LAUNCH YOUR STARTUP INTO A NEW MARKET: WHAT’S THE MAGIC FORMULA

2022-05-31

Soft-landing is not an easy task for startups, especially for the ones disrupting deep-tech industries. It is usually rough and challenging rather than soft. By combining fresh industry updates and practical experiences we found that industry experts, community partners, and the right contacts make it happen much more fluently. The most promising teams, developing robotics, AI-based, smart city, and other tech solutions, joined “Scale-up Champions” Market Discovery Tours in Spain, Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, and Estonia. How did it go?

Here are the stats: 40+ startups, 4 countries explored in live tours, also one online series of sessions with the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs’ community, true experts in transforming startups into global players. Participants were impressed by the tight and intensive schedules because there were a lot of entrepreneurial topics to cover.

“For growth companies, it is very important to find the market fit in international markets and be aware of the competitors already operating in the country. Therefore, knowledge sharing in terms of local markets (insights, suggestions, validations, preparation, and more) help the companies to facilitate their growth more easily, with low risk and low cost”, says one of the “Scale-up Champions” partners, Kadri Tammai, the Head of Tehnopol Startup Incubator.

Started in Spain with a focus on Industry 4.0 

Timeline throws us back to the end of March, where in Barcelona, Spain, “La Salle Technova Barcelona” innovation community was the first ones inviting startups to get to know the deep-tech landscape, especially developing Industry 4.0 innovation.

Next stop during these tours was a remote meetup. Startups discovered Lithuanian innovation community and there was a lot to talk about fintech and life science friendly business environments. Founders from all over Europe had an opportunity to test the strength of their business and their readiness for international markets by doing stress-test training with experts from the Silicon Valley, who advised nearly 3,000 startups worldwide.

In the beginning of May, “Scale-up Champions” teams and partners “Skylab Ignite” joined 15 rising startups in celebrating their success in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was a striving experience to explore the 5500 sq.m “DTU Skylab” Innovation Hub, where startups collaborate with R&D departments. It activates innovation-open culture and environment to develop robots for education or create sustainable materials for industries.

Poland’s deep-tech sector is growing intensively due to tech talents, cutting-edge R&D landscape, and funding options for fintech, robotics, and AI startups. The week in the middle of May at Poznan science and technology park was all about it. The Park has attracted key corporations and investors to share their knowledge on starting innovative businesses in Poland. In addition, one of the biggest events in the CEE region took place: the “Impact22” congress was a place to meet potential partners.

The impact continues

With the final meeting in Tallinn the Tour has ended. Now, the aftermath comes and formed contacts continue to spark the future collaboration between startups and R&D facilities, corporations, and venture capital funds.

“Deep-tech startups tend to need more support; they need it for a longer period of time, and they also need bigger investments from the angels and VCs in their very early days. So from the investors point of view, it is kind of a leap of faith, and we are also helping to bridge the gap between the investors and deep-tech startups to build that trust that is the very base of every such relationship”, summarizes Kadri Tammai.