The Croatian Agency for SMEs, Innovations and Investments (HAMAG-BICRO) organised a competition of the most innovative projects of pre-acceleration phase beneficiaries under its Acceleration Programme, with the aim of supporting newly established innovative companies, development teams and individuals and increasing their investment readiness.
During the largest competition of innovative projects ever held in Croatia, organised over 5 days in 3 Croatian cities (Zagreb, Osijek and Zadar), a total of 172 contestants presented their innovative projects at TRL 5–8, among them 12 start-ups developing within the INVENTO accelerator of Split Technology Park, which achieved impressive results, with every one of them progressing to the next phase of the acceleration programme. The start-ups are: BELLYY, SplxAI, WORKSPACE, Reeinvent, ELNAV.AI, Verus Consilium, Apex Academy, Decentralized Reader, Warp Code, Pakra, Black & White Solutions and Marteching Solutions.
A jury of three international experts – Noah Paul/Alessio Caracci, Michael Handschur and Robert Bruckner – evaluated the contestants’ pitching sessions, on the basis of which a ranking was drawn up of the contestants who successfully presented their innovations. In the next phase of the programme, all successful contestants and their start-ups are entitled to financial support of 25,000 euros per project, as well as vouchers for business internationalisation and continued support from Split Technology Park through business infrastructure and advisory services.
Since September this year, Split Technology Park has been running the INVENTO accelerator in cooperation with Invento Capital Partners. The accelerator programme provides a comprehensive support system for start-up entrepreneurs, i.e. newly established companies up to 5 years old whose activities or products involve innovative solutions, services and technologies, as well as development teams working on an innovative product/service. The accelerator includes support in the form of an initial business assessment, individual business advice, mentoring by expert mentors, support in communicating with investors, internationalisation activities and more.
