Networking Event during Oslo Innovation Week Prompting New Opportunities for Croatian Companies and Possible New CRO-NO Partnerships
© Bo SlettjordOslo Innovation Week
Each year in September, Oslo comes alive by hosting entrepreneurs, innovators, and forward thinkers from across the globe, to discuss innovation, sustainability, global business expansion and challenges of today - all under a unique umbrella of an event called Oslo Innovation Week. OIW brings together participants from various sectors, including technology, entrepreneurship, and academia and encourages them to bring forward their ideas, solution and dreams.
This year, during only five days of OIW more than 80 events took place across Oslo, ranging from workshops, conferences, seminars, to pitches and Networking Events.
Networking Event during OIW
Innovation Norway too, took an active role in OIW by organizing a networking event for innovative startups and scaleups from Central/Southern Europe. For approximately hundred companies coming from 10 countries, including Croatia, it was an excellent opportunity to exchange business ideas, establish partnerships and cooperation for their existing projects, or expand markets for already developed solutions.
Excellent Selection of Companies from Croatia
Innovation Norway’s Team from Zagreb, managing Norway Grants’ Business Development and Innovation Croatia Programme selected 10 most promising start ups and scale ups and awarded them with financial support, so that they could travel to Oslo and share their ideas with others on this event.
During pitching session, where 100 companies were invited to pitch, Croatian forces were represented by SeaCras and Green Energy Pal, two Croatian startups with interesting business ideas.
SeaCras and Green Energy Pal as Pitchers
© Innovation NorwaySeaCras specializes in sustainable marine environmental monitoring and surveillance by satellites.
SeaCras’ solution was represented by Mario Špadina, who presented their eco and cost friendly, AI based solution for monitoring of costal waters by satellite, which enables data analysis with high resolution. The solution comes as a response to existing “pains” of stakeholders in blue economy, who are currently operating with expensive, yet GHG heavy solutions.
Mario was happy to be given a chance to travel to Norway for this event. For Mario, it was an opportunity to learn and compete. Only by doing both, says Mario, SeaCras can capitalize on new opportunities and build new collaborations. As a result of this Event, SeaCras is now pursuing several leads and preparing for upcoming funding opportunities.
© Innovation NorwayAnother company which had an opportunity to present their business idea was Green Energy Pal, a company that offers innovative software and hardware solutions in the field of electricity consumption management.
The solution - a tailor made “digital energy consultant” that enables detailed insights into companies’ electricity consumption through graphical and numerical analysis, leading to significant financial savings, increased security and reduction of carbon footprint was presented by Mr. Ivan Sudić,
Ivan also found this to be a great opportunity to showcase the startup and its solution to a broader audience. In Ivan’s own words: “It allowed us to connect with like-minded entrepreneurs, receive valuable feedback, and explore potential collaborations. This opportunity has the potential to significantly benefit our company by opening doors to new partnerships, knowledge sharing, and innovation, further accelerating our growth and impact.”
We are happy to learn that our Networking Event prompted new opportunities for these, and other eight companies from Croatia, that could lead to new CRO-NO partnerships. We wish all of our participating companies a lot of success in scaling up their solutions, not only in Croatia, but also in Norway and elsewhere.