Last Friday, the Municipal Theatre in downtown Bratislava was the place to be to find out about the startup scene in Slovakia. The annual StartupAwards.SK, organised by Neulogy among others, promotes innovation and entrepreneurship. We were there to get a glimpse of the event.
General impression
This year the StartupAwards.SK felt almost like a tradition – familiar faces, content and place. The event delivered on networking and included interesting panels, although the final announcement of the awards felt a little flat.
Media attention
One of the interesting views that one of the panels offered, concerned the media (a.k.a. inventures.eu). “Media should do for startups the same they did for Slovak ice hockey: run success stories of young guys who made a fortune in the US to a point that inspired lots of young boys to play hockey,” said Pekka Mäki of VC firm 3TS Capital Partners.
We certainly felt that the national media too were taking this with an increased interest as Ivan Stefunko, chairman of Neulogy recently was on the cover of Trend magazine. All, however, agreed that the media play an important role in the startup scene and should cover the scene even more. Well, we’re up for that!
And the winners are…
As every year, the most innovative companies with a scalable product and global ambition took home awards in four different categories.
Art& Design
Culcharge is a small and flexible USB charge and data cable for iPhone and Android phones that can be attached to your key chain.
Digital
InHiro is a tool that helps employers create job ads that can be shared on social networks.
Science
The team behind Gas Sensor has been working on a sensor that ensures more precise measurement of gases. Their product is mainly used for safety reasons in various industries such as nuclear energy.
Society
Team Speekle have come up with a software system to help children with speech disorders.
All four lucky winners receive a paid trip to a startup city of their choice and have the opportunity to meet investors, entrepreneurs and other leaders. We are curious to see if the Slovak startup scene will gain even more momentum – the event proved that they are at full strength.
