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The Hack the Crisis hackaton’s jury selected 15 finalists who will compete for CZK 10 million

The winner will be decided at next Monday’s finale

The Hack the Crisis hackaton’s jury selected 15 finalists who will compete for CZK 10 million Source: CzechInvest

On Monday, June 22, Prague’s coworking space WeWork will host the finale of the Hack the Crisis hackaton. The evening will reveal the eight winner startups who will split the CZK 10 million in prize money, provided to the competition by Hyundai. The fifteen teams partaking in the competition have already succeeded over the more than 180 entered projects and have dedicated the last months and weeks to further improving their projects.

The hackaton was announced by CzechInvest in cooperation with the Ministry of Industry and Trade at the beginning of April. 206 projects have been entered, of which fifteen have now reached the Pitch competition round which will see the finalists compete for money prizes. “The largest share of the projects, 10 out of 15, comes from the healthcare section. Four projects have been selected by the social section jury, one comes from the business section” said Patrik Reichl, the CEO of CzechInvest. “At CzechInvest,” he adds, “our long-term mission is to support entrepreneurship and investments, with one of our main goals being to turn Czech Republic into a European innovation leader. Events like this year’s hackaton can help us in this pursuit.“

The jury will be composed of Petr Očko (Deputy Minister for Digitalization and Innovation, Ministry of Industry and Trade), Markéta Přenosilová (Director of the Startups and Innovative Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Division, CzechInvest), Petr Michník (Head of the Legal Department and Public Relation Department, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech), Karel Dobeš (Chairman of the board of directors of the Czech Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Crafts) and Zuzana Nehajová (InnovEYtion Hub Leader, Ernst and Young).

The representatives of each finalist project will have three minutes to convince the jury of the merits of their project. The final evaluation will take into consideration not only the quality of the presentation, but also the contribution of the project’s core idea to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The prize money of CZK 10 million was provided to the hackaton by Huyndai – namely its Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech and Hyundai Motor Czech branches – who decided to support Czechia in its fight against the coronavirus. Thanks to the donation, the hackaton first-place winner will be awarded a cash prize of CZK 3 million, the second-place winner a prize of CZK 2 million and the third-place winner a prize of CZK 1 million. Another five projects will receive a special award of CZK 700 000.

“We are proud to be the partner of the hackaton and to be able to support the unique ideas that help fight the coronavirus pandemic. We are curious to see who will become the winner, as each of the top 15 projects offers something unique“ said Petr Michník, Head of the Legal Department and Public Relation Department at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech.

The hackaton took place between April and June 2020 and was open to healthcare-oriented, social, and business projects. "When we prepared this unique virtual hackthon three months ago and consulted it with colleagues from Poland, Estonia and many partners here in the Czech Republic, we had no idea what interest we would arouse. We consider the more than 200 projects entered into the competition to be a very good result and we hope that a large portion of them will succeed, even if they don’t end up on the podium“ said Petr Očko, Deputy Minister for Digitalization and Innovation at the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Most of the finalist projects, 10 out 15, come from the healthcare section. They are Active nanofilters against COVID-19, CorroVent, COVIDI, Daruju Krev (I donate blood), Diana Biotechnologies, MedRec AI, Oxygenerator, A portable device for medical diagnostics, the Virtual Lab app and Virus Deflektor. Four projects were chosen by the social section jury, namely FreMEn, Grey Cortex, Hunter Games and Kaleido. The fifteen finalists also include the business project Corrency.

The final event will be live streamed for public viewing on Monday, June 22, 2020 from 17.30, via Facebook, LinkedIn and the Czech News Agency’s portal České noviny. Also, on Thursday, June 18, voting will open on social media to determine the winner of the special audience award, who will also be announced at the hackaton finale event.

About Hack the Crisis
Hack the Crisis is a virtual hackathon that was launched with the aim of coordinating the needs of the state with energy and volunteering in the IT community and business environment, thus supporting the implementation of relevant projects that can help in the current situation or mitigate its impact. The main organisers of the event are CzechInvest and the Ministry of Industry and Trade. During last two months, 206 projects have been entered the hackathon. More than fifty partners from the private and public sectors have become involved in the hackathon, providing their services and products to selected projects. Free mentoring is being provided by more than 130 experts in various fields.

About CzechInvest
CzechInvest plays a key role in the area of comprehensive support for business and investments. The agency’s unique combination of regional, central and international operations ensures the integrity of its services and its ability to connect global trends with the regional conditions in the Czech Republic. One of CzechInvest’s primary objectives is the transformation of the Czech Republic into an innovation leader of Europe. CzechInvest is a state contributory organisation subordinate to the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic. The agency was established in 1992.

 

Contact:
Jana Kohoutova
Head of Communication & Spokeswoman
+420 720 965 969
jana.kohoutova@czechinvest.org

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