Italian TA-DAAN wins TechChill Milano startup pitch battle and €10K
The first TechChill Milano has concluded with the Italian e-commerce startup TA-DAAN winning the startup pitch battle and nabbing a €10K cash prize, no strings attached.
TA-DAAN is a digital media platform promoting contemporary craftsmanship, preserving historical skill sets while presenting them in engaging formats.
What we appreciated in TA-DAAN was the quality of the pitch, engagement on the stage, the fact that the topic is untouched.
Craftsmanship is a problem – the artisans are of a certain age group, and losing their skillsets is a real risk. It’s important to highlight this topic.
Fadwa Ouardani, Xange, and TechChill Pitch Battle jury member
Ten founders had the chance to pitch their startups to a room of 1000+ attendees, 40+ media representatives, and investors representing 75+ investment funds, including Balderton Capital, Global Founders Capital, SuperSeed, and more.
Ouardani further comments TA-DAAN’s victory:
A factor considered when evaluating the teams was the diversity in the team. In real life, the ratio is one woman founder to nine men. TA-DAAN has a female team, which is pretty rare.
In addition to the 10,000 EUR cash prize, TA-DAAN also won Draper University Hero Program tuition, aUizard Pro subscription, PoliHub Business membership, InnovUp membership, 1000 USD in Google & Linkedin Ad Credits & 90% discount on all Hubspot software, Miro credits, a one-year Humble.AI subscription, $10,000 in Freshworks credits, and outdoor advertisement campaigns from Streetvox Digital in the center of Milan.
The competition was really tough, and we’re so happy – and also surprised – that we won. TA-DAAN started as a digital magazine, and we recently launched our e-commerce platform.
Roberta Ligossi, Co-founder and CEO of TA-DAAN
We were able to do it because we had first built a strong community with over 200,000 followers, 2000 craft lovers, a database of more than 5000 artisans.
Asked how the team will spend the 10,000 euro cash prize, Ligossi said: “First of all, we’ll throw a party for the team, and then we’ll invest the rest in the community because that’s the core value of our business.”
Additional winners included startup Poleepo, which won a €90,000 investment from Startup Wise Guys. This was the first time Startup Wise Guys has offered investment as a prize. The winners of $10,000 in AWS credits were Holifya – a DNA test and gene sequencing startup.
Jury members included Peter Sandberg of Nordic Secondary Fund, Stefania Quaini of Angels4Women, Giorgio Barbaglia at Feel Ventures, Fadwa Ouarani of Xange, and Carlo Tassi of Italian Angels for Growth.
Past winners include Baltic success stories Infogr.am, TrackDuck, Edurio, Nordigen, Sprayprinter, Anatomy Next, Precision Navigation Systems, Longenesis, and this past year – Vocal Image App.
Originally held in Riga, Latvia, and last year celebrating 10 years of the event, TechChill was for the first time held at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, on September 28-29. It was announced that TechChill will return to Milan again in 2023.
After 10 years of TechChill in our native Latvia, we have moved outside the borders – to Italy. The decision to expand to Italy is based on a variety of aspects, including local demand, international interest, ecosystem support, and our own organizational goals.
Italy is quite a closed market for people from abroad. As a foreigner, it’s difficult to navigate – most events are in Italian. From the insight I have gathered in conversations with sponsors, VCs, they all feel they lacked an event, a platform to come together. We were in a position to be able to offer a platform.
We were already thinking of expanding to different countries, but you can’t do anything if you don’t feel the pull from the ecosystem. We have the know-how; we have the connections. Here in Italy, passionate people, investors, and media wanted to make TechChill happen in their community. We’ve found that the magic formula is to have an operational team that knows the organizational process and works closely with the local ecosystem.
This year’s event is an MVP, with all the essential things you need. I can honestly say that screen size and production level aren’t critical – the people are the most important element of a successful event. The people who come are the most important part of the puzzle.
We already have partners confirming their readiness to participate next year. We’re excited about the turnout, with 120+ investors and 460+ startup representatives from 29 countries.
Our goal is to put Italy on the startup map of Europe, and this is the first step.”
states Annija Mezgaile, TechChill CEO
