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Everyone says that anything can happen to a startup within two months. To be honest, anything can happen to anyone within this time, and startups are no different. Therefore, we have decided to catch up with the top three startups from this year’s STup! competition.
We were interested in what takeaways they had from the competition, what kind of goals they have achieved since the competition ended, as well as what are their plans for the future. So, without further ado, we’ll let our top three startups catch you up on their respective “startup things”.
The Alumnio team from the University of Ljubljana aims to provide new aluminum alloys that will be lighter and stronger. Alumnio QC is a novel ultra-high-strength aluminum alloy used by the EV market to make transport units lighter, stronger, and recyclable.
Alumnio finished in first place at STup!2021. We have managed to get Diana Bitenc, Alumnio‘s Chief Operating Officer, to answer a few questions we had about the team’s time in Split and give us an update on their future plans.
“Our experience with STup! was amazing! We met a lot of lovely young entrepreneurs and had the opportunity to meet experienced mentors. This was our first live international startup competition, so we learned a lot about preparation for the pitch on live events, networking, startup vocabulary, social media marketing, etc. We want to compliment the organization of the STup! competition. It was nicely done, especially regarding the circumstances of the pandemic we are in. We are really grateful that we won such a professionally organized competition and are thankful for this experience.
After the competition, we managed to have a meeting with a potential business partner that we met at STup!2021. We also graduated from the European accelerator program EIT Raw Materials. Now we are in preparation to apply to the Y Combinator. Our immediate goal is to get funding for our operational activities. Our long-term goal is to be present in various industries. Furthermore, we want to become a dominant standard in at least one industry.”
The dock.me team from the University of Split is trying to solve the problem of choosing a marina anchorage or a specific boat mooring within the marina by using a web application and a network of sensors in marinas. Their idea is that each dock in the marina has a sensor for detecting the entry of vessels, and the skipper can use the application to choose a free dock in the chosen marina.
One of the dock.me team members, Josip Marasović, caught us up on everything we wanted to know about their competition experience, as well as their plans, in between various meetings he had to attend to ensure dock.me has a bright future ahead.
“STup! was a significant competition for us as it proved the value of our dock.me project because we were recognized as a very promising idea in the marine industry! To be honest, we were thrilled to see so many different competitors who were motivated and focused. That was an extra reason why we were also able to give our best out there. It is lovely to see such positive energy all around you! Alongside many awards which were awarded to the top three places, we got to speak with many experienced judges and the largest benefit for us was that we got some very useful advice about the future development of dock.me which aims to evolve the marine industry using new digital solutions.
Since the competition ended, several investors approached us and we spoke with potential partners regarding future expansion as well. Additionally, we continued to develop our business plan even more and continued developing our software and hardware. We even spoke about possible future cooperation with some of the STup!2021 competitors regarding materials. The dock.me team also had numerous Zoom meetings, phone calls, face-to-face meetings, etc. that were all focused on growth and potential cooperation. At the moment, the work we do is all about project development and how best to grow and upscale. The system which we plan to use with dock.me is very promising for the marine industry as it will increase efficiency and offer better service. Even the general public is now starting to recognize that as well, so exposure was another brilliant thing which we managed well.
Immediate goals for our team are to finish up our prototype fully by the end of this year and then rearrange financial plans to fully close up the startup business structure. After that, full speed ahead of course! The long-term plan would be to expand our dock.me technology even more with some innovations in this sector which we already have in mind how to do, but those are secret ideas for now which we can’t discuss with the public as their implementation is planned for years to come and we would like to keep it as a competitive advantage to beat all the possible competitors who try to enter the market more aggressively in years to come.”
The Makabi Agritech team from the University of Zagreb is developing new technologies to provide plants with nutrition and protection to reduce the use of agrochemicals in agricultural production and encourage the production of functional, healthy, and quality food. They are using the agro-ecological approach in developing their ideas.
Marko Vinceković, who was also the Makabi Agritech team member who presented at STup!2021, was kind enough to share his experiences from the competition as well as catch us up on all the work and plans of the Makabi Agritech team.
“Participating in this year’s STup! competition was extremely useful and important, both for me and for my whole team. We got the opportunity to present our startup and the products we developed during many years of work and research. In addition, I want to emphasize that we met a large number of participants from other startups and created new friendships, but also the possibility of new collaborations on the development of new ideas and products.
After placing third overall and the conclusion of the STup!2021 competition, we had some very interesting meetings. One of these meetings was with the ERSTE SOCIAL FUND representative where we discussed the possibility of cooperation and possible investments. We have also started one acceleration program: Acceleration program 2030 implemented by IMPACT HUB Zagreb. We are in the process of preparing projects for HORIZON 2020.
Our next step in the development of our startup is the completion of the acceleration programs in which we participate. The long-term goals we have are mostly in the form of seeking further investment and upscaling our production.”
So – there you have it! STup!2021 top three startups are hard at work continuing their development and making their ideas come to life. We are happy to hear that they had such a great time at the competition, both professionally and personally. The organizers of the competition, Student Business Incubator, are striving to achieve this feeling throughout their work, so it is no wonder it was felt by STup! competitors, as well.
We wish all the best to these three startups, as well as all the others out there turning their ideas into reality!
Photos by: Student Business Incubator
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