The call for startups from the V4 to apply for a pitching contest at Slovakia’s biggest music festival, Pohoda, is over. From all the applicants, eight were selected to present their products.
Besides the engaging program the FutureNow and HubHub teams have prepared inside the HubHub tent, a pitching contest is going to take place.
“We’re going to have a 3-minute pitching and Q&A session on Saturday afternoon so the startups will be able to present in front of judges. I can confirm the presence of Michael Schuster who is the managing partner at Austria’s biggest VC SpeedInvest, Jaro Lupták from top venture capital firm Neulogy Ventures as well as the presence of Matej ‚Sajfa‘ Cifra,” said Valentina Kasperova, the FutureNow manager.
FutureNow organizers chose the eight startups based on the applications from Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary. With more than 30,000 people yearly attending the event, the opportunity for startups is huge.
In addition, the contest winner will receive a 3000 EUR cash prize and get an immediate access to the Startup Awards bootcamp in October.
FutureNow organizers have decided on eight startups based on the applications from Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Austria. These are the projects which will be showcasing their products and pitching before the jury.
NiceVisions (Slovakia) – apply design solar panels on facades
NiceVisions’ SolarTiles provide a way to go on with sustainable living. “We all know the planet is doomed if we continue to live like this. We need to act now, and SolarTiles is a way to be conscious and produce electricity without emissions,” say the founders.
With SolarTiles, you can also design the look of your house according to your own dreams. “Rihanna next to Drake? Got ya. Michal Kascak and Milan Lasica next to your doors? Well, why not, we can do it, but it’s best to think this sober ;)”
SolarTiles are enabling building owners to apply solar panels on the facades while design being the feature that makes the difference. “Who would be willing to put current ugly solar panels on a facade? Only a crazy person. With SolarTiles, the looks can be fully customized.”
Besides music and fun, Pohoda is also about design and being green. As SolarTiles are totally about design and sustainability, the two go together perfectly. (Want to know more about SolarTiles? Here’s our interview)
Secret City Trails (Slovakia) – discover the city in a playful way
You travel, right? Then you know that city discovery experiences are not always flexible or bookable whenever you think of it. “Most walking tours need to be booked in advance, start at fixed times and take you to the city’s main sights,” explain the Secret City Trails founders. Why not to make city excursion more fun and playful?
Secret City Trails takes you on urban discovery adventures. “During the games, you solve a trail of cryptic clues via a web app. Along with each clue, you unlock stories about the places and hidden gems, you discover (secret) recommendations to wonderful cafes and bars as well.”
Secret City Trails offer 20+ games in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bratislava, Bordeaux, Cologne, Geneva, Haarlem, Lisbon, Porto, San Sebastian, and Vienna. “Pohoda is a unique festival with a varied audience. We will allow the people to see the festival grounds in a different way!”
FindAir (Poland) – avoid asthma attack with a smart inhaler
“There are over 30M patients diagnosed with asthma in EU in the age up to 45 years old. Those people are struggling on a daily basis with the fear that they may have a sudden asthma attack. This is because most of them do not know precisely what the triggers are,” founders point out the issue.
FindAir is a smart inhaler that tracks data and, thus, can help to prevent asthma attack, reduce the use of medication doses and teach the patients about the potential triggers.
“FindAir is a combination of hardware and software that allows patients to seamlessly gather and access data about their asthma. Furthermore, based on patterns of patient drug usage and the circumstances of the use, it allows to learn what are the patient’s asthma triggers and how to avoid them.”
Any asthma-suffering Pohoda attendees? You can come to the HubHub tent and check out the beautifully designed FindAir product. If that’s not you, the products have LED lights, which you can use to the rhythm of the music 🙂
GlovEye (Hungary) – read printed text in Braille
It is not easy for blind people to integrate themselves into public education. GlovEye is a piece of hardware that can help them to “read” the printed text. “We designed a tactile feedback glove for smart devices that can help blind and partially sighted people to perceive printed text as Braille,” say the GlovEye founders.
The glove can translate any printed text into Braille signs. It comes together with an application downloadable to any smart device. “Camera takes a picture of the text, recognizes the characters and communicates via Bluetooth with the glove. At the end of the glove, under the index finger, the Braille cell starts to show the characters one by one.”
GlovEye’s team is bringing their super-helpful functioning glove prototype to the festival so you can test it and give them feedback.
Liber8 Technology (Hungary) – wear a transformable piece of jewelry
Liber8 Technology is a design company that launched a product called Tago arc. “We are at finalized product stage, and we are ready to sell version 1. We would be looking for input from the audience for key features for the next rollout,” explain the founders.
Targo arc is “a beautiful, elegant piece of jewelry which encompasses an e-ink design so you can transform your bracelet in seconds to be unique, match your mood, your clothes, and your style.”
Liber8 Technology can do a unique design for the Pohoda festival, use logos of key sponsors or QR coding on the bracelet.
Vistag (Czech Republic) – make your visual content interactive
Do you recall the moment you spotted a nice piece of clothing or a beautiful watch in a movie, wanted it so much but had no idea what brand was it or where to buy it? “You have to use Google and try your luck with describing that product with the words and hope for any results,” explain the Vistag founders.
Well, a new way to find out has been discovered. Vistag lets you buy or get more information directly from the movie or any visual content. “After simple implementation, admins can put Vistag (visual tag) into the visual content and tag products, services, add photo gallery or video and make the visual content into a new space for monetization.”
“People can read only 25% of text on the website, but there is visual content space, which isn’t used. And a single picture is better than 1000 words.” As a visitor, you’ll be able to interact with Vistag product on the e-shops like Zoot or Freshlabels.
Nemléko (Czech Republic) – taste a milk-alternative
“Considering cows milk, you have the one in tetra brick and then the fresh one. Well before Nemléko, in the plant-based milks you only had the one in tetra brick. And we thought that’s a shame. If our story of saving baby cows fails, we are going to try to gain the allnighter’s attention with our iced coffee,” open their story the founders of Nemléko.
A team of two founded a company that brought to the market a plant-based alternative of animal milk “with high content of the main ingredient, delicious taste and no unnecessary additives, delivered in glass bottles.”
Guess what they are bringing to the table? You are probably right. Nemléko will give you a chance to taste their products from a bread with Notbutter, through Notyogurt up to Notmilk (Nemléko). “Everybody wants to drink and eat something nicely chilled. We will try to present our product as a tasty alternative of milk products – not forcing them but showing something they never tried before.”
Crayonic (Slovakia) – be sure of your signature in e-documents
Ever wanted to prove your identity in the digital world only with your handwritten signature? No problem.
“You can forget pen&paper signature on contracts, you can forget passwords, fingerprints, face-scans, and paper cash. With just single stroke by your Crayonic pen, you can sign documents, pay bitcoins, or log in to any website. No one can use your Crayonic pen excluding you,” founders list the benefits of their product.
Crayonic is developing a highly usable decentralized identity technology that guarantees the identity of the signatory in e-documents and/or protects blockchain transactions. “We want to replace all paper-based contracts with our solution over the world. We also want to provide most secure crypto-currency hardware wallet to users.”
At the Pohoda festival, you’ll get a chance to put the Crayonic pen to the test and see how it really works.
Cover Photo: Martin Haburaj
Photos: Website Screenshots
