5 Monegasque startups enter the MonacoTech incubator in 2020

When you think Monaco, you automatically think about yachts, big cars and richest men on the planet, and not so much about the Monegasque startups. But the Principality has a lot of projects like becoming a leader of fundraising through the tokenisation of assets and developping a state of the art incubator. Indeed, And Monaco is now home to a startup incubator, MonacoTech. And the institution is rather well-born since it was founded by Monaco Telecom but above all by the startupper Xavier Niel himself! It must be said that the first startupper in France is a shareholder of Monaco Telecom. He is even developing 5G in the country! MonacoTech, the incubator of Monegasque startups, has just selected 5 new candidates to be incubated. For this 5th edition of the competition launched, the Principality’s incubator received 38 projects from 13 different countries. Not bad for an incubator founded in 2018 only! The Monaco incubator welcomes start-ups from a wide variety of sectors, under the direction of Lionel Galfré, former director of the IMSEE : AdTech BioTech GreenTech MedTech Yachting, of course! Where better than in Monaco? The Startuppers Club presents the 3 incubated startups that you need to get to know: Carlo (Commerce), our favourite startup at MonacoTech The most Monegasque of Monegasque startups. The Startuppers Club’s favourite! The startup is reinventing the local shopping experience, and has already developed its offer in the Principality. Led by startupper Antoine Bahri, the application has already convinced 66 shops in Monaco to join the programme. In these difficult times for small businesses, this application has everything to please. Created in March 2018, the Monegasque startup’s ambitions are already focused on international markets. Indeed, the Carlo application is currently being tested in Barcelona. The principle is simple: all you have to do is scan the shop’s QR code to be credited with 5% cashback on your virtual wallet. In concrete terms, you don’t need to give your bank details, the shop will treat your credit like a gift voucher! Air Ion Technologies (Aeronautics) Air Ion, incubated in Monaco, develops drones and a 100% electric helicopter. This young Swiss company mainly develops military drones. This startup is made up of a group of engineers, pilots and managers specialised in aeronautics. The small team came together in Lugano in 2017 to found Air-Ion. The startup is located next to the private airport of Ambri in order to carry out tests more easily and to be closer to its first partner SKT Helicopters. But the startup has already collaborated with Antonov as well! Mea Plant (GreenTech) The Italian startup Mea Plant is developing an innovative solution for above-ground cultivation using a non-absorbent substrate. The drops of water, supplied by the irrigation system, remain suspended on a network of wires that make up the innovative cultivation substrate. The concept works a bit like a spider’s web after the rain that holds the water drops. The water is completely consumed by the roots, without any accumulation of mineral salts in the substrate. The water savings made possible by this concept is about 90%. Of course the elements are made of recyclable materials and the whole thing does not need any pesticides or herbicides. Finally, the good autonomy of the solution ends up making it a promising startup in the GreenTech. 2 other Monegasque startups incubated in MonacoTech that worth a look YouStock, an Monegasque startups alumni ! The Monegasque startup YouStock is one of the successes of the MonacoTech incubator. The company makes storage accessible to all. Indeed, Youstock offers a service adapted to everyone and at unbeatable prices. The team comes to your premises and does its utmost to save you time. The services offered by the startup are diverse, from packaging, to inventory and, of course, the storage of your belongings. Thanks to the online inventory, you can request the partial or total recovery of your belongings at any time within 24 hours. Rates are calculated to the nearest cubic metre, which will allow you to take advantage of an advantageous and degressive rate depending on the duration of your commitment. YachtNeeds Yachtneeds allows its user list, mainly made up of captains, crew and shore-based professionals, to chat live. The site and the related application allow you to find and apply for jobs worldwide. Also, a geolocalised directory allows users to search for products and services in more than 600 major ports and marinas. The ambition of this startup is to be the reference in terms of the online yachting ecosystem. What better place to start than the Principality of Monaco!

POLISH STARTUPS: HOT NEWS OF JANUARY 2020

Every month, StartuppersClub brings you the not-to-be-missed news about Polish startups. Here is the summary in a few points of the month of January 2020. And, if you’re interested in the subject, don’t forget to find out why Poland is the next Start Up Nation. Venture capital funds invest 5 times more in 2019 than in 2017 in Polish startups The financing of Polish startups is booming after a decade of stagnation. Venture capital investment in 2019 was PLN 1.3 billion, or EUR 0.3 billion. This is 8 times more than in 2018! However, 3 Polish startups account for almost half of the investments. Around EUR 134 million were invested in the following companies: DocPlanner, a competitor of Doctolib, 78 million euros. Brainly, a platform for knowledge exchange between students, 30 million euros in July 2019. Booksy, a hairdresser or beautician appointment application, 26 million euros in September 2019 Of course, this is still much less than in France or in the UK: for instance, French startups have raised around 5 billion euros in 2019. Finally, a particularity of the Polish financing market for start-ups is that it is mainly… public! Given the scarcity of funds investing in venture capital in Poland, the state has taken matters into its own hands. 2/3 of Polish sartups have received public funds. But they capped the financial aid at 125,000 euros. Too little to really launch a startup. Paid sabbatical to create a startup According to the Polish Minister of Development, employers are reluctant to grant long-term leave to their employees. However, the government is considering giving this possibility to computer scientists, engineers and programmers employed in large companies who are reluctant to take it up. “We would like to prepare a solution such as maternity leave for a certain period of time. So that the entrepreneur can try to test his idea” – explained the Minister. The regulations are intended to ensure that start-up startuppers would have access to sabbatical leave. It would also secure their reintegration in the event that their start-up fails to get off the ground.   Boomerun, a Polish startup that pays you to walk! Boomerun wants to motivate you to stay active. Every hundred steps registered in the application gives one point. And the points are transformed into vouchers. It’s a new field of economy that opens up according to its designer Tomasz Uściński: #Walkonomics. More concretely, the application works with Google Fit or Apple Health to count steps. The application is partly financed by public funds for the moment while waiting to refine the business model. On the user side, you still have to be a good walker. For the equivalent of 16€ (70 PLN), you have to walk for 2 months about 7000 steps per day! The founder claims that you just have to walk to the next bus stop instead of choosing the closest one to make it easy to reach! We are waiting to see if it works ! Many companies have shown interest including: Apple, Garmin, Xiaomi, Bose, Decathlon, Zara , Zalando, Spotify, Netflix , Google Play, PlayStation, Xbox, Nitendo… The Tauron Progres incubator will host 12 Polish startups The Tauron incubator was created by Tauron Polska Energia, a major Polish energy group. After studying 300 ideas and meeting 35 startups, Tauron Progres has chosen 12 projects on which it will collaborate. The group wishes to develop new services related to the connected home in particular. Some startups integrating this incubator had already benefited from the KPT ScaleUp accelerator program in Krakow.