The Open Horizons Project is moving fast. While Open Call #1 continues to unfold, the programme has already opened its next door: Open Call #2, launched on November 20th.
But inside all this momentum, something special has been happening behind the scenes.
For the seven women-led deep-tech startups pre-selected in the framework of Open Call #1, the past weeks marked the start of a transformational journey: the Inception Programme, designed and delivered by our team at InnovX.
These seven startups - Futurity Systems, Tendertec, DIMERA, NEGATONN P.C., Re-Fresh Global, DoctorIA by Ozana AI Language Labs, and WeavAir - stepped into a month built for clarity, validation, and strategic alignment.
This one-month phase is where ideas turn into frameworks, where value propositions sharpen into strategy, and where founders begin shaping the PoC that could become a multi-country corporate partnership. It’s a blend of business design, legal readiness, technology deep-dives, and collaborative co-creation, all built on InnovX’s proven methodology for scaling companies across Europe.
And above everything, it’s a space built intentionally for women innovators to step confidently into ecosystems that haven’t always been accessible.
The story of this programme isn’t just about training. It’s about unlocking possibilities, building trust between startups and corporates, and giving women founders a structured pathway to pilot their solutions at European scale.
Setting the Stage: The Kick-off Webinar
From Vision to Shared Commitment
The journey began with a warm, energizing Kick-off Webinar, where the seven selected startups met the full Open Horizons consortium and the corporate representatives behind this first set of challenges.
Moderated by Anca Luca, Chief Growth Officer at InnovX and Inception Programme Coordinator, the session set the tone for everything that followed. It was a moment of alignment between all players involved in this complex, collaborative programme: startups, mentors, corporates, and the consortium teams from PEDAL Consulting, Sploro and InnovX.
Together with Maria-Luiza Jipescu, Business Model Canvas facilitator, and corporate challenge owners from Holcim, PPC Romania, Stahl, Siemens, Elyaf Tekstil, LG Electronics, and repsol, the group walked through the journey ahead:
- What collaboration in Open Horizons truly means
- What a well-built PoC looks like
- How communication should flow between founders and corporates
- What expectations need alignment before piloting
- And how the inception phase prepares startups for real implementation, not hypothetical exercises
From the very first minutes, one thing was clear: this programme is designed to remove friction, bring clarity, and support women founders at every step, ensuring they enter the pilot phase with strong structures, validated business models, and aligned corporate partners.
The Kick-off Webinar created a shared language, a common purpose, and a mutual understanding of what success will look like for this first Open Call cohort.
And with this shared foundation and team ready to kickstart the sessions, the Inception Programme officially began.
Designing the Backbone: Business Model Canvas Workshop #1
Where Ideas Become Structure
After the Kick-off set the shared foundations, the programme moved straight into one of the most transformative moments of the entire Inception phase: the Business Model Canvas Workshop #1, delivered by InnovX and facilitated by Maria-Luiza Jipescu, Design Thinking & Innovation Facilitator.
If the Kick-off was about vision, this workshop was about making that vision tangible.
For hours, the seven women-led deep-tech startups worked side-by-side with the InnovX team and mentors to refine the core elements of their future Proof of Concept. Value propositions were sharpened. Customer segments were challenged. Revenue models were reimagined with real corporate environments in mind. And slowly, each startup’s idea began to take the shape of a scalable pilot.
The atmosphere felt like a lab of collective intelligence. Founders brought depth; mentors brought perspective. And the combined expertise filled the (virtual) room.
Supporting Maria-Luiza Jipescu in this process was a remarkable group of mentors whose insights helped founders move from abstract thinking to structured planning: Raluca Nicolescu, CFA, Suleiman A, György Bodó, PhD, Madalina D., Robert Pufan, Steliana Moraru, Delia NECULA, Liviu Munteanu, Madalina Ciinaru, Bogdan Năforniţă 🚀, Sonia-Denisa Fedorovici, Melinda Mureșan, Adina Saniuta, Ph.D., Dorina T., Sergiu Pop, Aimen Aldahash, Diana DUMITRESCU, PhD. & Daniel Dumitrescu, PhD., Raluca Nicolescu, CFA.
Each mentor challenged assumptions, asked the hard questions, and helped founders translate their unique technologies into business models that corporates could immediately understand and engage with.
