Every journey has a destination, and the Demo-Day event held on April 23, 2024, in Tirana was the final step for the 12 startups of the 5th edition of Uplift Albania. Demo-Day marks the end of one chapter and the beginning of another in their journey. In a world of innovation, the startups of the European accelerator Uplift Albania took the stage at Demo-Day to demonstrate their moment of truth, showcasing their tireless efforts, brilliant ideas, and dazzling talents under the lights of the spacious hall of “Jordan Misja” Artistic Lyceum, filled with an eager audience from the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Albania. Powered by EU for Innovation, Uplift Albania is implemented by ICTSlab within the “Stay” project, supported by the Italian Government, UNICEF, Deloitte, SwissEP, Star Venture, and other local and foreign actors.
Beach Master, Future Block, Marigo, Dialogo AI, Nullius in Verba (NIV), Kungul app, Patoko, Cyber Morfosis, Rumio App, Altvista, UnyoCorp-Blite, and GreenGuard were the startups selected to follow the Uplift Albania acceleration program. The winners among all participants were NIV, UnyoCorp, and Patoko. We have gathered impressions from the three winners regarding their experience at Uplift and their future plans.
Nullius in Verba: “The 4-month Uplift program was intensive but incredibly valuable. The weekly sessions covered all areas a startup needs to learn about, which was fantastic and provided many key insights. Meeting so many actors from the ecosystem and connecting with other entrepreneurs and startup founders is a victory in itself. Putting yourself out there can open so many doors and create so many opportunities that one cannot imagine. Tireless work and commitment always yield results. Also, along the way, it is important to have open ears, accept feedback, learn from others, and be flexible to changes. We worked as a team to get to where we are today, and with this, along with an excellent product, the sky is the limit! We will continue our mission to innovate and accelerate the successful implementation of AI in Albanian-speaking markets. If you want to try our models and see what we have done so far, I invite you to try our platform, Neura, at www.neura.al. The next concrete step? Expanding additional translation features, conversation assistant, and proofreader, and improve our current offering of text-to-speech and speech-to-text. Exciting things await us!”
UnyoCorp Blite: “Our participation in Uplift was a special experience, a great opportunity to learn, build a larger network of contacts, and receive mentoring from some of the best in the designated fields. Every moment spent there helped us grow not only as a startup but also as individuals. Acceleration programs are more than just funding sources; they are catapults for growth and expansion of your business. They provide new platforms where ideas can be tested, refined, and then implemented to make a real impact on society. During the months of the program, we learned how to quickly adapt to market changes and embrace challenges as opportunities to grow and improve our product. Particularly, the continuous feedback from users and mentors helped us improve Blite in the best ways. I would say that our dedication as UnyoCorp to various software and technology like VR, Metaverse, and video game development, towards creating a more inclusive and accessible environment for everyone, especially for individuals with disabilities, made us unique. The addition of innovative technology and being the first to bring it to personalize the learning experience and simplify our users’ communication through artificial intelligence or other features make BLITE stand out in the market. The next steps include expanding the languages covered by Blite to include a wider global audience and deepen collaborations with strategic partners to increase our impact. We are committed to continuing innovation and ensuring that UnyoCorp brings as much innovative technology and empowers the future.”
Patoko: “The experience at Uplift and in the accelerator is invaluable for startups that need to structure their ideas and understand the challenges and journey that startups need to undertake to validate their ideas, from trademark registration, financial structuring, marketing, to presenting their idea and its value to different investors, against the strategic opportunities that can be created in the market. The ecosystem is challenging, and the journey is tough. And then, most of all, it’s testing the presentation in front of potential investors or people with expertise in the respective fields, to determine if the idea is fundable. In any case, it remains an educational platform, a requirement in a way that teaches you quickly some elements that, if not taken in this format, would face market difficulties in this structured form. So grateful for that. Secondly, what I would like to generally say is inspiring is the fact that there are so many young people and so many ideas, which are ultimately leading attempts for a healthy Albanian economy towards a market that can eventually become competitive through ideas and not just through means or cheap labor.”
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