Monthly Archives

January 2019

European prize for a Start Up from Thessaloniki with activity in the health sector

By | News

An important distinction for start-up companies active in the health sector was given by the European Commission to BookingClinic, based in Thessaloniki and a member of the innovation ecosystem with the support of the Alexander Innovation Zone. The Commission rewarded the direct and easy access to high quality health services provided by the company through its platform to patients.

The award ceremony was held by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT Health) in the framework of the Innostars Awards, where the evaluation criteria were technology, innovation as well as the quality of services provided to citizens.

According to the company, this distinction strengthens the company’s goal of being the easy and reliable “bridge” between the patient and the clinic. Through the BookingClinic platform, which already has a significant presence abroad, the patient can easily and directly make an online reservation at a clinic seeing which ones provide a treatment, what doctors are available and what is their experience and expertise, what innovative methods they use, what hosting services are available, what are the evaluations and, above all, what is the total cost.

It is also important that the clinics and the medical centres benefit from this since they have a place on the e-market and can easily without cost attract patients inside and outside the borders while receiving patient satisfaction data. At the same time, they promote their services and competitive advantages internationally and increase the proportion of private patients while accessing the huge workforce of medical tourism without cost. In fact, the company, and as a member of Elitour (Greek Medical Tourism Council), will focus especially on the ever-growing field of medical tourism providing complete services to visitors in our country. It is noted that BookingClinic has already begun to create a strong partner network consisting of 17 Medical Centres, including the largest Association of Greek Clinics in number of beds and units, while expanding dynamically abroad through collaborations with 4 specialized clinics. At the same time, it also proceeds with collaborations with insurance companies with the common aim of improving the quality of health services provided to citizens.

 

Investments of 3 million euros in Start Ups of OK!Thess of the municipality of Thessaloniki are expected in 2019

By | News

The OK!Thess pre-incubation programme of the municipality of Thessaloniki offers once again the opportunity to people who wish to develop their businesses by using their innovative ideas.

Submissions for the 7th cycle of the acceleration programme will be made electronically via the official website of OK! Thess until December 31. The lessons will begin in the middle of January at the premises of OK!Thess after the evaluation and selection phase of the final participants. It is noteworthy that the Alexander Innovation Zone, the most important promoter of innovative entrepreneurship in Northern Greece, is actively involved in the operation of Ok!Thess. In the previous six acceleration cycles, over the past two years, about 150 applications have been submitted, of which 47 were selected to follow the programme. Out of these, seven groups are already on the market while one of them has managed to make more than 100,000 euros in sales.

Optimism for 2019

Only in the second half of 2018, more than EUR 1 million was invested in start-up businesses that ‘‘graduated’’ from OK!Thess. The head of the pre-incubator, commissioned municipal councillor for entrepreneurship in the municipality of Thessaloniki, Simon Bensasson, estimates that by 2019 the funds to be invested in startups will exceed € 2 million and may reach € 3 million.  According to him, about 80% of startups have a life cycle of three years. Out of the funds invested in startups hosted at OK!Thess, three start-ups received the largest amounts, about 300,000 each, while another six were funded with about 50,000 each.

The top three start-ups

 

The three top-funded start-ups are:

 

  • Loceye, founded by students from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The company has developed a platform that allows companies and professionals to perform online eye tracking analyses in order to understand where and when the user focuses on elements on the screen while browsing the website. It was funded with EUR 300,000 by the Velocity Partners investment scheme.
  • K-INVENT, founded in France in 2017, consists of four Greek scientists and a Frenchman with experience in engineering, biokinetics, electronics and programming. It was funded by Uni.Fund so as to speed up the creation of its sales network and to establish itself in the field of rehabilitation, the industrialization of production, and the creation of additional professional web services through K-force.
  • PLN Nanotechnology, which is a spin-out of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) and has received funding of 350,000 euros from Uni.Fund. The company, founded in 2015 by professors and postdoctoral researchers of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, specializes in the production and characterization of metal nanoparticles and their oxides for applications in Cosmetics and Parapharmaceutical products, Building Chemistry, Agrobiotechnology and other fields. From 2015 until today, it has developed a broad portfolio of products, including nanoparticles for use in the above areas, as well as pet care products.