June the 22nd, 2023 – Nine teams are currently competing to enter FER’s now rather prestigious Nuqleus finals, set for the 29th of this month.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Josipa Ban writes, the second phase of FER’s Nuqleus programme is now coming to an end. On June the 29th on the so-called Demo Day, three of the nine teams that participated in the three-month training of the venture builder Nuqleus will be selected for the third phase of the programme aimed at the development of high-tech startups.
Individual help in business development and investment
As explained by Nuqleus’ head Matija Srbic, during the final phase, the three best teams will receive individual help in business development and securing an investment. As such, high-tech ideas created as a result of the exchange of knowledge and sharing of resources between industry, scientific research institutions and the startup ecosystem (the first such programme to exist here in Croatia) will be prepared for the market.
Pitching makes perfect
Before those who enter the Nuqleus finals can secure the above, the teams must prove themselves as the best, by presenting, or “pitching” in front of mentors, the Investment and Scientific Committee of the Nuqleus programme, as well as in front of representatives of investment funds, the founders of startups and various supporting institutions. Each team will have three minutes allocated to them for their pitch, and this will also be the central part of the Demo Day, which will be held in Zagreb’s HUB385 co-working space.
The criteria
Matija Srbic noted that three factors will be decisive in choosing the best of the best at 2023’s Nuqleus finals.
“The readiness of the team and their product’s readiness for commercialisation will be judged first. Then the evaluation of the board as well as the opinion and experience of working with startups of the Nuqleus project team will follow,” he stated. It will certainly not be easy for the judging panel because, for example, the Novela Medica team is developing a respimer – a device for measuring breathing frequency in all clinical situations. The Thorondrone team, on the other hand, has developed an innovative methodology that speeds up and simplifies the design of fixed-wing drones, while the CyberArrange team is developing a solution that automatically generates training environments for cyber security exercises.
In short, of the nine teams hoping to enter the Nuqleus finals, two are composed of students from four different faculties of the University of Zagreb, while each of the remaining seven includes at least one researcher employed at a faculty or research institution such as FER, FSB FKIT, and the Faculty of Medicine, as well as industry experts.
The basics of running a business have been learned
During the second phase of the programme, which lasted three months, the teams participated in thematic workshops once a week where they learned how to establish a company, everything about intellectual property and patents, how to research the market, present themselves, and so on. They also learned the basics of the financial side of things and about investments.
Everything learned so far will have to be demonstrated on the Demo Day. Srbic pointed out that the decision about the three teams that will enter the Nuqleus finals won’t actually be made and announced on the same day, but in the week after Demo Day.
