16 Dec Demo Day 2015
After three months of intensive training, coaching and project work, the first three startups from the Merck accelerator got the opportunity to pitch in front of investors during the Demo Day. For this final event of the accelerator program investors from all over Europe made their way to the Innovation Center on Thursday, 10 December 2015. The teams of Apoly, Contagt and Sulfotools had 10 minutes each for their pitch presentation followed by another 10 minutes of Q&A. After that, the investors had the chance to evaluate how well the teams performed regarding team composition, presentation, and business model.
The investors also used the opportunity to meet the teams personally in the networking session. Overall, the investor feedback was positive and they were very impressed with the team’s personality.
“It’s important that teams have a certain openness and the ability to change their plans if necessary. Surprisingly, this is not easy to find,“ said investor Patrick Griss, zühlke ventures.
Munya Chivasa, Innovation Facilitator in charge of the Merck Accelerator Program, observed the following: „We have seen the startups here evolve into consistent teams that work together. That is what you need at this early stage.”
At the end of Demo Day, Prof. Carolin Bock from Technical University of Darmstadt held a keynote on success factors of startups. In this context she stated that “most of the time it is not only the money that startups need, but it is a supporting program, which basically consists of a strong network, access to key customers and technology advisers.“
With this feedback, the Merck Innovation Center Team will go in the second round of the accelerator program in early 2016.
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