Have you ever dreaded going to the movies because of that long ticket line you have to stand in? Perhaps you should dread no more, as Croatian startup Cinexio, formerly known as Cinematic, is determined to keep movie-going easy and fun. Earlier this month, the startup secured a follow-up investment of100.000 euros from Bulgarian accelerator LAUNCHub. No further terms of the financing were disclosed.
Cinexio, is an app that lets you scan the area around you for cinemas as well as check showtimes, watch trailers, post comments, and review movies with not much more than a click. With an initial investment of 30.000 euros in exchange for 8-10% of the company shares (LAUNCHub’s standard practice), Cinexio launched their product on the Bulgarian market in December 2012. Recently, the team introduced a new version of their application, which is now available for both iPhone and Android devices.
Future plans
The current team of six, among whom programmers, designers, user experience (UX) experts and marketing specialists, will use the current financial boost to “penetrate the German and Austrian markets, and expand [their] presence in Croatia, Bulgaria, Serbia and Slovenia,” co-founder Damir Bandalo told inventures.eu. The move of renaming the startup from Cinematic to Cinexio was based precisely on the decision to expand to other foreign markets, as well as to reinforce brand recognition. Among Cinexio’s plans is also an integration of smaller movie theatres in their already existing booking system, as well as a number of different options in regard to content filtering.
“We made a decision for a follow-up investment in Cinexio because… they’ve been developing at a very high pace and have managed to win over a high number of active users,” said Stanislav Sirakov, partner at LAUNCHub.
Cinexio seem to have things going for them. We’ll keep an eye on them, but in the meantime, here’s Bandalo’s advice to up-and-coming startups: “Focus on your product and vision – the rest will take care of itself.”
Additional reporting by Mina Nacheva.