This was design thinking in motion, and the first real step toward building PoC plans that can stand up to the complexity of corporate environments across Europe.
By the end of the session, every startup walked away with a clearer, stronger backbone for their upcoming pilots. And for many, this was the moment when the programme shifted from idea… to possibility.
Powering Up with Microsoft
Technology as a Catalyst for Scale
No Inception Programme would be complete without a deep dive into the technologies that can turn a PoC into something scalable. And for the Open Horizons founders, day three brought exactly that: the Microsoft PowerUp Lab, a session designed to bridge innovation with the kind of infrastructure that can support global growth.
Led by a powerhouse of experts: Alina Irma Orban, Director Partner Development SDC-Europe North EPS at Microsoft, and Aimen Aldahash, ISV Partner Development Manager - the session opened with a strategic overview of how Microsoft empowers startups from their earliest stages, all the way to post-Series C.
Founders learned how cloud infrastructure, co-selling pathways, and long-term support models can accelerate not only PoC implementation, but also market expansion. The message was clear: technology is not just a tool; it’s a growth engine.
Then came the deep dive. Ovidiu Pismac, Senior Security Cloud Solution Architect, guided participants through the reality of building in the age of AI, where privacy, identity management, threat detection, and compliance need to be considered from day one. His session demystified security, showing startups how to build scalable solutions on a foundation of trust.
Immediately after, Robert Pufan, Senior Partner Solutions Architect in AI Business Solutions, introduced Microsoft 365 Copilot as “the AI platform for professionals,” illustrating how startups can unlock smarter workflows, better documentation, and more controlled information ecosystems.
The session concluded with Sergiu Pop, Data & AI Specialist, who brought everything together in a forward-looking discussion on the next-generation data platform for Agentic AI. His message resonated deeply with founders: the future belongs to startups who can blend data, intelligence, and automation into solutions that scale.
Throughout the day, the InnovX team facilitated conversations, asked the right questions, and helped founders connect Microsoft’s capabilities with their own PoC ambitions. The goal wasn’t to overwhelm, but to empower.
By the end of the PowerUp Lab, the seven startups were left with:
- a clearer understanding of how to build enterprise-ready PoCs
- access to tools that can support long-term scaling
- and a new perspective on how technology can become a strategic partner, not just a technical necessity
For many founders, this session marked a turning point - the moment their ideas started to feel not only possible, but scalable.
From Canvas to Validation - Business Model Canvas Workshop #2
Strengthening the Foundations for Corporate Collaboration
With their Business Model Canvases now structured and aligned, the seven startups moved into one of the most decisive steps of the entire Inception Programme: the Validation Canvas Workshop, guided once again by Anca Luca with the invaluable help of Gabriel Arabu and expertly facilitated by Maria-Luiza Jipescu.
If the first workshop helped founders shape their ideas, this second session helped them test their assumptions, the moment where the excitement of innovation meets the discipline of validation.
The Validation Canvas pushed the teams to go deeper:
✨ Customer Validation - Who will actually use this solution inside the corpo? What are their real needs, workflows, and constraints?
🔧 Technical Feasibility - Can the technology integrate smoothly into the corporation’s systems? What data, infrastructure, or processes need to be aligned?
💰 Economic Viability - Does the pilot make sense financially? Is there a clear pathway from PoC to commercial contract or international rollout?
⚖️ Governance Implementation - How will decision-making work? What approvals are needed? Who keeps the collaboration moving?
These questions transformed each startup’s PoC plan from “promising” into “practical.” And this is where the mentors made the difference.
Supporting the process were experts whose experience spans tech, business, product, and corporate innovation: Madalina Dobre, Madalina Ciinaru, Razvan Tudor, Bogdan Năforniţă 🚀, CRISTIAN OPREA, Sergiu Pop, Liviu Munteanu, Emilian Dan Cartis, Marius Nicolae, Dragos Brudiu, Valeria Popescu, Sonia-Denisa Fedorovici, and Christian Leonte.
They challenged founders to validate each claim, stress-test each assumption, and refine each component of the PoC so that, when the time comes to pilot with corporates, the implementation is smooth, structured, and credible.
