Kolektor is investing into startups with disruptive solutions in the field of smart factories and industry 4.0!
This year, Kolektor Group is planning to invest into 5 to 10 promising startups from the Alps-Adriatic region and further, which are developing disruptive solutions for smart factories and industry 4.0 in the field of ‘Materials and Manufacturing’. A company working in the field of vision measurements, Smart Optometry, already received an investment of the Kolektor Ventures fund. The fund is currently in talks for an investment with two startups from the field of VR/AR and a company doing predictive analytics and machine learning. Startups, take advantage of the opportunity that Kolektor joined as one of the first PODIM Challenge blue-chip partners! This multinational concern with headquarters in Slovenia and a wide network of companies and branches in Europe, US and Asia is successfully working in highly specialized industrial production, and is looking for new growth opportunities, also in collaboration with startups, mostly in the field of industrial IoT (the so-called IIoT).
With more than 50 years of tradition and its network of 30 companies and branches all over the world, Kolektor is one of the leading players in global niches of components and systems for the automotive industry, electricity, engineering and technological systems. On the verge of the fourth industrial revolution, they also wish to establish themselves as a leading global provider of solutions for smart factories and smart networks or industry 4.0.
Why smart factories?
Smart factories use modern technology to achieve the highest possible level of self-adjustment in the production process. With smart supply networks, they enable automated and optimized business decisions for suppliers. Meanwhile individual production operations, which are interactively connected to customers, enable reactive production and products tailor-made for the customer.
'Materials & Manufacturing' fields for connecting with startups
To ensure new business opportunities brought by the paradigm of smart factories, Kolektor will look for opportunities to strategically connect with startups that are developing digital solutions for the industry in the following fields:
- Context and pattern recognition,
- Robotics and sensors,
- Advanced materials,
- 3R (VR/AR/MR),
- Simulations and models for forecasting and decision making,
- Predictive and advanced analytics,
- Big data, data storage, and processing cloud applications,
- Employee mobility,
- Automated guided vehicles and integrated transport units,
- Predictive maintenance,
- 3D modelling
- Machine vision and machine learning,
- Artificial intelligence (AI),
- And safety devices related to IoT.
Why could Kolektor be your ideal strategic partner?
Representatives of Kolektor Ventures, Kolektor’s corporate venture capital fund, who will attend PODIM Conference, are very much aware of the fact that startups are looking for strategic partners, not only financial investments, more than ever before.
From an idea to global penetration or exit
The teams that come under their wing receive a starting investment, mostly in the form of seed capital, but they also provide them with intense mentorship and an entire range of supportive services that enable the development, testing and global market penetration of innovative products. The story then of course continues with a partial or complete purchase of the business model by the concern or a sale on the market.
The first such fund in the region that actively collaborates with the startup ecosystem
As the first such venture capital fund in this part of the region, Kolektor Ventures is currently in the talks with more than 90 startup companies. Besides an already closed investment, 25 other teams are on the shortlist, and Kolektor is collaborating with 13 strategic partners from startup ecosystems in Slovenia, Austria and Italy in their search.
Their own projects in the field of machine vision and learning, and artificial intelligence
Of course a company that ensures its continued growth with constant and intensive investment into research and development isn’t sitting on its hands. Besides all their startup activities and programmes, they are also rapidly developing internal projects in the field of smart companies, currently mostly in machine vision and learning. Recently, they launched a project in the field of smart factories in collaboration with the Jožef Stefan institute, based mostly on using sensors, robotics, self-adaptation, machine learning, artificial intelligence and forecast models.
Establish contact with Kolektor Ventures representatives!
If you wish to get to know the team that’s behind Kolektor startup activities and meet them at this year’s PODIM Conference, get in contact with Mateja Lavrič ([email protected]) and Andrej Čušin ([email protected]) or get in touch with them over the contact form on their website (www.kolektorstartup.com).
Need a warm introduction?
If you wish to consult with us or need additional information before establishing first contact with Iskratel’s representatives, you can also turn to the PODIM team. Write to us at [email protected] and we will gladly help you.
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Photo: Valter Leban, Kolektor board member; source: startaj.si
