from one German speaking countries. It is the first Luxembourgish.” – he says. “The clients of Allgemengwuel Agence become more credible and future-proof while also increasing their customer loyalty and brand value. Along the way, the Allgemengwuel Agence clients lead by example to build a better economy, which is for the benefit of all.”

ASETS-LUX ASETS-LUX is creating web-based cloud solutions for the Engineering, Procurement, Construction (EPC) sector to accelerate design engineering cycles by 40%. ASETS-LUX assists engineering companies in a smart way in their early pre-feed, feed optimizations and layout designs for on shore and off-shore plants. Using its smart web-based platform to simplify and arrive at the solution quick.

The product is now ready to cater to pre-feed and feed stage for engineering companies. Having identified this need, ASETS-LUX set upon its mission with extensive support from FNR. This innovative solution “Made in Luxembourg” is now set to revolutionize the EPC sector. In order to change mindsets and raise awareness of new digital technologies and adopting newer technology in this EPC service sector, ASETS-LUX has collaborated with College of Engineering Pune to launch India’s first primary “EPC” postgraduate diploma. Large companies are now exhibiting keen interest in this approach where ASETS-LUX has set up a number of pilot projects.

ASHWINI OKE

CEO

— “My experience with the Incubator is great! Well-organized meeting rooms and a very warm staff with motivating management”

OUR STARTUPS

The founder of ASETS-LUX Ashwini Oke, a 20 years background in the petrochemical and oil & gas sector. Being in the technical sector she realized there is no single data centric software that addresses the need in a holistic manner.

CHECKMATH CheckMath is an app that scans and checks the student’s steps to any math problem giving them valuable feedback. Currently, CheckMath assists students aged 10 to 16 all the way from basic addition to logarithms.

HIMADRI PATHAK

CEO

OUR STARTUPS

— “The Ideation Camp was the reason why I started my own business, without that I would not have the confidence to do it”

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

CheckMath was born from the struggles of the present and past generations in mathematics. Now students can get automated solutions to their questions on their phones and yet it lacks feedback on a personal level. CheckMath gives students the autonomy to explore mathematical problems in their own creative ways and provides personalized feedback, thus motivating them in their self-learning journey. Himadri Pathak, CEO of CheckMath, was a computer science student doing research at SnT when during her Master’s she took part in the Ideation Camp as well as Startup Weekend Luxembourg, both of which she won! “That gave me the motivation to do something of my own.” – she says. Later in the journey, she was joined by Sankalp Ghatpande who she met while working at SnT. In just a few years, CheckMath app has users from many countries across the world. In 2021 the new release of CheckMath app was successfully launched by the team and has fundraised from Luxembourgish and European institutions.

COGNIFYER Cognifyer is a provider of embedded network design tools in the automotive and aerospace domains. Cognifyer develops technologies, software IP blocks and complete automated design flows at any stage of maturity: concept, proof-of-concept implementation, pilot or production. Cognifyer is unlocking the power of generative design for electrical/electronic architectures with design automation technologies based on goals and domain knowledge.

Serial entrepreneur, Nicolas already had two companies before he established Cognifyer at the University of Luxembourg Incubator in 2018. Nicolas believes that it was a good timing to start such a business in terms of techniques in the industry as it took them only two years to apply such techniques to design systems. Now Nicolas is working on scaling up with external partners together with Marina Guttiérez who has joined the company in 2021.

DR. NICOLAS NAVET

CEO

— “University of Luxembourg Incubator helped me to facilitate the creation of the company and now I am surrounded by like-minded people which is going to be beneficial in terms of building the team”

Cognifyer

OUR STARTUPS

CEO of Cognifyer, Dr. Nicolas Navet, Deputy-Head of the Department of Computer Science and Professor in Computer Science, says that his primary objective is to contribute to the techniques, tools and computing platforms that will make it possible to build provably safe systems in a time, resources and cost-efficient manner.

DEEPBIOMODELING DeepBioModeling is a biology-focused data science company with a strong motivation to impact the development of personalized medicine. The startup is dedicated to helping researchers worldwide to achieve the best outcomes and create translatable medical innovations with robust, timely results and expert advice. DeepBioModeling collaborates with pharma, biotech, and academia to validate targets, repurpose existing drugs, study mechanisms of action, predict biomarkers, and facilitate drug discovery.

OUR STARTUPS

DR. SEBASTIEN DE LANDTSHEER

CEO

— “My experience with the Incubator has been very positive: nearly free office in the startup environment and access to the mentoring”

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

Their goal is to establish a series of integrated analysis pipelines to combine datasets with existing knowledge to leverage high-level features into a machine learning framework. The startup delivers this technology to fasten the development of innovative cures and diagnostic tools for the benefit of individual patients. Dr. Sebastien De Landtsheer, founder of DeepBioModeling, originally a biologist who then decided to study informatics, and now uses his expertise in software development to achieve the current standards in software engineering to help his peer scientists to make their new ideas and algorithms available to the scientific community in a way that maximizes collaborations and citations.

DEVSEIS Devseis provides user-friendly automated services to European enterprises to deal with substantially increasing compliance costs of GDPR. Devseis delivers software as a service solution which examines the personal data processing operations of the enterprise to identify and assess risks that can violate rights and freedom of a person.

