*
The University Startup World Cup is dedicated to developing the world’s next wave of entrepreneurs. It supports and accelerates the development of innovative ideas from the brightest students across the globe and follows them from developing ideas to creating successful companies. The University Startup World Cup teams make their ideas reality with the help of cash prizes, global booster pack programs, and world-class mentor programs. It’s all non-profit!
____
University Startup World Cup | www.universityworldcup.com
From the left - Human Shojaee - CEO of Venture Cup - H.R.H. Crown Princess of Denmark, Mary - Thomas Bustrup - Deputy Director General - Confederation of Danish Industry - Flower girl: Liva Chatrine Dyrholm Holst
Foreword Venture Cup has 15 years of experience in discovering, developing and showcasing university startups on a national plan, and we just went global! From September 14-18, Venture Cup hosted the University Startup World Cup right here in Copenhagen. We reached out to more than +4000 universities around the globe, received more than 750 business plans and ended up welcoming 39 teams from more than 24 countries to Copenhagen. We want to attract talents and ideas to Denmark while at the same time benchmarking our own talents with world class students! The University Startup World Cup is merely the beginning of a year in which we wish to encourage, develop and facilitate
these student startups’ learning journey from idea stage to real business projects. In doing so, we wish to eliminate the gap between the startups and the Danish business community. The University Startup World Cup is the world’s largest competition for university startups and a unique chance to gather the most promising students around the globe! We want to thank all who supported and collaborated with us and helped make the University Startup World Cup a huge success. This is the groundwork for international talent attraction, benchmarking and collaboration!
Human Shojaee CEO Venture Cup
Content 06 Facts 09 Results 11 What are the participants saying? 15 Meet the winners 26 Jury members from all around the world 30 Meet the VIP jury 32 Why Copenhagen? 35 Talent attraction to Denmark 38 Development Program 42 Meet the sponsors
University Startup World Cup PorcelĂŚnshaven 7 2000 Frederiksberg Tel: +45 3815 3377 Publisher: Authors: Layout: Published:
Venture Cup Tine RisbĂŚk Jensen Casper Hessner Svane November 2015
From the left: - Human Shojaee - CEO of Venture Cup - H.R.H. Crown Princess of Denmark, Mary - Minister for Business and Growth, Troels Lund Poulsen - Thomas Bustrup - Deputy Director General - Confederation of Danish Industry
h t t u o b a s Fact r o W p u t r Sta
y t i s r e v i n he U 5 1 0 2 p u C rld
THE UNIVERSITY STARTUP WORLD CUP 2015 WAS PROMOTED BEFOREHAND AND REACHED 388,190 STUDENTS WORLDWIDE. MORE THAN 750 TEAMS FROM MORE THAN 55 COUNTRIES DECIDED TO REGISTER AND UPLOAD THEIR BUSINESS PLANS!
____
• • • •
Reached more than +4000 universities worldwide! 39 teams from 24 countries participated! The teams came from 33 universities worldwide! 6 out of 7 continents were present during the University Startup World Cup!
University Startup World Cup office in Copenhagen
Results • 89 of the brightest international students experienced the Danish startup hub! • H.R.H. Crown Princess of Denmark, Mary, presented the final award! • 90 % would consider moving to Denmark if the right opportunity came along! • Reached more than 210 million readers worldwide through newspaper articles… 4,5 million readers in Denmark alone!
9
Asbjørn Eliasen, TubusOne
What are the
participants saying? ____ 100%
of the participants say that they will recommend participating.
82%
of the participants say that University Startup World Cup will help them build a successful business.
82%
of the participants say that the new connections will help their startups grow. Almost 50% of the participants of say that participation was life changig!
11
12
“
Quotes “USWC gave us a form of international credibility that would have been very difficult to achieve elsewhere. Our success at USWC was partly a product of having great people around us throughout the week to advise us." Aslan Maleki, VesaliusMed, Winner of the USWC, Stanford University, USA.
