A positive first international test

Together with Swedish Incubators & Science Parks (SISP), we invited 30 startups to the world’s largest industrial fair, where Sweden was a partner country. During the 5 days of the fair, we arranged nothing less than 117 matchmaking meetings between the startups and 20 international corporates such as ABB, ContiTech, Dräger, Electrolux, Festo, Henkel, KION Group, Miele, SAP, Schaeffler, Stora Enso, Tetra Pak, Vattenfall, VLI Logistica and Wacker.

– Sweden is definitely a very interesting country when it comes to startups. Out of the nine matchmaking meetings that we had during the fair, we are sure that we will proceed with a few of them, says Danilo Randazzo, Global Technology Scouting & Transfer at Miele.

The goal of these meetings was that the startups could establish contacts and find international business. We are confident that many international collaborations have initiated at Hannover Messe.

– Meeting the right people at large industrial companies is one of the biggest challenges for any startup. Ignite helped us to connect us with corporates at the fair, which is very valuable, says Anders Alneng, founder of Ekkono Solutions.

Our first international Ignite Sweden was funded by Vinnova, Sweden’s innovation agency.

A Royal visit to Volkswagen

One of the highlights of Hannover Messe was the study visit to Volkswagen Group in Wolfsburg together with Prince Carl Philip of Sweden on his visit to Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg.

– It was a fantastic opportunity for our startups. Many of them have already begun commercial cooperations with Volkswagen Group after their visit to Sweden last November. We hope to see even more collaborations as a consequence of this new visit”, says Stina Lantz, Program Manager at Ignite.

During the visit, 10 startups had the chance to pitch their ideas for 30 specialists from the VW smart factory team.

– Meeting the VW delegation and the Prince of Sweden was a great experience for us, as well as being able to present and discuss our futuristic technologies in autonomy and automation, tells Ricky Helgesson, founder and CEO of Univrses.

– It was great to be able to pitch for VW. When they told us about the challenges that they are facing, we thought: “this is something that they can solve with our solution!”, comments Johan Frisk, CEO of OpiFlex.

The startups that pitched their solutions were Build-r, EyeAtProduction, Einride, Ekkono Solutions, Gimic, Gleechi, Imagimob AB, OpiFlex, Simumatik AB and Univrses.