Women Startup Competition, an annual competition celebrating female entrepreneurs and gender diverse companies, is proud to announce the winners of the third semi-final round that took place in Warsaw, Poland on 14-15th of March, 2018.
Winning first place was Yosh.AI, accepted by the company’s founder and CEO Katarzyna Dorsey. The winning startup is on a mission to deliver users a pleasurable, effortless fashion shopping experience, which leads to sales thanks to personalisation. Thanks to the company’s success in the competition, it appears the tenacious startup is one step closer to completing their mission, and will take their offering to the final in London on April 6-7.
Taking second place was 1000realities, a software studio focused on Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), with the company’s co-founder, Justyna Janicka, present to accept the award. “The best thing was, that I finally learnt how to explain our extremely complex solution for those who are not familiar with AR. It was the best way to develop my skills,” states Janicka.
“It is really important to encourage women to go into technology. I don’t have a technical background and I know how hard is to start, and you have to learn the proper self confidence in this male dominated field,” she adds. “Tonight was a real success, after my presentation an investor approached me with his interest in my product.”
And in third place was NuDelta, a startup developing a way to digitize your data from any basic image, using a simple snap, digital scan, or PDF document, which was accepted by the company’s co-founder and CEO, Jagoda Pieścicka.
A total of 37 teams applied, though only 9 were selected to compete in the semi-final, where they pitched their startup to a room of 5 mentors, 4 juries, 5 investors and over 80 guests. The event also worked closely with BGŻ BNP Paribas, a main partner of the competition, in addition to Mindspace which worked as a strategic partner.
“With regards to the winner, the jury had no problem with this decision because the solution, the presentation and the idea were fantastic, so we hope they will be successful in the final as well,” stated Piotr Widacki, Head of Digital Transformation Division at Bank BGŻ BNP
“It’s not only a competition or semifinals, but a chance to grow. The day before they went through a very intense program, with many workshops, which can help to develop ideas and to practice presentations. So I would really recommend this competition to everyone” he adds.
“For the competing startups, the learning curve and the advancements they were able to make during the bootcamp, with the help of the mentors, was great. It was a good chance for them to have their businesses evaluated from many different angles. I believe the platform that WSC gives these companies is hugely impactful. We would be happy to host the event next year as well,” said Mariusz Kozlowski, a Mindspace investor.
The competition also had participation from influential mentors such as Andrea Kurucz, the lead mentor of WSC who said “I saw so many surprised faces when the participants reviewed the video of their presentations during the mentoring. That’s a really honest mirror but we encourage them to analyze and develop it with our guidance before the competition.
It was an honour as a mentor to see how quickly these empowered women can grow, how they can help each other as one and become confident speakers on stage.”
