Franz Fayot & Sasha Baillie present an overview of Fit4Start

Luxembourg, 15 October 2020 – Minister of the Economy Franz Fayot and Sasha Baillie, CEO of the national innovation agency Luxinnovation, announced on Thursday 15 October the names of the 20 start-ups that have been selected for participation in the 10th edition of the Fit 4 Start acceleration programme. The selected start-ups are active in the fields of ICT, health technologies and space. The minister also took the opportunity to summarise the results of the
programme, 5 years after its launch.

Initiated in 2015 by the Ministry of the Economy, Fit 4 Start is managed by Luxinnovation in collaboration with Technoport, the Luxembourg City Incubator and the Luxembourg Space Agency. Its objective is to support start-ups in
the ICT, health technologies and space sectors from their start-up phase. The programme offers tailor-made coaching over a period of 4 months and funding of €50,000.

An additional grant of €100,000 is allocated to start-ups that have successfully graduated from the Fit 4 Start programme and succeeded to raise private capital in the 6 months following the end of the programme. Over 1,800 start-ups have applied to the 10 editions of the programme organised so far. 78 start-ups have participated in the various support sessions and 56 have graduated. The start-ups participating in the first 9 editions of Fit 4 Start
have raised, since their creation, a total amount of more than €15.2 million from private investors.

“The tremendous evolution of Fit 4 Start over the past five years and the constantly growing interest shown by startups around the world clearly demonstrate the relevance of the programme and its importance in the start-up
ecosystem, at the national as well as the international level. I am delighted, ” said Minister of the Economy Franz Fayot.

“The programme has accomplished a two-fold objective: to attract international start-ups to Luxembourg and to be a springboard for Luxembourg start-ups going international, ” commented Sasha Baillie, CEO of Luxinnovation. “Fit 4 Start facilitates a real exchange and cooperation between participants, while also acting as a very efficient marketing/branding tool for Luxembourg at the international level.”

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