The final of the Innovators for Children competition, organized by Impact Hub Bucharest in partnership with the Botnar Foundation and Impact Hub Basel, took place on September 15. 10 finalists supported pitches for their solutions, and 5 of the startups received total funding worth 100,000 euros.
The online event thus ended the selection stage of startups that will go further in the program to accelerate solutions dedicated to improving the lives of children and adolescents in Romania. KIDoc, Emoface, AutismON (Help Autism Association), Peditel and Brio convinced the jury and took the podium.
Who are the winners of Innovators for Children 2020?
Brio, the big winner – 30,000 euros – is the platform of scientifically grounded solutions for improving school performance in Romanian Language and Mathematics, for students, parents, educators, schools and other institutions involved in the educational act in Romania. Tested by over 18,000 students, Brio aims to develop a practice tool for students in grades I-XII in Mathematics, through which they will test, practice and accumulate the knowledge they need to improve.
”For Brio, winning the 1st prize in the Innovators for Children final represents, apart from a material support of obvious help, a recognition of Brio as part of the elite of innovators in Romanian education. The project we competed with – the procedural generation of items / problems using artificial intelligence will certainly be a premiere in Romania, but most likely globally. And we are terribly proud to do this project, we are even more proud to do it in this program. Warm thanks to the organizers and congratulations to all participants in this program “, says Gabi Bartic, COO, Director of BRIO Consumer Division.
Recently, Brio, the Romanian standardized digital testing platform for students, was listed on SeedBlink, the largest equity crowdfunding platform in the region, to raise funding. You can find out more details here.
Peditel , the 2nd place with 20,000 euros , is a free pediatric medical assistance service, through telemedicine (mobile application, video call, chat, telephone ). Through the funding obtained, the pediatric medical service Peditel moves to the next level and becomes amedical hub integrated with telemedicine. Thus, the new technology will allow over 150,000 children to have access to pediatric care, non-stop, anywhere and anytime.
“The mentoring program, the expertise and experience of trainers and good practice models from Romania and Switzerland, the networking network created both with the participating teams and with already functional solutions, helped us to refine the most efficient and effective telemedicine solution. pediatric, which we will implement in the Peditel medical hub. Thus, Peditel will provide pediatric medical care, one click away from every child in Romania and the diaspora. Because health is a fundamental right “, says Cristina Grigore, Peditel Coordinator .
AutismON, the project of the Help Autism Association, the second winner of the prize of 20,000 euros , is the first online center that covers the needs of the child with autism (assessment, intervention plan, coordination, therapy) and his family (assistance, resources and know-how ) on the path to reaching development potential. The platform will be a huge opportunity for families living in cities and villages where there are no specialists.
“The Innovators For Children Award helps us accelerate the development of the platform, which will quickly become an essential support for the 86 organizations in the RO TSA network. We are still looking for investments in this dream that can become a real solution for the 40% of children with ASD in Romania who do not have access to therapy. AutismON represents their chance for independent living “, says Raluca Bogdan, AutismON Communication Manager.
Emoface , the third prize – 15,000 euros, is an educational application for learning emotions and improving the social skills of children with autism. It is aimed at independent specialists, organizations, and families who work and care for children with autism.
“We are very happy that we will continue the collaboration with Impact Hub, and the award will help us to start Emoface applications in Romania! Our solution for the development of social skills was conceived and validated in France, and now we are preparing the launch in Romanian in order to help as many therapists, parents and children with social interaction difficulties, such as children in the autism spectrum “, says Adela Bărbulescu, CEO Emoface.
KIDoc, the third prize – 15,000 euros, is a professional medical application created for parents of children with chronic diseases. It provides real-time assistance in administering medicines to prevent any mistakes, information on the latest treatments and personalized medicine solutions, as well as quick access to all medical documents in digital format. The first iteration of the project will address children with epilepsy, in Romania there are over 40,000 children diagnosed with this disease.
“For the KIDoc project, the award won just a few months after its inception is an essential validation for an ambitious idea, behind which is the strong motivation to have a real impact on the lives of children with chronic diseases and their parents. The Innovators for Children program was a real catalyst for our project, each stage of its organization bearing the imprint of perfect professionalism “, says Andreea Șerban, Founder of KIDoc.
Out of over 130 entries in the program, 11 solutions were finalists and 10 supported pitches in the grand final on September 15: Help Autism Association (AutismON), Brio, Emoface, JSKids ( find out here about children’s programming courses ), KIDoc, Parentool, Peditel, REThink, Tactile Images ( you can find out the story of Romanians who want to be the new Braille for the blind here ), Univrse Education.
The selection criteria are taken into account by the jury members in designating the winners focused on the impact that the proposed solution may have, the attractiveness of the solution for the actors involved, the operational and financial feasibility, the team’s ability to improve the solution and turn it into reality. innovative brought by technology.
The Grand Final was an online event, fully broadcast on the Impact Hub Bucharest Facebook page, where the audience that watched the presentations was able to support their favorite team for the 1,000-euro popularity award. It went to the AutismON team – Help Autism Association.
Innovators for Children is an accelerator dedicated to startups that bring a positive impact to the wellbeing of children and adolescents through technology, through scalable innovation. Reaching the second edition, the program selected 23 startups in the final, of which 9 received a total funding of 200,000 euros.