This year’s edition of Start-up Challenge has seen almost 150 entries.

Below you will findthe most interesting start-upsthat have been entered in 5 categories.The best 15 start-ups have made it to the semi-finals,where they will compete in front of the audience of the largest business event in Central Europe - the European Economic Congress - gathered in the International Congress Centre in Katowice as well as viewers following the LIVE coverage of the competition on computers, tablets and smart phones, thus increasing chances for a company to attract an investor or a business partner, and catch the interest of media.

Here are the 15 semi-finalists of Start-up Challenge 2022:

• HEALTH & BIOTECHNOLOGY - Medicine, health, medical technologies, pharmacy, biotechnology

Acellmed sp. z o.o.- biotechnological and pharmaceutical start-up developing new safe and effective drugs based on the latest medical knowledge: microRNA, stem cells and liposome drug carriers. ACM works with scientists in the field of biology, biotechnology, biochemistry, infectious diseases, virology, haematology, epidemiology, public health and veterinary medicine from the University of Wrocław, University of Opole and Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Regional Specialist Hospital in Wrocław, Silesian Park of Medical Technology Kardio-Med Silesia (KMS). ACM has submitted two patent applications (with two more in preparation) including an application for a “drug against COVID-19”.

 

Doctor.One- forms a European medical network where doctors offer a new model of continuous patient care under simple subscription. This innovative virtual clinic founded in May 2021 raised an investment from Movens Capital and launched its operations with dozens of doctors already in December 2021. Contrary to the common trend among start-ups to automate and limit patient-doctor contact, Doctor.One focuses on trusted relationships between patients and doctors.

Upmedic- responding to the growing demand for medical diagnostics with a simultaneous shortage of medical staff they have developed, together with doctors, an intelligent medical documentation editor based on NLP technology. The start-up assists doctors to improve productivity by at least three times (up to 1000 characters/min.) when making patient treatment decisions by using cutting-edge technology to automate mundane tasks.

At the same time, Upmedic helps to standardize and structure medical documentation so that it can be easily analysed and sorted using ML and AI-based algorithms through its Healthcare Intelligence component.

• CLIENT & LIFESTYLE - trade, customer experience, e-commerce, fintech, edutech, gaming, sports, leisure

CodeAll- a chatbot that teaches coding in a mobile application. It uses Internet of Things (IoT) sensors allowing you to program smart environments such as turning on the lights by clapping, implementing a home alarm or a parking sensor in your car. The user can use a code to connect the sensors with online services such as Spotify, Facebook, Google or TikTok - for example, when the door to a room is opened, a notification will be sent to an email, and when it gets dark, relaxing music from the Internet will be automatically played.

simpl.rent- Poland’s first online platform for screening apartment tenants started its commercial activity creating a Tenant Certificate. Currently, owing to the expansion of the offered services package, simpl.rent has become a comprehensive platform of insurance and financial services for tenants and landlords. In the future, further package services standardizing the market and securing the transaction will make it possible to complete all formalities and sign the contract via simpl.rent.

Virbe- a TaaS platform where any company can easily rent its own Virtual Being (or transform a chatbot in it) e.g. as a salesperson, thus making everyday communication with customers more attractive. At the same time, the Virtual Being can be integrated into the omnichannel: on a website as a 3D chatbot, on social media as a Virtual Influencer posting video content, and in physical locations: as an assistant acquiring customers on an interactive kiosk in autonomous stores, hotels, airports and public offices. Platform users can use various conversational AI tools and get new Virtual Beings ready to deploy in a few minutes also on VR and AR devices.

• ENVIRONMENT - environment protection, technologies for climate, eco-farming, smart energy, exploitation of raw materials, waste processing

Nanoseen- the first patented no-energy no-pressure water purification and/or desalination technology. It uses gravity as the source power. This solution is based on cheap, replaceable nanomembranes. Using the membranes that adsorb various ions and/or contaminants, the creators of the start-up have built a cascade that produces drinkable water in 2-5 minutes.

Progresja New Materials- developed technology to process titanium waste (cost 2-4 USD/kg) into powders for additive manufacturing technology (metal 3D printing) with a market price of 200-400 USD/kg. This technology enables to process aviation and medical waste, of which hundreds of tons are generated annually in the EU, into powders of commercial quality. At laboratory scale, they reached a production capacity of 1kg/h which allows to meet the continuous production needs of 4 printers and sell production surplus.

The True Green- the mission of The True Green is to harness the potential of annual plants as future-proof substitutes for wood used in furniture making and construction by:

• launching the EU’s first line of hardwood production from annual plants, primarily hemp;

• creating and commercializing technologies for manufacturing building materials based on raw materials derived from annual plants.

The project consist in creating a hardwood substitute based on annual plants, primarily fibre hemp, and green building materials (including green insulation).

• MODERN ECONOMY - industry, energetics, telecommunication, transport, construction, robotics, automation

Delivery Couple- first robot couriers in Poland delivering food and groceries to the customer, but first in the world with such a “human face”. Kate and Matthew (these are the names of the robot couple) prove that TOGETHER means MORE. Robots move on bicycle paths (up to 20 km/h) and sidewalks (up to 8 km/h). Their range is limited only by the battery, one charge of which is enough for a whole day of work. Founders have MVP (5 robots) that they are testing with a strategic partner to improve the robots and refine their autonomy. The start-up founders, together with robots, develop mobile applications for customers to take orders or integrate software with the tools they use.

