FINODEX accelerator for startups reusing open data and FIWARE technologies presents its first year summary. July 2015

1. Open Data is data that can be freely used, re-used and redistributed by anyone - subject
only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and sharealike. Open data has a clear
potential to unlock a significant economic value becoming an instrument for innovation
and business generation. FINODEX promotes the re-utilization of open data with a clear
business focus across Europe.
Finodex is co-funded by the European Union under Grant agreement number 632838 and is
part of the FIWARE Accelerate programme
FINODEX is an European virtual accelerator that selects, funds and provides
support services to SMEs & Web Entrepreneurs building their products and
services making use of FIWARE technologies and re-using Open Data. The main
objective is to launch ready-to-market ICT products and services fostering the
European ICT ecosystem.
www.finodex-project.eu
FIWARE technology provides a simple set of public and royalty free powerful APIs
(Application Programming Interfaces) which are the building blocks of the ICT
applications and services. An open source reference of the FIWARE components is
available so that creating and implementing ICT modules relying in FIWARE is fast and
cost-effective, decreasing the development cycles of ICT products and services.
FINODEX has already closed its two open calls with a significant success. A total of
493 proposals have been received among the two open calls, 197 in the first call and
296 in the second one. 101 of them will be selected to enter in the acceleration
process. A set of the 1st call beneficiaries are currently developing a MVP (minimum
viable product) based on FIWARE and Open Data which will be ready by the end of
September. At the same time, 52 new projects will start the acceleration process from
October this year.

2. An important effort on promoting the calls has been done by
FINODEX, which has organised or has been present in
around one hundred events in +25 countries. Online press
has also been really active, including around 120
impacts. The services offered by FINODEX cover the whole
spectrum of needs for the entrepreneurs. They range from
technical support with FIWARE and Open Data technologies,
to Business Mentoring to refine the business model of their
product/service or a remote channel for business coaching.
However, FINODEX also offers the possibility to attend to
dedicated presential working days. In this way, it is possible
to receive feedback from succesful business mentors and
business angels from Europe and Silicon Valley.
During the second year of
FINODEX, we will be focused in the
acceleration of the companies and
the promotion of those success
stories providing an outstanding
business idea with an excellent
use of FIWARE technologies.
Those projects reaching phase 4
of the acceleration are called to be
the best examples FINODEX will
provide. It is also worth to mention
that thanks to our support a group
of entrepreneurs have created a
new start-up in the UK Synergation,
www.finodex-project.eu
Last June, in Trento (Italy) a
was organised in order to
train the accelerated companies in
doing effective 3-minute pitches, in
the evaluation of business metrics
and receiving some lighting talks of
outstanding mentors like Clint
Nielsen, founder of Start-up
Weekend. Next November, new
sessions for the beneficiaries of the
second call will be organised as well
as a major investors’ event for the
companies reaching the last phase
of the first call: ECFI, which will
happen in Hamburg.
workshop
so we can proudly say FINODEX has helped to establish one SME during its first year.
Talking about funding, FINODEX has directly injected €480,000 in a total of 48 projects, which
are available . By the end of the acceleration process a total of €4.64 million will be
distributed among the +100 beneficiaries.
here
July 2015. This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International license.