Yesterday in Budapest, the company NERVteh and their idea for an affordable car simulator for decreasing the number of car accidents have won the international investment forum SEE Innovation Competition, which is part of the European project PROFIS. The NERVteh team is also the recipient of a 50 000 € investment through the accelerator Start:up Geek House, the semi-finalist of the competition Start:up of the year 2014 and winner of iTime accelerator’s competition 2014. 


20 business teams from Austria, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Slovakia have pitched to international investors at the international investment forum and SEE Innovation start-up competition. The Slovenian team NERVteh had completely swept away its competition, namely in the semi-finals of the evening part of the event, at which 8 finalists were competing:

1. Anteam, Italy: software products expanding the functionality of the most developed CMS platforms.
2. Evnt.ee, Slovakia: an app that enables interactions and connecting at mass events.
3. NERVteh, Slovenia: affordable car simulators for decreasing the number of car accidents.
4. Wadex, Italy: web system for automatic exchange of used materials on the market of recyclable materials in order to ensure stable purchase prices.
5. ZeaLab Products, Hungary: a web application that helps lose weight by taking care of a virtual pet (Tamagochi)
6. e-Quantification, Romania: a platform for connecting owners of small generators of renewable energy with energy operators.
7. Sauper Umweltdatentechnik, Austria: a measuring device and software for ensuring economical consumption of electricity in buildings.
8. ZedNet Informatics, Hungary: a system for tracking, communicating and reporting bugs on websites to the developer.

Team SQBZY, member of Technology Park Ljubljana, had also tried to get into the finals with their business idea of collecting data about the underwater world for divers and swimmers, but didn’t manage to place amongst the 8 final teams. The business ideas were assessed by the following international investors and consultants from the field of obtaining financing sources:

• Carlo Asquini, business angel, IAG (Italian Association of Business Angels)
• Peter Barta, expert and consultant for financing SMEs, Post Privatization Foundation, Romania
• Jozsef Berecz, investor, DBH Investments, Hungary
• Nina Mazgan, investor, Meta Ingenium venture capital fund, Slovenia
• Walter Rivera, investor, Fieder Capital, Hungary
• Wolfgang Schabereiter, business mentor and financial consultant, BrainPlus, Austria.

The panel of investors has proclaimed the Slovenian business team NERVTeh to have the best business idea of the SEE Innovation Competition. The second place went to the business team WADEX from Italy, and the third to the business team ZedNet Informatics from Hungary. E-Quantification from Romania was proclaimed as the best “green” business idea, while the best business idea from a female start-up entrepreneur went to the business team Sauper Umweltdatatechnik from Austria.

The SEE Innovation Competition was carried out as part of the PROFIS project, the purpose of which is to encourage financing innovations in the area of South-eastern Europe. The consortium of ten partners from nine countries, amongst which is also Technology Park Ljubljana, carried out programmes that train potential entrepreneurs to receive an investment as well as nationally select start-up teams. On the national level, the partners implemented 27 start-up workshops at which there were 674 participants, from which 111 innovative business teams or ideas have been trained to pitch to 35 investors and consultants from the field of financing innovative start-up projects.

Stanislava Vabšek

Communications and PR Start:up Slovenija

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