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Updates on Some of the Past Global Challenge Finalists $25,000 Grand Prize Winner in 2016 Park & Diamond, Virginia Tech, USA Jordan Klein, David Hall

Park & Diamond is dedicated to improving cycling safety; its ultraportable helmets are still available for pre-order on Indiegogo InDemand. As of March 2019, there are 19,500 helmets pre-ordered at nearly $1.7M. Meanwhile, the team is working on manufacturing and shipping its first helmets in late spring 2019 and implementing an official commercial launch in fall 2019. Park & Diamond hired a team of eight engineers, marketers and business operations professionals collectively, all of whom are working full-time in Brooklyn (DUMBO), NY. In April 2017, Park & Diamond took first place and $7,500 at the Union Innovation Challenge at Virginia Tech, as well as the $100,000 grand prize at the EIX E-Fest in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The team proceeded to win the Red Bull Launchpad competition held in New York City and complete the Urban-X accelerator with investment from BMW/Mini and its Urban.US investment partners, focused on developing “smart cities.” Park & Diamond was also awarded the Red Dot Award for product design in March 2019. The team has also received incredible television, print and online press coverage, including NBC-10/Philly, Fast Company, Forbes, Business Insider, Crain’s NY and Outside. It will be featured in Women’s Health Magazine (Hearst Corp.) in May and on CBS Innovation Nation. Learn more at https://www.park-and-diamond.com and watch its promotional video at https:// youtu.be/ynTsfqP0ovY.

CoatChecker, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland, 2016 Finalist: CoatChecker won two stages of Venture Kick, amounting in $30,000 in 2017. It was also the winning recipient of the 20th annual IMD Startup Competition in 2018. CoatChecker’s patented and innovative technology offers non-destructive, fast measurement of coating properties based

on a revolutionary photothermal process and digital signal processing. Its main applications assist construction companies in protecting flat roofs against weather and environmental influencers, as well as parking decks and underground garages against weather conditions and heavy traffic loads.

Ledsreact, Ghent University, Belgium, 2016 Finalist: Ledsreact released its first indoor product version in March 2017. The Ledsreact Direction sports device is a smart, interactive sports cone that will train the reaction speed and agility of athletes. By end-of-year 2018, Ledsreact was profitable and active in more than 17 countries. In February 2019, it was selected to participate

in the ISTART track of IMEC, the best ranked European accelerator and one of the world’s top university-based business accelerator programs. Ledreact will receive one year of training and funding from ISTART, which will allow it to recruit its first employee. Learn more at www.ledsreact.be.

weview, Technical University of Munich, Germany, 2016 Finalist: The winner of the 2016 Global Challenge Virtual Preliminary now resides in Berlin. The team went through the accelerator Retailtech Hub by Plug & Play, as well as a three-month accelerator program by SAP and Techstars, who recently invested in its company. The weview team pivoted its model to B2B, now displaying

its video reviews on online shops, such as MediaMarktSaturn, the second largest consumer electronics retailer worldwide. In addition, it has cooperated with brands such as Sony and Epson. Focusing on B2B, weview helps shops increase conversion rates, decrease return rates, improve organic search traffic and make pages more authentic and visual. In the past, it received a 36k subsidy from the Bavarian government, and it recently hired a new CEO. Learn more at https://www. weview.tv.

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