9ja.org

Somewhere between the Alps and the Adriatic Sea lies a country with unspoilt nature, friendly people and delicious food. Slovenia is also home to young entrepreneurial minds, who have been enjoying the thriving startup community. The scene has gained momentum, with a few global success stories, venture capital funds and the famous PODIM conference.

As with all of our lists, the selected startups were founded in around the last 5 years, are growing their team and product quite fast, are doing something quite cool and have won funding or recognition in the past few years. They are not the only interesting startups in Slovenia, but are some that we think we should keep a close eye on.

So without further ado, are 10 Slovenian startups with potential to skyrocket in 2020.

Smart Optometry – Smart Optometry (2015) is developing digital solutions for the eye industry, to ensure eye and vision health. Their first product is a professional application Smart Optometry for eye specialists, which enables basic eye screening and diagnosis, while their second product, AmblyoPlay, is a vision training application for children between 4 and 14 years of age who experience eye problems. The startup has been backed by corporate investors and healthcare accelerators, most recently with a €150K seed investment from Salus.

MAG-LEV Audio – Good news for vinyl lovers. MAG-LEV Audio (2016) is bringing you the ultimate audio experience with the world’s first levitating turntable. More precisely, they have developed a deck that supposedly eliminates the need for a motor, using magnets and an electric current to rotate the platter above the plinth, and as such, enhances the experience of listening to vinyl records. By pushing the frontier of audio technology, they were able to integrate the uplifting experience of music into the turntable design itself, bringing the feeling of zero gravity into the living room. Now sit back, relax and enjoy. 

ICONOMI – A pioneer among Slovenia’s blockchain movement, ICONOMI (2016) is helping users make their first investment step with cryptocurrency. Designed as a digital asset platform, it gives users the possibility to invest in a variety of cryptocurrencies with one click, through a number of digital asset arrays – cryptocurrency funds and indices with varying levels of expected yields and risk profiles. As holders of the most funded Kickstarter campaign in Slovenia, they raised over €5 million to further transform the way people invest in the blockchain space. 

Eligma – Launched in 2018 with the aim to make cryptocurrencies part of daily life, Eligma is a facilitator of seamless and secure crypto payments. Their product, Elipay, is a unique infrastructure that enables merchants to accept instant crypto payments at their points-of-sale. The buyer makes a purchase by scanning the product’s QR code at the store via their smart mobile, picking a cryptocurrency to pay and the seller then gets the payment in euro. In 2019, the startup secured backing of €4.4 million from famed bitcoiner Roger Ver and Swiss investment firm Pangea Blockchain Fund.

Hive Terminal – One of the biggest blockchain successes in Slovenia, Hive Terminal (2017) is a fintech startup offering a blockchain-based invoice-financing platform. Hive terminal cuts costs, automates processes, and eliminates invoice duplication to open up new sources of financial liquidity to small businesses, creating high-return investment opportunities for invoice buyers in the process. In April 2020, the startup secured an investment by Swiss Venture Investment, slowly reaching their goal to become a full marketplace with advanced trading analytics for peer-to-peer lending. 

PredictLeads – Founded in 2016 and backed by YCombinator, 3VC Seed and several high profile angel investors, Predict Leads helps venture capital firms and sales teams identify high-growth companies, i.e. potential investments and potential customers, using AI and machine learning. By extracting deep business insights at scale, such as recent customers, partners, technology suppliers, hiring trends, investment areas, product launches, expansions, Predict Leads saves companies a lot, a lot of time.

Beeping – Named Slovenian Startup of the Year 2018, Beeping is a fast, safe and effective way of hiring verified cleaners to one’s home. The guarantee for the service quality, vetted and trained cleaners or “Beepers”, time flexibility, online payments, and responsibility insurance are just some of the features of the platform. Future plans include using artificial intelligence and machine learning to ensure better matching between user and cleaner preferences, thus ensuring a more personalised user experience.

CargoX – The Ljubljana-based blockchain startup offers blockchain-based Smart Bill of Lading (Smart B/L) solution. Founded in 2017, it is built atop the Ethereum, to enable logistics, financial, manufacturing, trading, energy, and services companies, along with governmental and regulatory agencies, to transfer original documents digitally, efficiently and securely, without the possibility of tampering, loss, or theft. In February 2020 the multi-award winning startup became the first public blockchain Bill of Lading provider approved by the International Group of P&I Clubs.

Viberate – If you’re working in the music industry, brace yourself for something epic. Viberate (2015) is a crowdsourced live music ecosystem and blockchain-based marketplace, where musicians are matched with booking agencies and event organizers. So far, over 450k artists, 130k venues, 2k booking agencies and 500k music events have joined the platform. Unfortunately, due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the event industry is currently on hold. So, Viberate set up a special website where festivals and concert enthusiasts can track which festivals are cancelled or will be postponed.

Chipolo – Forget lost bags, phones, and wallets. Chipolo (2013) is here. Currently the startup offers two products: Chipolo ONE, a smart pendant which uses a wireless Bluetooth connection and helps you find misplaced or lost items by using your smart-phone, and Chipolo CARD, perfect for your wallet, passport pouch and remote control. Via the Chipolo app, a registered unit can be shared with as many friends and family members as desired and its locations recorded. Nothing will ever be lost again.

By the way: If you’re a corporate or investor looking for exciting startups in a specific market for a potential investment or acquisition, check out our Startup Sourcing Service!

EU-Startups