Estonian start up, winner of EIT InnoEnergy’s PowerUp! Challenge

The jury of the sixth edition of the PowerUp! Challenge announced the winner of the CEE region’s most prominent contest for innovative enterprises and business solutions. Woola from Estonia was awarded a cheque for 50 000€ as well as the opportunity to join EIT InnoEnergy’s business accelerator programme. The prize is complemented by other valuable contributions from key partners such as Amazon Web Services, Vestbee and the SpeedUp Group.

The Challenge saw record participation this year, with over 360 start-ups from 20 countries across Central and Eastern Europe in the running for the main prize and future investment opportunities. Romania’s representative in the Grand Final of the PowerUp! Challenge was WATTO, established in 2019 which proposes a regional infrastructure for ultra-fast charging of electric vehicles, so that the transition to an electric transport is easy, both for personal and commercial electric cars.

Estonia emerged as the winner of the CEE region’s biggest start-up competition organised by EIT InnoEnergy. In the sixth edition of the competition, Woola has been awarded the “Startup of the year in the CEE region” title and a cheque for 50,000€, along with the opportunity to join the EIT InnoEnergy’s business accelerator programme. Furthermore, key partner Amazon Web Services offered credits to their AWS Activate program and business support, and other partners such as Vestbee and the SpeedUp Group also awarded the winner with services and grants.

Woola is engaged in production of  packaging material from sheep’s wool residues which is used in decreasing the production, consumption and landfill waste of environmentally harmful materials like Styrofoam and plastic. Woola is an eco-friendly bubble wrap made from sheep wool. The product is shockproof, heatproof, and at-home compostable within six months. Woola makes use of an abundant resource that would otherwise be thrown away. Every year, 135 tons of sheep wool ends up in a landfill in Estonia alone.

When selecting the winner, the panel of judges focused on the potential of the presented idea and solution to be successful on a global scale as well as the potential for the long-term development of viable products and services.

“The selection process was highly challenging, as all startups pitched a variety of fantastic products and solutions. In 2020, we saw the biggest potential in the team Woola from Estonia. We are excited to see the team’s journey in the future”, said Oksana Prykhodko, Innovation manager at DTEK and a member of the jury.

”We are extremely happy! Winning the title of the Startup of the Year in the CEE region can be a real game-changer for us and help us reach our next goals”, said Anna-Liisa Palatu, from Woola. „Participating in the PowerUp! Challenge by EIT InnoEnergy will certainly help in the development of our business”.

Viezo from Lithuania the runner-up of the Grand Final is active in developing new types of material that can produce energy from vibrations and use this instead of batteries. The electricity generated from wasted vibrations can power wireless IoT sensors, therefore prolonging their lifetime or increasing the amount of signals.

They received a €10,000 prize, while the third place and a cheque of €5,000 went to the team of Pocket Virtuality from Czech Republic who came up with a solution of augmented and virtual reality technology that specializes in real-time remote communication. The solution may be used in the fields of engineering, medicine and smart cities.  Thanks to this technology, the on-site worker can connect with an external expert who sees a virtual representation of the environment and can fully assist from a distance.

The audience award went to TROIA from Slovenia, with their solution TROIA AR platform, which is an asset management tool. The platform, with the help of AR glasses, tablets or phones, displays computer-generated key data in real time, thus enabling exceptional improvements in terms of operational excellence and quality at work. It offers endless possibilities and business opportunities for all industries and the TROIA team can customize it for different applications, for different organizations.

In 2020, the EIT InnoEnergy PowerUp! Challenge reached a new milestone. More than 360 startups from 20 countries in Central and Eastern Europe matched their strength in the region’s largest startup competition organised by EIT InnoEnergy, representing the highest number of participants in the history of the event. The main thematic areas covered in this year’s competition included sustainable energy, mobility, cleantech, and smart cities, however cutting-edge solutions demonstrating an out-of-the-box approach to pressing challenges have been also welcomed by the organisers. Due to the restrictions implemented as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic, this year’s Grand Final has been organized as an online event.

“The COVID-19 virus presented an unforeseen situation for the governments in every country in the region. The economic recession triggered by the measures designed to curb the spread of the virus presented grave difficulties for small enterprises and startups. It was precisely for this reason that we decided at EIT InnoEnergy to go ahead with our business creation and development programme, the PowerUp! Challenge. In an effort to act in the most safe and responsible manner, we organised both the country finals and the Grand Final of the Challenge online”, says EIT InnoEnergy Central Europe’s CEO, Jakub Miler.

“While many market channels and sources might dry up for small companies, with the backing of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology we are here to continue our support of innovative entrepreneurs with financials, know-how and valuable partnerships to help take their products and services to the next level”, he added.

The Grand Final was supported by a host of partners from the public and the private sector. This year’s Gold partner is Ukraine’s flagship energy company DTEK. The company extracts natural gas, generates electricity at solar, wind and thermal power plants, distributes and supplies kWh to end consumers as well as provides energy efficient solutions and develops a network of electric vehicle charging stations across Ukraine. “As technology constantly changes, evolves, we need the best partners to maintain our success on the market. With their help we can learn how to grow further, and how to maximize our opportunities and deliver on our potential”, said Emanuele Volpe, chief innovation officer of DTEK.

“We believe EIT InnoEnergy is a great platform that gives us access to a unique ecosystem: a winning blend of the best startups in Europe, a vast array of international know-how and a proven track record of boosting growth for companies of all sizes”, he added.

In addition to being one of the most successful competitions in the region, EIT InnoEnergy’s PowerUp! initiative is also a gateway for businesses to secure millions of euros in investment and to be part of EIT InnoEnergy’s network, which offers financial resources, know-how and an extended hub of reliable partners to help companies to become successful globally.

EIT InnoEnergy was established in 2010 and is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union.