VR First growing its global ecosystem network with “Soft-landing EU”

Paris, The New Startup Factory (Image from Paris Tech Guide).

From May 23 to May 27th, 2018, VR First visited Paris alongside other ecosystem builders, investors and startups to join the EU’s Soft-landing program. VR First participated in this amazing networking program and is sharing the experience in this article. If you are interested in applying for the next round, it might be useful for you to check out the details in this article below to know more about the opportunities the program offers!

The Ecosystems:

• Maurice Beckand Verwee (Co-founder at Crosspring Lab Seed Investor, Rotterdam, Netherlands) — Coach on practical and strategic levels for different portfolios of Crosspring, helps technical companies start and scale up. www.crosspring.com
• Sofia Esteves (Project Manager at F6S, Porto, Portugal) — Helps founders grow through F6S, home to over a million tech founders, 800k startups and more than 10,000 startup programs globally. www.f6s.com
• Andra Bagdonaitė (Consultant at Startup Division, Lithuania) — Leading startup support organisation in the EU, helps startups scale and raise funds by accessing incubators, accelerators, and entrepreneurship support projects in the EU. www.startupdivision.eu
• Maria Gross (Director Operations at GTEC, Berlin, Germany), which inspires growth and guidance for technology entrepreneurship. She is also Co-Founder of Vehement, the first brand for sustainable fight gear in the world. www.gtec.center
• Sébastien Cauwet (Director for IMT Starter, Paris, France), has been working for IMT Starter since 2002, developed one of France’s biggest Business Plan competition “Challenge Projet d’Entreprende.
• Rahel Demant from VR First (Co-Founder, Frankfurt, Germany), supports VR/AR innovators to develop the most immersive experiences. VR First is a network of 100k developers, 800 universities and 410 Science Parks in the VR/AR Space www.vrfirst.com
• Tricia Levasseur (Co-Founder at Show Me My Customers, Berlin, Germany) — Relationship builder, business developer and marketing expert. www.ShowMeMyCustomers.com

The Investors/Incubators/Accelerators:

• Bert Farrell (CEO at Zooch Aventures, Ireland) — Early seed investor in SAAS technology startups. Works with early stage technology startups on the commercialisation, product build, entrepreneurial development and growth strategy. www.zooshventures.com
• Marek Mihok (Investment Associate at JAM VC, Prague, Czech Republic) from J&T Ventures — Investor in growing and promising innovative startups. Additionally a consultant for Erste group Bank in innovation in Finance Technology. http://www.jtventures.cz/
• Gintarė Ambrozaitytė (Business Development Specialist at Startup Space, Lithuania) — Works with innovative start-ups by providing working space, team coordination, mentorship and consultancy in order to discover a myriad of young entrepreneurs. https://startupspace.lt/
• Diana Rusu (Executive Director at Spherik Accelerator, Romania) — Network and organizational development specialist, connects startups with strategic resources and support the growth of the local ecosystem. www.spherikaccelerator.com
• Mauro Croce (Space Manager & Project Ambassador at Polihub Incubator, Milan, Italy) — Project ambassador and Space manager. Polihub adds value to new ideas and develops new high-tech startup. www.polihub.it

Agustin Radu welcoming all of the startups, and ecosystem builders.

The Program

Startups and Scaleups ready for the program’s first day.

Soft-Landing was an intensive program hosted by IMT Starter with the motive of networking and getting to know the Paris Startup Ecosystem.

• We visited Station F (https://stationf.co/) and were introduced by MR. Cedric Gaudard, Director of Partnerships Station F, known as the world’s biggest startup campus, the Paris Chamber of Commerce, Paris region economic Development Agency, and Vivatech (https://vivatechnology.com/), annual commercial convention, dedicated to technological innovation and startups (45 000 visitors, 5000 startups).
• Learning: the Paris startup Ecosystem is considered highly important as Paris is the world’s 3rd highest concentration of Fortune 500 Headquarters, 15,000 thousand international companies are in Paris, and 5,000 technology startups with 100 incubators making France a “Startup” nation.

