WeScale Health Challenge & Pitching

Are you ambitious, or even a founder of a Start-up or Scale-up, with global ambitions? The WeScale event combines two different opportunities, the ‘Health Challenge’ and the ‘Start-up & Scale-up Pitch event’.  Show us what you’re worth and take on the challenges our society is facing in the fields of healthy living or pitch your revolutionary product/service and win our big rewards that will help you succeed.

A. Health challenge

Both in The Netherlands as in Taiwan, healthcare is under pressure caused by rising costs, growth in lifestyle-related illness, unhealthy air and an aging society. This creates a surging urgency to bring innovations into a market that is traditionally heavily regulated and careful in adopting innovative solutions and approaches. The organisers and sponsors of this Health Challenge call on innovative people and entrepreneurs to show their creativity in solving the following challenges:

1. We appreciate living till the end, please share how to deal with dementia in our society.
2. Dental self-care is worsening. Can a ‘gamification’ program help young people and primary school students to brush their teeth 2 times a day?
3. In Taiwan obesity is a growing problem. With 44,7% of people with a too high BMI, it is considered the ‘heaviest’ country in Asia. Devise a solution that can help take on this challenge in an economic way.
4. Air Pollution in cities a global problem, also in our countries. How can we stimulate the transition to Zero-Emission scooters?
5. It would be beneficial to have more young people use a bike, both in terms of health as for cleaner air. What can you design for kids to turn them into active bicycle users?

Criteria

For the challenge we’re looking for creativity, we have only two criteria:

1. It’s a business approach, not an idea for the government to change the law or an idea that is not self-sustaining.
2. Creativity is a plus, but we also love ideas that put existing ideas or solutions into a new perspective.

Presenting

Your pitch has a maximum length of 4 minutes, followed by 4 minutes Q&A from the jury. We recommend you use max. 10 slides. If you use slides, you send them ultimately on 29 September 20:00 to the organisation. In your pitch, you point out for which of the challenges you propose your solution.

B. Start-up & Scale-up Pitch

Taiwan is a country with very good links to the Dutch market, and for Dutch companies, Taiwan is a very good and easy first step into the Asian market. Also, Taiwan is very interested in welcoming Dutch companies in Taiwan. StartupUtrecht wants to support startups and scale-ups in their international ambitions and to ensure that startups and scale-ups are able to profit from the possibilities that the good contacts between Taiwan and the Netherlands bring. In light of this, StartupUtrecht gladly co-organises the startup & scale-up pitch event.

Criteria

For the start-up & scale-up pitch event we love to see that you

• are a business registered in the Netherlands;
• have a proven proposition and you are looking to scale-up;
• you have a clear view of what Taiwan (and Asia) can bring for your company – and vice versa.

Your pitch

• Your pitch has a maximum length of 4 minutes, followed by 4 minutes Q&A from the jury. We recommend you use max. 10 slides. If you use slides, you send them ultimately on 29 September 20:00 to the organisation.

Great Achievement, Big Rewards

We’re inviting you to pitch your idea in 4 minutes on Monday morning. From these pitches, 4 Dutch entrepreneurs and 4 Taiwanese entrepreneurs are selected for rewards aiming at the introduction of the idea/solution to partners and further guidance for realisation in Taiwan or The Netherlands. Dutch entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to win the Taiwan Explorer Award, including flight and a 1 (Silver) or 2 (Gold) week stay in Taiwan! Entrepreneurs from Taiwan can be rewarded with 1-of-4 support packages from a value range of € 1.000 – € 3.000.  Please respond before September 23 – so we can pre-select max. 14 companies to pitch.  Rewards will be awarded later that day at 16:30 during Taiwan Business Day 2019. [registration form]

Program 10:00 -13:00

10:00 – 10:10 Welcome (Heerd Jan Hoogeveen, Director Startup Utrecht)

10:10 –  10:50 Start-up pitches

10:50 – 11:30 Challenger pitches

11:30 – 12:00 Pitches Taiwanese start-ups*

12:00 – 12:15 Closing remarks (Valerie Hsu, Taiwan Globalisation Network)

12:15 – 13:00 Networking lunch (offered by Economic Board Utrecht).

* Specific part of the program reserved for participants of the RAPID-Heath program.

The jury

• Johan Nijboer (Deloitte, corporate partner Dotslash)
• Steef Klop (investor and start-up coach)
• René Reijtenbagh (ESIL Netherlands)
• Gilles Le Cocguen (BPI France)
• Nadia Kang (AiQ Smart Clothings)

Registration

Please respond before September 23 – so we can pre-select max. 14 companies to pitch. [registration form] Selection and announcement will be ready on September 24

Contact information

Startup Utrecht: Heerd Jan Hoogeveen heerdjan@startuputrecht.com; +31651850478

Taiwan Globalization Network (TGN): Valerie Hsu tgn@taiwanglobalization.net; +31610894908

Location: JIM The HUB – Tribune & Skybar, Jaarbeursplein 6, 3521 AL Utrecht

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