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 name originates from two Chinese words that together mean Excellent Breathing. uHoo was founded by 

. The idea for uHoo came when Dustin and Brian were studying in Hong Kong. Both Dustin and Brian have respiratory difficulties from which they were suffering more due to the air quality in the dormitories in Hong Kong. Addressing this to the building management and the school seemed to have no effect. “

They were not going to do anything unless there was evidence to prove that something was wrong.

” That is why they dropped their classes and started the company.

In contrast to most people, who are driven by money, Dustin and Brian are driven by the impact that they can have on the world. uHoo promotes peace of mind with regards to health and safety, as people can track the air quality in their homes. That is also why Dustin and Brian built this company. They know that they can help improve the health of other people. That is also what keeps them motivated to keep going. “

Recently someone posted a review that uHoo saved their dad’s life. Those are the things that we built the company for.

uHoo was approached by WorldStartup to join the Market Readiness programme. Initially the programme was set to be for 3 months in The Hague. However, Dustin managed to make an agreement where they would be able to do the programme remotely. They were assigned mentors and two of those mentors actually left WorldStartup when the programme ended and joined the uHoo team. The accelerator event was the only time Dustin actually came to the Netherlands during his time with WorldStartup. He was in the Hague for 3 days. During those three days they did a presentation, managed to get some funding from the people that were present at those events, and also walked away with some new clients. “

The biggest benefit of working with WorldStartup was funding and networking possibilities

We are planning to launch new products this year, cater to new markets, and probably close a funding round as well

.” Dustin states when asked about any new milestones that uHoo wants to achieve in 2020. This year uHoo already launched their 

, which helps people create an environment to deactivate viruses. This idea popped up in April, and took 6 weeks to build. The reason as to why this was created is that “

Viruses survive in a specific environment, and there is no technology that can detect these viruses, for example Covid-19, in real time.

” However, researchers have proven that Covid-19 is deactivated within a specific environment. uHoo Virus Index shows you how to deactivate the virus by creating such an environment.

Dustin believes that anything can be learned. “

Entrepreneurship is more of whether you want it or not.

” In terms of uHoo, Dustin mentions that if he were to change something it would not be about how to avoid mistakes, but rather how to grow the company bigger and faster. “

Mistakes are inevitable, because that is how you grow.

” His advice for anyone looking to start a Startup is also “

Don’t hesitate. Just do it. Build it. Launch it.

The idea for uHoo came when Dustin and Brian were studying in Hong Kong. Both Dustin and Brian have respiratory difficulties from which they were suffering more due to the air quality in the dormitories in Hong Kong.

Work in peace and breathe with ease knowing the air around you is safe and healthy

Access to credit and market linkages for smallholder farmers are a known problem in most developing nations. 

 observed the unorganized sector due to his father’s association to farming networks and street vendors as a social reforms activist and this is his story.

The agricultural and hawker economies are responsible for the sustenance of 75% of Indians and the highest employment generators in India.

With his previous experience in distributed & democratic ecosystems, Ayon Hazra saw blockchain playing a key role in bridging this trust deficit and creating fair economies. In this model farmers can establish longer term, direct relationships with buyers who could receive a share of harvest or % of sale proceeds. These short supply chains provide fair wealth distribution, reduces food miles, raise trust, quality, and enhance biodiversity.

Ayon Hazra’s entrepreneurial journey began as a consultant, providing solutions to fortune 100 customers across the globe for multiple MNCs.

“After working in the business consulting industry for over a decade, I decided to build a social enterprise that could create market linkages to farming networks and ensure fair wealth distribution across the food chain.”

As of 2018, 500 million smallholder farmers have provided sustenance to 2.5 billion people. However, smallholder farmers have weak relationships with buyers and supply chains. The problem is multi-fold — farmers need to be able to sell harvest to secure formal credit which can only be obtained if they are recognized by the local governments. Smallholder farmers are unable to provide guarantees that traditional investors seek. Coupled that with captive customers and opaque value chains have made it impossible to gain access to investors and markets. Short supply chains between farmers and consumers would enable fair wealth distribution across the food chain, conserve biodiversity, reduce food miles ensuring quality and low carbon footprint which would lead to strengthening the local economy.

Problem Statement — Access to Market & opaque value chains

77% of India relies on the hawker distribution channel as the point of purchase. However, customers have zero visibility of the food chain — quality of food, trust deficit and food safety issues

Hawkers do not have access to collective bargaining and hence buy at a higher price individually from wholesalers where the quality too is compromised.

