HomeCroatia-StartupsCroatian smart furniture startup Include raises over €1 million in just over...

Croatian smart furniture startup Include raises over €1 million in just over 24 hours on Funderbeam SEE

Zagreb-based smart street furniture startup Include has just raised €1 million of investment and reached the first milestone in their second crowdfunding campaign on the blockchain-based Funderbeam SEE platform.

The second campaign was launched at an event just yesterday at the Zagreb Stock Exchange, which makes Include the most successful fundraiser on the Funderbeam SEE platform in terms of both amount and quick investor response, with 151 investors from 15 countries joining in the first 24 hours.

Founder Ivan Mrvoš was recently listed as one of the Forbes’ Magazine ”30 under 30 entrepreneurs” in Europe in the Manufacturing & Industry category, Deloitte’s ”Technology Fast 50 Central Europe” Award, and was nominated for the MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 Europe 2018 Award, as well as numerous other awards since starting the company in 2014.

”We’ve been growing steadily since the launch of the company,” said Mrvoš. “Last year was profitable, and we’ve already doubled our revenue in the first quarter of 2019, compared to the same quarter of 2018. We’re extremely excited to see the amount of trust our investors have in our product and the team behind the development, production and marketing of our smart street furniture. We aim to continue creating amazing interactive technological products for public spaces, as we believe that citizens should have access to the full potential of smart urban technologies for both personal and economic growth.”

Include sells its Steora smart benches and Monna smart cycling points in 43 global markets on five continents and 260 cities, with more than 1,000 installed products and cooperation with large global corporations including Deutsche Telekom, Coca Cola, Red Bull, British Petroleum, Nokia, Kia.

The capital from the new round of investment is planned to be allocated for improving development and testing capabilities, enlargement of the in R&D team, purchases of SMD component assembly equipment, weather simulation chamber, development of new complimentary products, increase of production capacities, purchase and testing of raw materials, sales and marketing activities.

The company, which began its journey out of a garage in 2014, now employs more than 30 professionals in R&D, sales, marketing, finance, production, and procurement departments. From the initial version of the bench, which supported mobile device charging, its sales portfolio has grown to 11 high-quality products in two product lines, Steora smart benches and Monna smart cycling points, with ten additional features that can be optionally integrated into existing products.

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Mary Loritz
Mary Loritz
Mary served as Head of Content at EU-Startups.com from November 2018 until November 2019. She is an experienced journalist and researcher covering tech and business topics.
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