As Bernard Ivezic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 14th of April, 2019, Croatia’s Nocturiglow is currently the biggest startup ”surprise” in the Republic of Croatia. The story of this startup, which won best pitch at the first Investors Conference @ Algebra Lab, has accelerated beyond all possible expectations.
The Nocturiglow team has developed a low-tech care product for the elderly and infirm which has the same name as the company itself, for those who struggle to get up to go to the bathroom to urinate, or for those who simply cannot for whatever reason. The only, conditionally speaking that is, “technological” thing that Nocturiglow’s ”bowl” possesses is that it has fluorescent elements which make it glow in the dark, which is why it’s easy to locate and use during the night. There is a female and a male version.
Nocturiglow’s Ivan Babić politely declined to show an image of the design of Nocturiglow’s new product, because he is currently in the process of having this intellectual property protected for sale on the EU market.
“We’re completely low tech. That was our whole goal, because our competition doesn’t focus on quality and user experience, and that’s why we think we have room for success,” Babić says. He added that Nocturiglow will develop other care products aimed at the older generation in the future, and they will also incorporate sensors, which of course means adding more technology.
Like most millenials today, unsatisfied with the potential income and opportunities that he could accomplish with a master’s degree in logistics and management here in Croatia, he was looking for a stroke of luck which would take him down a different path, and so he left Croatia. For three years, he worked as a carer for people with disabilities over in Germany, a job which helped him arrive to this idea in the first place.
“When the STEP-RI startup incubator issued a tender, I applied, I resigned from my job in Germany and came back to Croatia to develop my own business,” Babić says. In the past six months, he has made a prototype on his computer with his partner Sara Gunjača and his designer, Ivo Blažinčić.
Now he is preparing to create the very first functional prototype. His plan is to make fifty copies to be shared by test users. Previously, this type of thing was tested through surveys among employees of private and public healthcare institutions.
“We have also noticed that our product is not only good for patients but also for healthcare institutions, because it facilitates jobs for caregivers, as well as insurance companies,” added Babić.
He noted that he wants to start selling Nocturiglow’s brand new product through his own web store by the beginning of 2020, while the ”attacking” the EU market through Amazon. He also wants to develop sales to various healthcare institutions. He has even been in talks with an American company, a partner of Kickstarter, about production. Currently, however, investors haven’t come knocking at his door, yet.
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Click here for the original article by Bernard Ivezic for Poslovni Dnevnik