Fragmented supply chain with a trust deficit due to information asymmetry within the food value chain

As farming cooperatives do not have access to captive markets/contracts they: do not have reliable incomes and due to inability to forecast demand, end up with unfair farm gate prices due to distress selling

Post-harvest losses in India exceed Rs 90,000 crore per year, due to lack of access to supply chain services like storage and transportation

Qlikchains Blockchain-based platform, Borlaug Web Services (BWS), has been developed ground-up, keeping in mind the challenges specifically with the Agri-sector in mind. The platform has 4 components to provide seamless transparency & traceability for all stakeholders:

BWS platform offers decentralized identities (DIDs) backed by Borlaug blockchain for citizens in unorganized communities.

BWS Audits helps farmers provide compliance reports and sustainability assessments to buyers offering transparency and traceability in value chains.

BWS Provenance Tracking is used to record and track origins of commodities with live reports of signed proofs on the blockchain with detailed tracking and tracing information.

BWS Marketplaces helps agri-producers gain access to markets and secure capital from consumers in return for a share of harvest or revenue

In addition to this, in India, their partnership with the National Hawker Federation (NHF), the largest organization of street vendors in India with more than 2 million members, provide them with one of the biggest sellers’ network.

This, connected with their partnerships with several farming networks provide them with an unique edge to connect two of the largest unorganized sector in India.

“From our vision perspective, we are still aligned to our initial goal of empowering local farming communities. So, in that sense, I would consider myself fortunate to pursue the goals for these 3 years and still look forward with optimism that we are closer to our goal than where we were yesterday. It is that drive to pursue that vision that takes our organization forward. However, as an entrepreneur, in hindsight, there are always room for improvements. One of the key advices I would give to myself is focus more on local knowledge. All geographies are unique with respect to the product placement, value chain and solution offerings. Hence, identify the geographies that you would like to focus and centre the product development for those markets, instead of a global focus.”

When asked What has been your greatest achievement so far? Ayon answered; “to be able to provide better pricing to farmers via direct sourcing to consumers. It is a matter of pride to see smiles of their faces when a farmer realizes that they have earned a higher profit for their effort after partnering with us.”

“We were looking to gain experience in decentralized agro economies and in countries where the Agri sector is a large contributor to the country’s GDP. Netherlands was the obvious choice. We found 

 aligned to our vision of impact and sustainability.”

Qlikchain wanted to build a for profit social enterprise that would have a positive impact to smallholder farming communities especially in the developing nations. WorldStartup helps with messaging and helped shape the DNA of the company since inception.

When asked how the COVID-19 pandemic affected Ayon Hazra as a founder and his business, Ayon answered: The ongoing pandemic has devastated the livelihood and income generation for the millions of people associated with the unorganized sector. We believe that access to basic amenities like food & sanitation is imperative at these times where the situation has rendered them helpless. However, as they say, every cloud has a silver lining. Post COVID, we are seeing an increased awareness amongst consumers to “know your food source”. Hence, Customers are buying more natural produce and farm fresh foods. We had been trying to create an awareness among farmers to emphasise more on natural (or Organic) farming. Earlier, due to low demand, the production of such food items was pretty low. In recent times, the farmers are getting increased demand for natural products. This has helped our cause in trying to provide natural food to consumers along with fair pricing for farmers.

Some of their key initiatives for the next few months include:

Expand our operations across 6 states in India

Onboard 100 farming networks and 50 street vending hubs across India

Start our B2C offerings of grocery staples, fruits & vegetables across 2 major cities

Their key milestone would be to break even in terms revenue generation from our operations by 2020.

As we concluded the interview he left future entrepreneurs with the following advice;

“Stay focussed. Setbacks and disappointments are part of the journey to success and not an aberration. “ and “Focus on product quality — Irrespective of the funding that you get, and all sales & marketing effort, it’s the Customers who will decide whether you are successful. For that, you need a great product — So, ensure that when the opportunity does knock on your door, you have the right product to make it to the big stage.”

Empower farming communities, enhance transparency in the supply chain and ensure fair wealth distribution in the supply chain.

Uplift, Empower & Sustain local farmers & communities

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Hackathon for Good is an open invitation to anyone with a hacker mindset and the passion to work on data and AI for impact. We are curious about the possibilities of new technologies. We want to apply them for good. To solve things that truly matter. All across the world.

