At the end of June, there were final pitches of the fourth season of CIG R&D LAB in all the partner universities of the programme: Lviv Polytechnic National University, National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute” and Odessa Polytechnic State University.
Fifteen teams presented their projects and deliverables of the season, and six teams became the winners who will get grants totalling million and a half Ukrainian hryvnias for further development of their projects.
The following teams won in Lviv:
Eleobike — a package for prompt autonomous modification of a bicycle into an electric one with the anti-theft system (grant of 250,000 hryvnias).
SeeFresh — development of the indicator package for storing of meat and dairy products (grant of 250,000 hryvnias).
The winners in Kharkiv were:
WeLight —wireless technology for power transmission on large distances with minor losses (grant of 250,000 hryvnias).
Opty team — ozone generator to disinfect surfaces and items and protect them from the coronavirus infection COVID-19 (grant of 250,000 hryvnias).
The grants were given to the following participants in Odessa:
Interview.top — job search engine that enables prompt assessment of the candidate’s technical level (grant of 250,000 hryvnias).
“We would like to thank you for the opportunity to participate in this scholarship programme and our immense growth. Our way of thinking on how to work has changed dramatically. We are grateful for motivation and inspiration and will keep up working the same way!” commented Anastasiia Pavliuk from SeeFresh.
The developers of Eleobike also shared their impressions and plans, “CIG R&D LAB is a wonderful opportunity to make a giant leap in project development. Thank you for your faith in our project! I am sure that we will enter not only the Ukrainian but the European market as well.”
“We would like to express our gratitude! We understand that it is only the beginning of our journey. We will keep working and moving on according to our road map to keep pace with our plans!” said the representatives of Interview.top team on air after the results had been announced.
Nazar Podolchak, the Director of the Science Park at Lviv Polytechnic National University, the Professor and Research Supervisor of the business innovation centre Tech StartUp School, noted, “Experience has shown that the most important thing is not a brilliant idea or market readiness for that, it is the team, it’s motivation and focus on the product... When you decided to create a start-up, be prepared to give your full 100% capacity. You cannot do it without effort.”
“Each student has a personality. The fund gives an opportunity to open up those capabilities, to show the advanced level of training they get... Here lies the idea, an opportunity and enormous support, for which we are unconditionally grateful to the fund and all the employees of the programme who work with our students. It is very important to us,” told us Andrii Petrovych Marchenko, the Vice-Rector for Scientific Work at the Kharkiv Polytechnic University.
Serhii Anatoliiovych Nesterenko, the First Vice-Rector of the Odesa Polytechnic State University, the Doctor of Engineering and Professor, said a few words about the programme, “I would like to congratulate the colleagues from CIG R&D LAB, who exert major efforts in these complicated times and demonstrate the genuine IT patriotism by creating the start-up eco-system based on the Ukrainian higher technical education establishments. I really like your motto, a short and very succinct one: we turn ideas into money. It is wonderful and incredibly relevant! We have always had creative ideas, and we must learn how to monetise them. I am grateful for the work you do! Odesa Polytechnic State University is your reliable partner.”
Additional information:
CIG R&D LAB is the educational scholarship programme by Chernovetskyi Investment Group, which is implemented jointly with the leading technical universities of Ukraine. The mission of the programme is to encourage students, grad students and young scientists to research and obtain skills in order to commercialise their ideas.
Chernovetskyi Investment Group (CIG) is one of the largest investment companies in Eastern Europe founded in 2013, with an investment potential of more than 100 million US dollars and a focus on the Ukrainian IT market. CIG has invested in projects like Busfor, Eda.ua, Kray Technologies, Doc.ua, Softcube and Zakaz.ua. The latter participated in the leading accelerator Techstars in Boston. Its international deals include investments into the Israeli children’s platform KIDOZ and the Indian meals delivery service InnerChef. In 2019, the company invested in the chain of shared kitchens OneKitchen, the leader in the Middle East.