The First Open Innovation Accelerator in the Baltics selects 10 GreenTech Startups

The first sustainability co-creation accelerator in the Baltics – Future Hub has kicked-off its program by announcing the 10 GreenTech startups selected for the accelerator. These startups will join leading Baltic companies such as Swedbank Latvija, Latvenergo, Rimi Baltic, Orkla Latvija, and Riga City Council to develop solutions for companies sustainability challenges during the 2-month program. This is the first open innovation program of this kind in the Baltics, where companies with a strong market presence will work intensively with startups to develop innovative solutions in the sustainability area.

Together with the open innovation catalyst Helve, Swedbank Latvija has created Future Hub to support the development of innovations that offer sustainable solutions and enable Baltic companies to cooperate with the strongest European Greentech startups.

“A startup whose innovative idea is its core business and therefore the center of its attention is able to provide our customers and us with a value-added solution, allowing ourselves to set our innovation capacity aside for our core, our infrastructure development. This is the biggest benefit of open innovation in our eyes. Our goal with Future Hub accelerator is to focus more attention on co-creation as a business development model. We are happy to spread the spirit of collaboration, and we are happy to be joined by other companies with similar open mindsets. Collaboration takes us further than the competition,” during the opening event of Future Hub, participants were inspired by the CEO of Swedbank Latvia Reinis Rubenis.

Five market-leading Baltic companies – Swedbank Latvija, Latvenergo, Rimi Baltic, Orkla Latvija, and Rigas City Council have presented a business sustainability challenge for the accelerator program. To foster co-creation with these, Helve team selected the best startup solutions for cooperation with these companies. Ten best European GreenTech startups were selected out of 160 startups from 40 countries.

Startups selected for Future Hub:

Everimpact (France): Environmental monitoring software solution for Cities and Companies

Ecomate (Italy): The ESG Rating platform for every company

Parking Energy (Finland): Large scale EV charging solutions for real estate?

AgeVolt (Slovakia): E-nnovative EV charging digital ecosystem for EV users and charger owners

M Climate (Bulgaria): Smart home and smart buildings IoT hardware and software solutions provider?

Linc Tools (Spain): Spectral analytics and power line communications for building digitalization

Miils (Finland): Healthy and sustainable food recommendation and

online shopping solution

Eachthing (Denmark): A digital home for all things to empower conscious consumers

Plant Jammer (Denmark): Recipe AI to help people cook sustainable and inspire to reduce food waste

Food 4 All (Luxembourg): F4A is a service company aiming to reduce food waste on a supermarket level.

During the upcoming two months, these ten startups will be developing pilot-projects in the field of sustainability. Startups Everimpact and Ecomate will be working on ESG data analysis and monitoring challenge by Swedbank Latvia. Rimi Baltic challenge to reduce food waste will be tackled by Plant Jammer and Food 4 All. Two other food sector startups, Eachthing and Miils, will be working together with Orkla to develop digital tools for sustainable grocery shopping. Latvenergo challenge in electric vehicle charging will be taken on by Parking Energy un AgeVolt, while Linc Tools and MClimate together with Rigas City Council will be developing an energy efficiency solution for multi-apartment buildings. During the program, in addition to the co-creation process, accelerator startups will also get access to mentoring sessions, peer group learning exchange, workshops, and other activities,

“Open innovation has become quite popular among leading companies as it is a powerful tool for business development. Innovation processes are essential for large companies’ growth, but not all innovations can be created within the company. Working with dynamic startups ready to dedicate their time and resources to cocreation is an opportunity not to be missed. We are very pleased that leading local companies also see value in open innovation programs. This is a way to build international competitiveness, especially in the digital sector,” shares Anna Kiesnere, Business Development and Partner Relations Lead at Helve.