Our mission is to connect data and AI savvy innovators with transition leaders to accelerate purpose-driven innovation by governments, NGOs, universities, and businesses. We help them prototype with data and AI. By providing access to data, tools, challenges, team members, training, and mentoring.

The 5th edition of The Hackathon for Good in The Hague takes place online and at various exclusive working spaces during the 48h hack period.

The deadline for teams’ registration is 23:59 CET on the 13th of November 2022. In case you are looking for teammates or want to join an existing team, check out our tips in the 

There are 2 options to take part in the hackathon - Fast track and Full track. Each team can indicate their preference for time involvement upon registration or no later than by the end of the 19th of November.

The Fast track includes key events, mandatory activities and opportunities for 1-on-1 sessions with the challenge owners and mentors. Fast track teams can get tech support or ask questions via chat on the platform.

The Full track contains all activities from the Fast track and comes with an exciting support programme. This includes workshops on data processing, business and design, extended sessions with the challenge owners and open hours for consultations and technical support. The Full track gives you the advantage of having more time to craft your solution uninterrupted during the 48h hack period.

HFG The Hague is not just a hackathon, it consists of many additional exhibiting events that are free to join. Follow the calendar and register via 

Anyone is welcome to participate in a Hackathon for Good. The best solutions can come both from a well-accustomed team or from a newly formed one where professionals and enthusiasts get to know each other and explore new opportunities. If you already have teammates in mind, make sure to sign up for our community hacker updates and our early-bird registration access to the challenges. If you are still looking for teammates, join the community and hacker events to build a strong and fun team. 

 our community of hackers and be the first to receive news about our events! 

For more information make sure to go over the

Dates

International and The Hague-based students, professionals, startups, enthusiastic individuals, teams, engineers, programmers, designers, business and tech experts from any other relevant field per challenge.

For whom

Opportunity lead

Hackathon for Good - The Hague #5

Hackathon for Good is an open invitation to anyone who is interested in solving societal challenges by using data and AI.

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6-week training by experienced entrepreneurs and top experts for an international group of ambitious innovators. 

Futurepreneurs Dutch Open is an online experience for empowering young, motivated and talented students and young professionals with entrepreneurial ambition.  It provides them with all the tools and skills to start their journey.  They can test their fresh skills and knowledge by embracing one of the challenges provided by our industry partners or introducing their idea of the concept. 

The programme helps them to answer several important questions:

Am I the right person to lead a startup or join a team?

Do I already have the right idea or concept?

There are many ways to join this experience, whether you are a teacher, a student, an experienced entrepreneur or a challenge owner. 

As an educator you can improve your curriculum by offering your students to solve real challenges and give them the opportunity to expand their network. Use Futurepreneurs to offer your motivated students real-life challenges from real companies to make your course more relevant, engaging and fun. 

Many organisations can use this programme as an opportunity to explore the potential of talent for future solutions. Whether it is a short-term problem or long-term, young brains can bring unexpected interventions to your company that you could not have conceived alone. 

Get fast and applicable solutions for free

If you want to validate your idea and learn about setting up your team, making the first steps in concept development and pitching for a jury. Futurepreneurs is a great opportunity to gain relevant experience, boost your skills and grow your network by solving real-life company challenges.

As a mentor, you will support one or several young energetic entrepreneurs in their business development. From the start, you will make a close connection with talented students/ entrepreneurs. With your expertise, you will guide them and move towards a better, more thoughtful idea. It is very inspiring what you will be able to do together with international talent.

Opportunity to support future entrepreneurs in their business development and design

International connections with the possibility to gain new potential partners

Futurepreneurs is a year-round programme that consists of several main activities. 

The programme is divided into two phases. 

In the first phase, we involve all the educators and important stakeholders to run the execution phase. 

The execution phase is the part where we facilitate educational weekly workshops for students that are interested in becoming future entrepreneurs. We start with the kickoff, followed by the workshops and end with the pitch event.

The core of the programme is a series of 6 masterclasses and workshops, all online, open to teams and young professionals. The programme ends with a pitch event where we involve our stakeholders and a jury. The best teams will get a scholarship that enables them to develop their idea into a viable business with support from  WorldStartup. Application is open for students/young professionals and teams and  participation is free of charge.

Extra: Open hour every Friday for questions and support.

What will futurepreneurs learn from this programme?