With the support of his four experienced advisory partners, Umer set up Devseis in 2018. The startup now combines world-class expertise with high-quality services to help startups and other enterprises to meet their business challenges in the domain of information security and data privacy. The services include professional audit, consulting, risk advisory, and legal compliance (GDPR), regardless of field of activity or industry sector. In 2021 Devseis officially launched two products: GRaaS (GDPR Reporting as a Service) and TrustChain. The main focus of GRaaS is to maximise protection of personal data that reside within the company, whereas TrustChain has been developed with the aim to ensure protection for personal data that is shared with the contractors and subcontractors.

DR. MUHAMMAD UMER WASIM

CEO

— “The great thing about the Incubator is that they really made me feel very confident. They are super helpful!”

OUR STARTUPS

Dr. Muhammad Umer Wasim, the founder and CEO of Devseis, has over 10 years of multinational experience that extends in the domain of information and communication technology, law, and innovation. He has acquired an operational knowledge with dedicated experience in information security and data privacy audits, consultancy, risk advisory, and legal compliance (GDPR).

DIGITALUS The digitalUs technology provides a solution to automate and significantly speed-up the background screening process of individuals. It relies on a novel methodology to match the same entity across multiple publicly data sources. AI-based entity resolution technology of digitalUs connects billions of data points across public data sources to create a Unified Digital Profile of a single individual or legal entity without ambiguity.

DR. BELTRAN FIZ

CEO

OUR STARTUPS

— “ We have a unique position in Luxembourg because it is competitive and small enough that people can get you in touch with the right people. The Incubator is ideal for this, they can provide you the contacts that help you to the next step”

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

Dr. Beltran Fiz, CEO of digitalUs, through his own experience realised how much information he has left online across multiple sites and decided to use open source intelligence to identify, match and analyse his online digital footprint. With his team of professionals, he is now working towards creating a people search engine designed to empower compliance officers in their KYC/AML duties by providing a holistic view of the customers public digital footprint, while providing an audit trail and list of used sources. GDPR compliant by design, digitalUs can launch searches upon request and no data is stored locally. The solution is powered by unique technology, tested during the research phase, that taps into the wealth of data, publicly available, including watchlists, business registers, social media, and much more to produce a unified digital footprint. “I believe that digitalUs can be a real time saver for compliance officers that are currently overburdened with the time-consuming task of searching for information manually,” says Beltran. “There is a plethora of open and publicly available data sources that can assist compliance officers in their regulatory duties and current KYC/AML technologies are not taking full advantage of them”.

DROPSLAB Dropslab Technologies provides a smart assistance for workforce in medical and industrial applications. Their product addresses the issues of missing production expertise, slow process documentation and inspection reports.

The user does not need to have any programming skills to be able to use the assistance platform. The Dropslab solution is intelligent and situation-based and gives the guidance depending on the circumstances. “Clients can directly login, create an account and use assistance based on augmented reality. The platform runs on the cloud, you can just start designing a process guidance and use the remote support feature right away.” adds Meysam.

DR. MEYSAM MINOUFEKR

CEO

— “I wanted to have a solution which has an absolute impact on medical and industrial domains and to be able to implement it in such a way that I think is most feasible”

OUR STARTUPS

CEO & Founder of Dropslab Dr. Meysam Minoufekr says: “Our assistance platform provides the right information at the right time adaptive to the situation of the workforce. It uses object detection based on artificial intelligence, where you look at the scene and you get context knowledge according to your view field, indicating how and what you have to do. Our solution gives guidance using augmented reality and includes remote support for telemonitoring”.

EDUGAMITEC EduGamiTec is bridging education with new technologies. The idea was first born out of the HIVE’s flagship event Ideation Camp. EduGamiTec’s solution Memomoti enables users to insert personalized educational content into entertaining games. It improves the motivation for learning and transforms children’s screen time into meaningful outcomes.

GIRA SZAKMÁR

CEO

OUR STARTUPS

— “The University of Luxembourg Incubator was always really supportive of me and my startup. The events and mentors bring a lot of value and being surrounded by peers really helps as well”

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

Memomoti is an easy-to-use platform where you can take any content you need to memorize and insert it into digital games to increase motivation in learning. The game statistics and AI driven assessment system adjust the difficulty of the games to each child’s current needs. The machine learning based system is first fed by the educational content provided and validated by the users, with the future capability of automatically ingesting open source educational data pools. In 2020 EduGamiTec reached a huge milestone by securing its first round of funding and bringing Neil Ward, former COO of Skype, onto its board. In 2021 they joined MindCET Accelerator and pitched on their Demo Day. Their aspiration is to bring personalised education into the lives of every person regardless of their age and background in a way that they do not even notice that they were taught and enjoy the process.

EMPOTECH

Manuel Castillo-Lopez, founder of EmpoTech, came up with the idea while he was doing his PhD in robotics at the University of Luxembourg. “Essentially, there is a gap between the innovations produced by academia and the technology that companies can adopt. We step up to support both parties to close that gap, establishing sustained competitive advantage through innovation.” Manuel says.

MANUEL CASTILLO-LOPEZ

Founder

— “The Incubator is tightly related to University and we are an innovative company that needs innovation as much as we need the industry”

OUR STARTUPS

EmpoTech provides custom robotic solutions for industry and academia. As AI and Robotics are emerging technologies that are transforming large industries such as construction, transportation or even space exploration, their ability to automate and accelerate different processes across industries have put these technologies as a key to compete in a global economy. Today, most businesses have to adapt their processes and workflows to existing technologies, which limits its profitability and scalability. EmpoTech allows these technologies to fit customer needs, not the other way around. By building custom robotic solutions to the customer’s problem, they’re able to scale cost-effectively and reach a higher productmarket fit.

