Innovation Day 2024 recently brought together about 200 participants from Ukraine, Moldova, and Germany. Of course, the most anticipated event was the Startup Battle. The teams that won first place at Innovation Day 2024 demonstrated innovation, the courage of their ideas, and readiness to scale internationally.
The event was held within the framework of the international project UME UP - INNOVATION DAY by the Ukrainian Startup Fund and Winstars.AI R&D Center with the support of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, as well as the ITHub Central Ukraine project made possible by the USAID Competitive Economy Program.
Below, we'll discuss the three projects that were the most convincing and promising, according to the judges' assessment.
The bronze medal went to VELME, a startup that gives emotions through technology. The project was created for people who want to give gifts from a distance. The app allows you to order and give food, coffee, or other gifts anywhere, even abroad, just through your phone. As one of the founders, Ivan Dunayevsky, recalls, “Due to the nature of my work and the constant lack of opportunity to be with my children, especially now that they are abroad, he always wanted to remind them of their dad. Not just by sending them money on a card but by knowing roughly where they are, ordering their favorite banana latte or cappuccino at the nearest Starbucks. This idea began to haunt him in various forms
And it prompted the team to create a solution to simplify this process.
Ivan also shared his impressions of participating in Innovation Day 2024 and spoke about the team's plans for the future:
Participation in Innovation Day was extremely inspiring. We were most impressed by the diversity of startups and the creativity demonstrated by other participants. We felt the real support of the community and found many like-minded people. We were also inspired by the way investors and mentors actively asked questions and were interested in our solutions.
The event meant new opportunities for us to network and get feedback from professionals. We were able to establish contacts with potential partners and even found several interested investors, which is very important for further development.
Ivan Dunayevsky, co-founder of VELME startup at Innovation Day. Photo by IT VN
Our plans for the near future include launching a test version of the app in the city's top establishments and some beauty industry shops and establishments. Then, after all the tests are done and we have a “working product,” we plan to launch active promotion activities for our app using a detailed plan.
We plan to scale the business by entering new regional markets, including foreign markets, where there is also demand for our solutions. In addition, we want to actively expand our partner network by adding new restaurants and other services. We will also work on a marketing campaign to increase the number of users and expand our community.
The second-place startup is Tayra, an AI system that records and structures medical information during patient appointments, allowing doctors to spend more time on treatment. One of the startup's founders, Yulia Tychynska, told us what motivated the team to create such a project and how Innovation Day influenced the team's future plans:
The idea came up during our hypothesis validation of a previous startup. We were teaching AI to interpret blood test results (we wanted to give them to doctors), and the doctors noticed that what they valued most was that it was written for them and started asking what else the system could write for them. Our previous startup failed because it did not find its application in the market among doctors, so we started developing Tayra. The AI system listens, transcribes, structures, and records all medical information during a patient's visit to the doctor. It solves the problem of doctors spending 50% of their time on administrative work, which is unnecessary.
After consulting with the Vinnytsia IT Association on pitching preparation, we realized which audience would listen to us and changed the presentation of information. We also liked the very professional organization, the interesting audience, the comfortable space, and I am very glad that events of this format have started to take place in Vinnytsia! During the presentation of the Tayra system, it was very useful to get professional questions that showed the real situation for our startup and helped us better navigate our development plan.
We received additional recognition of the value of our product, we met all the founders of other startups and we are already going to help each other in our development.
Yulia Tychynska, co-founder of Tayra at Innovation Day. Photo by IT VN
Now the most important stage is entering the market. By 2024-25, we plan to cover 10% of the doctor market, connect about 500 clinics, and integrate into 4 medical information systems. We plan to scale through partners with whom we integrate (medical information systems), direct sales to clinic owners, product promotion through major medical events, and advertising among doctors of entrepreneurs on our website, where doctors can work independently.
The idea for MIL-SIM, the first-place startup, was born in 2022 during the service of one of the co-founders, Dmytro. Having gained experience in quickly training people in military skills, the team created simulators as close as possible to real-world conditions. Their main product is simulators that effectively train soldiers with no previous experience. The main difference from competitors is high realism and adaptability to changes. This product differs from interactive shooting ranges in that it simulates real combat conditions.
Volodymyr Romanenko, co-founder of MIL-SIM at Innovation Day. Photo by IT VN
Volodymyr Romanenko describes his preparation and participation in the Startup Battle as follows:
After the preliminary selection, the first stage of preparation was a pitching consultation. The VN IT team pointed out some gaps in my pitch. Unfortunately, the time for presenting a startup to the judges is limited, so it was not easy to reveal all the possibilities of the project, but I really tried to optimize the advice and it worked.
What inspired me the most was the communication with investors and the interest of people in what we did. Thanks to my participation in Innovation Day, I became more convinced that I was doing everything right and that my project was needed.
Innovation Day 2024 showed considerable potential for developing innovative technologies that can impact domestically and internationally. The startups presented at the event demonstrated that even with difficulties, it is possible to succeed and find your place in the market by developing ideas that change people's lives.
