o2h technology, a business vertical of the o2h group, has launched the o2h tech kickstarter competition for seed-stage life science, greentech, and tech/AI companies to help them boost their MVP, web, mobile app design and development activities.
o2h technology is a division of the o2h group that seeds new ideas in life-science, technology and green innovation. The kickstarter program – applications began last week – will make o2h technology’s software and app development expertise available to “two or three early-stage companies” who want to expand their reach to potential customers.
The applications will be evaluated by the kickstarter committee which includes Prashant Shah, co-founder of o2h group, and Fiona Nielsen, CEO of o2h technology. The program, which lasts for up to six months, means winners will have a dedicated team of six full-time techies on hand to build up the start-ups’ IT and software capabilities for the price of one full-time developer.
Fiona, who is overseeing the competition, said: “We specialize in developing MVPs, custom products and special project builds covering web, mobile, and cloud for seed-stage innovation-led companies and the kickstarter competition can really help some seed-stage companies with their development needs.
“We are, however, more than just a bunch of mission-driven techies: it’s our culture, values and habits that set us apart. It certainly reflects in the working atmosphere of o2h tech and we hope you notice it in the way we go about delivering our projects for our customers.”
The development team, which is based in Ahmedabad, India, has expertise in dev-ops, design, QA, and project management.
“It has always been a challenge for seed-stage companies to design, build and scale their application and products due to various barriers including the high cost of hiring quality developers, access to CTO-level technology expertise, and access to expert product development knowledge ,” said Fiona. “This initial phase can be extremely time-consuming and expensive. Two or three winners will get this team for between one to six months, and they will pay only a fraction of what the cost of the service would ordinarily be.
“Normally, the service involves six developers for six months – we offer the cost of four juniors and two seniors for the cost of one senior developer. At the end of it they should have a fully-delivered project.”
The successful applicants will on-board the developers next month: applications are open to any start-up.
“It could be European but we expect it will be members of our network, which is accelerators and incubators in Cambridge,” adds Fiona, a bioinformatics scientist turned entrepreneur who founded Cambridge-based genomic data company Repositive. In principle it could be any type of company but we will decide who is the best fit and we’d prefer synergy with o2h.”
Prashant Shah, co-founder of the o2h group, said: “We love working with seed stage companies focused on human and planet health. We are a mission-driven organization and we understand the importance technology plays in helping these seed stage companies get their innovations off the ground.
“From the customer perspective, the kickstarter bundle provides a push button injection of development resources onto a project, and from the o2h tech perspective we are providing our team opportunities to work on genuinely novel and creative ideas.”
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