Data Accelerator to Boost European Startups and SME’s

The University of Southampton is to lead a new European-funded project that will bring together established businesses and startups to meet today’s challenges with data.

Data Pitch will provide up to 50 European startups and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) with world-class business support including: up to €100k equity free funding, expert mentoring, investment opportunities, and access to data from established businesses and the public sector.

Overall the European Commission has committed €7.1 million into data driven innovation and €4.8m to directly fund startups and SMEs.

The three-year project will be delivered by The University of Southampton, the Open data Institute, Portuguese innovation company Beta-i and French data marketplace platform Dawex. It is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

Data Pitch is also recruiting established businesses and other organisations to share their data via a new secure data innovation lab, based at the University of Southampton. These businesses will also help define the challenges along with the Data Pitch team and a wide range of experts from across industry sectors including agriculture and health. Startups will be given the chance to use this new data to address the challenges by developing innovative products and services.

Startups and SMEs will be able to apply for a place on Data Pitch from 1 July 2017. Successful startups will be selected in October and November 2017, and the first cohort will join in December 2017. Each startup will be on the programme for six months.

For more information go to: www.datapitch.eu