AI.STARTUP.HUB shows diversity of artificial intelligence
At the 3rd Graduation Day of the AI.STARTUP.HUB, a funding program for startups working with artificial intelligence (AI), twelve teams showed the diverse possibilities offered by the use of AI. Most popular with the audience were doctorderma with an app for diagnosing skin diseases and HIVESOUND with a method for analysing the condition of bee colonies.
AI.STARTUP.HUB puts startups on course for growth
At the AI.STARTUP.HUB, there are two funding programs: "Ideation" is aimed at individuals and teams whose business idea comes from the AI field but who have not yet founded a company. "Accelerator" supports startups that have already taken their first steps and are on course for growth. At Graduation Day, they jointly presented their projects and how they have developed over the past six months. It was hard to tell who belonged to which program, which spoke for the high quality of the ideas.
An important goal of the funding initiative is to prepare startups for talks with investors. The winners were offered concrete talks with investors and the prospect of a trip to the USA to present themselves to VCs there as well. Accordingly, almost all speakers emphasized the high commercial potential of their ideas. It was not uncommon to hear talk of markets worth billions. A number of concepts revolved around accelerating and simplifying processes with the help of artificial intelligence.
Intelligent solutions for people and bees
AI is also playing an increasingly important role in medicine. One example of this is the startup doctorderma, which took joint first place in the public vote. doctorderma has developed an app that supports the treatment of skin diseases and in many cases makes a visit to the doctor unnecessary. All users have to do is upload three photos and fill out a questionnaire. Within 24 hours, they receive a diagnosis, a treatment recommendation and, if necessary, a prescription.
The most original idea of the evening was presented by HIVESOUND. This startup proved that beekeeping can also be digitized. The fact that an app is used to document the daily work with the bees is not yet unusual. A real innovation, however, is an artificial intelligence that analyzes the buzzing of the insects. Based on sound frequencies, it can tell whether the swarm is about to fly out, how the queen is doing and whether any stress factors are disturbing the animals' well-being. This is not a niche market either: bees play an essential role in pollinating crops and there are around one million colonies in Germany alone.
