Essity Ventures, in partnership with Highline Beta, announce Essity EVolution startup challenge
In partnership with Highline Beta, Essity Ventures announced the launch of Essity EVolution, a startup collaboration challenge, focused on accelerating the execution of potential strategic partnerships with Essity Ventures to solve real industry challenges.
Essity Ventures was set up by Essity, as a trusted partner for startups in the health and hygiene industry, revolutionizing the space with new sustainable and digitally advanced solutions. Essity Ventures drives forward life-changing innovations to tackle every-day challenges and improve the health and well-being of people everywhere.
EVolution is a 3-day event for startups to collaborate with Essity. The goal is to explore potential strategic partnerships, learn from one another and solve real problems that matter to consumers.
We strongly believe with the EVolution program, we – meaning startups, Essity and their ecosystem partners – have the unique opportunity to break persisting barriers to health, hygiene and well-being by jointly building new business models and value propositions that make an impact in people’s lives!
Kai Thornagel, Director Essity Ventures, Essity
Challenge Themes
The event is focused on five challenge areas, which are all broadly centered around improving people’s well-being through better hygiene and health, with a particular emphasis on women and feminine care. These include:
Who Should Apply
We are looking for startups that solve one of the above mentioned challenge areas that are interested in collaborating with Essity to explore potential strategic partnerships. Our focus will be on early-stage startups located in Europe or those with the intention of doing business in Europe within the next 6 to 12 months. Solutions may be innovative business models around software, hardware, products or services.
The EVolution challenge is for you if you:
- Are an early-stage startup with a ready product (pre-seed/seed)
- Have a solution that solves one of the key challenge areas
- Ideally are already in-market with early traction
- Are fully available from November 9th to 11th, 2022, with your team
- Have a strong interest to collaborate with Essity on strategic aspects of your business, such as product roadmap, business model and go-to-market approach
“We’re excited about bringing together bright and ambitious startups and senior executives at Essity Ventures through this 3-day event. We believe strongly in the power of startup-corporate collaboration, and we know this event will create win-win opportunities that solve real world problems and make a big impact.”
Ben Yoskovitz, Founding Partner, Highline Beta
What Will Startups Get?
Our goal through EVolution is to expedite the process for startups to collaborate with Essity and Essity Ventures, to determine if there is future potential for partnership. You will have an opportunity to connect with and pitch to Essity’s C-suite executives. You will be able to tap into Essity’s industry and functional knowledge, identify potential pathways for partnerships and pilot cases, network and work closely with Essity stakeholders & supporters.
Participants will receive a travel budget for 2+ team members of €1,000, the potential to win minimum €15,000 to run a joint pilot, and access to Essity’s partner network.
Over the three days, founders will be meeting Essity executives and leadership, learning how Essity operates and collaborating actively. We’ll be there throughout the event providing mentorship on topics including business model design, go-to-market strategy, product and more.
Dates & Locations
Applications are open until September 23rd at 23:59 CEST and finalists will be chosen by October 17th.
EVolution will be held in Munich, Germany between November 9-11th, and startups will need to be available full-time for the duration of the 3-day event.
How to Apply
To learn more, visit the EVolution website here.
To apply directly, click here.