Last Thursday, December 9, the five finalist teams gave their final pitch, and on Friday the 10th the three winners were announced: Jaksol, Streltech and PredictiveLab took first, second and third place, respectively. In total, they received USD 155,000, equivalent to more than CLP 120 million, which will help them bring their technological solutions closer to the civilian and defense markets.
Relive the Avante 2021 awards ceremony
The Avante 2021 final took place as part of the activities of the 4th Public Innovation Meeting “Innovapolinav.” The call is organized by the Naval Polytechnic Academy (Apolinav) and the Navy’s Programs, Research and Development Directorate (Diprida), together with Know Hub Chile and Athenalab, in partnership with the US Office of Naval Research (ONR).
Last Thursday was a key day for the five finalist teams of this second edition of the challenge. They gave their last presentation before the expert jury, which, together with the scores for their technical and commercial aspects, delivered its final evaluation.
First place went to Jaksol, a team led by Felipe Bueso, which received USD 65,000, while second place went to Streltech, a group led by Hernán Benavente, with a USD 55,000 prize. Finally, given the excellent proposals, a third place was added this year: PredictiveLab, a team led by Dr. Viviana Meruane, director of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Universidad de Chile, which received USD 35,000. The funds are intended to implement a six-month work plan to scale their Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) and bring the technology closer to the market and the defense sector (dual market).
As a reminder, Desafío Avante is an open innovation initiative focused on solving problems identified by the Chilean Navy (Armada de Chile) through science- and technology-based startups that can become sophisticated suppliers to the defense sector and the civilian market.
This year, those who took on Desafío Avante sought to solve two of the challenges posed by the Navy related to the availability of naval assets: “Diagnosis of engineering systems,” addressed by the PredictiveLab and Jaksol teams; and “Remote technical advice,” addressed by Streltech.
The winning teams’ proposals
“It is a source of pride and a huge opportunity for us to be able to work with the Navy and start developing the technology. Avante is more than an award; it gives you knowledge that will serve you forever and, above all, helps you develop technology or science- and technology-based startups more successfully,” said Felipe Bueso of the Jaksol team, which is developing a predictive and prescriptive maintenance platform for engineering systems that uses vital-sign measurements to improve the planning and management of naval assets.
Hernán Benavente of the Streltech team added: “We are very grateful to the program; we learned a lot. Thanks to the Navy for opening its doors to us and allowing us to keep developing the solution we think will be useful to them.” Streltech is creating a collaborative support tool that provides technical advice and remote support for field activities in geographically complex environments.
“For us, what matters is being able to continue to the next stage. What we learn from this challenge is very useful to us; it helps us improve the solution we are proposing. Avante is a very good option, and the fact that they pose these challenges and let you keep adapting and improving the solution is great,” added Viviana Meruane of Universidad de Chile, who is developing the PredictiveLab platform, which identifies failures in equipment and systems by processing monitoring data with machine learning algorithms.
A look back at Avante 2021
Ten teams were selected for the first phase of Avante 2021 and, over four weeks, received training in the Dual Tech methodology, focusing mainly on beneficiary discovery.
After a pitch, five teams were selected; they received USD 6,000 to develop their Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and continued their Dual-Tech training for seven more weeks. During this stage, they were supported by a team of experts, facilitators and mentors in charge of providing the innovators with methodological and practical tools. These commercial and technical aspects carried great weight in the final evaluation.
Finally, the five teams presented their pitches to an expert jury, which included representatives of the Chilean Navy, Know Hub and AthenaLab, as part of the Navy’s 4th Public Innovation Meeting.
You can relive the teams’ final pitch and the full awards ceremony in the press room at www.innnovapolinav.cl.
