Monday, April 3, 2017

What kind of startups are PODIM Challenge 'corpo' partners? Also, why and how to cooperate with them?

In which fields are they looking for cooperation with startups, who are the contact people, how many startups have they invested in, what are their plans in this field until the end of 2017 and what is supposed to be the ideal scenario from the first meeting until the signing of the contract? We set these questions to all six PODIM Challenge 'corpo' partners - Kolektor, Iskratel, Zavarovalnica Triglav, Pošta Slovenije, Telekom Slovenije and Nova KBM, who in partnership with Start:up Slovenija initiative and PODIM conference are systematically looking for opportunities for strategic connections with startups.

Kolektor

140+ meetings and up to 10 investments

Kolektor publically presented its newly founded fund Kolektor Ventures at last year's PODIM. They started working on it with full throttle in august, and have since then had more than 140 meetings with startup teams and have invested in three chosen companies. They are currently in negotiautions with two more startups, other than that they are planning to do 5 to 10 investments in 2017.

Fields of cooperation with startups

Among the most important fields of cooperation, Kolektor puts industrial IoT, 'materials & manufacturing' or solutions for industry 4.0. For a more detailed description of the solutions and fields that are in Kolektor's focus as this year's PODIM Challenge 'blue chip' partner click the link below:

Fields of cooperation with Kolektor

The ideal scenario of cooperation

In Kolektor the scenario of cooperation with startups is set in the following steps:

the Kolektor Ventures team establishes the first contact,
they set a meeting, where they present the fund and the startup presents its product, team, business model and investment proposal,
if the company is interesting, they do a preliminary overview of the product's potential along with market research,
in the next steps, they start preparing a letter of intent and talk about the conditions of the investment, at the same time they do due diligence,
when the main points of the conditions of the investment are set and the due diligence done, the investment committee decides whether they will invest or not,
if the decision is one in favor of the investment, they sign an investment memorandum and later an investment contract.

Get in touch with Mateja Lavrič and Andrej Čušin

In Kolektor the people responsible for contacts with startups are Director of Kolektor Ventures Mateja Lavrič ([email protected]) and Andrej Čušin ([email protected]).

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Iskratel

Five million euros of investments in the next five years

Iskratel founded its investment fund Iskratel StartUp at the beginning of last year and announced five million euros of investments in the next five years. They will invest in 25 or 30 startups if we consider their starting investments of 150.000 to 200.000 €. The first company to get an investment was the Ljubljana startup Gotoky, in 2017 they want to finish close investments in two to three more startup companies.

Fields of cooperation with startups

Iskratel is looking for new business opportunities in partnership with startups in the field of innovative ICT products that are focused on cloud solutions, Internet of things and smart as well as 5g networks. For a more detailed description of the solutions and fields that are in Iskratel's focus as this year's PODIM Challenge 'blue chip' partner click the link below:

Fields of cooperation with Iskratel

The ideal scenario of cooperation

Iskratel's process or scenario of cooperation with startups works like this:

A startup can submit their proposal for cooperation through the website iskratelstartup.si or the team of Iskratel's fund in cooperation with the startup ecosystem identifies a promising startup and invites it for a meeting.
Informational briefing or talk (telephone, skype, ...) with the leader of the startup program, who presents the basic information about Iskratel's startup program and at the same time observes the adequacy and maturity of the startup proposal for the presentation in front of Iskratel's development-entrepreneurial committee (RPO).
Following that is the startup's presentation to the members of the RPO, in which the present members are of product-technology management, heads of the product programs, head of marketing, development, Chieft Technology architect (CTA) and the head EMS of sales. The goal of this presentation is the identification of the business and / or product-technical synergies between startup companies and corporation Iskratel.
In the case of found potential synergies the next step is a due diligence of the startup and the preparation of an investment proposal for the strategic board or members of the executive board of the company.
After confirming the framework of the investment proposal come the negotiations, where the typical start investment of Iskratel in the chosen startup company doesn't exceed 25,1% equity.
Closing the investment, plan for a business and developmental cooperation as well as checking the development and business of the startup.

Get in touch with Roman Kužnar

Roman Kužnar ([email protected]), the head of Iskratel's startup program and director of Iskratel's entrepreneurship incubator as well as the RC IKT technology park, is responsible for startup contact.

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Zavarovalnica Triglav

Co-founder of ABC accelerator

Zavarovalnica Triglav is closely connected with the world of startups as the co-founder of ABC accelerator. Thus far, they have invested in only one company directly, this company is an ABC alumni, indirectly they are involved with startup investments through the ownership of ABC accelerator. Zavarovalnica Triglav doesn't set the cooperation condition with startups to be equity, instead, they are open to other forms of partnerships.

Fields of cooperation with startups

Zavarovalnica Triglav is usually looking for ideas, that they can use in their core business, which is insurance. As this year's PODIM Challenge 'blue chip' partner, they want to cooperate with startups in development of solutions in the fields of the sharing economy - the implications to vehicles and real-estate. For a more detailed description of the solutions and fields that are in Zavarovalnica Triglav's focus as this year's PODIM Challenge 'blue chip' partner click the link below:

Fields of cooperation with Zavarovalnica Triglav

The ideal scenario of cooperation

Zavarovalnica Triglav says that the scenarios for cooperation with startups vary and depend on each case separately. In every case of cooperation, they add their know-how in the relatively complex field of insurance, for the final solution of the startup to be relevant on the market.

