Winning a startup competition is no easy feat. With hard-working founders looking to take home the prize, innovative startups showing off their tech at every turn, and judges looking for any excuse to eliminate you, it can be a pretty stressful environment. The Women Startup Competition Europe was no different, as a number of revolutionary companies competed for the top prizes. And three of them went home very happy.
The Women Startup Competition is an annual contest that promotes women in tech by awarding companies with cash prizes and enough recognition to get them to their next funding round. The competition doesn’t only support women-led startups though. It also promotes companies that have made a commitment to gender diversity, having more than 50 percent of their workforce made up of women.
If you want to see what the judges saw in the three winning companies, take a look at them below and get ready for next year’s competition early!
PelviFly (Poland)
This company is an e-health pelvic floor muscles training equipment, with the use of a wireless intra-vaginal probe cooperating with the mobile application. The concept is supplemented by a remote, daily feedback provided by physiotherapist based on data transmitted from the device via the smartphone to a computer database.
FoPo (Germany)
This company gives new life to expiring fruits and vegetables from groceries by drying & powdering them, preventing food waist. Currently available in 7 different flavors with world-wide shipping. The team organized feeding day in the Philippines where they provided drinks and snacks made with FoPo to almost 400 children affected by typhoon.
FoPo is currently developing pilot production in Kenya, working closely with almost 500 smallholder farmers, sourcing “2nd class” not perfect looking, but perfectly delicious products. Together with their local partner, Miyonga, farmers are being trained for fair agricultural practices. Each pack of FoPo prevents 265 g of CO2 to be produced and saves about 20 liters of water.
Twipes (United Kingdom)
This company produces anti-bacterial, eco-friendly toilet wipes that are fully water-dispersible. Since they are alcohol and and paraben-free, they don’t dry out and most importantly, each Twipe is 100 percent dispersible in water within 3 hours, unlike traditional “flushable” branded wipes, that can take up to 3 months or even years.
