The winners of Inven2 Start 2019. Photo: Elisabeth Kirkeng Andersen.

Inven2Start is an annual idea competition intended to stimulate student innovation. Every year, between four and six ideas are chosen by Inven2 based on applications, and the people behind the ideas are given a start kit with a total value of NOK 60,000.This year’s lucky winners are Mine opplysninger (‘My data’), Stily, Tryio and Disputas.Read on to learn more about the different ideas.The starter kit includes more than just the money. It includes mentoring, office space and competence raising, and it is offered in collaboration with Inven2Start’s partners: Insj, StartUiO, BI Norwegian Business School, PWC, CLP and the Norwegian Industrial Property Office. Lise Rødsten at Inven2 is very impressed by this year’s ideas and winners.

‘This year we are pleased to observe such a wide range of ideas and that all the winners have made use of the competence acquired through their studies. In Inven2 we take great pleasure in contributing to student innovation in this way. Our hope is that several of the ideas can become commercially viable businesses,’ says Rødsten.

About the four winners:

Stily

Stily is an online shopping service for men. The service uses stylists in combination with machine learning to design recommendations specifically adapted for its users. The goal is to make it easier for men to dress well even if they have no interest in fashion, clothes or shopping.

The men register as users on the stily.no website and, based on the data they enter about themselves and their style of dressing, the stylists propose clothes and outfits. Users only pay for the clothes they buy through Stily and delivery is free.

Revenue is based on online sales.

Stily is already up and running at stily.no

The idea was conceived by Stian Skulstad and Julian Hjallum, both studying for a master’s degree in entrepreneurship at the University of Oslo, and Edvard Bakken, who now works full-time for the company.

Tryio

Behind Tryio is a team of three people with very different backgrounds, who want to join forces to develop a digital platform for food manufacturers to enable them to recruit the right target groups for conducting simple and inexpensive consumer tests.

Tor-André Birkedal previously worked as a product developer at Hennig-Olsen Is (ice cream manufacturer), where he became aware of the problem that Tryio now seeks to resolve. All food manufacturers test new products on consumers, but setting up the right consumer test panel is difficult and expensive. In many instances manufacturers end up testing new products on friends, family and acquaintances who do not even belong to the target group. Many food manufacturers use consultants to set up good consumer panels, but this is costly. The consultants use manual and not digital solutions for recruitment.

Other members of the team are Mzia Popova, UX designer with experience of front-end development, and Anantha Balasubramanian, back-end developer. Together, they will be responsible for developing the digital platform.

Disputas

The idea behind Disputas was conceived on the basis of concerns about the polarised debates taking place on today’s media platforms. Andreas Netteland, Tord Steffensen Sortland and Paal Fredrik Kvarberg want to develop a product that can improve the level of public debate by making analytical methods available to everyone.

The idea is for the platform to be an analysis tool so that users can understand and evaluate arguments in ongoing debates between protagonists.

Disputas targets three groups of customers. The first target group consists of educational institutions offering courses in logics, critical thinking and source evaluation. Disputas aims to create a platform that can be used in teaching university entrance examination candidates and similar courses at Norwegian universities, as well as the confirmation courses offered by the Norwegian Humanist Association.

The second target group consists of private companies, which can use the platform as support for difficult decisions. Disputas believes that extensive studies and reports can be far more quickly and clearly understood if argumentative text is given a logical form and presented using the platform framework.

The final target group consists of private individuals who wish to understand complex texts on current socioeconomic issues.

Andreas Netteland has studied information science and cybernetics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Tord Steffensen Sortland has a degree in law and works on supervision in the financial sector, and Paal Fredrik Kvarberg has machine learning and language technology skills, in addition to a master’s degree in philosophy.

Mine opplysninger (My Data)

Oliver Zengler Jakobsen and Fredrik Aasrum have developed an idea to protect the privacy of individuals. Privacy rights have become vulnerable as a result of increased digitalisation and rapid technological development. People are sharing vast amounts of data in exchange for access to data, content, services and social media platforms. Developments also entail new ways of accessing, collecting and analysing data, often across national borders. As a result of this, surveillance and invasion of privacy have increased in both the private and public sector.

‘My data’ will offer consumers a free app for handling their personal data. They can request access, change, restriction and erasure of a business’s processing of their data. The app will also provide guidance on privacy rights.