Analysing your personal skills and building a team;

Defining your mission, vision and values;

How to ideate, pick the best ideas and transform them into a concept;

Validating the problem you want to solve;

Understanding the impact your concept can make;

Set up a prototype and test to validate your concept;

Creating a roadmap with short-term and long-term goals;

In this programme you will get answers to these questions:

1. What does it take to be an entrepreneur?

2. Am I the right person to lead a startup or join a team?

4. Do I already have the right idea or concept?

Futurepreneurs Dutch Open

6 weeks of training provided by experienced entrepreneurs and top experts for an international group of ambitious innovators.

Download the brochure

Basecamp

Exploration phase startups

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Basecamp is for

People who want to create real impact with scalable innovative ventures from the ground up.

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Problem Definition & Validation

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Validation phase startups

Ivana Dvořáková, founder of Terraz Food

Altitude is for

An all-inclusive support programme of up to 3 years from ready to market to sustainable growth.

Why join altitude?

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Partners of the GovTechNL

These and many other companies work together to ensure the hub is achieving its objectives.

Contribute to the transition. Join the community

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Centre for Civic Innovation

We gather a community of like-minded people in the GovTech sector

Find us here

About GovTechNL

GovTechNL is set to contribute to the innovation of our public sector.

Contribute to the transition. Meet RHIA, or view our projects.

Sustainable Aviation

Together, we make innovation fly.

We innovate for

The future of aviation to make it more sustainable and easier.

” The idea for the company surfaced during his Masters where he worked on a project for Indonesia. During this project Rushabh was working on how to use plastic waste, which was abundant in Indonesia, and how to solve the issue of unsafe constructions. That is where he decided to design a brick that can be manufactured anywhere and people can use it, making it a solution for both problems. He saw a great potential for the project to be applied, strengthened by the positive feedback he received from his peers and professors. “

If there is a possibility of this happening, I want to take it up right now.

” Rushabh recalls his mentality being at the time. Seeing as he had just graduated his Masters, he had more time, less responsibilities, and he was very passionate about this project. “

I see a big necessity for such a project.

” Rushabh grew up in Mumbai, India. He studied to become an architect, and was deeply afflicted by how a majority of the city’s population lived in squatter settlements, and why architects or the architectural profession were not able to cater to these people. “

Besides it having been a successful project during my Masters, it is also the emotional side of knowing the context of where I grew up that motivates me.

” He came to The Netherlands in 2016, where he did his Masters at TU Delft. “

I hadn’t planned much in advance, but I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur, so things just happened the way they happened.

It’s not just ment as a product, but something that enables people to unlock their capability of building their own house, and being able to afford their own house, while also being a hope for reducing pollution, and in that way also creating jobs.

In July 2019, Rushabh came into contact with WorldStartup. This happened coincidentally as his business partner Frans Taminiau knew Hub Jongen, the Startup Support Director at WorldStartup. WorldStartup saw the potential in “Conscious Designs”, and their views on impact were aligned. Rushabh mentions that the things that WorldStartup helped him the most with were making them feel comfortable as entrepreneurs, being patient with them, while also giving them really good training and mentorship. “

They followed up on us, and made sure that we were focused on the impact that we wanted to create.

” They gave them the tools to make their approach sharper. “

WorldStartup was more about lifting us rather than protecting us.

” is how Rushabh describes his company’s value. Not just as a product, but something that enables people to unlock their capability of building their own house, and being able to afford their own house, while also being a hope for reducing pollution, and in that way also creating jobs. “

Something that can serve people by helping people help themselves.

” The brick prototypes that Rushabh’s company currently produces in Rotterdam are made from waste plastics that they get from partnerships. One of their biggest partnerships is with a textile manufacturing company that has around 300 kilos of plastic waste every month. Currently they are doing a project in Ghana. Despite wanting to implement this project in Mumbai, Rushabh has done some analyses and came to the conclusion that it requires a lot more planning, as land is expensive and there are more challenges to overcome. That is why he thinks that before implementation in Mumbai, they will most likely develop their project in some smaller cities in India. Besides their project in Ghana, they have also explored ideas of bringing the project to Kenya, Malawi and Mexico, but they have decided to focus on one community first. The way they get plastic waste in African countries is different from in Europe, In Ghana, they are going to be working with informal waste recycling organisations in Accra to source their plastic waste, while supporting the local informal economy.

Rushabh is inspired by people who are less fortunate. A lot of people have the skills to help the people in need, but they either lack the motivation to use their skills in those sectors or circumstances hold them back. “

If I really want something to change, and I become the first domino to fall, I just need to do that once successfully and then the rest can follow.

