During Ideon’s 35th anniversary celebration on 28 September, prizes were awarded to promising growth companies in two categories, the Ideon Stipend and Ideon’s Mentorship Program. The winner of the Ideon Stipend, Bjorkstrom Robotics, received 25,000 SEK with the motivation “The company is awarded for having developed an exciting solution, with the help of VR and AR, that may revolutionize a complete industry. Although being in its early phase the company already has strategic customers/partners and great potential. The Ideon Stipend is given to support an increased market contact.”
In addition to the prize money, Bjorkstrom Robotics also won a Changeware workshop at Rouk AB to find processes to speed up time to market.
Bjorkstrom Robotics recieves the check for SEK 25 ooo from the chairman of the Ideon Board, Stephan Müchler. From left; Lars-Olof Ohlsson, Kristofer Björkström, Elmir Jagudin and Stephan Müchler.
Five winners of the Ideon Mentorship Program
The five winners of the Mentorship Program are:
- Magnus Lindström, founder and CEO, Tempiro
- Ofelia Madsen, CEO, BrainLit
- Johan Ranefors, CEO/CTO, Glimworks
- Lennart Bergström, co-founder, Sib Solutions
- Anders Arkenstedt, founder and CEO, Dimon systems
Lennart Bergström, Sib Solutions, Ofelia Madsen, BrainLit, Pierre Elzouki, Jon Hauksson, Staffan Gestrelius, Martin Gren, Anders Arkenstedt, Dimon systems, Magnus Lindström, Tempiro and Johan Ranefors, Glimworks. Mentor Charlotta Falvin is missing in this image.
The five mentors to help the growth companies scale up are Martin Gren, co-founder of Axis, Jon Hauksson, co-founder of Storytel, Charlotta Falvin, senior vice president and chairman, Pierre Elzouki, co-founder of Scalado and Staffan Gestrelius, co-founder of QlikTech. Together, they have chosen five adepts among the applicants who have stated in their application information about their growth goals, their backgrounds and arguments as to why they should win a place in the program. Each mentor will offer a total of 10 hours of mentorship in 2018 and the five adepts will receive two hours with each mentor.
“Ideon has meant a lot during my entrepreneurial journey and now I look forward to sharing my learnings through smart questions from hungry Ideon entrepreneurs,” says Martin Gren, co-founder of Axis.
“This will be an ongoing process where we match mentors with adepts and after the first five we will not have a limit on the number of adepts and mentors, but rather the interest will control the supply, “says Mia Rolf, CEO of Ideon Science Park.
Sharp Minds Sessions with the mentors gives everyone a chance to learn from the best
During the year, Ideon have hosted the “Sharp Minds Sessions” where mentors talk about their journey, important lessons they have taken and what they would like to share with new entrepreneurs. The next meeting will be held on November 20th where Martin Gren and Pierre Elzouki will take center stage to talk about the journey from an idea to a growing startup.
About the Ideon Stipend and Mentorship Program
The Ideon Society has stipulated the following criteria for a nomination and awards from the Ideon Stipend. The company should:
- be an Ideon company (be located at Ideon Science Park)
- have great growth potential
- have an innovation that has a foundation in research
- are in the Startup category, ie few employees, at a startup stage, no older than 5 years
- show good entrepreneurship
The Mentorship Program with the five mentors starts in October and the program will continue after the turn of the year.
