70 Applications from 9 Countries Submitted to #BeAI, Romania’s First AI Pre-accelerator and one of the first in Europe

Ten early-stage startups from Estonia, France, Netherlands, Romania and Russia, have been selected to attend the extensive 8-week program of #BeAI, one of the first pre-accelerators in Europe entirely dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI). #BeAI is organized by Bucharest.ai, the first and largest AI community in Romania, in partnership with Orange Romania, Gapminder, Techcelerator, Smart Everything Everywhere and The Informal School of IT. The pre-accelerator officially kicks off this week.

More than 70 applications from nine countries – Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, France, Germany, India, Netherlands, Romania and Russia have been submitted to the Call for Startups open throughout September. Ideas put forward vary significantly in terms of both scope and development stage, with the selected ones aiming to do the following:

• EVAAI, Estonia | About: AI – powered digital therapy platform that aims to increase global access to mental health therapy through specialized AI therapists | AI Technology focus: Virtual agents, Natural Language Processing (NLP);
• Emoface, France | About: Mobile app that trains social skills to people on the autistic spectrum by interacting with AI-driven emotional avatars; | AI Technology focus: Voice recognition, Machine vision (Face and video analysis);
• Crowdlens, Romania | About: AI-powered analytics tool that monitors customers’ behavior through deep learning and helps managers enrich customer experience; | AI technology focus: Machine vision, Process automation (RPA);
• Zoom Report, Romania | About: Location intelligence web platform with integrated data from public sources that helps users with little knowledge in data processing to gain insights on local social-demographics and economic environments; | AI Technology focus: NLP (text analysis), Data classification;
• Webcube, Romania | About: AI-powered app that allows users to quickly create or remake a website without starting it from scratch; | AI Technology focus: Image segmentation, Code generation;
• Meanyng.ai, Romania | About: Machine learning-driven platform that helps you make sense of existing conversations and data to understand the world, your customers and your competitors in minutes, not weeks; | AI Technology focus: NLP, Machine vision;
• RepsMate, Romania | About: Customers’ behavior analysis to improve development of skills through real customer interactions; | AI Technology focus: NLP, Voice recognition and generation, virtual agents;
• Lienda, Russia | About: AI-enhanced software that helps quality experts to detect hidden errors and to control production process when limited measurements are available. | AI Technology focus: Machine vision, smart maintenance;
• Factide, Romania | About: AI-platform that extracts knowledge from raw data across the dark and clear web; | AI Technology focus: NLP, Knowledge graphs;
• WIYO, Netherlands | About: AI-enhanced app that helps groups of people stay in touch in international environments; | AI Technology focus: NLP, Prediction & Planning;

“I am excited to see such high-quality applications from so many European countries. Clearly, this is a sign that Romania is not only gaining international recognition as the home country of some of the best AI startups worldwide, but it is also becoming a key player in the drive to strengthen the European startups ecosystem” said Tudor-Ionuț Oprea, Vice President & Co-founder, Smart Everything Everywhere, #BeAI partner.

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“The essential common element that all of the ten startups have is that they provide the interested public with new and efficient perspectives on mainstream products or services serving established processes”, said Mihai Talpos, Managing Partner, The Informal School of IT, #BeAI partner. “This is definitely something that investors have a great interest in, particularly during these troubled times that we are facing and that call for a paradigm shift towards enhanced efficiency, creativity and resilience in the way that we operate.”

In the coming two months, the ten startups will participate in mentoring sessions to be facilitated by over 30 top global professionals with expertise covering ten AI components, including AI strategy, development, investment know-how, legal and marketing. Teams will also be given the opportunity to attend workshops and talks to be delivered by international experts and on today’s most pressing issues, such as ethical AI and overcoming distrust. The entire program will unfold entirely online, with selected sessions of guest speakers to be transmitted live on Facebook. Five of the ten startups will be invited to deliver a pitch at DevFest 2020 on October 17.

“These ten finalists reflect the impressively wide scope of the AI industry and also the ingenuity of the applicants”, said jury member Adrian Matei, Head of Enterprise Data Management & Analytics Office, Orange Romania, #BeAI partner. “We are looking forward to seeing these ideas further develop throughout the program and the teams deliver exceptional pitches on December 8.”

The grand pitch day will take place on December 8. All startups are expected to reach this stage that will give them the opportunity to discuss their business models with jury members and explore future venues for cooperation. The best pitches will compete to win up to €50,000 pre-seed up via convertible note from GapMinder and one of the three spots in the Techcelerator accelerator program, Spring 2021 edition. Various program perks, including APIs and test applications will be offered throughout the program courtesy of Orange Romania.