” When asked about his greatest achievement thus far, Rushabh said that it has been about inspiring people, and being able to speak about these issues of waste plastic and affordable housing on global platforms. “

A lot of people have said that it is nice that younger people are taking up the fight against these problems.

” But Rushabh also mentioned that in terms of the company, achievements are not yet there, they have not made that impact yet. But someday they will.

Currently, Unibrick is a collaboration between “Conscious Designs” and “Community Plastics”, founded by Frans Taminiau, who is the founder of “Masters That Matter.” These companies together are going to create a new company which is going to be launched the coming months. The milestones for this year are therefore also setting up this company, andalso setting up a pilot project in Ghana in the next year and half. For the future, Rushabh’s goal is to have built over a million constructions with Unibricks in the next 10–15 years.

When asked what his main challenges were, he mentioned that as an architect, he was not trained to be an entrepreneur. “

There is no entrepreneurial course that is given to you at Architecture school in which you start thinking of your own ideas, from a concept level to an implementation level, while also thinking of all the other puzzle pieces of how a startup works.” Rushabh mentions his architectural studies.

“I knew I had the passion, but I had to learn the skills, and I am still learning.” For future entrepreneurs, and people looking to start a startup, Rushabh’s advice is to hang in there “It is a long run, not a sprint”, and also “It will always take more time and more money than you expect it to, but the journey is worth it.”

During this project Rushabh was working on how to use plastic waste, which was abundant in Indonesia, and how to solve the issue of unsafe constructions.

Taking on the fight of waste plastic and affordable housing on a global level with ‘Conscious Designs’

Daniël Steginga and Alwin Veldboom have supported the Municipality of The Hague with formulating a Challenge for Startup in Residence with the Worldstartup Challenge Discovery & Definition process. Startups can now register until 12th of May 2022 with a solution to the question: how can we make it easier for people with occupational limitations to find a suitable job and to fill it in a sustainable way?

The Municipality of The Hague wants to help more people with occupational limitations find work. There are approximately 25,000 job seekers in the Municipality of The Hague. These are people who ask the municipality for help and receive financial support. More than 10,000 people with occupational limitations are still looking for a job.

Social issues can be complex, solutions cannot only be conceived and developed internally within a single organization. There is a need for collaboration with outside parties, such as start-ups or scale-ups. To recruit and select the right parties, the first step was to clarify and formulate the challenge. For this reason, the Challenge Discovery & Definition trajectory was introduced. In Discovery sessions, we discussed the various challenges surrounding an inclusive labor market in The Hague, with various groups of colleagues within the municipality. A shortlist of topics was made, based on certain criteria, which were used as the focus during each Definition session. Possible challenge questions were formulated, the scope and the innovation objective was determined, solution criteria and success factors were devised, stakeholders identified and an extensive Challenge briefing was drawn up.

Successful innovation projects start with a clearly defined (social) challenge and involvement of internal and external innovators. Looking for a good start to your innovation project or program? WorldStartup and Outside Inc. are very happy to support you further.

Daniël Steginga and Alwin Veldboom have supported the Municipality of The Hague with formulating a Challenge for Startup in Residence with the Worldstartup Challenge Discovery & Definition process.

Governments' innovation starts with understanding your challenges

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This two-month online training, packed with highly intense and result-oriented sessions, prepares impact-driven startups for their expansion to the European market through The Hague's ecosystem in the Netherlands.

As part of the ongoing Indo-Dutch collaboration in the Agriculture Sector, 11 Ag, Food and Tech startups from India have been chosen to participate in the Digital Soft Landing Programme this autumn. This 4-step program aims to help Indian AgFood Tech startups validate their European value proposition through training and stakeholder introduction sessions with the local AgFood ecosystem in the Netherlands.

Meet the eleven ambitious startups from the Indian Agri & Food Tech sectors ready for their European expansion.

Nail the European market in 4 simple steps

We help you explore the Dutch startup ecosystem and provide you with market information on your sector. Once completed, you will enter the second step of the programme, where you will be given market preparation training on developing your value proposition for the European market. The next step consists of validating your developed value proposition with experts from the local ecosystem to refine this further and find the right market fit. Lastly, once you have a clear idea of how to enter the European market, our team will help you prepare a tailored roadmap for European expansion.

 Digital Fact Finding sessions to explore and learn about the AgFoodTech ecosystem

Tailored support programmes for ambitious startups

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