Two startups win the be-advanced challenge

The be-advanced Challenge is the first part of the startup program. During the 3-month program, the entrepreneurs are coached by senior entrepreneurs. They learn to develop and validate a strong value proposition, build a business plan and in the end present their results in front of an expert audience.
In the recent edition, seven participants including Magnes AG, LARS Brillen, GDBspace, MySaess, FindAut, Campus SLB and Menon enrolled in the program. An expert jury comprising Markus Popp (Mühlemann & Popp Online Media AG), Adrian Stolz (Credit Suisse), and Urs Guggenbühl (be-advanced) nominated GDBspace and FindAut as the winners and awarded them the certificate for the be-advanced start-up challenge.

The two awarded startups spent a significant amount of time with potential customers defining their needs and identifying whether the proposed product satisfies these needs. Furthermore, they developed and challenged their business model, together with their coaches. The receipt of the certificate underlines the validated future business potential of the respective case.

The winners are:

GDBspace - A platform of chemical molecules for chemists
GDBspace provides chemical-based industries (e.g., pharmaceutical) with a map of molecules, to help them to navigate time- and cost-effectively through the space of molecules to generate further innovations and to find new drugs. With GDBspace's platform, clients are faster and cheaper than today. Their first clients are medicinal chemists from drug discovery companies. The market potential is huge.

FindAut - Detect autism spectrum disorder early on
FindAut develops an online-tool to detect signs of autism in children and adults. Watching a 2-minute video in the browser, the integrated camera captures the pupil movements, the viewing direction, the eye leaps and blinking. The observed reaction patterns are used for the diagnosis of the autism spectrum disorder. A light application with high potential and a promising business case.

Towards market entry
The two startups will proceed to the “Highflyer” program to bring their solutions and company to the next level. The focus is market entry and scaling. During the 12-month program, the startups work together with the be-advanced team of «head coaches», highly skilled and senior entrepreneurs with a great network. The coaching is tailored to the startups' individual needs. During the program, Highflyer startups have the possibility to apply for seed funding by the Foundation for technological innovation (FTI).

(RAN)