META Group, as a member of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, is the national organiser for this competition in Italy, and has already announced the two new champions of this year: Prometheus and PatchAi. 

From more than 100 applications received in July, a jury of META experts shortlisted 10 start-ups to participate in the national final, last Thursday 3rd of September. 

Unlike previous years, for this atypical 2020 the National final has been held online. These circumstances did not prevent the finalists from presenting their innovative projects in a five-minute pitch to the META jury of experts, consisting of Francesca Natali, Manager of META Ventures; META’s VP Andrea Di Anselmo, and Senior project manager Marco Franchin. 

The event was moderated by Lorenzo Valeriani, who highlighted the high level of all the projects presented in the two different categories: Early-Stage and Growth. “We are very happy with the projects we saw. The level was so high that it was not easy for the jury to select the winners. Italy has an entrepreneurial gene and we are convinced that the champions will represent us very well in the final,” Lorenzo said. 

PatchAi was announced as the winner in the Growth category. Its founders define it as “the first empathic virtual assistant for patients enrolled in clinical trials”. Using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning they aim to revolutionise clinical trials through digitalisation and patient engagement at every step.

 

  

  PatchAi team - Filip Ivancic (COO), Daniele Farro (CAO), Alessandro Monterosso (CEO), Kumara Palanivel (CBDO). 

Prometheus was the winner in the Early-Stage category, a biotechnology start-up founded by 3 researchers from the University of Urbino that created a revolutionary veterinary patch for the treatment of animal wounds, for dog and horse using 3D printing technology. 

  Prometheus - Valentina Menozzi (CTO), Alice Michelangeli (CSO), Riccardo Della Ragione (CEO)

The two Italian champions will go through a six-week acceleration phase, featuring virtual training sessions and one-on-one mentorship to prepare them for the Global Finals stage of the competition. After this acceleration phase, EWC will announce the EWC 100 global finalists invited to pitch at the Global Finals. 

Each of the EWC100 global finalists will network with potential investors and compete for dozens of cash prizes and investment opportunities. The final phase will also be held online on October 18-20, leaving participants without the opportunity to travel to Saudi Arabia where it was scheduled to take place.

After going through a six-week acceleration phase, both Italian startups were short-listed among the top-100 and got the pass to pitch in the Global Finals.

The Finals were held at the Misk Global Forum from October 18-20. Patchai, the first empathic virtual assistant for patients enrolled in clinical trials, was announced among the 25 top semifinalist startups in this global competition with strong startups from the entire world. The winner was TurtleTree Labs from Singapore, the first biotech company to create milk sustainably using cell-based technology. 

The EWC is one of the world’s largest and most diverse pitch competition and support programs for the next generation of entrepreneurs – with 175,000 entrants applying from 200 countries.