FOOD4ALL (F4A) F4A provides a win-win solution to the issue of food waste on a supermarket level. F4A services allow their partners to generate profit out of their losses while enabling their customers to have access to best before-date products at reduced prices on a larger scale.

ILANA DEVILLERS

Ilana Devillers of the University of Luxembourg joined VMS when she was still a student. Living on a tight budget and trying to eat healthy, she also saw that supermarkets were wasting a lot of products that could be put to a better use. Ilana felt that it was time to act and created F4A as her response to both issues – food waste and demand for more accessible healthy food.

CEO

OUR STARTUPS

— “All the help that I needed – the VMS gave it. This service is really important because they match you with mentors who can help you with your specific question”

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

Now F4A services directly contribute to reducing the food waste. Moreover, F4A’s daily recipes are perfectly matched with the products available to help final users to better their culinary skills and to eat healthier. F4A were awarded “Startup of the Year” in 2019 and was amongst the 10 worldwide finalists selected to be part of the Nasdaq COVID-19 Solution Summer Milestone Makers Programme in 2020. They also partnered with Delhaize the same year. In 2021 F4A launched a takeaway service with sixty restaurateurs and brands like L’Opéra, Victorine, L’Osteria, Cocottes, Kaempff-Kohler, and La Table du Pain, featuring Luxembourg supermodel Sonia Gleis in their campaign. F4A also joined prestigious acceleration programme Rockstart AgriFood.

GOLDENME GoldenMe’s vision is to prevent loneliness in older age through digital education. Their active community for people aged 55+ revolves around events to improve the members’ Digital Literacy: lectures and workshops with topics like social media, smartphone use and similar.

The two founders, Mara Kroth and Johannes Heuschkel, started their entrepreneurial journey at the University of Luxembourg, where Mara won the Ideation Camp in 2018. The team decided to work for customers aged 55+, pre-retirees or already retired, because this age group is mostly affected by not being able to digitally participate in various processes, may it be private, social or administrative. In 2021 GoldenMe got a financial aid of Œuvre Nationale de Secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotte.

MARA KROTH AND JOHANNES HEUSCHKEL

Co-founders

— “VMS gives you an external point of view which is very helpful because mentors can see our progress and they challenge us while providing an objective feedback”

OUR STARTUPS

Bringing younger and older generations together is a focal point of the non-profit organization because the moment one learns from the other brings both generations closer together and creates empathy. This happens through the events called „SmartphoneCafés“ of GoldenMe where students take time to answer seniors’ questions around smartphone, tablet or laptop use. „SmartphoneCafés“ have happened across different place in the country so far, leaving both seniors and younger people happy about the newly gained knowledge on the one hand and the social interaction and solidarity on the other hand.

HAPPY LOCAL Happy Local is a mobile platform that favors farmers who produce local products and helps to distribute those products to the local consumers. Happy Local focuses on organic, plastic-free and zero waste for a better consumption of products and food in order to take care of the planet and secure a better future for everyone.

SAM ABDI

CEO

OUR STARTUPS

— “University of Luxembourg Incubator allows students to have an office for an affordable price to process the registering of their startups in Luxembourg”

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

To provide local producers with required support, Happy Local helps to increase their visibility and revenue while providing a better transparency of food resources. Sam Abdi, founder of Happy Local, is an IT student at the University of Luxembourg who is also passionate about connecting nature and technology using his computer science knowledge. “Consuming local products has many social, financial and environmental advantages: it encourages local economy, helps create jobs, preserve heritage, reduce carbon footprints of food transportation, reduce food waste of supermarkets, keep the cash flow within the local economy...” – says Sam. “Consumers are choosing to buy locally more and more, whether it is in their own city on a daily basis or while traveling abroad.”

HONEYVERSE HoneyVerse is a social enterprise which aims to boost the artisan farming of honey in European villages. HoneyVerse stands on 3 pillars - sustainability, ethics, and quality - which means no harm to bees and their ecosystem, fair wages for beekeepers, and the purest honey for consumers.

HoneyVerse partners exclusively with a select handful of village-based beekeepers to offer high quality certified natural honey. They ensure that there are no noisy highways, factories, or chemically fertilized fields within tens of kilometers away from the beehives. HoneyVerse’s honey is free of antibiotics and pesticides. Their vision is to become the main representative of village honey brands which operate under sustainable beekeeping practices.

DANIELA DICUSAR

Founder

— “Entrepreneurship is about networking, working a lot, exposing yourself to different communities and improving your social skills”

OUR STARTUPS

The founder of HoneyVerse, Daniela Dicusar, was raised in a Moldovan village where people do mostly agriculture. “I come from a family where beekeeping was mainly a hobby,” - she says. “My father tried to turn it into a revenue recurring family business, but the increased maintenance costs and unfair competition on that binary market prevented him from achieving this. What he needed was a little bit of help to commercialize the honey and be paid fairly for his hard work.” Daniela believes that her story is one of the many in Europe and is looking to perpetrate sustainable beekeeping in European villages, bringing to the conscious consumers the purest honey and the pride of contributing to a big change.

INTANGIBLE WORLD HERITAGE ORGANIZATION ASBL Intangible World Heritage Organization ASBL preserves and promotes cultural heritage and indigenous knowledge of sustainable practices, adapts them to bridge with modernity demands, and develops tools to remove barriers of exchange. IWHO aims at enriching accumulative knowledge by documenting, preserving and promoting endangered intangible heritage, supporting cultural diversity and removing barriers of exchange as well as empowering marginalized communities and endorsing sustainable development.

ADHAM AL-SAYYAD

President

OUR STARTUPS

— “Ever since we were hosted by the Incubator, their close mentorship alongside their strong network connections have significantly boosted our success”

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

The founder of IWHO, Adham Al-Sayyad, is a Doctoral Candidate in Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Luxembourg. Adham’s passion is traditional culture which made him spend a few years in social justice culture. He is also a musician playing on traditional instruments from his home country, Egypt. “Similar to bio-diversity, cultural diversity is essential to continued life on this planet. The fragility of a globally homogenized paradigm lies in its rigidity to change, putting the global community in serious risks when threatened by environmental or socioeconomic challenges.” – says Adham. Recently, IWHO received an agreement for their project “BELONG” to participate in European Capital of Cultures (ESCH22). BELONG aims at utilizing global folkloric arts to create synergies between multicultural and multidisciplinary artistic forms.

LETZ GREEN RENEWABLES The solar energy equipment supplier, Letz Green Renewables, specialises in sector coupling. Their engineering expertise allows them to bring together mobility, production, and consumption. Letz Green Renewables don’t just install the solar systems, they also know how these systems should be linked together, which technologies should be used, and what could be improved in the future.

The company is growing rapidly and their agile model is to blame for such a swift success. “If you are talking to other companies in the region to build your solar system, you will have to wait up to eight to nine months. This is right now our biggest advantage, we are fast compared to our competitors.” – says Sasan.

DR. SASAN RAFII-TABRIZI AND SEBASTIEN LATZ

Founders

— “For us, the biggest help from the Incubator was access to its network”

OUR STARTUPS

The two founders, Dr. Sasan Rafii-Tabrizi and Sebastien Latz, met while doing their PhDs at the University of Luxembourg and quickly discovered their mutual interest in renewable energy. They decided to start a company together in Luxembourg but quickly received a lot of interest from the Greater Region. “In Luxembourg there’s a green government and a lot of state aid for people who want to build solar panels so they can get around 25% refund,” says Sebastien. “In Germany it’s pretty conservative at the moment but there are a lot of people interested in the topic. I think 50% of our projects now are in Germany”.

LETZMATH Magrid, the flagship product of a startup called LetzMath, is an effective pedagogical programme for improving the development of early visual-spatial and mathematical abilities. Magrid provides an individual learning environment in which a student can repeat instructions for their individual learning pace to increase learners’ confidence in math.

DR. TAHEREH PAZOUKI

CEO

OUR STARTUPS

— “As an entrepreneur, you mostly find yourself alone and knowing that there are people that you can just write or call and talk to them and share your problems, this is really nice”

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

Tahereh Pazouki, founder of LetzMath, was doing her PhD at the Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences of University of Luxembourg working on why there are young students in Luxembourg that are not performing as well in mathematical abilities in comparison to other countries. Through the scientific testing, Tahereh identified that this is related to the number of languages which students in Luxembourg have to master and it has the biggest impact on nonnative students. Based on those findings, Magrid was created to address those issues. By visualizing the mathematical concepts and ideas, Magrid makes early mathematical instruction intuitive and accessible to all children regardless of their language proficiency. The interactive design of Magrid, allows students to take an active role in building their knowledge that boosts learners’ self-esteem, self-awareness, and engagement in the learning process. LetzMath became the first Luxembourgish company to ever be selected for WSA and became a champion in their category at WSA 2021. They were also selected for Fit4Start and won EIB social innovation prize.

MEET YOUR UNBORN Meet Your Unborn is a startup helping pregnant women build a better connection to their baby in the womb. The CEO and co-founder of Meet Your Unborn, Arabella Strassner, experienced prenatal bonding herself when she was pregnant with her daughter. “It changed everything in my life,” she says. “I experienced what it means to have a connection to a person who I don’t know or see yet but I feel in my body.” Arabella then learned to do the prenatal bonding professionally, including psychotherapy as well as pre- and perinatal therapy.

ARABELLA STRASSNER

CEO and Co-Founder

— “With VMS, I really feel supported at every stage. I feel very grateful that there is someone who believes in our idea and supports it every day”

OUR STARTUPS

While usually the prenatal bonding sessions are done live, Meet Your Unborn provides an opportunity for an online experience as the sessions are pre-recorded. “This allows pregnant women to do the course in their own rhythm whenever and wherever they can do it, as often as they want to,” says Arabella. “I want to make prenatal bonding accessible to every soon-to-be mom. The baby in the womb develops its personality via the prenatal bonding with the mother at a very early stage of life. Overall, prenatal bonding helps on three aspects. Firstly, it contributes to having a healthier life, better relationships with the mother, the father, and the family. Secondly, it is good for the immune system and health in general, as well as the body and the brain. Finally, it is also important for all the relationships coming after birth, be it as a child, a grown-up or when someone becomes a parent themselves.”

NIUM Nium provides personalized dietary recommendations based on each individual’s unique metabolism. They predict personal metabolic response using a computational model and utilize this technology for nutritional recommendations for the prevention and treatment of diet-related diseases. Nium’s platform is the basis of a service that delivers a metabolic and gut microbiome analysis supporting decision in clinical nutrition to health professionals and individuals. This will allow personalized nutritional recommendations through an interactive dashboard such as mobile app.

