Obelisk: winner of ITIME

Day 9. April 2013 posted Stanislava Vabšek
 
Obelisk is the first winner of the idea accelerator ITIME+ 2012/13. With its innovative approach and the stage of development of its business idea, it convinced the five members of the expert committee to give it 20,000 EUR prize money and continue to develop the product in the Development centre for information and communication technologies.

Selection of the winning team
 
Expert committee was composed of Antonio Sfiligoj, representative of the META Ingenium fund, Bojan Dremelj, director of RC ICT, representative of organisers, Andraž Logar, director and founder of ThirdFrameStudios, entrepreneur, Matevž Klanjšek, co-founder and director of the product development of Celtra, entrepreneur, Aleš Špetič, business expert. The committee judged the seven finalists according to dedication and experience of the business team, level of development and innovativeness of the solution, as well as the scope and potential of commercialization of the solution on global market. Out of 12 chosen, only 7 finalists presented themselves in front of the committee: ADVERTO MEDIA, Keyboarder, Obelisk, OpenProf, Sportifiq, myAirBubble, Tom88.
 
The winning team Obelisk is developing ShopVoice designed for administrators of online shops and other selling sites that want to transform their visitors into clients as quickly as possible. Calling with a click lowers the obstacle when establishing communication, which is why the agent can contact more clients than ever before and ensures that they don’t go elsewhere.
 


The cheque for 20,000EUR was given to the winning team Obelisk by Nina Mazgan, COO META Ingenium and Bojan Dremelj, director of the Development centre for information and communication technologies. ‘Participation of META Ingenium in ITIME+ opens opportunities for prospective and innovative companies, for gaining investments of risk capital fund, for global breakthrough,’ said Nina Mazgan.
‘We offer our congratulations to the winning team Obelisk. I wish for all our finalists to continue with the development of products and take the best advantage of the possibilities and opportunities that we offer together with Venture Factory, Technology Park Ljubljana and technological partner Microsoft BizSpark,’ summarized Bojan Dremelj.
 
Opportunities for finalists of ITIME+
 
All finalists were privy to an intensive educational mentoring program following the methodology of lean and agile companies. ADVERTO MEDIA is developing software and tools for effective shortening of long texts; Keyboarder is developing a universal keyboard for all languages; Obelisk’s tool enables a nicer shopping experience on selling sites; OpenProf work with materials for reducing learning difficulties; Sportifiq is developing software for effective organisation of sport events; myAirBubble developed a product for measuring air quality in a room; Tom88 is enabling its user a clear use of health services.
At this opportunity, Iztok Lesjak, director of the Technology Park Ljubljana, said: ‘For the finalists, ITIME+ should only be a stepping stone towards a global success. Innovative companies and companies with the potential of quick growth on the global market can join the program Go:Global Slovenia, alongside other projects we’re developing together with partners of the initiative Start:up Slovenia. Start-up companies with potential of quick growth on the global market are a driving force of development and an opportunity for numerous young and talented people.’
 
ITIME+ idea accelerator is organised by Venture Factory, Technology Park Ljubljana and RC IKT from Kranj, together with the financial partner META Ingenium, technological partner Microsoft BizSpark, and other partners.
 
For additional information:
Urban Lapajne, project manager of ITIME+
 
Communications and PR Start:up Slovenija
Izvedba: Mojdenar IT d.o.o.