What our participants say about our services - Martin Pečar OmniOpti

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Founder, Martin Pečar, is a Slovenian mathematician, who specialised in vehicle tracking. He has also worked on the sales side of the Sector before going into research. While studying towards a PhD in Mathematics, he took his research idea and founded OmniOpti, putting his studies on hold.

 

OmniOpti

The company is 2 years old and provides route optimisation for transport and logistics. The service is largely targeted towards the private sector but can also be optimised for public sector use. The company is active in Slovenia, with contacts in other regions having 4 full-time employees and looking to onboard one more employee over the coming months.

Having graduated from a Slovenian incubator, they have recently been accepted into a German accelerator which specialises in logistics. Due to the distance, they largely engage with the incubator remotely, only travelling to Germany for big events. OmniOpti “provides consulting services and advanced solutions in various fields and technologies, connected to Smart Cities, such as:

  • Mobility/Transport/Logistics
  • eHealth - Energy (Smart Grids)
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Blockchain”

 

Current connection with US stakeholders and plans for entering the US market

Prior to attending the ENRICH tour, the founder had some existing experience of the US market due to his previous role (which had a US HQ). At the same time they had also awareness of the US market and culture due to family connections in the States, however they had no direct connections. Through the Smart City-Focused Tour (Nov 2019), OmniOpti made a number of connections with potential customers/intermediaries which they have kept up and are still in contact with. The founder planned to return to Dallas in March as part of a delegation of Slovenian SMEs on a mission organised by the Slovenian Organisation for Foreign Investments, cooperation and promotion abroad, the Slovenian Tourist Organisation and a few other entities including Dallas organisations (including Dallas Mavericks Basketball Team); the mission is partly subsidised by the providers. OmniOpti planed to extendtheir stay in Dallas after the two-day tour to follow up with the strong ‘anchor’ contacts made through ENRICH during the Smart City focused tour.

The biggest challenge is that major business is done locally with existing contacts (for example investors want US-based startups) and so a local presence is necessary. Several founders have either moved or visit the States regularly, however for OmniOpti this is not a realistic option. Instead they are looking for a partner or other form of representation in the US.

Through the Smart City-Focused Tour OmniOpti was given a much better insight into the US market and how it works. They also gained strong, high-level contacts and a good understanding of the ecosystem.

ENRICH in the USA helped OmniOpti to have conversations with the right people. Now not only to have contacts but more to have strong ‘anchors’ in the local ecosystem who can help to signpost them to other potential contacts and vice-versa. ENRICH in the USA also gave them a thorough insight into the local ecosystem, and provided them with potential markets which they hadn’t envisioned (routing public school buses)

 

The next steps of your startup/SME in the US market in the upcoming 5 years

For the immediate future to returnito the Dallas and to develop relationships and gain further contacts. Over the next few months seeing production and introducing scale in other markets (Austria, Germany, Italy, Serbia, and USA) with focus on the US