OUR STARTUPS

DR. ALBERTO NORONHA AND DR. ADAM SELAMNIA

Co-Founders

— “We benefit a lot from staying at the Incubator, it provides us the soft start and easy transition from being a student or being a researcher to becoming an entrepreneur”

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

Dr. Alberto Noronha, co-founder and CEO of Nium, through his research project identified that individual responses to food are difficult to predict and wanted to change this. His partner, Dr. Adam Selamnia, cofounder and Director of Business Development, has an almost 20 years professional journey as a serial entrepreneur and Strategic Advisor in the field of HealthTech. Their vision for the future of healthcare is that each individual will have access to the best tailored treatment possible and the nutrition will play a central role in this with Nium being one of the leaders in that change. In 2021 Nium has developed its app Nutrida which will provide personalized nutritional management for patients suffering from cancer and diet-related diseases.

ORGANOTHERAPEUTICS OrganoTherapeutics uses cutting-edge humanspecific mini-brains for the discovery and development of effective drug candidates targeting Parkinson’s disease. OrganoTherapeutics screens new molecules on their proprietary human-specific mini-brains which represent a model mimicking faithfully the human Parkinson’s disease pathology.

OrganoTherapeutics aims at developing new drug candidates against Parkinson’s disease which are tested in state-of-the-art 3D patient models. OrganoTherapeutics has developed first own proprietary drug candidates and has access to attractive libraries for further screening. OrganoTheraputics recently won the Rising Start-up Award of BioVaria and successfully graduated from Fit4Start #10.

DR. JAVIER JARAZO

Co-Founder

— “Incubator helped us a lot. For example, when we needed some legal support, etc… Incubator was always ready to make the link with people that could help us”

OUR STARTUPS

Two founders of OrganoTherapeutics, Dr. Javier Jarazo and Dr. Jens Schwamborn, started to work on this problematic as a part of Javier’s PhD project which Jens was supervising. Javier is an expert in stem cell models, phenotyping screening, and computational data analysis. Jens is a professor at the University of Luxembourg, neuroscientist expert in stem cell research and Parkinson’s disease research.

OUR CHOICE OUR CHOICE aims to become a platform for change, encouraging others to shift from a linear economy to a restorative, circular economy while inspiring the next generation to rethink, redesign and build a positive future. The company is committed to helping reduce pressure on the environment, cut down on the draining of resources and raw materials while stimulating innovation.

FILIP WESTERLUND

CEO

OUR STARTUPS

— “With the support of Incubator, I managed to accelerate the business in a way that I could never have done by myself”

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

As a circular visionary, Filip and his team at OUR CHOICE, created the world’s first circular and fully recyclable sneaker that is plastic free. The company launched a very successful Kickstarter campaign at the end of 2020, reaching its funding goals within the first 15 hours. The campaign received great interest from the media and Filip was named a “Young Social Impact Hero” by Thrive Global and featured in Authority magazine as well as dubbed a Circular Economy Pioneer by FashionUnited.uk. Since the Kickstarter launch, OUR CHOICE won the Circular By Design Challenge by Luxinnovation. The win, announced by Luxembourg’s Minister of Finance, Franz Fayot marks the start of a partnership with Goodyear to develop new products. OUR CHOICE also won the EY Start up Series: Circular Economy and was declared the most influential Circular Economy Startup in the Benelux region. Recently, the company won Paperjam Startup Stories Round 4 and successfully closed its second crowdfunding campaign targeting the French speaking market.

PATLUX Parents as Trainers Luxembourg aka PATLUX believes that “learning by doing” is much more effective than “learning by reading“, “learning by listening” or “learning by watching”. PATLUX is an elite forum which gives an opportunity for parents to engage with the children during weekends. During PATLUX events parents and children work on various fields - it could be on cars, on logistics, on software, or anything else.

The central vision of PATLUX is to help and integrate parents and children to learn the fundamentals of science and mathematics in an innovative way.

DR. SAKTHIVEL M. MANIKANDAN

Volunteer

— “This is a calculated challenge, which could be addressed effectively with the help of existing education ecosystem in place in Luxembourg”

OUR STARTUPS

Dr. Sakthivel Manikandan, founder of PATLUX, is a parent himself and knows for fact that learning by doing is the best way for children to learn. “PATLUX is a unique social and a non-profit organization which serves for foundation education learning methodologies,” he says. “For any innovation in any field, science and mathematics remain indispensable needs. Parents are none other than the professionals who work in various fields where these two topics are applied to their day-to-day work.”

PEASZY Peaszy is a social app created to connect like-minded people. With Peaszy, individuals get matched to others according to similar interests and hobbies and access to an activity organizer with suggestions of things to do and places to go. Users can also register with their current friends and find activities together.

ALICIA KHELILI

CEO

OUR STARTUPS

— “VMS helps you to focus on your main goal. It gives you experience from great mentors, the strategy, and confidence that you might be lacking as a young entrepreneur”

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

When the CEO of Peaszy, Alicia Khelili, arrived in Luxembourg a few years ago, she found it difficult to meet new people outside of her colleagues. She also felt like it was very time consuming to find interesting and new things to do during her leisure time. She did some research and realized that Luxembourg’s rate of loneliness was the highest in all Europe. It got her thinking about how she could fix this and this is how Peaszy was born, with the vision of bringing people together. Alicia and her team are part of Venture Mentoring Service of the University of Luxembourg Incubator. «VMS gives you the structure you need,» - says Alicia. «When you start this wild journey that is entrepreneurship, you find yourself with one project but with many ideas around it and it can easily go all over the place in a moment when you need to stay focused. You are going to meet a lot of people along the way with different opinions on your project, it’s important to make the difference between valuable and not so valuable feedback. This is another reason why you need to stay focused and not deviate from your main goal. It’s reassuring to know you are not alone and have access to wise advice at VMS on this regard among so many other things».

