In the year since establishing their venture capital fund, the team from Kolektor Ventures performed more than 170 interviews with startups from Slovenia, Italy, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Austria, Germany, Great Britain, USA, Netherlands, and Finland. After investing into Smart Optometry, Kolektor now invested into VIAR and GOAP, and two new investments are already on their way.
“Our first investment was given to a company with an app for eye and vision examinations, the second investment was given to a startup from the field of smart devices, and the third to a company working in VR,” says Mateja Lavrič, managing director of the corporate fund Kolektor Ventures, and adds that they are concluding negotiations with at least two startups, one working in development platforms, the other in predictive analytics. “We wish to close at least five to ten investments by the end of the year.”
“Teams definitely excite us most with their energy, enthusiasm and entrepreneurial mindset,” explain Lavrič. “If the team is good, they will be able to develop any product. Our experience also confirms that people are the most important part in the investment equation. This is then followed by the potential market, business model and product.”
One of the directions of the Kolektor Ventures corporate fund is using virtual and augmented reality in the industrial environment, where the potential is mostly seen in remote assistance, remote learning, and data visualization. For this purpose, Kolektor Ventures invested in VIAR, a company from Celje.
VIAR is a company from Celje with headquarters in Seattle, developing the web platform VIAR 360 for creating content in virtual reality. This platform enables users to create attractive interactive stories in VR without programming, and publish them in their apps, websites, or social networks. After they are posted, VIAR’s built-in analytic tools monitor the use and behaviour of users. VIAR 360 is already used by some of the best American universities, agencies, and corporations, such as Disney, Microsoft, Samsung, and Bosch. The company received the Slovenian Start:up of the Year 2017 award at the international PODIM Conference.
“We decided to collaborate because VIAR is developing drag-and-drop virtual content. The platform they’re developing enables the scaling of this content with relatively little effort. We are collaborating with the company to create virtual content for the industrial environment. The first pilot project is already underway and will be used in one of Kolektor’s manufacturing companies,” says Mateja Lavrič.
“We recognized great potential in GOAP, because it is distinguished by incredible innovativeness and incredible development speed. It’s a Slovenian company with a branched sales network that covers more than 60 countries across the world. The company is a leading global innovator of products for smart houses and automatization of passenger ships,” is how Mateja Lavrič explained their decision to invest.
In the last two decades, they used their own tech solutions to perform A/C climatization (heating, cooling, airing) in the biggest passenger ships in the world for shipping companies such as Princess Cruise, Carnival Cruise, MSC, Costa Crociere and many others. After successfully developing tech solutions for intelligent buildings and carrying out their installation into a large number of various objects, and after successfully automatizing more than 50 passenger ships, they decided to develop and manufacture their own solutions and products for smart houses based on wireless technology.
GOAP’s products are global innovations. They are based on the Z-Wave technology and are marketed under the brand Qubino abroad, and under the brand NETIChome in Slovenia. Their Z-Wave modules are the smallest in the world and the simplest to install. They developed and manufactured the first comprehensive Z-Wave weather device, the first Z-Wave shutter module for DC motors, and the first Z-Wave dimmer in the area of 0 10 V. GOAP is probably the only manufacturer of Z-Wave in the world to ensure a complete overview of all manufacturing stages with help of serial numbers on every product. All products are developed and manufactured in the European Union, and they only use components of the highest quality in their production.
Photo source:
PODIM Conference, Start:up of the Year, IKT informator
Mateja Lavrič, managing director of the Kolektor Ventures corporate fund
“Our first investment was given to a company with an app for eye and vision examinations, the second investment was given to a startup from the field of smart devices, and the third to a company working in VR,” says Mateja Lavrič, managing director of the corporate fund Kolektor Ventures, and adds that they are concluding negotiations with at least two startups, one working in development platforms, the other in predictive analytics. “We wish to close at least five to ten investments by the end of the year.”
“Teams definitely excite us most with their energy, enthusiasm and entrepreneurial mindset,” explain Lavrič. “If the team is good, they will be able to develop any product. Our experience also confirms that people are the most important part in the investment equation. This is then followed by the potential market, business model and product.”
One of the directions of the Kolektor Ventures corporate fund is using virtual and augmented reality in the industrial environment, where the potential is mostly seen in remote assistance, remote learning, and data visualization. For this purpose, Kolektor Ventures invested in VIAR, a company from Celje.
This year’s winner of the Start:up of the Year Competition: Viar
VIAR is a company from Celje with headquarters in Seattle, developing the web platform VIAR 360 for creating content in virtual reality. This platform enables users to create attractive interactive stories in VR without programming, and publish them in their apps, websites, or social networks. After they are posted, VIAR’s built-in analytic tools monitor the use and behaviour of users. VIAR 360 is already used by some of the best American universities, agencies, and corporations, such as Disney, Microsoft, Samsung, and Bosch. The company received the Slovenian Start:up of the Year 2017 award at the international PODIM Conference.
“We decided to collaborate because VIAR is developing drag-and-drop virtual content. The platform they’re developing enables the scaling of this content with relatively little effort. We are collaborating with the company to create virtual content for the industrial environment. The first pilot project is already underway and will be used in one of Kolektor’s manufacturing companies,” says Mateja Lavrič.
“We recognized great potential in GOAP, because it is distinguished by incredible innovativeness and incredible development speed. It’s a Slovenian company with a branched sales network that covers more than 60 countries across the world. The company is a leading global innovator of products for smart houses and automatization of passenger ships,” is how Mateja Lavrič explained their decision to invest.
GOAP team received The Spirit of Z-Wave award this year in Copenhagen
In the last two decades, they used their own tech solutions to perform A/C climatization (heating, cooling, airing) in the biggest passenger ships in the world for shipping companies such as Princess Cruise, Carnival Cruise, MSC, Costa Crociere and many others. After successfully developing tech solutions for intelligent buildings and carrying out their installation into a large number of various objects, and after successfully automatizing more than 50 passenger ships, they decided to develop and manufacture their own solutions and products for smart houses based on wireless technology.
GOAP’s products are global innovations. They are based on the Z-Wave technology and are marketed under the brand Qubino abroad, and under the brand NETIChome in Slovenia. Their Z-Wave modules are the smallest in the world and the simplest to install. They developed and manufactured the first comprehensive Z-Wave weather device, the first Z-Wave shutter module for DC motors, and the first Z-Wave dimmer in the area of 0 10 V. GOAP is probably the only manufacturer of Z-Wave in the world to ensure a complete overview of all manufacturing stages with help of serial numbers on every product. All products are developed and manufactured in the European Union, and they only use components of the highest quality in their production.
Photo source:
PODIM Conference, Start:up of the Year, IKT informator
