In this very difficult period for Italy and the whole world, we want to keep telling you about BionIT Labs®’ activities, and we want to use all the energies to improve ourselves in our work.
Although communication channels are often dedicated to not-so-positive information, we think it’s also important to share good news.
Thanks also to the support of those who follow us and voted for us, BionIT Labs® won the regional phase of the South Europe Startup Award (SESA) in the “Best Social Impact Startup” category after the jury and the public vote, and triumphing over the other startups from France, Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Spain and Portugal.
The spread of the coronavirus didn’t allow the realization of the regional SESA Awarding Ceremony scheduled for the end of February in Turin, where the winning startups would have been awarded, but the event’s organizers set up a digital ceremony, where the winners thanked for the prize won, just like we did!
From the national final to the Global Startup Award: the SESA stage
The SESAwards is part of an international contest, the Global Startup Awards, which occurs every year. The initiative aims to put the spotlight on innovative startups’ ideas, which have based their work on services or production of technology and software.
It is a great party where startups, entrepreneurs, investors and accelerators challenge each other and are rewarded for their daily activities and for the results obtained.
All the actors involved are part of the ecosystem in various ways and everyone’s work contributes to research, development and design of new products, techniques or services, or to the improvement of existing technological devices.
The stages of the contest
The entire program, which starts from the national phase and will end with the Global Startup Award, is divided into 4 different phases. So far, the first three phases took place:
- In a first phase we were chosen among the 3 Italian startups finalists in the “Best Social Impact Startup” Category.
- In the second phase, the jury’s vote joined the online vote, declaring us absolute winners of the national phase. The winning startups in Spain, Malta, Greece, France, Cyprus and Portugal were decreed in the same way.
- In the third phase, the regional one, we “challenged” these other countries, according to the same methods of public and jury voting. During the past week we then saw the online awarding ceremony of the winners, which saw us absolute regional winners in our category.
The other winning startups
Among the other winning startups that participated and won the contest there are several Italian companies:
- Oval – Startup of the Year
- Origami Organics – “Best New Comers”
- Ecooster – “Best Blockchain Startup”
- Homepal – “Best e-Commerce Startup”
- WiseTown – “Best Civic Startup”
- Mark One – “Best Smart Factory Startup”
Each of them represents a promising project, and has made themselves known for their strong innovative character.
One of the winning projects in the “Best Student Startup” category, is MABASTA! from Lecce, which is a project born in February 2016 by the students of Costa secondary school, and it is probably the only startup conducted directly by students which aims at fighting bullying a cyberbullying.
From last year the startup has implemented the “Mabasta Model” that each class and school can freely adopt and which includes six original and easy actions. They range from the choice of the MabaProf to the compilation of the MabaTest, from the election of the Bulliziotti to the installation of the BulliBox.
Startups and the contests’ role
Participation in contests is an important part of a startup’s activities, for several reasons, related to the development and survival of the company.
Certainly the first advantage is linked to the possibility of winning money (often not-repayable), especially in the early-stage, and this kind of support allow the startup to grow.
Startups in Italy are today a real beating heart of the Country’s economic development, and according to what was stated in the Mise Startup report of 2019, these not only has an economic and technological development value, but they are now a structural presence, which in certain cases determines the strengthening of several economic sectors. There are measures in this sense, and the awareness of the need for new investments in startups has grown over the years.
Despite this scenario, Italy is now one of the last in the European panorama to invest in innovative ideas, with 162 million euros. Nothing to do with the 2.7 billion invested in France only in 2016, the 1.6 billion invested in Sweden or the 17 billion put in the German agenda for 2013-2020 cycle.
The other reason why we believe it’s important to take part in international contests lies in the opportunities that the contest itself can give in terms of product and company’s visibility.
The promotion of our project is also based on the strong social impact of Adam’s Hand®, and situations of this kind are one of the main sources of contact with experts and investors, which often turn into investments and economic support.
Conclusion with the Global Startup Awards
We are now in the fourth phase of this great experience, the online vote that will decree the winner of the Global Startup Award will open soon again, and we are sure that this time as well you will support us!
The idea of coming into contact with the international innovation world of startups makes us proud, and we feel it can represent another opportunity for growth.
With innovation and a clear vision we’re sure we can contribute to shape our own future and the future of the society we live in.
