Activities under this Action aim at continuing and strengthening the support towards Greek start-ups and SMEs in their effort to bring solutions based on Copernicus data and services to the Greek market. The main activities include the organization of an Appathon where the winning ideas (close-to-market) will be awarded with a financial prize and will be coached on how to successfully pitch their idea and how to connect with investors and VCs. The Appathon will be built on a DIAS provider with limited resources, thus leveraging on building applications close to the data. The purpose of those limited resources is to provide prototypes to relevant users and then based on their interest to buy and/or request funds through VCs, allowing then to scale up the application to an operational service.

This activity will commence by creating an innovation challenge of applications (Appathon) that will leverage on requirements identified by end-users’ needs. These applications must be replicable and scalable so that they can be used from more users, in different countries and markets with few changes. As a result, this activity aims to bring innovative EO based products from developers to users. The focus of this activity is innovation and therefore, the Appathon will be structured as follows:

• A short document/report of 2-3 pages will be created to present the needs and requirements of the challenge to be addressed. NOA will prepare and provide a mapping of these needs and regional priorities to assist developers in creating apps with potential for uptake.
• Based on the document, an “Innovation Appathon challenge” web page will be created (sub-domain of the website) where the interested EO service provided can apply for the challenge and/or request clarifications.
• The challenge will focus on inviting developers, SMEs and non-profit organizations to create smart apps using Sentinel data coming from any Copernicus Hub, addressing stakeholder needs of the strategic target group, namely Balkans, Middle East and North Africa.
• The EO Service providers (either individuals or companies) will submit their proposal in 1-2 pages extend.
• Evaluation of the solutions by the end-users with the support of NOA and PRAXI.
• Award of 3 solutions with 2000€ each to proceed with the development of the proposed applications, along with some DIAS resources. This will take place as part of a dedicated Appathon event that will take place in NOA premises.

The criteria used to evaluate the solutions will be defined based on impact, viability and functionality of the applications. The three awarded start-ups and SMEs will receive customised support by PRAXI network to design and refine their pitching process in order to attract funds from investors (both public and private funds). The coaching will cover all phases of pitching readiness from preparation to presentation. Coaching subjects will include: providing a well drafted business plan, presenting realistic financial projections, offering an attractive exit strategy, preparing a pitching deck for the investors and tips for the actual pitching process.

Outputs and Results

• 1 Innovation Appathon challenge organized
• 3 SMEs/start-ups receiving customised coaching for pitching