SCHILZ Schilz is an alternative drink to alcohol and soda beverages, made of herbal infusion, citrus fruits, flowers and cannabis sativa, having a pleasant bitter and fresh taste and providing natural relaxation.

“In the last years there is a relentless rising awareness regarding health and wellbeing,” says Sergio. “Schiltz is all natural, has a distinctive taste and is low in calories. People are looking for alternatives to the classical after-work drinks and are switching to other beverages.” The product is currently being tested in bars of Luxembourg City.

JOE SAPIENZA AND SERGIO SIONIS

Co-Founders

— “VMS for us is like a lighthouse that helps us to see things from external perspective and with an independent judgment”

OUR STARTUPS

The two co-founders of Schilz – Joe Sapienza and Sergio Sionis – identified a gap in the beverage market and decided to find a solution. “There’s a lack of drinks that are non-alcoholic and at the same time not sugary”, says Joe. “It’s a very polarized market and this lack of alternatives drives the consumer’s choices. Schilz is pleasant to drink, has 0% alcohol, 0% sugar and it’s refreshing and healthy. Basically, you can drink as much Schilz as you want!”.

SIMPLEVIU Simpleviu places and manages recreational cabins in remote destinations around Luxembourg and combines it with diverse touristic services. The unique features of all the Simpleviu cabins are the glass walls which allow for panoramic views and a unique connection with nature. The whole concept embodies a sustainable and circular economy approach.

PHILIPPE MORGADO

CEO

OUR STARTUPS

— “Having an office, mentoring and guidance means that I don’t have to do everything or most of the things on my own”

Philippe Morgado, the founder of Simpleviu, has a strong passion for travelling. Through the extensive market research during his Master’s in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Luxembourg, Philippe identified that even though Luxembourg has a beautiful nature, there is a low level of satisfaction with touristic accommodations within the country and a big need for innovation in the tourism sector. “There are so many beautiful destinations in Luxembourg but many locals and international tourists never actually made it there due to many reasons like lack of innovation. If we look at some problems that the tourism industry is facing and add the problems that COVD-19 is causing, I strongly believe that innovating and daring new solutions is a must.” – says Phillipe. Simpleviu believes that their cabins are a perfect solution for a romantic getaway as well as hiking trips, wellness and relaxation for the Luxembourgers who did not before consider their home country as a holiday destination. Simpleviu was awarded the Chamber of Commerce’s first prize for the best business plan and locked its first deal with the Municipality of Dudelange.

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

TECHNOPTIZ TechnOptiz is providing high-tech and innovative engineering solutions to biogas plants using software sensors which allow estimation of unmeasurable or costly variables of the anaerobic digestion process. The information which the sensors deliver gives more visibility to monitor and optimize the biogas production. Combining the process data with the estimation results, TechnOptiz provides a continuous diagnosis of the biological health of the process.

CEO of TechnOptiz, Dr. Khadidja Chaib Draa, who until recently was doing her PhD at the University of Luxembourg, now decided to apply her expertise to her own business venture.

DR. KHADIDJA CHAIB DRAA

CEO

— “Training sessions and networking events really helped me to improve my confidence as an entrepreneur”

OUR STARTUPS

This limits the risk of acidification in real time and avoids system failure. TechnOptiz can also give recommendations about the ideal feeding rate and load to optimize biogas production. To best meet the storing capacities for biogas in short and long term, they can provide a pacification tool as well. Their mission is to maximize the client’s revenues quickly and incrementally delivering working products through safety, robustness and maintainability, while never compromising on quality.

THE TENNIS AGENCY The Tennis Agency is a sport management agency which focuses on assisting professional athletes to reach their goals easier, faster and more effectively. The Tennis Agency also provides marketing and sponsorship opportunities for businesses, brands and other stakeholders in the sport industry. Reza Arjomand, a serial entrepreneur, professional tennis coach and a founder of The Tennis Agency, through his own experience and that of his friends identified a gap in the industry related to the sponsorship issues which professional athletes often face in their career.

REZA ARJOMAND

CEO

OUR STARTUPS

— “I really appreciate everything that Incubator and Entrepreneurship Programme did to me already through VMS and the network is a valuable asset to me too”

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

As a part of his dissertation for the Master’s degree from the University of Luxembourg, Reza decided to do a business plan with an extensive market research for his startup The Tennis Agency which would eventually address this identified need. Now Reza graduated from the University with market size for his startup already estimated and competitor analyses done. Currently, The Tennis Agency is hosted at the University of Luxembourg Incubator and is part of its Venture Mentoring Service.

VISIBILITY STEM AFRICA Visibility STEM Africa is a community of Africans working in STEM worldwide. Their mission is to help making African STEM more visible while also providing new opportunities for collaboration.

Visibility STEM Africa’s first conference “STEM For Us, By Us” was a 2-day online event which brought together 200 Africans, both on the continent and in the diaspora, and showcased the brilliant work and journeys of Africans in STEM across different disciplines. To date, Visibility STEM Africa has highlighted over 100 Africans in STEM via their website and social media channels.