“The Equaliser team returned hugely enthused to develop their product further and with greatly enhanced abilities and very valuable contacts to progress this development." Senior Lecturer Sean F. O’Leary, Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland.
“The best week and awesome networking!” Jerric Lyns John, Portuspine, India.
“I believe that university world cup is a real turning point in our project. The way we were building it is going to change to a better professional way and that’s all because of the valuable feedbacks we got from the experts we met in Copenhagen." Samer Wagdy, GBarena, Egypt.
“Thank you for the life-changing experience you guys gave us. I definitely did not go back to South Africa the same person I left it." J.B. van der Merwe, CEO, SkyGrid, South Africa.
13
From the left: - Aslan Maleki, VesaliusMed - H.R.H. Crown Princess of Denmark, Mary - Caleb Kumar, VesaliusMed
Meet the overall winners VESALIUSMED WON THE FIRST EVER UNIVERSITY STARTUP WORLD CUP - AND THE LIFE SCIENCE & MEDTECH CATEGORY! “There was only one doctor who believed in me after I suffered from a brain injury as a child. I didn’t give up. University Startup World Cup is like that one chance for startups!” Caleb Kumar, VesaliusMed After a nerve-racking live-pitch on stage in front of our VIP-jury panel and 250 excited spectators, H.R.H. Crown Princess of Denmark, Mary, presented VesaliusMed with the
winning award of the University Startup World Cup 2015! VesaliusMed is an innovative cancer detection software system invented by Aslan Maleki, 22, Caleb Kumar, 19, and Teun de Planque, 22, students of Stanford University in California, USA. “We came to have fun and meet new friends, but ended up meeting serious investors, receiving useful feedback and be - if possible - even more motivated and dedicated to make this project succeed!” Aslan Maleki, VesaliusMed
15
“There was only one doctor who believed in me after I suffered from a brain injury as a child. I didn’t give up. University Startup World Cup is like that one chance for startups!” Caleb Kumar, VesaliusMed
Lizanne Svane Asbjørn Houmøller Eliasen
Social Entrepreneurship winners *
TubusOne is an assistive technology for disabled people with mobility problems in hands or arms. The product is placed in the mouth, and air pressure actives a stick which works as a digital finger. TubusOne is a low-tech invention built solely to create an online bridge between disabled people and the rest of the world. Aalborg University, Denmark
____
19
Cleantech & Environment winners *
Ecological Disposal Systems has a patented solution for environmentally friendly offshore dumping, which is also a new way of using otherwise useless waste for offshore and coastline construction projects. Therefore, EDS provides a way of using waste to lower costs dramatically in offshore facilities by turning trash into treasure. DTU, Denmark
____
20
NÜkkvi Steinn Sigurdarson Ana Latorre Trevon Fernando Ragnar Hardarson Anna Wałach
Casper Bernhøj Harlev
Product & Technology winners *
Sensohive has developed a wireless sensor network for large greenhouses. The sensors increase data density and thereby increase air homogeneity to prevent product variations and unnecessary product handling processes. Internal memory enables full supply chain monitoring with automatic data upload after arrival. SDU/KU, Denmark
____
23
Mobile & Web winners *
EasyBox is from Brazil where the amount of cars can make it quite challenging to find a parking space. Therefore, EasyBox was invented. The site works as an AirBnB for cars and garages making it possible for people to rent or lease parking spaces Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
____
24
Eric Feddersen Giovani da Silva
Jury mem all over t
mbers from the world
*
OUR JURY MEMBERS HAD THE DIFFICULT TASK OF EVALUATING OUR STARTUPS AND DECIDE ON THE VERY BEST ONES! WE USED ONLINE JURY MEMBERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD TO ENSURE THE RIGHT DIVERSITY AND COMPETENCIES. BEING A JURY MEMBER IS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO BE KEPT UPDATED ON THE NEWEST TRENDS, BE INTRODUCED TO INTERNATIONAL TALENTS AND GIVE SOMETHING BACK!
