On the eve of the Web Summit in Lisbon, the Sigma Software Labs team conducted its own research of participating startups and gathered up-to-date information on promising ideas.
An important event at the Web Summit is the startup pitching. For several years during the event, talented teams tell the world about their ideas and find new opportunities for business development.
This year, more than 35,000 participants are expected to attend the summit in Lisbon on November 1-4, and Ukraine will present its own pavilion for the first time. 14 Ukrainian startups have already won travel grants from USF and CRDF Global to participate in the Web Summit, and in total, more than 60 Ukrainian teams will take part in the event.
Among the industries in terms of the number of submitted projects, the leading positions are occupied by MarTech, EdTech, and AI&ML. Each of these industries includes almost 15% of the Ukrainian participants. In addition, there are many projects in the fields of E-commerce, AR/VR, AdTech, and SocialTech — almost 10% for each of the industries. The summit will also be attended by 3 projects in the field of FinTech, and several projects in the field of EcoTech, FoodTech, SportTech, and IoT.
Each of the startups is incredible and unique. The gathered information about the most promising ideas according to Sigma Software Labs:
AcademyOcean LMS — is a smart business training platform that helps companies automate the training of employees, customers, and partners. Founded in 2016, the startup now has customers in more than 20 countries.
Black Snow — platform for the development of AR games and navigation, as well as a separate shooter game with elements of virtual reality and with the ability to participate in a battle anywhere in the world via a smartphone screen. Black Snow AR technology provides a complete cinematic immersion and the feeling of being in an epic film that takes place in physical, virtual, or imaginary places. The game was created by Ukrainian developers of Sigma Software together with the American startup Blacksnow Games.
Carbominer — hardware startup specializing in the development of technology for obtaining carbon dioxide from ambient air, which should then be delivered to greenhouses that use CO2 to accelerate the growth of products. Last year, the project attracted initial investment from the Ukrainian VC SMRK. The project is among those that have received travel grants from USF and CRDF Global to participate in the Web Summit.
Datrics.ai — a no-code platform for analytics and machine learning that allows businesses to perform high-level analysis without the involvement of programmers. Thanks to automation, flexible templates and an intuitive interface, the platform significantly reduces the cost of implementing analytical models for business. Interestingly, the service helps to detect fraudulent transactions, and anomalies in the field of E-commerce, as well as assess creditworthiness. In August 2020, the project received its first investment from Sigma Software Labs and Inspirium Laboratories. And in January of this year, District joined the international business incubator Y Combinator, which invested in the startup within the seed round of $ 125,000. After that, the District team also announced the closure of a $ 1,000,000 investment round involving the ICU Ventures venture fund headquartered in Kyiv.
Datuum — a set of tools that connecting to a database (RDBMS, CSV file, or even Excel spreadsheet), scans it, after which the AI-based toolset finds and displays the data automatically, giving users the ability to adjust the process. This technology reduces the cost of mapping and retrieving data by up to 80% compared to the manual process, which makes the platform a unique solution for large enterprises and public sector structures in the transition to updated processes for working with big data. This project has also recently received support from Sigma Software Labs.
Effa — startup engaged in the production of disposable environmentally friendly products for daily use. The first product was a paper toothbrush, which is completely recyclable, and the product line is constantly expanding. The eco-direction of the startup and the sustainability vector are important — recently Effa became a party to the UN Global Compact for the Protection and Preservation of the Environment. The team later announced funding from an angel investor of $ 500,000, and the startup is currently valued at about $ 3.5 million.
Finmap — an online financial accounting service for small and medium-sized businesses that provide users with access to business financial analytics. Among the unique features are dashboards about business expenses and income, filters by project and customer categories, automatic synchronization via API with accounts of different banks, flexible access levels for the team, and the function of creating regular and future payments. The Finmap SMB market segment today has insane potential. For example, the competitor BukuKas in the Asian market recently raised a round of $ 50 million, the next round has a chance to bring it closer to the unicorn. But currently, the product serves only 10% of local businesses. Another European competitor, Agicap, recently raised $ 100 million at an estimate of about half a billion dollars. Finmap has a chance to approach similar positions in the potential market. The service was created in 2019, and this year Finmap has attracted investments from Sigma Software Labs and Inspirium Laboratories. The project also received a tourism grant from USF and CRDF Global to participate in the web summit.
GIOS — the platform for mixed learning of mathematics, which gives students the opportunity to learn in their usual gamified interface. This allows for significantly increased interest and results. This year, the GIOS team received $ 400,000 from UVO Ventures, including smart investments, i.e. the startup received 85% of the amount in cash, and the rest — in the form of programmers, lawyers, and other professional services. The project also received a tourism grant to participate in the Lisbon summit.
Organization.GG — gaming marketplace that allows streamers to generate revenue by interacting with fans and sponsors. This year, the startup received a pre-seed investment of $ 610,000. The team also attracted a travel grant from USF and CRDF Global to participate in the web summit.
Spokk — smartphone insurance application that greatly simplifies the complex and confusing insurance process and makes it easy for the user and accessible in a few clicks. SPOKK is an insurance intermediary and provides a full range of insurance services. The team consists of specialists in the field of insurance, marketing, technology, and design. The company recently raised $ 25,000 from a business angel and another $ 25,000 from USF. The startup’s current estimate is about $ 1.2 million.
V—Art is a platform for demonstrating, selling, and collecting digital art. The company recently raised $ 150,000 in investments and grants and launched a new NFT marketplace.
WOD Insight — unique tool pool in one application for CrossFit and HiiT, which currently has no analogs and competitors in terms of available functionality. WOD Insight helps optimize workout performance and provides access to complete training statistics. Cool features include a timer, complete analytics, a networking platform, the development of individual training, goal setting, synchronization with smartwatches, an accessible interface, and much more. The product was launched in 2020, and this year the team received funding from Sigma Software Labs.
We wish all participating teams successful pitches and breakthrough opportunities during the Web Summit in Lisbon!
The Sigma Software Labs team will also join the offline event in Portugal, so stay tuned for the latest information from the scene
