Maze X’s third edition is going live, remotely, on April 19th. The third cohort was selected in a thorough assessment that ended with the final selection committee comprised of MAZE, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Edmond de Rothschild Foundations, PLMJ, BNP Paribas and Hospital da Luz Learning Health.
This year, Maze X received 209 applications from 39 countries and encompassing 20 different sectors. The ten selected startups are tackling social and environmental challenges in the following sectors: active aging, logistics, sustainable production & consumption, diversity, food & blue economy, mental health & wellbeing, and hospital & medical devices. The cohort is composed of startups from 6 different countries – 3 are Portuguese – and half of the startups have at least one female founder.
For four months, the 22 impact entrepreneurs will take advantage of a customised and individual support offered by the Maze X team, mentorship sessions, and workshops and talks on different thematic subjects such as sales, impact measurement, fundraising, organisational culture, leadership, among others.
Rita Casimiro, Head of Acceleration at MAZE, guarantees that, “just like in the previous editions, we selected what we believe to be the businesses of the future – businesses that combine healthy and attractive financial performance and models that tackle some of the greatest social and environmental challenges of our time”.
The 10 selected impact startups of this edition are:
- Amparo (Germany) offers a prosthetic device for lower limb amputees that can be moulded to the amputee’s residual limb in a short period of time, reducing the waiting time for amputees as well as the cost for prosthetic clinics.
- betterfish (Germany) transforms regenerative and nutritious cultivated European seaweed into plant-based seafood, as an alternative to products such as canned tuna.
- CBR Genomics (Portugal) is developing a solution that allows the usage of clinical genetic data at the daily clinical practice, as a means to prevent the development of preventable diseases.
- Deedster (Sweden) provides solutions for corporates to engage their employees and customers on climate action through gamified experiences.
- Her Impact (Poland) is a global community-based platform that provides a network and resources to women to support them in their professional and personal growth.
- Howdy (Denmark) is a B2B system that monitors users’ (employees) wellbeing and mental health to incentivise a constructive conversation and the development of proactive measures in the corporate environment.
- kaputt.de (Germany) is Germany’s largest electronic device repair marketplace, offering convenient repair solutions as an alternative to unnecessary replacement consumption.
- Neki (Spain) provides wearable tracking devices that allow for prevention or quick action in case of an elder’s fall, disorientation, or other types of incidents.
- Nevaro (Portugal) is making mental health tangible, by prioritizing science-based innovation aimed at understanding the brain, through physiological and behavioural biomarkers and gamified experiences.
- Sensefinity (Portugal) aims to reduce food waste through the digitalisation of the supply-chain by implementing their hardware sensor in shipping containers that measure and control the temperature and humidity to maximise the preservation of transported food and thus prevent food waste.
Maze X is a 4-month accelerator programme that provides impact entrepreneurs who are solving the worlds’ most pressing problems with the resources, skills, and network they need to escalate their solution, attract investment, and achieve their vision in order to maximise their impact. By the end of the acceleration period, the projects will have the opportunity to pitch their business in a Demo Day, will take part of an International Roadshow and will join Maze X’s Alumni Network, gaining access to lifetime support by MAZE’s team.