____
Andrew Nakkache, Habitat
50%
do it to give something back
70%
say that they can use the experience in their work life afterwards
90%
say that they would do it again
Our jury members dedicate time and expertise to our teams on a volunteer basis. Together they spent more than 1800 hours in the University Startup World Cup 2015.
29
Meet ____ the VIP jury
JOHAN BÜLOW, FOUNDER OF THE DANISH GOURMET LIQUORICE EMPIRE, LIQUORICE BY JOHAN BÜLOW STINE BOSSE, A HIGHPROFILED DANISH BUSINESS WOMAN SØREN JUUL JØRGENSEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AT INNOVATION CENTER DENMARK IN SILICON VALLEY
NICOLAS MICHAELSEN, FOUNDER OF THE SUCCESSFUL STARTUP AIRHELP AMIR ALBADVI, AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF IT/IS AND THE AUTHOR OF AWARD-WINNING ARTICLES JOE HUSER, BUSINESS LAWYER AND FOUNDER OF OWLAXY, FINTECH EXECUTIVE
SØREN EJLERSEN, FOUNDER OF THE ORGANIC FOOD COMPANY AARSTIDERNE
31
Copenhagen - one of the strongest startup scenes for university students Denmark always scores high on global rankings as an innovation economy because of the ease of doing business, its ability to grow talent and global knowledge. Denmark is very focused on developing and creating a Mads Friis Silas Pedersen Tuva Nesse Maria B. Pedersen Stefano Di Nocola Nicklas Paistrup
*
favorable entrepreneurial environment because this mindset will be the foundation for future growth. In addition to this, Denmark is world-known for the close cooperation between the public and private sector, e.g. universities and private companies.
Denmark aims to be one of the major startup hubs in Europe with an active and growing startup ecosystem counting several successful startups. Our partners, worldwide companies and universities placed in Denmark, understand the value of hosting this World Cup in an era where the world is becoming smaller and the next bright idea may be just around the corner!
92%
had a very positive impression of denmark
76%
would recommend setting up an office in denmark
65%
are considering using denmark as their test market
62%
would like to work for a danish company
We strive to position Denmark as leading startup hub and the University Startup World Cup was an important step towards this goal:
These numbers confirm that the strategy is correct and that we are well on our way to position Denmark as leading startup hub for university students around the world as well as linking them to the Danish business community.
33
Group picture of the University Startup World Cup finalists
Talent attraction to Denmark One of our strategies is to attract talents to Denmark and link these talents to Danish companies. The University Startup World Cup was the beginning of our partnership with Danish companies and for the next year, we will further develop this collaboration. 89 BRIGHT TALENTS VISITING DANISH COMPANIES! The purpose is to showcase the Danish business community while building a bridge between the young talents and Denmark!
35
69%
say the company visit was educational
64%
have talked about the company to their network
47%
will use the company in future branding of their business
50%
hope for a future cooperation with the company
*
The results of our survey lay the ground for further development with Danish companies. It is evident for us that the participating teams learn about Danish companies, establish important business connections and talk about the companies to their network abroad! Furthermore, we wish to attract these international talents, who all have innovative ideas, to Danish companies.
36
*
This encourages us to do even more! ____
n e m p o l e v e D
t e b p a g e h t e t a n i m - eli corporat
nt Program
e h t d n a s p u t r a t s n twee te world
*
The next step to reach our vision of bridging students with the corporate world is to create a Development Program in which the applicants learn how to navigate the startup ecosystem, corporate world and universities all over the world. Over the course of one year, we will foster an environment in which the corporate world and the best students can network.
This Development Program will consist of a user-driven digital platform from which startups can interact with the business community and where talents and ideas are nursed and catered. Together with regional and national physical activities, this program will eliminate the gap between startups and the corporate world.
____
40
41
Meet the sponsors ____ 42
43