Get in touch with Zoran Miloševič

The contact person for startups in Zavarovalnica Triglav is Zoran Miloševič ([email protected]), director of innovation and business digitalization.

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Pošta Slovenije

This year they are planning investments in 7 startups

The first stories of successful strategic partnerships with startups / innovative companies have been written at Pošta Slovenije, among them by establishing a solution for electronic serving with PoštAR with the startup Poštar, and offering the digitalization of inbound and internal post with the subsidiary company APS PLUS, that was founded in partnership of Pošta Slovenije and the company Mikrografija. In this year, they are planning to invest in 7 startups, that can be in different developmental phases - from MVP or even in early idea phases, if Pošta Slovenije judges it to be a promising solution.

Fields of cooperation with startups

For Pošta Slovenije, successful innovation is the key resource for longterm progress, for this they are also assigning a great role to cooperation with outside startups, that work in the field of logistics or mobility and transport, with a focus on improving the 'first and last mile'. For a more detailed description of the solutions and fields that are in Pošta Slovenije's focus as this year's PODIM Challenge 'blue chip' partner click the link below:

Fields of cooperation with Pošta Slovenije

The ideal scenario of cooperation

The scenario for cooperating with startups in Pošta Slovenia is divided in four key steps that include an estimation about the time necessary for the execution of each phase:

1. week: meeting signing an NDA,
2. week: pitch of the idea and a presentation of the startup team, if the team is not yet built, they together analyze which members or skills are missing,
2., 3. - 6. week: filling the team, preparation of the business model canvas, checking the assumptions in a real world scenario and pivoting if necessary,
6. - 8. week: final negotiations and closing the investment.

Get in touch with Dragan Stjepanovič

The contact person for startups at Pošta Slovenije is Dragan Stjepanovič ([email protected]).

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Telekom Slovenije

Different models of cooperation

Telekom Slovenije hasn't yet financially invested in any startup companies, however they have helped startups develop their solutions and business in the fields of web, mobile and other communicational services through their own startup accelerator. In the future, they plan to support startup companies, that they recognize to have a potential and with a solution that is aligned with the development strategy of Telekom Slovenije, with infrastructure, mentoring, and if needed with startup capital.

Fields of cooperation with startups

Telekom Slovenije, sees opportunities for startup cooperation in the fields of developing internet of things, data mining, big data, business digitalization and smart home... For a more detailed description of the solutions and fields that are in Telekom Slovenije's focus as this year's PODIM Challenge 'blue chip' partner click the link below:

Fields of cooperation with Telekom Slovenije

The ideal scenario of cooperation

Telekom Slovenije, gives individual attention to each startup in which they find a potential for cooperation and common business opportunities in. After the initial contact, startups send a pitch with which they justify in which area and how they see the cooperation with Telekom Slovenija. Following that is a meeting, after which, based on the provided options and proposals for cooperation, further steps are accordingly adjusted.

Get in touch with Larisa Potokar

Larisa Potokar ([email protected]) is responsible for the first contact with startup teams in Telekom Slovenija, other than Larisa, the startup team at Telekom Slovenija consists of Suzana Leben ([email protected]), director of Strategy and regulation and Sašo Djoković ([email protected]), who is responsible for partnerships.

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Nova KBM

The bank as an active supporter of the entrepreneurial ecosystem

Nova KBM cannot do direct capital investments for startups, as it is regulated by a strong banking regulation. However, as a long-term partner of IRP it is involved in the development of the local and national entrepreneurial ecosystem, where they have recently also studied the possibilities of financing startups and connecting with interesting initiatives especially in the 'fintech' field.

Fields of cooperation with startups

Last year they started to work with a startup company in the field of renovating and development of a new mobile bank and among other things organized the first bank hackathon in Slovenia. This year, Nova KBM, a long term general partner of the PODIM conference will present itself as a PODIM Challenge 'blue chip' partner. For a more detailed description of the fields that are in Nova KBM's focus click the link below:

Fields of cooperation with Nova KBM

The ideal scenario of cooperation

Nova KBM deals with every case of potential cooperation with startup individually. They usually meet with companies in an introductory meeting, where they will meet with the team, the business idea, evaluate it, and then come to a fitting decision and execute the necessary internal processes.

Get in touch with Jure Kobal

The junction of the 'fintech' initiative at Nova KBM is the sector for informational technology, where you can get in touch with Jure Kobal ([email protected]) or Martin Gunčer ([email protected]) from the department of software development.

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Photo: Even before this year's PODIM conference, we hosted the representatives of the PODIM Challenge 'corpo' partners in a round table (from the left): Sašo Djoković – Telekom Slovenije, Damjan Slapar – Iskratel, Jernej Močnik – Nova KBM, Mateja Lavrič – Kolektor, Branko Drobnak – Poslovni angeli Slovenije, Zoran Miloševič – Zavarovalnica Triglav and Dragan Stjepanović – Pošta Slovenije.

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Author: Stanislava Vabšek, Iniciativa Start:up Slovenija