Meet 10 Vision Lab Cohort 3 Startups
Earlybird’s Vision Lab continues to attract entrepreneurial talent of migration background building innovative companies
Since kicking off Vision Lab in 2021 (first cohort teams are here; second cohort teams are here), we’ve arrived at the wrap-up of the third cohort!
This time, we had 10 teams and solopreneurs from 11 countries who took part in our 6-month program with mentorship, networking, and funding. Notably, we also achieved 50% gender parity with this cohort.
Cohort 3 Demo Day in Berlin was a great success: we had 100 guests and 25 business angels and fund representatives. As our Earlybird Co-Founder & Partner Dr. Hendrik Brandis shared there: ‘Migration is an opportunity to positively impact society.’ So what started for us as a philanthropic effort has now become an impact fund where we see strong potential for economic returns because of brilliant founders and scaleable ideas.
‘Migration is an opportunity to positively impact society.’
We are proud to run this program with support from some of our Earlybird Partners, Bain & Company, Egon Zehnder, The Shift Initiative from Handelsblatt, Migrapreneur, and many more. This is an ecosystem effort with many partnerships listed at the end of this overview.
Vision Lab Partner Ben Wilkening shares: “Through the Earlybird Vision Lab incubator for migrant founders, we have noticed several positive trends: one of them is an ever-increasing share of applications from founders with high qualifications — often a STEM or business degree in Germany — and exciting tech solutions.”
Ben adds: “The increased visibility of the disproportionately high potential of migrant founders also ensures more attention from investors. Our Demo Days have seen a steady increase in demand in terms of presence of various investors and subsequent conversations with the startups.”
This was a remarkable cohort of 10 startups, tackling real-world problems.
👋 Be sure you meet each of them below and discover their unique solutions!
1. Anacode
Meet Anacode, which uses AI and NLP to map out today’s fascinating innovation landscape. Anacode’s research solution addresses strategy departments, investors, and consulting companies. 🖥️ Hear from founder Janna Lipenkova (🇷🇺):
🔑 What problem are you solving?
Innovation starts with intelligence, but most businesses don’t have the time and budget to conduct in-depth innovation research. Anacode automates this process by collecting and analyzing large quantities of data from the Web. Our solution distills in-depth, dynamic, and sometimes surprising insights addressing the individual questions and needs of our customers.
🏔 What’s the biggest challenge you face?
Finding the right balance between great UX and detailed data analytics, and catching up with all the amazing AI opportunities that we could potentially integrate into our offer!
🙌 Why did you join Vision Lab?
To benefit from the amazing ecosystem of partners and other startups and to connect with experts that contribute their domain expertise to our offering.
2. Blipstream
Meet the team from Blipstream, who make computer vision accessible and affordable for retailers. 📊 The startup captures and processes video stream data in compliance with DSVGO regulations. ✅ Blipstream is involved in a Dextra partnership within DACH, and has newly won Lenovo & Intel Corporation as project sponsors & infrastructure providers.
Hear from Jake Manning (🇭🇲 / 🇩🇪), Imants Igovens (🇱🇻) and Janis Ludwigs (🇱🇻), the Founders of Blipstream:
🔑 What problem are you solving in major retail?
Automated marketing, queue management, theft detection, and floorspace utilization.
🏔 What’s the biggest challenge you face?
Quantifying and continually improving customer ROI: Standardizing products & services vs. co-developing to client needs. Our platform has modular solutions; most clients request fully managed service including infrastructure deployment and support.
🙌 Why did you join Vision Lab?
Help from mentors to define our go-to-market strategy, structure our value propositions, and develop a road map to execute on.
3. eKidz
Meet the team from eKidz.eu, who make learning to read and acquiring new languages fun and accessible for children, by applying AI speech diagnostics to promote students’ unique talents. 💡 Hear from Natasha Tetruyeva (🇺🇦), John McDonagh (🇺🇸) and Felix Haffner (🇩🇪), the Founders of eKidz.eu:
🔑 What problem are you solving?
