103 tech startups were presented before the evaluation committees. Photo credit: CzechInvest.
Czech Republic, Dec 21 (BD) – CzechInvest has selected 38 startups to receive funding through the first Technology Incubation call, with total support of over CZK 105 million. 117 startups from four different sectors applied for support under the first call of the Technology Incubation Project. In the end, 103 of them were presented before the evaluation committees, with 38 selected to share the CZK 105 million.
“Our Technology Incubation Project is a key project of the CzechInvest agency, which helps startups by providing intensive mentoring, matchmaking, and other services. We anticipate a successful startup with a finished product at the end,” said Petr Očko, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade responsible for theCzechInvest agency. “We set up a so-called incubation package for each startup that reflects its specific needs. Our main goal is focused support in strategic innovation areas where the Czech Republic has the greatest growth potential or strategic interest.”
In the last few months, more than 400 startups have applied for pre-incubation, a service that prepares startups to apply. The Technology Incubation Project’s first call was open from 1 July to 17 August 2022. 117 of the pre-incubated startups eventually applied for support, 103 of which were eventually evaluated. CzechInvest expects to issue a decision on granting support to 38 startups, in the fields of artificial intelligence, creative industries, circular economy, and mobility. The final decision will depend on the outcome of the formality check, which, unlike other support programs, takes place at the very end of the evaluation. The original allocation for the first call was CZK 98 million, though this has been increased to CZK 105 million in order to fund as many promising projects as possible.
“The evaluation process in the first call took more than 4 months, which is significantly longer than we expected,” said Tereza Kubicová, CzechInvest’s deputy for technological development. “For the second call, which we plan to open at the beginning of 2023, we would like to deploy a faster and more efficient system for evaluating the submitted companies. We believe that this will be especially pleasing for companies that failed in the first call, but can now improve their projects with the feedback from the evaluation committees.”
More information about the supported projects can be found here.
