Viva Technology, Europe’s largest startup and technology event, drawing business leaders, rising young entrepreneurs, and investors from around the world each year, ran for four days starting June 14. At the event, OPPO issued its final call for entries to the 2023 OPPO Inspiration Challenge, now in its second year, and also showcased some of the successes of the Inspiration Challenge since it began last year.
Image: OPPO
At the event, Mr. Rabinovich Adi, OPPO’s Technology Strategic Planning Expert, spoke about how technology can be used to build a better future for everyone, introduced the latest updates on the 2023 OPPO Inspiration Challenge, and invited numerous tech startups to take part and showcase their innovations at the exhibition.
“Last year’s inaugural OPPO Inspiration Challenge showed the strong potential for startups to create valuable innovations,” Adi said. “For this year’s second Inspiration Challenge, we’ve introduced two new categories focused on Inspiration for People and Inspiration for the Planet. Health and environmental progress are goals shared by everyone on this planet. By combining our own resources with the ingenuity of the startup community, we hope to drive real change in these two important areas through innovation,” he added.
Image: OPPO
OPPO Encourages Last Year’s Inspiration Challenge Winners to Bring Their Ideas to Life with Renewed Energy
The 2022 Inspiration Challenge drew a total of 536 proposals from 39 countries and regions around the world. Out of these, OPPO selected 18 teams and supported them in bringing their ideas to life. At this year’s VivaTech event, OPPO invited Alango Technologies, last year’s Inspiration Challenge winner, and Sign Now, winner of the Europe & Israel Regional Challenge, to share their experiences from the 2022 Inspiration Challenge.
Alango Technologies, a leader in digital sound enhancement technology for audio communication, won last year’s OPPO Innovation Challenge with BeHear, its proposal for a concept related to its consumer electronics products, aimed at delivering immersive sound experiences in real-life situations.
Image: OPPO
Dr. Alexander Goldin, Founder and CEO of Alango Technologies, spoke about proudly winning the 2022 Inspiration Challenge award, saying, “Winning the competition was a special moment for us.” He added, “After winning, we also had the opportunity to create a promotional video together with OPPO. We also put the prize money to good use refining our algorithms and expanding their range of applications.”
Hila Almog, Community Lead at Sign Now, said, “After winning the regional competition, we were featured in a lot of media coverage, and now at VivaTech we’ve had the opportunity to share our innovation as well. With real-time video calls that translate into sign language whenever needed, our app serves as a bridge between the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community and service providers. With OPPO’s support, we hope to create accessibility and equal opportunity for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community.”
Image: OPPO
Startups Working with OPPO to Build a Better Future Through Technology
Since the startup community is a valuable source of world-class innovation, OPPO also invited SolCold, a leader in outdoor cooling coatings research and development, to share their innovation experience at VivaTech.
Yaron Shenhav, CEO and Co-founder of SolCold, said, “We’re now working with OPPO to further explore how our innovative coatings could be applied to mobile devices.”
Image: OPPO
Final Call to Enter the 2023 OPPO Inspiration Challenge
VivaTech 2023 marks the final call for entries to this year’s OPPO Inspiration Challenge. The final deadline for submitting proposals is June 30, 2023. Applicants will be assigned to one of three regional competitions, with 5 teams selected from each region advancing to the global final. A total of 5 teams will be selected as the global winners of the 2023 OPPO Inspiration Challenge, with each team receiving a USD 50,000 grant (tax included), along with potential business partnership and funding opportunities from OPPO and its partners.