🌐 Just back from a phenomenal 24-hour DeepTech Tour spanning Central and Eastern Europe's bustling innovation hubs! 🚀
First stop: Vilnius, Lithuania 🇱🇹. Thanks to an invite from Viktorija Trimbel, Managing Director at CoInvest Capital & Board Member at UAB „Investicijų ir verslo garantijos“ (INVEGA), I had the pleasure of attending a top-tier DeepTech event. With a vibrant mix of venture capitalists, accelerators, and deeptech startups, the event was a testament to the region's dynamic deeptech ecosystem. 👏 A big round of applause to Coinvest Capital, Baltic Sandbox Ventures, ScaleWolf, and INVEGA for igniting in-depth conversations about deeptech advancement. 🌠 The event was launched by Ms. Greta Tučkutė, Vice Minister for Defense of the Republic of Lithuania, and Ms. Erika Kuročkina, Vice Minister for Economy & Innovation 📢. A couple of enlightening panels followed - the first led by Professor Deeph Chana, CEO of NATO - Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA), spotlighting the role of new technologies in modern warfare 🛡️, and the second delving into the financial landscape nurturing deeptech innovations 💰. Andrea Traversone, the newly elected Managing Director of the €1bn NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), highlighted NATO's unwavering commitment to innovation, rooted in safety, freedom, and human empowerment.
Next stop: Warsaw, Poland 🇵🇱! There, a productive discussion with Pawel Bochniarz, CEO of Radix Ventures, marked a monumental €25 million investment in our Deeptech VC Fund from the European Investment Fund (EIF) Fund 🎉. I'm thrilled about the potential of our emerging €70 million fund to bring about significant change in the deeptech sector. A sneak peek at our future headquarters, slated to open in Q4 2024, truly brought our mission to life 🏢👥💡. Stimulating conversations over coffee ☕ with our first private RadiX LP laid the foundation for our upcoming CEE roadshow.
The tour rounded off in Bucharest, Romania 🇷🇴✈️, with an engaging brainstorming session with Diana DUMITRESCU, PhD., CEO of InnovX, and Monica Eremia, Commercial Specialist at the U.S. Commercial Service. This meetup solidified the foundation for the new InnovX- EIC acceleration program. By becoming an official acceleration partner of the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA), InnovX is now in a fantastic position to connect with and help the most valuable deeptech startups in Europe scale globally 🌐 into the US market through SelectUSA 🇺🇸🚀.
This whirlwind tour strengthened my conviction in the unlimited potential of the CEE deeptech ecosystem. I'm exhilarated to be a part of this dynamic ecosystem propelling top-tier deeptech startups. A heartfelt thanks to everyone who made this trip memorable, and I'm eagerly anticipating future collaborations that will continue to raise the bar in the CEE deeptech landscape! 🚀