Nearly two-thirds of 10-year-olds globally are unable to read and understand a simple text. Teachers lack time, resources, and expertise to fully engage every student. Existing language learning solutions are ineffective at scale.
🏔 What’s the biggest challenge you face?
1) The low level of school digitalization globally and the limited connectivity in Europe. 2) The access to funding for a European EdTech focused on K-12.
🙌 Why did you join Vision Lab?
For the first time in history, we have the ability to start engaging children in language learning both on a mass scale and with incredibly individualized guidance. eKidz is a first mover in the European market; our purpose-built AI provides diagnostics and feedback. Our team requires support in pivoting eKidz within our home market: making a transition from content provider to a DeepTech for education.
4. Faircado
Startup number 4 out of ten is Faircado — your sustainable shopping assistant. ♻️ Faircado’s browser extension automatically finds the best second-hand alternatives to what you are looking for online — helping you save time, money, and CO2. Hear from Evoléna de Wilde d’Estmael 🌱 🇧🇪 and Ali Nezamolmaleki 🇮🇷, the founders of Faircado:
🔑 What problem are you solving?
Every second, 9,023 smartphones and a rubbish truck full of clothes are dumped in landfills around the world. We cannot continue to consume as if we had more than one planet. Yet the most sustainable shopping form — second-hand — is time-consuming, inconvenient, and mostly unsexy. 75% of the Millennials & Gen-Z would buy more second-hand if there was an easier solution for it.
🏔 What’s the biggest challenge you face?
Finding the right marketing channel and hiring the right talents
🙌 Why did you join Vision Lab?
We’ve been advised by several founder friends from previous cohorts to join, as it really helped them connect with experts (consultants, investors, and media) to reach their next development steps in a sustainable way.
5. Gomoto
Ever looked for a consumer-to-business marketplace for used cars that digitizes the outdated car-selling process? 🚗 Gomoto is at your service! Hear from the founders Ahmed Abumostafa (🇪🇬), and Malte Kerssenfischer (🇩🇪):
🔑 What problem are you solving?
36 million used cars are sold in Europe annually; yet for car owners, selling a car is still a long and painful process. There’s a continuous tradeoff between price and convenience. Spend 60 days on C2C platforms or leave thousands on the table by selling to an online/offline car buyer.
🏔 What’s the biggest challenge you face?
First off: maintaining efficient CPAs. Then maintaining a quick and efficient sales turnaround, and last but not least, maintaining strong buyer satisfaction.
🙌 Why did you join Vision Lab?
Joining Earlybird’s Vision Lab is a great opportunity to access a reliable network of investors, mentors, experts, media, and founders.
6. Myracle.io
Let’s travel down the education rabbit hole with the sixth Vision Lab startup: Myracle.io unlocks learning by doing at scale, taking STEM education from ‘memorization’ to ‘memorable’. That means experiential education in the world around you — with sights, sounds, interactions, and physical movement. 🧠 Hear from Omkar Pimple (🇮🇳), Founder of Myracle.io:
🔑 What problem are you solving?
1B+ learners every year around the world lose their curiosity about STEM because we cannot scale experiential education — often due to physical infrastructure bottlenecks, such as science labs and equipment.
🏔 What’s the biggest challenge you face?
Scaling content supply to meet demand as well as reaching the right education policy decision-makers.
🙌 Why did you join Vision Lab?
To get access to the vast business network of investors, experts, and other entrepreneurs.
7. Repair Rebels
Meet Dr. Monika Hauck 🇱🇹and her team from Repair Rebels. As a platform where technology meets traditional crafts, they digitalize the local crafts industry, and offer a real alternative to “buy, use, dispose” culture to foster a “Circular Economy” approach to fashion production and consumption. Hear from Monika:
🔑 What problem are you solving?
The 21st-century fashion business models have led to major environmental damage, social injustice in our society, and decline of craftsmanship in the Western economy. European consumption of textiles has the fourth-highest impact on the environment and climate change, after food, housing, and mobility. While around 60% of consumers say repairs are important to them, just 23% routinely repair their clothes or take them to a repair shop (Zalando, 2021)
🏔 What’s the biggest challenge you face?
