The city of Kotka hosted WSC, an international female startup competition for the first time!
Great vibrations, gender and generation diverse teams have gathered to share their ideas with audience and the jury on this year’s Women Startup Competition at the Kotka Merikeskus Vellamo Marine Museum.
The competition’s Pre-final events are currently calling for ambitious female entrepreneurs with pre-final events in 7 countries, including Finland, Poland, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and the UK. The online application is open for all teams until the 4th of April! The only requirement set by the organizers is, that the founders must have at least an equal gender diversity representation (50%-50%) within the entrepreneurial team. Medical innovations, outdoor equipments and gadgets had all been introduced by the funders, who later received feedback and discussed their experiences on spot. According to the participating teams, the jury’s feedback was rather encouraging, while others appreciated the laid back atmosphere and the opportunity to carelessly network.
„The event was an important part of startup-ecosystem development and support for women entrepreneurship in Kotka Hamina region. We are proud to be part of this European initiative and give a chance for global success to the talented, innovative, created, goal oriented, independent startup –women. As a cross-border region, we at Kotka have targeted women startups not only from Finland, but also from Russia. Combining two countries expertise, ideas and teams, is our strengths and competitive advantages. This was our first experience with European Women Startup Competition and it was definitely a positive one. Though, only 6 teams have pitched on the Valentine day in Kotka, Finland, each of them was educative, interesting, emotional and scalable. There is a place to grow and improve and we hope to host the Event next year again!“ — said Sergey Troshkov, from Cursor Oy.
Since 2014, Women Startup Competition has given numerous opportunities for female founders and gender diverse startups, to expand their businesses and meet the investors of their dreams. With prizes like co-working office space and personal mentoring, tickets to several international conferences; WSC offers a chance to network and possible promotion for all lucky participants. In regards to the application, there are no thematic requirements: any idea owner, entrepreneur or startup can apply who believe that their idea might appeal to their target audience and attract investors. All applications are welcome!
Introducing the winners of the Kotka pre-final:
- I. Taspack, a company providing a complete mobile energy experience by creating commercially ready Smart Wear for the consumer sector. As the next generation’s Mobile Energy company- they are combining latest technology and connectivity with premium design, and top it with technology that solves smart wear devices’ biggest problems: battery life and connectivity. https://www.f6s.com/tespack
- II. Traceray is a med-tech company established in April 2015 as a spin-off from the research activities at the University of Turku, Finland focuses on the designing and manufacturing novel intelligent bioactive implants for the treatment of bone and ligaments disorders in small animals. https://www.f6s.com/tracerayoy
- New Stars Technologies are establishing customer-oriented services based on emerging technology that allows for every item sold or issued digitally or physically to be tracked and accounted for, allowing only authorized distribution and fair payments. Their business model is customer-oriented and technology driven. https://www.f6s.com/newstarstechnologies
Teams, who didn’t have a chance to attend, please apply to the competition online at the following link until the 4th of April, 2017: http://www.womenstartupcompetition.com/
High resolution images of the competition are available here
Since 2014, Women Startup Competition has received and professionally supported more than 300 applications from 4 continents. This year we already reached over 200 pre-registrations — and we hope this will further encourage young talents to follow this path! At the 4th Women Startup competition, we are proud to welcome a growing number of innovative, gender diverse entrepreneurs and startups to participate in this life changing experience. The 4th Women Startup Competition brings many new changes for participants, sponsors and followers of the movement. By extending the structure, beyond the online selection process and the week-long workshop-based mentoring and Demo Day teams will have an opportunity to pitch their ideas to the mentors in person.
“It was an honor to welcome teams from all age groups! It’s no surprise that the new generations are usually comfortable with pitching their plan and identify themselves as startuppers, but a competition like ours is also a great, new way for entrepreneurs with corporate-experience and deep knowledge to present their long-resting ideas and find investment and international recognition.” — Tamas Muller, founder.
So we call out for gender diverse startups & entrepreneurs to fill out their application today — and we encourage every startup out there, to urgently find female business partner(s) before the application deadline. For more info and updates please stay tuned at www.womenstartupcompetition.com
THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS & SPONSORS
.:. Ge Healthcare .:. Ministry of Human Capacities .:. GE Digital .:. HiVentures .:. Fidor Bank .:. Mercedes-Benz Hungary .:. Cursor.fi .:. Google .:. F6S .:. Prezi.com .:. STRV
CONTACT
Tamas Müller | +36 30 340 0695 | tamas@womenstartupcompetition.com
Zsuzsa Gulyas | +36 30 849 7927 | zsuzsa@womenstartupcompetition.com
