On 9 June 2021, at the premises of USP TECHNICOM, the 13^th round of one of the oldest startup competitions in Slovakia Máš nápad? /Do you have an idea?/, which is announced twice a year since 2014 by the Rector of the Technical University of Košice, was held through the Startup Centre of the University Science Park TECHNICOM.

Startups competed for a stay at the Startup Centre, within which they complete a 6-month intensive acceleration programme aimed at supporting the development of their innovative projects and have the opportunity to use the research and development infrastructure, capacities and premises of the USP TECHNICOM. Eight innovative projects advanced to the finals of the 13th round of the competition (out of 12 submitted projects). The jury has selected six projects for the pre-incubation stay in the Startup Centre:

21Games OZ focuses on innovative building of a gaming development community in Slovakia, beautyslovakia – the aim of the project is to develop a portal solution to support tourism in Slovakia, Gamescrunch focuses on organisation of activities focused on the gaming industry, storePredictor – the subject of interest of the startup is the prediction of e-commerce turnover, wellnesso focuses on the services market in the field of wellness and beauty activities, Sigred – its aim is to develop an application offering the sale and purchase of goods for the student community based on the use of video as the main intermediary tool. 

The jury proposed the Univerzálna vernostná karta /Universal loyalty card/ startup advancing directly to the Incubator based on the level of development of the project. Its aim is to offer a solution that will replace a number of existing loyalty cards. 

The expert committee led by its chair A. Čižmár, Vice-Rector of TUKE, has selected the advancing startups. The members of the committee were representatives of the private and public sphere: M. Chovanec, F. Jakab, P. Čižmár, A. Lavrin, M. Michalko, P. Feciľak, V. Fedák, Ľ. Kolesár, and Ľ. Biňas representing TUKE; M. Kubiš (CVTI SR), and M. Varga (Deutsche Telekom IT Solution Slovakia).

The 13^th round of the competition was held in close cooperation with “innovlab”.

The USP TECHNICOM Startup Centre was established in 2014, and it is one of the key components of ecosystem of business acceleration, technology transfer and innovation at TUKE within the structure of University Science Park TECHNICOM. Its aim is to provide an environment for ensuring the acceleration process for creation of small and medium-sized “Hi-Tech” companies (“Start-up and Spin-off” companies), based mainly on results of research and innovation activities of TUKE departments. In the short period of its existence, the Startup Centre have gained a good reputation by organizing activities to identify and support innovative solutions and have become an important element of the innovative potential of the region with a nationwide impact. The selection of startups for the Startup Centre is implemented through „Máš nápad? Prezentuj svoj startup!“ /Do you have an idea? Present your startup!/ competition of innovative projects, which is organised every six months. Since 2014, almost 180 innovative projects have participated in the competition, and more than 70 startups have been given the opportunity to complete a 6-month pre-incubation stay. 

More information on the ecosystem of innovation acceleration and technology transfer TUKE can be found at www.uvptechnicom.sk.

Contact:  Doc. Ing. František Jakab, PhD., Director of USP TECHNICOM, Phone: +421 905 715816.