ULTRAXIS- the company implements an innovative solution consisting of a structural condition monitoring system using the developed AXIS1 inclinometer with unique resolution and long-term stability, enabling early detection of dangerous conditions in structures, based on the ultrasonic method of liquid level measurement. ULTRAXIS has now built a working prototype of AXIS1 device tested at the Space Research Centre in Warsaw. Preliminary tests show a sensitivity of 0.005 µm and a stability better than 1 arcsecond per year.

Zweryfikujfirme.pl- start-up providing automatic analysis of financial data in standard formats. Areas of interest include the analysis of SAF-T files (standard audit file for taxes), e-financial statements, UPO files (Eng. official confirmation of receipt), bank statements. Based on SAF-T files and bank statements, they allow customers to automatically generate reports showing what happened in the company in the last period. UPO analysis allows to confirm the identity of the customer and to verify the reliability of the sent SAF-T files.

• BUSINESS PROCESSES - management, analytics, ICT, cyber security, logistics, HR

DOCMATIC- owing to the development of original artificial intelligence models for content material analysis, they help process complex, unstructured and lengthy documents such as reports, contracts, financial documents and scientific publications by automatically finding the content and information searched for, comparing documents, or automatically tagging and classifying.

All these tools allow to significantly accelerate the digitization process and gain a competitive advantage.

OMNIAZ-create shopping experiences for store customers and brands. The start-up provides the FMCG industry with the metaverse (digital reality of the store) through Computer Visions & Augmented Reality technology. With Omniaz, brands and retailers can improve the consumer experience with gamification-based content while influencing the shopping process and collecting all in-store shelf data directly through consumer devices.

Self Learning Solutions- SLS provides a Plug and Play decision engine supported by Self-Learning and Machine-Learning algorithms for automation and workflow management. The product is provided in the SaaS model.

They offer a decision engine, but also a fully integrated marketplace with access to the latest FinTech solutions and data sources.

The platform is complemented by an analytical module that enables building scoring models and using AI.

Due to the universal nature of the SLS solution, the platform can be deployed to any market in the world, allowing to scale business quickly with SLS technology.

Here is a full list of start-ups participating in XXX 2022 in particular categories:

HEALTH & BIOTECHNOLOGY - Medicine, health, medical technologies, pharmacy, biotechnology

• Acellmed
• BIOmesh
• BioMinds Healthcare
• CoNurse
• Doctor.One
• Green Meadow Technologies LTD
• Holo4Med
• Horsano
• medICE
• Mediprintic
• Medtransfer
• Prevlly
• Reliefy
• Tomografia Stożkowa
• upmedic
• Visus VR
• VMersive

CLIENT & LIFESTYLE - trade, customer experience, e-commerce, fintech, edutech, gaming, sports, leisure

• 4GOAL.app
• Altera
• ATS Technology
• Auroria
• Blanda
• Challenger Project
• CodeAll
• Deeptale.ai
• Digi Leader
• DobryKorepetytor.pl
• Dovation
• Droplo
• Edu Miś
• FixMix
• Flexee
• FLYO - Electric Foil
• Forsant.io
• HeeRoo
• INKsearch.co
• Kokolingo
• Labelcall
• Live.Market
• MAGLY
• Nauczeni.pl
• Nethansa
• OPC - Original Produkt Certyfikat
• Pachamama Eco Solutions
• PROSTA EDUKACJA
• Rating Captain
• simpl.rent
• SpaceRebels
• Travter
• Virbe
• Wirtualny Nauczyciel

ENVIRONMENT - environment protection, technologies for climate, eco-farming, smart energy, exploitation of raw materials, waste processing

• ALACER LAB
• Bartosz Walentyn - independent inventor
• COER
• Elektrownia OZE
• Harventi Vision
• Hydropolis
• Inductive air-conditioning panel
• Inteligentne Ule (Intelligent Hives)
• Kompostownik Dżo
• Lume Label
• Maas Loop
• Mikrowarzywa z Warmii
• Nanoseen
• PG VENTURES SP.Z O.O. - SCRADE
• Progresja New Materials
• R3 Polska
• Radium Energy
• Res Solution
• RetenTech
• The True Green
• Waste24

MODERN ECONOMY - industry, energetics, telecommunication, transport, construction, robotics, automation

• Ampere Life
• Augmented Vision
• BauApp Polska
• Damian Kurek K-ink
• Delivery Couple
• Koenigs
• Naokko
• DBR77 Robots Platform
• REAKTO
• Solvbot
• ULTRAXIS
• Unimow
• UnitemSoftware
• Zweryfikujfirme.pl

BUSINESS PROCESSES - management, analytics, ICT, cyber security, logistics, HR

• Amance-Eudine ROUZIER
• Apropo.io
• BlockChain Finantial Tools 24 BFT24.COM/XBRL24.COM
• CELIUS
• CFP INVESTMENT
• DOCMATIC
• e-point Polska
• ExChord
• Grow Uperion
• Institute of Infographics
• Moniti
• NativeHash
• OMNIAZ
• Self Learning Solutions
• SkyMedia
• Staffly
• TrapTech - Cyfrowe Pole Minowe
• Zonifero

The winners will be announced and decorated during an award gala scheduled for 26 April 2022, taking place during the European Economic Congress.