To kick off Rimi Baltic's open innovation platform, 22 startups and 120 hackers joined the Rimi Retail Hackathon taking place in Riga and online on June 14-16. As a result, Rimi carefully selected six startups to embark on pilots, reserving funding in the total amount of EUR 200 000 aimed at testing their products or services. Additionally, three teams from the hackers' track received a total of EUR 5000 in prizes.
A little bit of background
Within their open innovation platform, over the next three years, Rimi Baltic plans to provide funding of at least EUR 1 million for innovative co-projects that transform and build on the strengths of its core business, as well as to develop pilot projects with Baltic and European innovators and start-ups. Helve has been selected as the ecosystem partner to facilitate the retail hackathon that kicks off the open innovation platform and support Rimi Baltic in platform execution.
Hackathon results
Rimi had set its goal to evaluate at least 60 quality start-up company applications annually and attain five operational PoCs and pilots. With the Rimi Retail Hackathon, our team has helped to lay strong foundations to achieve the yearly goal. Here are the main numbers Helve achieved in less than three months:
In the startup track, we received and evaluated 52 startup applications from 15 countries;
22 startups were given access to Rimi’s employees for a sales sprint;
Rimi awarded 6 paid pilot projects; while the final details for the pilot projects are yet to be finalised, the total investment from Rimi Baltic for testing the solutions is reserved at around 200 000 EUR;
In the hackers track, we received 120+ hackathon registrations resulting in 20 teams, 18 of which made it to the end. Out of the 18, 4 teams were formed internally by Rimi employees.
Startups and their pilots of the startup track
Traxlo (Lithuania) - a retail execution tasks marketplace, leveraging local gig workers to optimize grocery stores;
Envelope (Estonia) - startup helping retailers keep their products in stock by providing real-time shelf overviews and advanced reporting using computer vision;
LiTech (Estonia) - data quality management tool that is easy to use, automated, and a secure platform for data quality management;
goodbag (Austria) - a platform that connects retailers with their customers and helps shoppers to make sustainable choices through a gamified experience that rewards them for acting and buying sustainably.
Footprints AI (Romania) - one of the most advanced AI-powered Omnichannel Retail Media platforms worldwide;
Revo Foods (Austria) - a startup that offers seafood made 100% out of plants, aiming at changing the way we consume fish products.
Winners of the hackers' track
🤖 Peak Save (Latvia) developed a cutting-edge energy optimization system designed specifically for grocery store freezers and was awarded EUR 3000 as well as tickets to TechChill 2024 and the opportunity to explore further collaboration with Rimi Baltic;
🤖 Help'a'bit (Estonia) developed a way to improve food donations to food banks by giving them the opportunity to request the exact items that are scarce. The team received EUR 1500 prize;
🤖 Food Fellas (Estonia) developed a way to gamify the process of buying near-expired products and earned a EUR 500 prize.
We at Helve have collaborated with Rimi Baltic for the past three years within our open innovation accelerator Future Hub, implementing four pilot projects in the field of sustainability innovations. The open innovation platform is a logical next step for Rimi Baltic to bring its innovation strategy to the next level, and we are proud to be chosen as a partner in this journey.