AI Startup of the Year: InSilicoTrials

"Community building lies at the heart of the venture capital industry, driving collaboration, innovation, and success." -Luca Emili, CEO at InSilicoTrials

InSilico Trials is a team of experts working to revolutionize drug development through online solutions that reduce time and costs for clinical trials. Their mission is to accelerate the go-to-market timeline for new drugs by up to four years, providing earlier treatment access to patients and enhancing market exclusivity for commercialization.

Luca Emili explains "Attending events like Startup Grind in person is crucial for entrepreneurs because it offers unique opportunities for face-to-face networking, direct feedback, and real-time collaboration. These interactions are invaluable as they allow startup founders to share ideas, strategies, and experiences, gaining diverse perspectives from peers who are navigating similar challenges”

Looking ahead, their primary objective is to establish InSilicoTrials.com as the leading and most reliable platform in generating insights for clinical, operational, and financial decisions in global drug development R&D. 

SaaS Startup of the Year: SmartSuite

SmartSuite is a modern work management platform that is flexible enough to meet the needs of any business process or project, regardless of company type or size. They design and build intuitive, sophisticated and elegant software that enables teams and companies to solve real-world, business-based problems.

"During the tough times, we maintained focus and motivation by celebrating milestones and integrating real-time feedback from early adopters, enhancing our product" -Jon Darbyshire, Founder of SmartSuite

Jon added, "Our primary goal for attending the Startup Grind was to connect with other industry leaders and potential partners, and to showcase SmartSuite as a pioneering force in collaborative work management. Winning the SaaS Startup of the Year has been a significant validation for our team's hard work and innovative spirit, and we aimed to leverage this platform to expand our network and accelerate our growth trajectory."

Over the next five years, SmartSuite aims to be a leader in work management solutions globally. They plan to expand their reach to include thousands more enterprises, enhance their AI capabilities to provide even deeper workflow customization, and continue innovating with new features that address emerging business challenges. 

Disruptive Startup of the Year: geCKo Materials

geCKo Materials is a bio-inspired Dry Adhesive that is ultra-strong, reusable, leaves no residue and requires no force to detach. It is cost-saving, and energy-efficient and also opens up new applications in industrial automation, robotic gripping, space & defence and more. Unlimited possibilities!

"The conference was truly exceptional! With so many amazing individuals present, we wished for an extra day to network and connect with all the awesome folks in attendance!" -Capella Kerst, CEO & Founder at geCKo Materials

Some of their major goals are to help customers save energy, time, and money while improving the work environment for our customers thus helping to eliminate the customer’s pain points. Coinciding with those goals, they plan to increase their team, continue to innovate, and increase geCKo Materials manufacturing capacity. 

We can't wait to see what these three incredible startups achieve next! You can watch their quickfire pitches and award presentation on the Global 2024 mainstage here. 

If you're interested in chances to pitch, gain exposure, connect with investors, and securing future exhibition opportunities - apply for our Startup Membership program.