Even more importantly, this was the moment when the corporate partners stepped in as co-creators in the process. Representatives such as Annelies Mensink (Stahl), Mihai Stanciu (PPC Romania), Michael Holtkamp (LG Electronics), Cristian Irimia (Siemens), and Hülya Kıcık, MSc (Elyaf Tekstil) helped startups understand the internal dynamics, constraints, and expectations of their organizations.
In other words, this wasn’t startups building PoCs alone. It was startups and corporates building readiness together.
By the end of the session, each team had a far clearer picture of what their PoC must achieve, not in theory, but in real corporate environments, with all their complexity and opportunity.
And with that, the Inception Programme took another major step forward, moving from structured ideas to validated strategies.
PoC Legal Readiness
Turning Innovation into Agreements
The focus shifted from business modeling and validation to one of the most essential pillars of any corporate collaboration: legal readiness. On this day, the seven startups stepped into a topic that often feels intimidating but, in reality, is the backbone of every successful Proof of Concept.
The session was led by Bogdan Coraci, Legal & IP expert and InnovX mentor, whose clarity and practical approach have guided hundreds of founders through the complexities of early-stage agreements.
Over the course of the workshop, founders explored the real mechanics behind PoC agreements:
🔐 Non-Disclosure Agreements - how to protect sensitive conversations from day one 💡 Intellectual Property - who owns what, how rights are shared, and how innovations are safeguarded
🤝 Defining roles & responsibilities - what each party commits to during the PoC
📄 From PoC to Master Licensing - how a successful pilot evolves into a long-term contract
⚠️ Identifying “red lines” - the boundaries that protect both the startup and the corporate
Rather than treating legal readiness as a final afterthought, the programme framed it as a strategic enabler - a way to build trust, clarity, and balance from the early stages of collaboration.
Throughout the session, founders asked sharp, thoughtful questions, reflecting the depth of their technologies and the seriousness of their intentions. And as always, the InnovX approach kept the conversation grounded in real examples, real risks, and real opportunities.
By the end of the workshop, the seven startups - DIMERA, DoctorIA by Ozana AI Language Labs, Futurity Systems, NEGATONN P.C., Re-Fresh Global, Tendertec, and WeavAir - walked away with something invaluable: the confidence to navigate legal conversations with corporates as equal partners, not hesitant newcomers.
And with legal clarity established, the programme was ready to move into one of its most anticipated moments: the conversation about how to work with corporates and investors at the same time.
Winning With Corporates & Capital
Navigating the Most Delicate Balance - Corporate & Investor Strategy
Toward the end of the Inception Programme, it shifted into one of its most insightful and strategically delicate conversations: how to collaborate closely with corporates while staying investor-ready.
This session, Winning With Corporates & Capital, brought the startups into a high-level dialogue with both a corporate innovation leader and an experienced deep-tech investor, revealing what companies truly look for when they decide to pilot or fund new technologies.
The discussion began with Michael Holtkamp from LG Electronics, who introduced the LG venture client model, a powerful approach that allows corporations to work directly with startups by integrating external innovations into real product pipelines. He emphasized what corporates value most: clarity, maturity, technological feasibility, and founders who understand how their solution fits inside large-scale operations.
Then came the investor lens. Konstantinos Lafkas, Partner at UniFund and ExO Greece, took founders behind the scenes of how deep-tech investment decisions are made. He spoke openly about:
- strategic disruption
- value alignment
- the importance of owning your commercial growth
- and why resilience is an essential founder trait in deep tech
He also addressed a concern many founders rarely voice: how to avoid becoming overly dependent on a single corporate partner, even when the pilot is promising.
Moderated by Anca Luca from InnovX, the conversation quickly evolved into a candid, highly relevant exchange. The key takeaway was simple yet powerful:
Pilots are not the end of the journey. They are the beginning of a scalable commercial path.
The session encouraged founders to think with both lenses at once:
- What does the business need today?
- What does the investor need to see tomorrow?
- And how do we design a PoC that speaks to both worlds, without losing focus or ownership?
For many startups, this became one of the most transformative discussions of the entire programme. It reframed PoCs not as “projects to complete,” but as strategic stepping stones toward long-term adoption, growth, and capital alignment.
With this clarity, the founders entered the final stretch of the Inception Programme, ready to refine their PoC plans, meet corporate challenge owners in 1:1 sessions, and prepare for the next step.
