FINODEX summary. Year 1
1 like3,629 views
Open data facilitates free use and redistribution, driving innovation and economic value. Finodex, co-funded by the EU, promotes the re-utilization of open data for SMEs and web entrepreneurs, providing funding and support for developing ICT products based on Fiware technologies. With significant success in its open calls, Finodex is focused on accelerating companies and promoting success stories while investing €480,000 in 48 projects and planning to distribute €4.64 million by the end of the acceleration process.
FINODEX summary. Year 1
- 1. Open Data is data that can be freely used, re-used and redistributed by anyone - subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and sharealike. Open data has a clear potential to unlock a significant economic value becoming an instrument for innovation and business generation. FINODEX promotes the re-utilization of open data with a clear business focus across Europe. Finodex is co-funded by the European Union under Grant agreement number 632838 and is part of the FIWARE Accelerate programme FINODEX is an European virtual accelerator that selects, funds and provides support services to SMEs & Web Entrepreneurs building their products and services making use of FIWARE technologies and re-using Open Data. The main objective is to launch ready-to-market ICT products and services fostering the European ICT ecosystem. www.finodex-project.eu FIWARE technology provides a simple set of public and royalty free powerful APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) which are the building blocks of the ICT applications and services. An open source reference of the FIWARE components is available so that creating and implementing ICT modules relying in FIWARE is fast and cost-effective, decreasing the development cycles of ICT products and services. FINODEX has already closed its two open calls with a significant success. A total of 493 proposals have been received among the two open calls, 197 in the first call and 296 in the second one. 101 of them will be selected to enter in the acceleration process. A set of the 1st call beneficiaries are currently developing a MVP (minimum viable product) based on FIWARE and Open Data which will be ready by the end of September. At the same time, 52 new projects will start the acceleration process from October this year.
- 2. An important effort on promoting the calls has been done by FINODEX, which has organised or has been present in around one hundred events in +25 countries. Online press has also been really active, including around 120 impacts. The services offered by FINODEX cover the whole spectrum of needs for the entrepreneurs. They range from technical support with FIWARE and Open Data technologies, to Business Mentoring to refine the business model of their product/service or a remote channel for business coaching. However, FINODEX also offers the possibility to attend to dedicated presential working days. In this way, it is possible to receive feedback from succesful business mentors and business angels from Europe and Silicon Valley. During the second year of FINODEX, we will be focused in the acceleration of the companies and the promotion of those success stories providing an outstanding business idea with an excellent use of FIWARE technologies. Those projects reaching phase 4 of the acceleration are called to be the best examples FINODEX will provide. It is also worth to mention that thanks to our support a group of entrepreneurs have created a new start-up in the UK Synergation, www.finodex-project.eu Last June, in Trento (Italy) a was organised in order to train the accelerated companies in doing effective 3-minute pitches, in the evaluation of business metrics and receiving some lighting talks of outstanding mentors like Clint Nielsen, founder of Start-up Weekend. Next November, new sessions for the beneficiaries of the second call will be organised as well as a major investors’ event for the companies reaching the last phase of the first call: ECFI, which will happen in Hamburg. workshop so we can proudly say FINODEX has helped to establish one SME during its first year. Talking about funding, FINODEX has directly injected €480,000 in a total of 48 projects, which are available . By the end of the acceleration process a total of €4.64 million will be distributed among the +100 beneficiaries. here July 2015. This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.