Bookswap, Usitoo and Pensumo won the pitching competition organized by EU-GIVE and BeShared for their final event.
On 27th November, the EU-GIVE and BeShared projects organized their final event in Brussels. The final event consisted of a public pitching competition in front of a panel of investors notably social impact investors.
Objectives of the event were
- to highlight concrete and diverse examples of the collaborative economy,
- to help the enterprises raise funding
- to foster networking among the enterprises present.
The pitching competition
15 platforms or future platforms were invited to pitch among the success stories of the 2 projects:
- 3 from Estonia
- 2 from Italy (Sicily)
- 2 from Portugal (central)
- 2 from Slovenia
- 2 from Spain (Aragon)
- 2 from Greece
- 2 from Belgium (Brussels Capital)
More information in the catalogue of the event.
The prizes were attributed taking into account the opinion of the investors (80%) and of the public (20%) whether they would like to invest in these platforms. The awards were announced by Isabelle Grippa, CEO of hub.brussels in presence of the European Commission.
The 3 winners are Bookswap, Usitoo and Pensumo.
BookSwap is the unique service for everybody to find and easily get any kind of physical books from second hand market. Through offering books that have been stood for too long on the shelves and seeking the books they desire – people are becoming a part of fascinating social network of sharing the passion for books, reading experiences, book overviews and much more. BookSwap has proven that swapping books in social and playful environment activates the readers in massive and attractive way, even without wider marketing. The BookSwap prototype in Estonia Raamatuvahetus has been tested and improved more than 1,5 years for now and it has shown impressive results (18 000 registered users, 83 000 books exchanged, 60 000 eur sold services) and great growth potential.
Bookswap was accompagnied by the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry partner of EU-GIVE. If you want to get in touch, you can contact Kadri Raik Kadri.Raik@koda.ee and Piret Potisepp Piret.Potisepp@koda.ee
2. Usitoo
USITOO has established an innovative rental business model with an online catalogue of objects to be booked and delivered nearby the user place, based on a Zero Waste approach. Our innovation converts in use endless categories of seldomly-used objects (sport equipment, cooking, gardening, DIY tools, car equipment, camping…) that sleep in our cabinets potentially to become waste. Objects are delivered through a network of sustainable/circular partner shops near the consumers or directly to their homes. Usitoo is the owner of the objects and users can sell back their seldomly-used objects in exchange of credits to rent all what they need in Usitoo catalogue. USITOO aims at becoming a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider to all EU cities willing to deploy a similar service and has received a “Seal of Excellence” from the European Commission for its SME instrument phase 1 application.
Usitoo was accompagnied by Enterprise Europe Brussels c/o hub.brussels, partner of EU-GIVE. To get in touch, you can contact Camille Lépinay clepinay@hub.brussels. Check this video of Usitoo made during the EU-GIVE project.
3. PENSUMO
Through an app, Pensumo get, measure and reward the behaviours and consumption information to get the user participate in the circular economy (recycle, do sport, use transport…).. With that information they help doing better campaigns to the scrap and better advertisement for the brands and they therefore strengthening the cycle of the circular economy. Pensumo is a SME instrument phase 2 beneficiary.
Pensumo was accompagnied by Confederación de Empresarios de Aragón, partner of EU-GIVE. To get in touch, you can contact Jorge Alonso joalonso@ceoearagon.es.
The 3 winners of the EU-GIVE/BeShared pitching contest
Promotional videos were offered to the 3 winners and will be soon available on this page. Moreover, the first winner will benefit from a free of charge coaching session.
ShareNL keynote speech
The audience could also get inspiration from the keynote speech of Pieter van de Glind, Founder of ShareNL and Sharing Cities.
According to Pieter, “Any sharing economy entrepreneur or regulator should understand the dynamics of the sharing economy and what to expect next. If we collaborate more, we are better equipped to make the most out of the opportunities and challenges. Do not hesitate to reach out should you want to become part of our global ecosystem consisting of the world’s largest digital platforms, world leading companies, and some of the most advanced city-, state- and intergovernmental organizations. Find us at www.shareNL.nl and www.sharingcitiesalliance.com.”
Keynote speech of Pieter van de Glind, Founder of ShareNL and Sharing Cities.
If you want to revive the event, stay tune next week on BX FM for the broadcasting of the interview made during the event and notably of the three winners and of Pieter van de Glind.
More information about the EU-GIVE and BeShared Project in the previous article.
The EU-GIVE and BeShared projects are co-financed by the European Union.
The sole responsibility of this content lies with the author. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein
