Today the regional events for Venture Cup Sweden where held, and chem-tech startup Cyclicor the grand winner.
Apart from Cyclicor’s first place, 3 startups where runner-ups, in 3 different categories:
- Web, software & media: UserApp
- Society: Swiftcourt
- Life science & tech: IRezQ
Cyclicor is a spin-off from Lunds University. Their unique and patented process for enabling non-toxic manufacturing of plastics was deemed the startup with the highest chance of success – both from the business perspective, as well as environmental and market size. The world-wide market for this kind of processes being in the 50+ billion dollar range.
“In 10 years we will be a billion dollar company”, said a confident Kristofer Cook, CEO at Cyclicor
With such ambitions and a business as well as research-focused team, Cyclicor emerged as strong winner.
The runner-ups: from the tech sector
The remaining three winners where from the tech or app sectors, with very different ideas:
UserApp has created a service that helps smoother integration for user registration for apps. A service aimed at developers and startups, which has already gotten some traction, and Timothy, on of the co-founders, recently got a lot of attention for his 100 growth hacks in 100 days blog-marathon.
IRezQ is a startups focusing on using smartphones and their sensors for creating a collision detection device, that automatically alerts emergency services in case of an accident, as well being able to warn other. The team behind it is a true all-star team, and the ambition is to reach millions in the next years.
Swiftcourt is something as different as a startup in the juridical business area with a focus on the digital markets. Their aim is to make it quicker to reach settlements for civil suits up to the €10 000 range. An area where few lawsuits are made today because the costs are too high compared to the money at stake. But with their standardized and quick processing solutions, they aim to make it worthwile to reach settlements even on small disputes.
Overall the quality of the teams and ideas was high and international, especially compared to previous years. Venture Cup recently re-made how the competition works, and the new process seems to have paid off, with a increase in the level of pitches and ideas that participate.
It was a great program – the only major caveat from our perspective is that we hope the next event will be held even more in English. This would make it even easier for the startups participating and the event itself to get international attention. Something we think would be beneficial for both the startups, as well as Venture Cup itself.
If you want to know more about the startups, you can check out Sydsvenskans article.
Transperacy: I was part of the jury in this falls Venture Cup programme.
