Although the COVID-19 situation has slowed down all aspects of life, entrepreneurship has once again demonstrated that it is the driving force behind all changes in society.

Namely, on Thursday, May 21, the sixth, and the first online edition of the national finals of the EIT InnoEnergy PowerUp! Challenge took place, where a product of our Incubator, EazyOil, was declared the best startup of the year in Croatia! As the first-placed, they won $10,000, which they can spend on Amazon Web Services. EazyOil clinched the victory with votes from the expert jury, consisting of Damir Sabol, an investor and serial entrepreneur, Luka Abrus, co-founder and director of the company Five, Vedran Blagus, an investment manager at South Central Ventures, and Michał Bajd, a representative of InnoEnergy.

The selected Croatian representative, EazyOil, from PowerUp!2020 will present itself at the international grand final in June, competing for valuable cash prizes of 50,000, 10,000, or 5,000 euros, while the best will be offered additional investment from EIT InnoEnergy and prizes from partners such as Amazon Web Services, Revolut, or SpeedUp Group.

In addition to the first prize and the title of the best startup chosen by the jury, there was also the audience award and $5,000 for Amazon Web Services, which was won by another member of our Incubator – eAgrar!

For those unfamiliar with the work of our startups, EazyOil is an automatic payment system for gas stations that operates through vehicle license plate recognition, while eAgrar is a system that enables monitoring the status of agricultural crops based on IoT devices and advanced data processing. Thanks to eAgrar, farmers can sleep peacefully as it provides information about possible diseases, frost occurrence, or the need for irrigation.

The competition is organized by EIT InnoEnergy in 24 countries in Central and Eastern Europe for the sixth consecutive year, and this year a total of 425 early-stage companies applied. The Croatian partner of the competition is Invento Capital Partners, which organized the national finals for Croatian competitors and opened a direct path to European investors. In Croatia, this year’s final involved 6 selected startups with exceptionally innovative and interesting projects.

The results achieved in this competition are another proof of the quality work in the Student Entrepreneurship Incubator and evidence that the University of Split, despite lacking necessary infrastructure, is full of talented young professionals who need and deserve support from their first entrepreneurial steps!