The first edition of AIM Startup, which was organised in conjunction with the seventh edition of the Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) in Dubai, named three start-ups as the winners of the Startup Pitch Competition.

Following a continuous series of pitches, the announcement closed out the competition on the final day of the international gathering, said a statement from the organisers.

The top three winners were awarded prizes by Juma Al Kait, assistant undersecretary, foreign trade affairs at UAE Ministry of Economy and Dawood Al Shezawi, CEO of AIM’s organising committee.

The first place winner of the $15,000 cash prize was Blitab Technology of Vienna Austria, it said.

Kristina Tsvetanova, co-founder and CEO of Blitab, Austria, said: “Our company is the world’s first tactile tablet for blind and partially sighted people.”

“We're thrilled by the opportunity that the event gave us to present our project. This win is a milestone for us and will help us move to the next level to achieve our set goals,” he said.

The second place winner of the $10,000 cash prize was Innovein Medical of California, US, it added.

Austin Walker, co-founder and CEO of Innovein Medical, said: “Our company is the medical device company, which addresses the unmet medical needs of patients with advanced vein disease and poor valves, with a minimally invasive valve replacement for veins.”

“Winning this honour gives us validation that our idea is here to last. It feels amazing to win this prize and feels even better that we’re going to be receiving coaching from some of the best entrepreneurs in the world,” he said.

The third place winner of the $5,000 cash prize was Palmos, also from the US, said a statement.

Palmos is a SaaS environmental monitoring company. They design low cost sensors and install them in high-density configurations to gather data maps of urban areas. This data is then pushed to the cloud where it is processed using machine learning classification algorithms to better monitor and predicts environmental vulnerabilities and risks in urban areas.

Palmos’ first generation offering is tailored to help cities better monitor and predict landslides and flooding.

Start-ups were judged on a number of criteria such as the ability to scale, the existence of product market fit and the experience of team, it added.

With a remarkably large number of high- potential startups participating from all parts of the world, representing various sectors and stages of growth, AIM Startup will be increasing the prizes offered to startups in future editions, by creating additional categories such as ‘Best in Sector’ and ‘Best in Region,’ to acknowledge and reward the great accomplishments of AIM Startup participants, it stated.

The event was supported by sponsors and partners including In5, UTPS, Dubai SME, Takamul, Dtec, 1776, Turn8, Womena, Entrepreneur Middle East and Rotana Media, as well as The Cribb, Impact Hub, and University of Wollongong in Dubai. The winners of the pitch competition were announced on the final day of the show.

An initiative of the Ministry of Economy, AIM Startup proved to be an effective platform where the world’s most promising and disruptive start-ups were given an opportunity to expose innovative solutions to the global participants of the AIM – a perfect place for entrepreneurs to meet business leaders, decision makers, government officials and investors directly, it stated. – TradeArabia News Service