Soft-landers at Station F, biggest Startup Campus in the world (Image from Soft-landing Official Twitter).

The Startups:

• Eglė Čiuoderienė (Chief Business Development Officer at Sneaky Box, Lithuania) — Innovation manager, public speaker and business development professional. Her expertise are in the areas of: VR/AR, serious gaming, engineering and much more. http://sneakybox-studios.com
• Autuno by Mun Ching Lee, Cambridge, UK— The startup redefines lab automation for faster and more reliable research by building robots to automate cancer research. www.autuno.com
• VacAgent from Alex Yankelevich, Malmo, Sweden — The largest vacation rentals marketplace for travel agents and property managers based on the principles of sharing economies. www.vacagent.net
• Paó by Halit Soysal , Eindhoven, Netherlands— Wearable technology, a new generation wellness companion that combines sensor technology with good design. The device helps the user change their attitude and mood by tracking posture and activity related metrics. www.hellopao.com
• Mobile Academy by Auras Geambasu — Romania’s most active mobile training that offers training and consulting for creating great mobile experiences. www.mobileacademy.ro
• Serfy by Povilas Dudonis, Lithuania — Empowers maintenance professionals to manage their field tasks effortlessly by monitoring task duration, raw working time, and more in real-time. https://serfy.io
• Tour VR by Yotam Elal, Israel — Provides a platform for store owners to create their own VR app, making the world’s shops accessible to users everywhere. http://www.tourvrapp.com/
• ionic AI by Unai Ruiz-Capillas, Barcelona, Spain — Provides performance-enhancing solutions to the booming smartphone sectors. www.ionicai.com
• eCapture3D by Miguel González Cuétara, Badajoz, Spain — Cloud-based generation of 3D models and 3D modeling solutions for companies that lowers barriers for users as they do not need any 3D content creator knowledge or special equipment, just their smartphone! www.eyescloud3d.com /// www.ecapture3d.com
• Ștefan Bodi (Lecturer at Technical University of Cluj-Napoca) — Lecturer from one of the leading Tech universities in Romania. Author and Co-author of many research papers and books of engineering and management. https://www.linkedin.com/in/bodi-stefan-ph-d-10475794/
• Rapolas Ručinskas (Brand Strategist at Be&Do, Lithuania) — Business strategist for management consultancy focused on creating, branding and scaling new business value. http://www.beand.do/
• Inbal Shenfeld (Co-founder and COO at Doya Medical, Israel) — Co-founder and COO of Doya Medical, a medical startup that develops a noninvasive delivery technology and stent product for the treatment of Otitis Media with Effusion (OME). https://www.facebook.com/inbal.shenfeldkolodziejska
• Leitha Matz (COO and Co-Founder at Zuper, Berlin, Germany), provides a money management platform that helps people to visualize their spending, learn about finance and discover important financial opportunities. www.leithamatz.com

Brief Wrap UP

In conclusion, the program was a huge success for everyone, the startups, scaleups, and the other builders in the ecosystem. It was an amazing opportunity for startups to learn from the Paris succeeding market, hands-on support to scaleup in Paris, and an opportunity to meet local stakeholders. Additionally, VR First was able to learn more about the Paris Ecosystem, meet innovators and representatives of France, and most importantly, connect with other key ecosystem leaders and create a greater network of innovators.

To learn more about the program and join the upcoming events of Soft-Landing, please visit their official website at http://soft-landing.eu/.

#SoftLandingEU #nonstop #Growing #StartupEU #Innovation #Thinkglobal #Startups #FutureTech #ecosystembuilder #TechStartup #Entrepreneur #Futurethinking #Tech #Awesome

Sources: http://soft-landing.eu/news/meet-the-paris-startup-ecosystem/

Images: http://www.paris-tech-guide.com/