NATHASIA MUWANIGWA

CEO

— “My participation in the Ideation Camp was really the catalyst for me getting the confidence to wanting to turn my idea into a startup”

OUR STARTUPS

Nathasia Muwanigwa, founder of Visibility STEM Africa, is a scientist who moved from Zimbabwe a while ago and always felt that there is a lack of representation of Africans and black people in the science field here, in Europe. Through her activity on Twitter she met many fellow Africans in STEM as well as her partner, Natasa Lazarevic, and together they created VSA. They are now helping scientists, engineers and mathematicians from across the African continent to give them visibility and inspire future generations. “Not only do we highlight Africans in STEM fields, we also have an Opportunities page on our website, where we link people to organizations or funding bodies that can help them find scholarships, funding etc.” Nathasia said, “We want to be able to empower Africans pursuing STEM fields with information that could be useful for them to move forward in their careers.”

WEDOO Wedoo is an online platform where students can find tutors who could teach in different languages and for different study levels in various disciplines. Via Wedoo, a student can enter criteria and see the list of tutors matching their search, book a session and pay directly via the platform.

TOM OTTELÉ

CEO

OUR STARTUPS

— “I joined the incubator to get a companion in the process to found my first company. It was a good idea”

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

Founder of Wedoo, Tom Ottelé, came up with the solution while still doing his Master’s at the University of Luxembourg. “There are many private associations in Luxembourg but they take a big chunk of the tutorial fee. Wedoo is a platform that enables users to find a solution to that problem. It is crucial for the tutor while also being convenient for the students”. Wedoo vision is to extend in future to other services. “I want to first see my startup recognized in Luxembourg so that when an individual wants to give tutoring sessions, they immediately sign up at Wedoo. It also has a potential to be covering other services, for example, fitness trainers can sign up, photographers can sign up, etc. However, I wanted to start with a niche market and it would be tutoring sessions because I see this huge problem in Luxembourg that this whole market is inefficient here.

ZESTYLAWYER Zestylawyer has evolved in 2021 to become the leading online legal service in its test market. Under the name of ViralHelp.me it operates in Estonia and the Baltics to help people overcome the consequences of the lockdowns and to efficiently defend their legal rights and to avoid discrimination. This solution is instrumental to both sides: people and governments, clients and merchants etc.

The user can download health statements with QR code and mask wear exempt certificate that eases daily life and allows access to events that otherwise would be inaccessible. Such documents have become a routine accessory in intra-European travel, with customers across Europe and Turkey.

DR. ALEX BOGDANOV

CEO

— “The Incubator sessions have been instrumental in building our communication approach that increased the reach to tens of thousands of users in just a few months”

ZESTYLAWYER

OUR STARTUPS

It works as an online platform that resolves issues and problems that concern groups of people, such as unlawful detentions of demonstrators etc. It offers solutions that any concerned user may download against a moderate fee. Upon answering just a few questions the user receives a legally binding complaint letter directed to the proper authority. That is escalated automatically to the ombudsman in the absence of the proper answer from the authorities. ViralHelp.me platform also shows online statistics of how each authority handles the complaints of citizens.

MAKING THE NEWS IN 2021 IDEATION CAMP ALL OVER THE NEWS

MAKING THE NEWS IN 2021

BUILD YOUR OWN INTERNSHIP COURSE IN INFOGREEN ARTICLE

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

OUR STARTUPS NEWS

OrganoTherapeutics won the Rising Startup Award of BioVaria, article by Paperjam

GoldenMe services featured in Tageblatt

MAKING THE NEWS IN 2021

Success story of ViralHelp by ZestyLawer in Paperjam article

Our social impact hero Filip Westerlund from Our Choice featured in Authority Magazine

STARTUP EXPERIENCE IS

AN ESSENTIAL LEARNING From a PhD student to a startup founder to European Advisor at Luxinnovation. We asked Dr. François Sprumont about his exciting career and what he learned from his experience running a startup.

We wanted to do mobility management which is about helping the employers willing to improve the mobility of their staff members and to be precise the commuting mobility, so between home and work. In Luxembourg - and worldwide - these trips generate some negative effects like stress of the employee, lack of productivity, congestion, loss of time, parking spaces that cost a lot and are difficult to find, etc.

How the idea came about to create Movesion Luxembourg? It was in 2015. At the time I was doing a PhD at the University of Luxembourg. With my PhD supervisor we wanted to see what we could do in the future, what were the possibilities to continue to work together. I could see that I was not really made for academia. I mean, research is nice and interesting but I wanted to do something else. And then we said, why not to create a private company and continue collaboration but a bit differently and try to focus on helping companies. At the time, we were also in contact with the Italian company Movesion. They wanted to expand their activities and we decided to combine our skills, our knowledge and create a joint venture. I finished my PhD in September 2017 and then we incorporated Movesion Luxembourg in April 2018.

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

How did you find this change, from the academic background into entrepreneurship? It’s funny because I always thought I would never be an entrepreneur. I found it really difficult, I was not good with accounting, I was a bit afraid of administrative stuff and, during my PhD, if my phone was ringing, I was not taking the call because I didn’t want to be disturbed. When you are a researcher you like to be in a quiet environment where you can read, write, and process your data. You are in your own bubble. You don’t really need or want too many distractions. When you are an entrepreneur, and you want to sell your solutions, you have to send thousands of emails, make thousands of phone calls, often calling someone that you don’t know and this person does not know you either, does not know your company, or your service. The first time is not easy, because you get so many rejections.

