prototype it

ESI's incubation program PROTOTYPE IT is designed to develop a business idea and create a prototype within 4 months. During these months, we will guide the teams through carefully planned learning and practical work sessions, so that at the end, every team would be at least one step closer to launching their business!

The program is open to a variety of student teams: in the early stages of development and already established start-ups (up to 3 years of operation) looking for an additional impulse to test and introduce products in real market conditions. The purpose of the program is to support socially responsible and sustainable business ideas.

When applying for the incubator program, students receive:

  • the opportunity to learn basic knowledge for business creation and validation in cooperation with entrepreneurs and industry professionals;
  • apply for 4,500 EUR funding for the creation of the first prototype;
  • the possibility to use office premises in Riga or Rezekne for teamwork.

The ESI Incubator is organized by the student innovation program ESI, in cooperation with the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and Techhub Riga.

In December 2022, our program was proud of its first graduates. Among them were business ideas such as technology to recycle fallen tree leaves into cat WC pellets, robots that help in agriculture, and even sex toys and products. So far, our participants have included students from various universities - from Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Art Academy of Latvia, Riga Graduate School of Law, BA School of Business and Finance, University of Latvia, Riga Technical University, and others. The incubator has proven that each member's special skills and experience are one of the factors for a business idea to prove unique and in demand on the market!

A comment from graduates of our incubator program about how ESI Incubator helped them develop their business idea:

“Digitālā Mācību Darbnīca”, Eduards Aksjoņenko / Airita Aksjoņenko

Idea: Individuals and companies need short training courses. We offer a simplified, exciting, and pedagogically correct way of teaching remote training courses.

“We as a team, first of all, learned a lot from individual lessons and mentoring sessions - how to build a business from the ground up and test it in general. Secondly, we gained valuable experience from the format organized by ESI-STARTUP in the development of our innovative idea and the creation of a successful prototype. Thanks to the program's coordination process and cohesive teamwork (Airita and Eduards), we were encouraged to experiment and apply the knowledge and skills gained during the 4 months of intensive course and program learning. The development of the idea was also facilitated by negotiations with potential cooperation partners (educational and commercial institutions).

The coordination of the program, the engaged professional mentors, as well as the concept as a whole are evaluated as "excellent". Thank you very much for this opportunity!”

The ESI program is jointly implemented by several representatives of academic field and industry – Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Art Academy of Latvia, Riga Graduate School of Law, Rezekne Academy of Technologies, consulting company Civitta Latvija and industry partners (Latvian Social Entrepreneurship Association, Zero Waste Latvia, Techhub  Riga, Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia, Rezekne Business Association, Latvian Electrical Engineering and Electronics Industry Association).

The application process is done electronically by submitting the application form online at www.inkubators.esi-startup.lv. Application deadline January 23.

More information on the ESI student innovation program and application for other events:

Website: https://esi-startup.lv/

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ESIdrosmigs

LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/esidrosmigs

E-mail: info@esi-startup.lv

The programme is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and supported by Printify, SEB and RIMI.

Project number: 1.1.1.3/21/A/008.a.