Maribor's Venture Factory proudly presented its talents of 2022 at the final networking event of the Venture Factory's Accelerator Program. At the event, 6 young companies presented themselves in front of a distinguished jury, which selected the most promising of them to receive further intensive support for faster growth. This year, 4th.vision was the most convincing company.

 

Venture Factory, the business incubator of the University of Maribor under the brand Startup Maribor, with the support of SPIRIT Slovenia and the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology, has been supporting young innovative companies on their entrepreneurial journey for many years. In the last 3 years alone, they have organized more than 425 promotional and professional workshops, attended by 8,643 participants, and provided more than 8,000 consulting hours for entrepreneurs to develop and support their businesses. In the last three years, they have newly supported 25 entrepreneurial ideas and just over 60 companies. They are also actively working with their alumni members, who are co-creating the regional startup ecosystem within the Startup Maribor Founders club.

 

The event featured the final pitches of the freshest members of the Venture Factory who have been developing their business ideas from November to May and will boldly attack global markets in the future. In the end, the expert jury selected the one who has shown the most progress and who they believe has the best chance of a global breakthrough.

 

Companies:

• Visualize
• ChoreoMate
• 4th.vision
• Legis24
• Centrum Cognito 
• Systhematic - MyPile

 

The “pitch perfect master” has become ...

In the end, the winner was the startup 4th.vision, which won a prize worth a total of €10,000. The company aims to bridge the gap between physical and digital stores through augmented reality technology. They want to improve the online shopping experience for customers and increase the conversion rate for online retailers. Their deep understanding of the customer experience puts them in a unique position to help online retailers overcome the challenges of closing the sale and improve their business. Their current focus is primarily on the interiors market. The service will be easily integrated with the most popular online store platforms such as Shopify and Magento. 

 

As a reward for 1st place, they received a website layout and design, corporate identity, a free office at Venture Factory, 50 mentoring hours for the development of the business model, 50 expert hours from experts in various fields and other services that will allow 4th.vision to continue to grow.

 

Who also presented themselves?

The event also featured presentations by established entrepreneurs who have developed their ideas with the help of the incubator in the past. Globally successful companies such as Daibau International, Inova IT, Highfly, Kefirko, Organic Nutrients, among others, were born within the framework of the Venture Factory. 

 

25 entrepreneurial ideas have started their journey in the premises of the Venture Factory in the last 3 years alone, with 6 to 10 startups developing their ideas on a daily basis. Some of them have their own office, while others work in co-working spaces.

 

Venture Factory with a commitment to good results and international connections

It is one of the leading boosters of both the Slovenian and regional startup ecosystem for a reason. Every year, they support 15 entrepreneurial teams in the development phase of an innovative idea, and 10 startups in the incubation phase that have already entered the market and are successfully active there. They also support 3-5 fast-growing scaleups each year. 

 

Startups that have benefited from the intensive support of Venture Factory have generated more than €22 million in revenue in 2021. In 2020, their net sales amounted to €19 million, compared to €16 million the year before. The city of Maribor, headed by Venture Factory, thus proves once again that it is still very entrepreneurial in nature and at the very top of Slovenian start-ups in terms of ambition.

 

Venture Factory also faithfully nurtures and strengthens important international connections, which it proves with a number of successfully implemented international projects and one of the best European startup conferences, Podim, which this year, after two years of digital events, once again welcomed 1,096 visitors in person. The 3-day event took place in Maribor and was supported by a number of renowned international partners (Credo Capital, DevRev, Fil Rouge Capital, StartNet Carinthia, Nevada Governor's Office of Economic Development, Httpool and many others) and national partners (Zavarovalnica Sava, Nova KBM, South Central Ventures, Silicon Gardens, TikoPro, Equito and others). This year was a year of record-breaking numbers for Podim, with 1139 1-on-1 20-minute entrepreneurial meetings held over the three days of Podim! 

 

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