The 5 Startups Moving Into the Piloting Phase
After four weeks of intense exploration, co-creation, rigorous validation, and strategic refinement, the Inception Programme reached its defining moment: selecting the 5 startups ready to take their solutions into real-world testing.
This programme was a deep dive into clarity, alignment, and feasibility, a space where every founder challenged assumptions, stress-tested their models, collaborated with corporates, and transformed insights into actionable strategy.
And now, the journey shifts gears.
The teams stepping into the Piloting Phase demonstrated not only innovation, but readiness, a strong match with corporate challenges, well-defined KPIs, and the commitment needed to turn concepts into measurable impact.
We are proud to introduce the five women-led deep-tech startups advancing to the next stage of Open Horizons:
🌟 DIMERA
DIMERA transforms how industries understand and measure the environmental impact of materials, merging AI and nanoengineering to support sustainability at scale. Their PoC will explore how advanced material analysis and circularity insights can be embedded directly into corporate decision-making, empowering companies to innovate with responsibility and precision. João Caseiro, Ana Pires and Cátia Guarda
🔬 Futurity Systems
Futurity Systems helps organizations navigate uncertainty with clarity. Through their Futures-as-a-Service platform - a blend of data, foresight methods, quantitative analysis, and creative design, they enable corporates to anticipate trends, evaluate scenarios, and build long-term strategies rooted in evidence rather than guesswork. Their pilot will focus on integrating this strategic intelligence into real corporate planning cycles. Cecilia MoSze Tham
⚡ NEGATONN
NEGATONN P.C. is redefining energy resilience with its Quantum-Enabled Virtual Power Plant (Q-EVPP), a system that optimizes electricity consumption, reduces emissions, and generates tradable carbon credits. Their pilot aims to validate how this next-generation energy infrastructure can support corporates in meeting sustainability goals while lowering operational costs. Eirini Kalaitzi & George Stengos
♻️ Re-Fresh Global
Re-Fresh Global leads the future of circular textiles by converting post-consumer and industrial waste into high-value materials through a suite of patented technologies — Re-SanPulp, Re-Thanol, Re-Nano, and more. Their PoC will test how large-scale manufacturing and retail environments can integrate textile-to-resource processes to reduce waste and create new, sustainable revenue streams. Viktoria Kanar and Revital Nadiv Zivan רויטל נדיב
💗 Tendertec
Tendertec creates privacy-preserving, AI-driven ambient sensing solutions that support active ageing, independence, and dignified care. Their technology analyzes daily movement patterns to detect risks, prevent falls, and enhance safety without compromising privacy. Through their pilot, they will collaborate with corporates to implement scalable well-being solutions for elderly care and smart living environments. Afroditi Konidari
These teams demonstrated exceptional clarity, readiness, technical feasibility, and strategic alignment with the challenges set by our corporate partners. Their PoC proposals stood out through a strong combination of innovation, practicality, and a clear pathway from pilot to long-term adoption.
And behind the scenes, the entire InnovX team stood fully present - the people who shaped the Inception programme’s structure, guided founders through every step, and brought the Inception phase to life with their expertise, energy, and commitment.
Daniel Dumitrescu, PhD., Diana DUMITRESCU, PhD., Anca Luca, Bianca Păcurar, Gabriel Arabu, George Cristian Radu, Rares Gherasim, Alexandra Ionescu.
As these teams enter the Piloting Phase in January 2026, they will work side-by-side with corporate partners to test, validate, and refine their solutions, proving not only technological potential but real-world applicability and scalability.
This is where the future takes shape. And we couldn’t be more excited to support these founders as they turn ideas into pilots, and pilots into real impact.
The Next Horizon
As these five startups enter the piloting phase, the Open Horizons Project continues to expand its mission: empowering women founders to collaborate with Europe’s leading corporations, develop scalable deep-tech solutions, and bring meaningful innovation to market.
But this is just the beginning.
With Open Call #2 now open, a new wave of women-led startups can step into the same journey, from early validation to corporate-backed piloting, supported by a consortium committed to inclusion, innovation, and real-world results.
If you're building a deep-tech or digital solution and want to work with top corporates across Europe, now is the perfect moment to join.
👉 Register for Open Call #2 here: https://www.openhorizonsproject.eu/how-it-works/
The next cohort is already taking shape, and one of the selected startups can be yours.