The lack of a marketing budget to raise awareness, the strong price competition from Fast Fashion — and last but not least VC-backed competition from the UK entering the German market.
🙌 Why did you join Vision Lab?
Because of the experienced mentors & VC network, our wish to exchange with other international founders in Germany, and the excellent recommendation from mentors and alumni startups.
8. Sapiema
Meet Sapiema, the creators of Adam, the first Virtual Machine Learning Engineer, to automate the development process of AI-based projects. 🧠Hear from Alexandru-Mihai Glontaru (🇷🇴) the founder of Sapiema:
🔑 What problem are you solving?
By 2025 there will be 12 million missing Machine Learning specialists missing from the market. Given the current number of training programs, we would need 15 years to train 12 million AI specialists and the gap keeps growing. In the meantime, most of these specialists work in parallel for solving the same problems for different companies, by adopting already-known solutions from academic research. Sapiema covers this need by solving each problem only once and making the solution available to non-technical professionals through Adam, our Virtual Machine Learning Engineer.
🏔 What’s the biggest challenge you face?
Right now we need Sales & Marketing advisors but also introductions to angel investors and early-stage VCs.
🙌 Why did you join Vision Lab?
The Vision Lab program granted access to a wide network of mentors and fellow founders. But also the exposure to investors, by building a close relationship with Earlybird, was a solid reason to join the program as well as the many learning opportunities about the German startup ecosystem.
9. Senseven
Meet Senseven Health, founded by Etleva Gjoni (🇦🇱), and their vision to make mental health forecasting as easy as weather forecasting. They empower consumers and care providers to anticipate and improve well-being with an AI-driven, vocal, biomarker-monitoring App. ❤️🩹
🔑 What problem are you solving?
Mental disorders are prevalent but challenging to diagnose and monitor, leading to costly and often ineffective treatments and success rates as low as 30%. We address the lack of objective measurements and guesswork in treatments as in self-care routines and target the fundamental human need for predictability and a sense of control. With AI, we help prevent the demand for healthcare interventions.
🏔 What’s the biggest challenge you face?
Two aspects of the same challenge: to grow a team — and to grow capital.
🙌 Why did you join Vision Lab?
To gain access to investors, mentors networks, funding, and to learn from the best. With a true focus on the founders, the program has proven to be highly valuable and rewarding.
10. WAANDA
Finally, meet the team of WAANDA, the gateway for European retailers to source directly from African artisans and producers. The team built a SaaS-enabled B2B marketplace to make trade between both continents only one-click away. Hear from Zakaria Jaiathe 🇲🇦, Tobias Hammermann 🇩🇪 & Youness Khalil 🇲🇦🇫🇷, Co-Founders of WAANDA:
🔑 What problem are you solving?
40 million African SME artisans and producers cannot sell directly to the global market.
🏔 What’s the biggest challenge you face?
Increasing the digital adoption of software by SME artisans. Keeping the shipping cost/time low. And last but not least, compliance with local and international trade regulations.
🙌 Why did you join Vision Lab?
Access to a top network of investors, mentors, experts, media and of course the great team behind Vision Lab. In addition, connecting with more amazing entrepreneurs in the cohort.
It’s a wrap and please apply below!
The breadth of solutions and use of tech here in service of a better world shows how supporting founders of migration backgrounds is the right kind of ecosystem win.
We are dedicated to supporting more even teams with entrepreneurs of migrant backgrounds ( apply below!) and are grateful to all the like-minded forces who see this potential for our ecosystem.
Thanks to all the teams for sharing their pitches and perspectives with us and to all the partnerships, guests, and investors who make Vision Lab possible. To get more involved, please reach out to Ben here.
Interested in applying for Cohort 4? Please send us a letter of motivation WITH a pitch deck by e-mail to visionlab@earlybird.com by May 15, 2023.
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