The KTH Innovation Brighter Program Class of 2018
Eleven startups have been accepted to KTH Innovation’s Brighter Program, which gives early-stage startups a boost in their global development. Some of the companies that have participated in the program include Greenely, Furhat Robotics, Manomotion och Airmee. Meet the new batch!
The startups in this year’s Brighter Program focus on everything from teaching programming in schools, to smart water meters and new, hormone-free contraception. Since 2012, KTH Innovation has brought expecially promising startups to Silicon Valley to kickstart their global development, but now, in its sixth year, the program expands to two new destinaitons: New York and Munich. By expanding the program with two destinations, KTH Innovation aims to even better tailor the program to the participating startups.
- The Brighter Program gives the participants a taste of the global market, says Nicole Forsberg, Program Manager. The startups put in many hours of hard work in Sweden, to be prepared for the intense program of workshops, meetings with mentors, and company visits.
Some of the successful companies that have participated in the Brighter Program include Greenely, Furhat Robotics, Manomotion och Airmee, which now are all developing rapidly. Here are the eleven startups that are entering this year’s program.
Silicon Valley
Three KTH startups join the Silicon Valley leg of the program: Labtrino, that have developed a smart water meter that uses ultrasound technology; Greenlytics, that provides data science solutions for the power industry, now focusing on wind power; and Circle Biomedical, that develops an on-demand non-hormonal contraceptive for women.
- We have been going over to Silicon Valley with our high potential cases since 2012, which has given us a strong position and a vast network in the area. Now that we have started to work actively with the KTH alumni chapter in Silicon Valley as well, we can offer our cases even better support regarding internationalisation, says Donnie S.C. Lygonis, Innovation Strategist and Business Development Coach at KTH Innovation.
New York
Three edtech companies head over to New York: Asqill, that educates engineering students in data analytic tools while engaging them with companies; Zifro, a complete learning platform for programming in schools; and imagiLabs, that work to get millions of girls to take their first steps into the world of programming, by letting them use their phones to modify everyday objects, like phone cases.
- We look forward to launching the program in New York, says Nicole Forsberg. We think it will be the perfect place for these particular three companies to take their first steps otowards the global market.
Munich
As the third destination in 2018, KTH Innovation chose Munich, a strong center for high tech industry, automotive, aerospace, energy and manufacturing companies. Almost 100 of the largest companies in Germany are headquartered in Munich, with notable examples such as BMW, Siemens and Allianz Insurance.
Nicole Forsberg says:
- We chose Munich because of the city’s strong focus on smart industry, the large presence of global industrial headquarters, and the strong research community tied to Munich. We hope to see fruitful partnerships between KTH research and the ecosystem that Munich hosts.
Four KTH startups and one startup from the Stockholm School of Economics join in the Munich trip. From KTH, RoboTest, a machine learning company for the Automotive industry; InnoBrain, that provides a UX evaluation platform to reveal the subconscious mind of consumers; Previs, a platform for real-time collaborative pre-visualization of movies or other audiovisual works, and Board Architect, a web-based service, that lets anyone design and integrate electronic circuits and systems. The Stockholm School of Economics startup is Holid, that focuses on helping small to midsize publishers with clear audiences to increase their revenue from advertising.
Not just the journey
The New York and Silicon Valley trips begin on October 28th, whilethemunich trip is planned for two weeks later. But the trip isn’t necessarily the most important part of the program.
- The most valuable thing of the program lies in the preparations before leaving for each global innovation hub, an in the followup after coming back to Sweden, says Nicole Forsberg. Before leaving, the startups need to put hours of practice into presenting their idea, and after coming home, they need to be able to follow up on all their new contacts. That’s why it’s important that the program actually lasts for a few months, and doesn’t become only a oneweek trip.
Follow the teams
Follow the teams on KTH Innovation’s Instagram account @kthinnovation !
These are the 11 startups selected for this year’s Brighter Program
Asqill
Asqill aims to become be the most desired bridge between universities and companies while helping students find their “why”. They educate engineering students in data analytic tools while helping them engage with companies.
Board Architect
Board Architect makes electronic design quick and truly digital. Using their web-based service, anyone can design and integrate electronic circuits and systems. The service puts an end to time-consuming routine work throughout the entire life cycle of electronic systems and IoT devices. Their online hardware design function and PLM toolchain let their customers focus on their specific application and the values unique to them. By reusing building blocks for hardware design, they can dramatically speed up and rationalize the process, software development and the manufacturing of electronics. They support their customers through all phases of their product’s life cycle to enable lower development costs, a quicker route to market, and simple scalable access to production through their partner network.
Circle Biomedical
Circle Biomedical Contraception is developing an on-demand non-hormonal contraceptive for women that works by making cervical mucus impenetrable for sperm cells using a topically applied biopolymer. The product will address a crying need from millions of women that do not want the physical and mental side effects of hormonal contraception. The technology, developed at KTH, is now in pre-clinical development.
Greenlytics
Greenlytics provides data science solutions for the power industry, with the vision to harness the power of data to create a sustainable energy future. They want to unlock the latent value in the data and transform it into actionable insights for their customers. Their first product WindMind is a tool to create ultra-accurate wind power forecasts, which enables wind power producers to lower imbalance costs, increase profitability of wind power and makes wind power cheaper for the consumer. WindMind is bases on advanced analytics and artificial intelligence that lowers the error in the forecasts with 10-30% compared to today’s industry standard.
Find Greenlytic's website here
Holid
Holid focuses on helping small to midsize publishers with clear audiences to increase their revenue from advertising. With a proven business model, Holid is at the forefront of new technologies and automatization. Using relevant sources and tools, Holid increases the ad revenue to an otherwise forgotten Publisher.
InnoBrain
With the vision of “Humanizing Design, using Artificial Intelligence” InnoBrain provides a UX evaluation platform to reveal the subconscious mind of consumers. InnoBrain combines the foundation of neuroscience with the power of AI to develop an automated UX platform by integrating different sensing modalities, i.e. brain signals and visual sight. Their product will provide a UX evaluation platform with increased reliability of results and reduced bias and prototyping time.
Imagilabs
imagiLabs builds tools and a community to get millions of girls to take their first of many steps into the world of programming. They bring programming into phones and use it to customize objects around us. Their first product is a phone case with embedded LEDs that can be programmed from their mobile application. Users learn to code in Python through guided tutorials in the app and can share and collaborate on their code.
Labtrino
Labtrino is an IoT-startup that meters and visualizes hot and cold water consumption in apartments on an outlet level. Their application creates awareness of water consumption by comparing consumption among peers. They offer individually tailored and smart nudges to eliminate unnecessary overconsumption, and enable apartment metering for billing cost-efficiently with the help of ultrasonic technology, instead of sharing the building’s total cost based on apartment size or number of residents.
Previs
Previs is a platform for real-time collaborative pre-visualization of movies or other audiovisual works. Visual prototypes are essential for planning the production of movies or other audiovisual works. Their platform enables film teams to establish an artistic vision in relation to budget and creative ambition.
Find more info about Previs here
RoboTest
RoboTest is a machine learning company for the Automotive industry. They are on a mission to make software developers everywhere more efficient and development teams more productive. They have optimized RoboTest for complex, safety critical, real time systems. Robotest applies eXplainable AI to deliver autonomous software testing, enabling their clients to release high quality software to market more quickly. By integrating into existing test automation workflows they take SQA from brake to turbo.
Zifro
Zifro is a complete learning platform for programming in schools. They offer a playful learning environment in which the students get to practice real text programming, and provides everything a teacher needs in order to plan, hold and evaluate programming classes in an enjoyable and qualitative way.