The fact that the Romanian tech environment is experiencing a fast-paced growth is no longer novelty. It’s so well known, in fact, that a new niche is starting to develop – that of business (especially tech-oriented) accelerators that nurture tech ideas and shape them into market-ready products.

Innovation Labs builds a creative problem-solving community for young people who want to build innovative tech products. It is the largest pre-acceleration program for would-be tech startups, guiding them from the very first idea to a first functional prototype. Innovation Labs is created by Tech Lounge and powered by Orange, Carrefour Romania, Romanian-American Foundation and Microsoft YouthSpark. This years’ edition focused on mobile apps and platforms, Internet of Things products (wearables) and disruptive retail.

Program structure and mission

Innovation Labs enhances the globally acknowledged Romanian IT&C education system, encouraging and guiding young tech aficionados to turn their creative ideas into reality.

The program starts with a 24-hour Hackathon contest, attracting young teams into a first round of development and pitching. The best teams are then guided through a 10-week program of one-to-one mentorship, talks and workshops, polishing their skills in technology choice, product design and business planning.

Top mentors from tech industry and the startup ecosystem support the participants, refining their vision, fine-tuning user experiences, anticipating marketing issues and creating efficient teams. Future tech entrepreneurs learn how to develop real, persuasive products through fast prototyping, tackling user needs, choosing appropriate business models, assessing risks and managing teams. The program offers valuable feedback opportunities in Boost Day, an intermediate pitching session, peaking with Demo Day – the event where future partners, investors and users get acquainted with the teams and their products.

Three teams won the Innovation Lab prizes, receiving the Jury’s appreciation and investors’ attention:

Vitabox.me (“Best Business”) is an app for everybody interested in fitness. It brings nutritionists and fitness coaches together to offer a personalized, trustworthy supplementation process. The app collects data from various wearables and provides each user with a personalized profile based on their needs. The app also brings the supplements in users’ hands: starting from professional recommendations, Vitabox.me allows people to order the right mix of supplements, based on a subscription.

eSKImo (“Best Product”) helps skiers avoid risky moves by improving their technique. eSKImo is a non‑intrusive knee brace that tracks the potentially dangerous movements made by skiers during descents. With the help of a user‑centric app, skiers can learn how to avoid ligament stretches and muscle sprain.  Users become more adept at realistic risk assessment, and the app also works as a recommendation tool fit for every skill level.

Coinfetti (“Best Pitch”) offers instantaneous conversion of Bitcoin to government-emitted currency (fiat). It is possible, they argue, that at some point in the future virtual currencies such as Bitcoin will render banks and exchange offices extinct. Until then, Coinfetti will bridge the two worlds. Instead of the customary 3 to 7 days to convert Bitcoin to fiat, Coinfetti does it instantly.

Honorary mentions from the jury went to:

Poltbox (best Internet of Things product) is a brave attempt to revolutionize the way guitar effects are made by designing a fully programmable sound processor with on‑device recording, WiFi connectivity and an on‑line effect store. Musicians are enthusiastic people who are ready to invest a lot of effort to support their passion. This may often translate into large sums of money. For guitar players, the need to buy multiple pedals for effects can be solved with PoltBox.

Fingerdrum Legend (best Mobile product) is an app that could democratize music learning. What if games could teach us how to play musical instruments, or at least get us closer to learning a new instrument? Here’s Fingerdrum Legend the app that promises to deliver a new kind of music learning experience on mobile devices, with low costs and a lots of fun.

Veiled (best Retail product) is a mobile app that offers a new way of placing offers, potentially creating a new advertising channel. It is designed for young generations that enjoy interactive and out-of-the-box approaches. It turns the the city into a huge canvas that can be filled with offers and discounts ready to be picked by those who pass them by.  Any user who downloads Veiled can get notifications about nearby offers, use augmented reality to search for the specific symbol, then claim and collect the offer.

Innovation Labs continues to look for great teams and ideas to become the newest disruptive tech products in 2016.

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