On Friday, 16 September, the atmosphere in Technology Park Ljubljana was slightly more charged than usual. 40 startup companies applied to the autumn round for obtaining Slovene Enterprise Fund’s SK75 and SK200 investments. With their personal pitch – presentation of the product, team and business model – they had to convince the evaluation committee of startup mentors. This time the cast included 14 members who were visibly excited about the quality and promise of most teams and ideas!

Exemplary textbook applications

The team of Initiative Start:up Slovenia was also rejoicing, because we received quite a few textbook applications for the autumn round of SK investments from the Slovene Enterprise Fund (SPS). They were from teams such as Blub Blub, Feelif, VIAR, ABCS sistemi and Boomerand, as well as Gotoky, Smart Futuristic and 4see.

Mitja and Jernej from the team Blub Blub, which already proved itself this year by placing amongst the finalists of the Startup of the Year 2016 

Teams that already successfully obtained SPS funds

The first group, namely Blub Blub, VIAR, Feelif, ABCS sistemi and Boomerang, are companies that have already successfully obtained startup funds (P2) or starting seed capital of Slovene Enterprise Fund (SK75) before submitting their applications for this year’s autumn SK75 or SK200 investments. After successfully achieving markers on the market and obtaining private investors, they are now continuing the path of rapid global growth, and need fresh capital from SPS.

Gotoky team representative during her pitch 

Accessible and favourable seed capital confirmed on the field

“These are promising teams with promising products that are obtaining Slovene Enterprise Fund’s resources gradually, depending on the development stage of their company and level of product development. We say they are textbook because they are the best field confirmation that we are giving startups efficient access to capital in the earliest seed stages. This is when the gap of equity financing is the biggest, and the risk for not realising the idea and failure of the young company is the greatest,” said Matej Rus, leader of the Initiative Start:up Slovenia, after the teams’ pitches.

Lego gadget of the team Fortronik drew the interest and praise of the committee for having succeeded in transforming their hobby into a business

 
 

Startups that looked for investors at the PODIM Conference

Reading applications from startups such as Gotoky, Smart Futuristic and 4see was also a big pleasure. While these companies haven’t yet received Slovene Enterprise Fund’s financial resources, they did participate in the investment part of this year’s PODIM Conference in the selection of the most promising startups of the Alps-Adriatic region. The team 4see even placed into the finals of the pitching competition PODIM Challenge 2016, and at Friday’s pitch, they were able to pride themselves with the first sales successes in the US, with big corporate clients.

Team Boomerang was happy about a well-done pitch
 

 

Evaluation committee

In summary, there was no shortage of known faces from the Slovenian startup scene, exciting pitches, and happy smiles of committee members on Friday. This time, the committee was joined by (in alphabetical order): Lojze Bertoncelj from 30Lean, Branko Drobnak from the Business Angels of Slovenia Club, Tomaž Erjavec from Doctrina, Matej Golob from 30Lean, Lidija Honzak from LUI, Aljoša Huber from IntelPlan, Samo Lubej from the Financial Centre, Andrej Muževič from Interbora, Jure Pučko from Doctrina, Gregor Rebolj from Klika, Peter Ribarič from Silicon Gardens Fund, Borut Rismal from Pasadena, Tilen Travnik from D·Labs and Tatjana Zabasu from RSG Kapital.

Part of the committee that listened to SK200 pitches 
 

 

And now final rehearsals for pitching at DEMO Day

All the teams that successfully passed through the first pre-selection sieve now have intense workshops on the schedule this week. These workshops are rehearsals for perfecting their business model and presentations for pitching at DEMO Days, which are scheduled for 29 and 30 September in Technology Park Ljubljana.

Our Urban with the team Homey :)