As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes on the 8th of May, 2020, Business Intelligence (Poslovna Inteligencija) participated in the EUvsVirus hackathon organised by the European Commission (EC) in close cooperation with EU member states and the Croatian project called Birdbox entered the finals among 10 percent of the best projects in the field of Digital Finance.
In the final, the Croatian project Birdbox was selected as one of the 117 most promising solutions to participate in a Matchathon event which will be held from May the 22nd to the 25th, 2020, where Croatia’s Poslovna Inteligencija team will have the opportunity to further improve their solution through a series of workshops and present Birdbox to its potential users, as well as to would-be investors.
The EUvsVirus hackathon was held between the 24th and the 26th of April around the world and brought together participants with the same goal – to develop a prototype and solution for technical, political and socially relevant issues related to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The competition gathered 20,900 participants from all over Europe and beyond, and a total of 2,163 solutions were submitted, and Croatia’s Poslovna Inteligencija competed in a challenge called “Supporting the Identification of Financial Deficiencies”.
The Croatian team consisted of six members, experts in various fields of data collection, processing, analysis and visualisation. The team members are Iva Soric, Davor Dinjar, Josip Punis, Bernard Curic, Petar Pejakovic and team leader Marko Stajcer. Stajcer stated that this Croatian project is a prototype of a solution that would help EU member states to find the optimal strategy to help the economy, and with its help, they’ll be able to detect the most critical areas and find those where financial aid packages would have the best possible impact on jobs and the economy as a whole.
“The platform also enables the development of simulations and the testing of different scenarios of the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the economic activity of a particular country or on the EU’s single market. This solution is applicable not only to the immediate consequences of the current crisis, but also in the event of a return of the COVID-19 pandemic or another crisis that would once again affect the economy. The solution is also applicable for market analysis and risk assessment in different market conditions,” explained Stajcer.
Following the Hackathon, this Croatian project, as one of 117 selected solutions, will be part of the Matchaton event which will be held later on in May aimed at connecting teams with potential customers and investors. The Croatian project’s placement in the finals and the invitation to Matchathon represents an additional motive and incentive for further product development, Stajcer noted.
“We’ve included other partners in the Birdbox project, and we’re especially pleased to be joined by Vuk Vukovic PhD from Oxford and one of the leading Croatian experts in political economy, all with the aim of the better presentation of Birdbox and Croatian innovations at the upcoming Matchathon. We also asked Fina to provide us with anonymised data for calculating the COVID score, which would help us to further expand the functionality of our application. Fina confirmed its support, noting that this is sensitive data and that due to regulatory requirements, special attention must be paid to the security and manner of data processing. Our wish is that in the future, if this project becomes a commercial product, we’ll enable Croatian institutions to use Birdbox for free,” added Stajcer.
Vuk Vukovic PhD says that the Croatian project Birdbox is an excellent project.
“I’m looking forward to being part of this great team. In our projects at Oraclum, we use the same approach and forecasting methodologies for individual responses, and here they’re used to make relevant simulations of the impact of negative events on company revenues,” said Vukovic.
On this occasion, Fina stated that as a socially responsible institution, they strive to support the initiatives of individuals and institutions in the field of improving the quality of life and the development of the economy and society as a whole.
“With all its characteristics, aggregated data will provide an innovative solution such as Birdbox with a better opportunity to present its solution at the Matchathon, and Fina, in the spirit of supporting Croatian innovations, has decided to support that within its capabilities. The COVID score is a unique objective assessment of business vulnerability and Croatia is among the first to implement such a system in the management of measures to help the economy, and in this sense, it gives more significance in the overall Birdbox solution,” stated Fina.
The Croatian Agency for Small Business, Innovation and Investment (HAMAG-BICRO) participated in the organisation of the largest European hackathon to date as a national body to support competitors from Croatia, whose CEO Vjeran Vrbanec considers the placement of the team with the Croatian project Birdbox a great success, especially if strong competition from international teams is also taken into account.
“This shows that success is not reserved only for the big and the rich, and that Croatian solutions are very competitive in the world,” stated Vrbanec.
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