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One million euros for the 40 startups chosen by TIM#Wcap accelerator 2015

The 40 digital start-ups have been chosen and will be awarded 25,000 euros each, for a total of 1 million euros

06/09/2015 - 04:45 PM

The 2015 edition of TIM#Wcap Accelerator is successfully continuing. Telecom Italia's open innovation programme, which started last March, aims to create new businesses by providing financial and managerial support to help them in their development and launch them on the market.
Out of more than a thousand projects presented, the 40 most innovative proposals were selected and awarded business grants worth 25,000 euros each, for a total of 1 million euros.

Specifically, the digital start-ups will join the accelerator paths to be held in the four accelerators of Milan, Bologna, Rome and Catania which will also act as the shared working premises for the 40 start-ups for one year.  Over the first four months the start-up teams will be given the opportunity to expand their business ideas, helped not only by the infrastructures provided but also by the valuable and highly-qualified mentoring of TIM #Wcap staff.  After completing the acceleration path, the start-ups will continue to benefit from mentoring and co-working for another eight months.

Telecom Italia aims to support the digital economy through this initiative, making space for the best start-ups, increasing their visibility and stimulating an out and out ecosystem of innovation in Italy.  

The start-ups selected by TIM #Wcap will immediately join the Fast List which will certify them as Telecom Italia suppliers. Even during the acceleration phase the start-ups will get feedback from the Telecom Italia Business Units interested in their solutions.

The ideas selected come from multiple spheres: ranging from Sofia, the personal assistant for Smart Home control, based on Speech Recognition technology and Artificial Intelligence, to Hotblack Robotics, a solution for guiding a team of robots connected to a cloud robotics platform in unknown dynamic environments to make them carry out the most varied tasks. Both accelerated in Milan.  Another start-up in the Milan accelerator will be Marshmallow Games, the winner of the “Funkygrant”, a special grant dedicated by TIM #Wcap in memory of Marco Zamperini, consisting of a mobile app for pre-school children designed to teach subjects such as maths, logic, Italian and other languages, sciences and arts.

Bologna will instead be the accelerator for Tickete among others, the mobile app which measures purchasing habits by analysing receipts and Iooota the remote control and security monitoring interface for smart objects at home and in the office. 

Among the Rome projects is Carme, a "Connected Car" platform which organises data collected by vehicles on the road, to offer management systems of company fleets; and Intendime, a system for those with hearing difficulties which detects sounds in the home and alerts the user directly via a smartphone, tablet or wrist device.  

Lastly, among the start-ups to be accelerated by the TIM #Wcap in Catania, is CloudMesh, a cloud computing platform to make system management accessible to non-technical users and Bycare Lab, a device for bicycles acting as a GPS anti-theft system and smart device for emergency calls.

In addition, 8 special mentions were awarded to as many teams which, given the particular degree of maturity of the business project submitted, do not require the acceleration path: they will however be guaranteed access to Telecom Italia's Fast List.

 

The 2015 edition of TIM #Wcap introduced an important new player. TIM Ventures, Telecom Italia Group’s new company which invests in digital start-ups and has already invested hundreds of thousands of euros in the share capital of eight start-ups supported by TIM #Wcap: wiMan, Eco4Cloud, Pedius, Oilproject, INNAAS, Unfraud, Edo, Armnet.

From 2009 to date, TIM #Wcap Accelerator has brought together over 8,000 projects, supported 268 start-ups and awarded 5.5 million euros in business grants, providing an important contribution to the entire chain of the digital economy and contributing to the development of an Italian innovation ecosystem.

 

Rome, 09 June 2015

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