There has been a vast increase in the number of requests for access after the entry into force of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), without the assistance of any digital tools for this purpose. When privacy rights are made available in a user-friendly format, businesses will have to deal with a greater influx of requests from individuals. In response to this ‘My data’ wants to offer payment services to businesses.

Oliver Zengler Jakobsen holds a bachelor’s degree from the Norwegian Research Centre for Computers and Law, and Fredrik Aasrum is studying for a master’s degree in law at the University of Oslo.

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The winners of Idéprisen 2019. Photo: Jannicke Kristoffersen, Inven2

Around eight per cent of the world population suffer from diabetes, and many of them develop diabetic foot as a consequence of the illness. If the condition is not identified early enough, sores may develop around the foot. If the sores are not treated or treatable, amputation may be necessary in the most serious cases.

The Norwegian Directorate of Health therefore recommends that all diabetics be examined for diabetic foot once a year. Few diabetics follow up on this themselves, however, and the examinations are manual and inconsistent. A group of researchers at Oslo University Hospital and the University of Oslo have developed a smart sock they believe can resolve the problem.

‘Our idea is a device with a selected combination of non-invasive sensors for examining diabetic foot,’ Christian Tronstad tells us. Tronstad and his fellow researchers at Oslo University Hospital and the University of Oslo are behind the idea.

The measuring device will be in the shape of a smart sock to be worn by the diabetic during examination.

See a film that explains the idea.

‘Delighted to win the prize’

‘We are very pleased that our idea has gained such support! We can now develop a prototype and conduct a research trial to test and develop the smart sock beyond the idea stage,’ says Tronstad.

Tronstad has developed the smart sock together with Jonny Hisdal, Trond Jenssen, Inge Petter Kleggetveit, Ørjan G Martinsen, Håvard Kalvøy and Ole Elvebakk.

The jury found it hard to choose the best among 30 ideas and states the following in the grounds for its decision:

‘Diabetes affects more than eight per cent of the adult population worldwide. Diabetes can cause health problems over time, and diabetic foot is one of the most common complications, which damages nerves and blood vessels. The jury commends the collaboration displayed by the project, between different professional disciplines at the University of Oslo. The jury has chosen ‘Smart Sokk’ as the winner because it is seen as useful to society, improves the quality of life of those affected and, not least, has a great market potential.’

Two ideas were close runners-up in this year’s Idea Prize competition and were each awarded a prize of NOK 25,000. They were: ‘MinMAT: A decision-making tool for following up patients’ nutritional status and treatment’, and ‘A test for guidance to treatment of diffuse large B cell lymphoma’.

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Theodossis Theodossiou presents Lumiblast at Inven2 Pitch. Photo: Jannicke Kristoffersen, Inven2

The purpose of Inven2Pitch is to present potential opportunities for investors, as well as for entrepreneurs searching for exciting projects they can further develop into vibrant companies.

‘What the projects have in common is their need for entrepreneurs and funding when they, before long, proceed to the commercial phase,’ says Ole Kristian Hjelstuen, CEO of Inven2.

Two Inven2Pitch meetings were held in 2019:

Projects presented at the Aleap health incubator in June:

• SoftBeam: Technology that dramatically improves the image quality in ultrasound equipment while also reducing the costs of such equipment.
• ZinChel: Counteracts antibiotic resistance.
• SERCA Pharmaceuticals AS: New treatment for reperfusion injuries after heart attack (myocardial infarction – MI).
• Optical Audio Tape Digitizer: New technology for magneto-optical reading and storage of old vulnerable magnetic tape recordings.
• HLAII: A targeted flu vaccine platform.
• HoloCare: Holographic visualisation for better surgical interventions.

Projects presented at Cutting Edge in October:

• TCR discovery platform: A unique platform for detecting T cell receptors, a new investment opportunity in immuno-oncology based on cell therapy.
• TAM targeting (IL15): A universal immunotherapy based on antibodies that remove solid tumours with a 100% survival rate in animal models.
• CCN5: A new therapeutic treatment of pulmonary fibrosis based on a biological molecule.
• Lumiblast: A new principle for cancer treatment based on molecules being activated by the cancer cells’ own energy turnover and thus forcing the tumours to ‘commit suicide’.
• Tankyrase inhibitor: OM-153 – a potent low-molecular cancer drug that selectively attacks an important process in the cancer cells.
• Ambulansebrille: A unique new communication tool for paramedics.

Olav Steinnes is responsible for Inven2Pitch.
Please contact him if you want to receive information about the next Inven2Pitch meeting or an overview of projects.

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