What is important is to be aware of your own weaknesses, understand that you lack skills sales skills, communication skills – and that’s fine. If you have weaknesses and you are aware of them, you can do something about it - go to physical training or read books, go to networking events. And you have to force yourself to talk to people that you don’t know. You have to force yourself to attend events and talk about you, your company, and your service. Do big pitch competition like ICT Spring, Paperjam Startup Stories, specific field events. You have to check for information, you have to check for key factors, and then you have to follow the news, what is being organised, and don’t forget to register. You should also ask if you can do a presentation, if you can talk about your activity. There are pitching events and there are pure networking events. You have to do both, you have to use all the different channels and you have to choose the channel that will allow you to meet your target audience or the people that you want to meet. If you want to meet CEOs of companies, I think Paperjam events are the best. If you want to have some visibility, some communication about you, then you absolutely have to go to ICT Spring event. How did you come to be hosted in the Incubator? I was in contact with Siva and Pranjul years before the Incubator was created, we were discussing how University could help young entrepreneurs. I understood that I should keep an eye on what they were doing which is always dynamic. I had to develop my business spirit which was nonexistent at that time I could talk to Siva and Pranjul whenever I want, they were always available. I knew that if I was facing an issue, I could just ask them. As an entrepreneur, I was alone but still I felt that I was in a team, which is nice. Support does not always have to be formal or structured.

Looking back at your past, from PhD going into entrepreneurship, is there something that you would do differently? Maybe at the very beginning I would have taken some entrepreneurship courses or would have started to read business books earlier. I think this would lead to gaining some knowledge and to having some kind of background. Because if you don’t know anything about business, which was my case, and then suddenly you’re supposed to discuss a company incorporation document, the status of the company, it’s really difficult because you don’t have the experience. During the time with Movesion Luxembourg, we had some projects, we worked with clients, we had some visibility. I was working with some interns and things were quite exciting. I feel the main reason things are not continuing is because we never took the time to discuss the expectations among the co-founders: what were the responsibilities of everyone? One of the mistakes was this expectation management, and who should do what - that was not clear enough. This misunderstanding between the co-founders has led to a situation where no positive evolution for Movesion was possible and closing the company appeared to be the only solution. It’s not that we went bankrupt, it’s not that COVID was killing us. It’s just that we realized that we were taking different paths. What we were expecting at the very beginning during the incorporation didn’t materialize, it just didn’t happen. We also realized that it would have been difficult to fix the situation. In the end, closing the company was the logical next step. I would never blame an entrepreneur closing a company or changing the business model drastically. I mean, we take some risks and a positive outcome is never guaranteed. I am quite proud of what we did, the way we helped our customers and now I am still helping companies but in a different way.

COVID RESPONSE

What would you recommend to a young entrepreneur?

BUILDING BRIDGES In 2021, we continued establishing relevant partnerships to advance our missions with opportunities for our community of students to engage inclusively in the global entrepreneurial and startup environment. We are so excited to share with you our partnerships and international outreach! Catalyst Luxembourg: University of Luxembourg Incubator along with collaborators from LIH, LCSB, CHL has joined the Catalyst Europe network and has launched the Catalyst Luxembourg Fellowship to support next generation of biomedical innovators in their journey of designing solutions for the most challenging problems StartUB!: As a partner on the EITHealth funded StartUB! -a Digital Health accelerator programme, we offered courses in ‘Prototyping for startup success’ as well as ‘How to build the right team for startup success” to students of University of Barcelona and National University of Ireland. We continue to mentor the winning team, Choowa, towards launching their app for psoriasis patients H-Impact: Students and staff members from the University of Luxembourg participated in the EITHealth funded H-Impact - digital health accelerator programme organised in collaboration with Ghent and Delft University 63

Circular By Design: The incubator partnered with Luxinnovation to offer an additional award to the winning team -

BUILDING BRIDGES

Kombutex. Kombutex has since joined the University startup ecosystem and is benefitting from the trainings and mentoring offered to the University startups Miami University: a student delegation from Miami University took the opportunity to closely work with students from the University of Luxembourg during Ideation Camp 8. It was an incredible experience on both sides with opportunities to work in interdisciplinary and intercontinental teams while being supported by international industry leaders Enactus: Enactus is a global organisation supporting the most promising social projects started by students at partner universities. We were invited to jury the Enactus France finals and we hope to continue this partnership with the Enactus network in the next years GovTech Lab: Accelerating public services innovation is the mantra of the GovTech Lab, a joint initiative of the Ministry for Digitalisation and the Government IT Centre (CTIE). The first Call for solutions: Bye bye robots! in which anyone including students of the University of Luxembourg had the chance to apply, has been very successful with a Proof of Concept completed and solution currently implemented by the CTIE PaperJam Startup Stories: Our startups had the most interesting opportunity to pitch at the stage of Startup Stories. We extremely value this opportunity to bring the startup community to Campus Belval annually and to showcase our top talent and projects University Josepf Ki-Zerbo in Burkina Faso: in spite of the global COVID pandemic, the University Joseph Ki-Zerbo organised a second Ideation Camp on July 2021 bringing 300 participants in total. After a tough selection, eleven teams were created with 55 selected participants supported by 23 mentors. Congrats to all of them and thanks to the Fondation Veuve Emile Metz-Tesch for your generous support

HIVE MAGAZINE 2021

CONTACT US Get in touch with the HIVE team and ask for a meeting to discuss potential collaboration or your startup project email: incubator@uni.lu FOLLOW US: LinkedIn bit.ly/ULILIN

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HIVE Magazine 2021

Articles inside

CO-FOUNDERS NIGHTS

INCUBATION

PITCHING EVENTS

IDEATION CAMP

BUILD YOUR OWN INTERNSHIP

ACCELERATOR

VENTURE MENTORING SERVICE

JUMPSTART