The final event of the first pre-acceleration program in Montenegro – BoostMeUp, Montenegro Pitching Competition, was held at The Chedi Hotel – Lustica bay last night.
This event provided a unique opportunity for the seven most successful teams to present their creative and innovative ideas to the public in just a few minutes, after nine months of work and development, thus they took the first step towards a national, regional, European, and global market.
From the 47 registered, over 19 who entered the Bootcamp, to the 7 teams that presented their ideas at the final event, the three best participants of the program were selected. The first place won Orhis, the second place went to the Flourish team, while the third place went to the Amaturn team. Awards for the best participants were provided by the Montenegrin Telekom.
The national program with the purpose to develop the Montenegrin innovative ecosystem and to support young people whose ideas are the future of the digital and business environment of Montenegro was realized by a consortium led by the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center Tehnopolis in cooperation with the Science and Technology Park of Montenegro and company Amplitudo.
We worked hard, passed 7 modules, built knowledge and skills, made prototypes, and now we are finally presenting the results of teams that have developed their startup ideas with the regional and in Europe recognized experts in the field of innovation. In the previous period, a lot has been done to properly encourage the quality and accelerated development of the innovative business community in Montenegro, primarily through the adoption of the S3 strategy of smart specialization and two new laws. The preconditions have been created for the community to grow. These ideas and teams will be the first users of the new ambiance, said Ratko Bataković, executive director of IEC Tehnopolis at the finals.
The entire project was implemented under the auspices of the Ministry of Science of Montenegro.
This is part of a startup support program brought by the Government at the end of 2018. Our innovative ecosystem was not functional. This is not the case today, thanks to the innovation incentive laws that provide numerous incentives for startups. The needs for digital solutions are inexhaustible, and we can find and satisfy those niches that we saw tonight as well. Our vision is a future innovative digital Montenegro, said the Minister of Science, Ms. Sanja Damjanović.
She pointed out that she was satisfied with the quality of the ideas and human capacities that Montenegro has: Tonight we had great teams and the jury had a difficult task to choose the best ideas because all ideas are great and we have a new Montenegro in front of us with young people who are the carriers of our innovative and technological development, which will contribute to the IT sector being our future branch of industry.
The winning team Orhis expressed satisfaction with the participation and the program itself.
We are extremely satisfied with the program because before we started this program we were not even aware of what we would learn, what experiences we would gain, what kind of people we would meet, and in the end, it turned out that the whole experience, working with mentors brought us to success, to the fact that we ended up first in this competition. I must add that we have been in various programs, but none are nearly as good as this one. However, additional work and development of the product itself await us, we will try to develop it to the final version and to break into the market with the help of Tehnopolis and all associates inside Montenegro and abroad.
From digital solutions for agriculture, through new tools for creating multimedia, to applications for improving emotional and social intelligence – all 7 teams offered a variety of innovative solutions.
Orhis – a smart pot that grows a plant for you
The winning team Orhis presented an automated smart pot that enables better, easier, and more interesting plant cultivation. How? Creating a sensor system that collects data that determine all the necessary factors for plant development, such as automation of the irrigation process, antibacterial effect, growth stimulation, collection of energy sources with solar panels. Orhis smart pot reads all parameters in real-time, thanks to which the user can have precise insight into the condition of the seedling.
Flourish – an application which enables you to become the best version of yourself
The Flourish team believes that using their application can change an individual’s life. It is based on the fact that emotional and social intelligence, as opposed to cognitive, can develop throughout life. Their solution is a kind of “social-emotional couch” that enables career development, relationship improvement, and contributes to the state of general happiness. You only need to dedicate 10 minutes a day to educational games within the application, specially tailored to the needs of the individual.
Amaturn – your video creation studio
The Amaturn team has found a way to make everyone a professional for creating video content in a completely new, fast, and practical way. Their product is a small, practical box composed of even smaller elements that are placed in different positions from which you want to capture a certain situation. The elements connect to the smartphone from where it can be easily edited and used. In this way, with just one device, they replaced a lot of expensive and bulky equipment that would otherwise be necessary for recording from multiple positions, quality video, and audio.
Solar Villager – An innovative solution that will replace you in the vineyard
The Solar Villager team created a system to monitor and protect the vineyards. Their concept focuses on solving several problems: lack of automation of production processes, loss of quality, human resources, monitoring. The starting point was the fact that more than 70 percent of growers still do not use machines, which results in large losses of all resources. This self-sustaining system is a device that controls the growth of the vine by using sensors in the field, water supply and protection from numerous disasters.
Partour – The adventure you get when you combine partour and tourism
One of the problems if you love to travel, as the Partour team loves, is often small budgets, lack of information, and sometimes the inability to experience everything a location has to offer without paying a tour guide and additional costs. Their solution is a digital tourist guide based on the concept of an adventure game, apropos the experience of tourism as a game. So when you visit a cultural and historical monument, turn on their application that recognizes the location, and brings it to life before your eyes. That’s where the game begins. Also, the user gets information about the most fun places in the city, the best local food, and everything else that may be of interest to tourists.
SunBun – a cook who does not consume electricity, but protects the health and the environment
The SunBun team has shown how it can be cooked without the use of electricity or gas, with only solar energy. SunBun cooker is a product that collects sunlight and accumulates enough heat with which food, after 35-45 minutes, can be heat-treated. In addition to saving money, it has benefits for our health, as well as preserving the environment. The development of this idea is supported by the fact that around 2 billion people in the world have limited access to cooking appliances.
Seljak.me – the digitized market for the digitalized farmer
Seljak.me is the solution to some of the biggest problems facing the Montenegrin farmer – the sale of products and the unavailability of information a farmer needs daily. That is why this team has created a single digital market for farmers, which allows them to place a product on the market in just a few clicks, advertise it and sell it while, wasting no time, doing their job on the farm. Also, Seljak.me provides unlimited access to information and advice that can be crucial for their business.
The best were decided by a jury, chaired by Dr. Sanja Damjanovic (Ministry of Science of Montenegro), which consisted of Vanja Zoric Sundic (Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center Tehnopolis), Velibor Boskovic (Science and Technology Park of Montenegro), Nebojsa Nikovic (Amplitudo), Dusan Banovic (Montenegrin Telekom), Tarik Zaimovic (Bild studio) and Blazo Crvenica (Uhura Solutions).
