LYON, FRANCE--(Marketwired - April 15, 2016) - Big Booster, the accelerator program which includes a boot camp at Boston-based Mass Challenge, has just revealed three winners. The announcement comes exactly one year after the initial program kick-off, and following twelve months of intensive training, coaching and high-calibre meetings designed to empower start-ups on their paths to success. Recognizing the achievements Big Booster facilitated, the group has also announced their commitment to running the accelerator program for a second season.
Launched in Lyon last April, Big Booster is the first international non-profit acceleration program organized between Lyon and Boston, marking the ongoing commitment to collaboration between these two innovative cities. The Big Booster accelerator is created specifically for start-ups in the bio-tech, digital, and clean-tech industries.
More than five hundred candidates, half of whom were from outside of France, applied to take part in the first edition of Big Booster. Seventy-two participants were selected for the Lyon-based boot camp last October, and the group was further narrowed down to twenty for the Boston portion at Mass Challenge in February. Between the Lyon and Boston events, more than two hundred mentors and experts were mobilized, and numerous meetings with large companies, investors and serial entrepreneurs took place in the U.S. and Europe.
At the end of the Boston boot camp, ten startups were chosen to continue the program. April 14th, the finale was organized in Lyon, France. A panel of judges from Sanofi, Cegid, Veolia, Axeleo, Bpifrance and Mass Challenge nominated the top three that won and shared the season one Big Booster awards.
The winners of the first Big Booster accelerator program are:
- Diabeloop
- Neolys Diagnostics
- Echy
They will share the sum of EUR 100 000.
"In addition to the three finalists, there are twenty start-ups with a wide variety of projects enriched by this accelerator program. All of the participants are now positioned to further develop their network thanks to this hands on experience. They have benefited from the wealth of our ecosystem and our close ties with Boston, and we will continue to promote all of this in 2016," said Karine Dognin-Sauze, Vice-President of the Metropole of Lyon in charge of Innovation, Smart City Policies and digital development.
Thanks to the success of this first edition, the partners of this project (the Foundation for the University of Lyon and Metropole of Lyon) are committed to the second edition of Big Booster. Like the first, the second edition will be based on the strong partnership between Lyon and Boston, and will also feature quality partners and investors. Nominations will be open in two new areas of selection: mobility and the design.
Big Booster aims to be the largest competition and accelerator program for European start-ups by 2018.
This program is supported by : Metropole of Lyon, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, City of Boston, Mass Challenge, the University of Lyon, Axeleo, Bpifrance, Capgemini, Cegid, the Postal Bank, EDF, Keolis, Klesia, Philips, Sanofi, Schneider Electric, Seb, Veolia, …
For more information, please visit www.bigbooster.org.
For more information on the winners please visit http://www.bigbooster.org/indexWinners.php.
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Contact Information:
Contact:
Dalyce Semko Suanez
Open2America
Phone: (403) 869-3259
E-Mail: d.suanez@open2america.com
