The program “Start something of your own” rewards projects that have a positive impact on society as a whole, II. continued

We present the other two of the six finalists: Simpert from Slavonski Brod and VeeMee from Zagreb.

In mid-April 2021, the results of the fifth round of the “Start something of your own” competition for 2021 were announced, a program jointly launched by Philip Morris Zagreb and ACT Group, a support organization for the development of social entrepreneurship. Their goal is to support projects with a positive social impact through mentoring support and grants.

Since 2016, the program “Start something of your own” has systematically given a wind in the back to micro-entrepreneurs and start-up entrepreneurs, who have focused their work on socially beneficial projects, with the long-term goal of positive impact on society as a whole.

In this sequel, we present two new finalists: Simpert from Slavonski Brod and VeeMee from Zagreb.

Muzea – ​​a great application of the creative studio Simpert, which digitizes museum content

Muzea is designed as a large catalogue of all materials of museum pedagogy, which through various tags structures the input data by different criteria and filters so that users instead of wandering the Internet and looking for videos, worksheets or games related to some historical material, can find it all in one place. , take an interest in it and eventually go to the museum and learn more about what they found – explains Mladen Sudar, owner of Simpert.

Simpert’s team has a lot of plans for the future. They focus on AR and VR projects, where new business opportunities open up for them. Still, they like to say that the most important thing for them is to work for the benefit of the whole community and society. They consider it their main mission.

VeeMee – a project that reveals to us what we really eat

We are increasingly aware that the food we consume greatly affects our health. Research shows that eight out of ten consumers check the origin of the food they buy. Startup VeeMee has created an online platform that reveals where the groceries we buy come from.

Co-founder and director of the startup Marko Kozjak present the VeeMee project as follows: “I wrote the project related to food traceability in 2014, and the realization started in 2017. The name VeeMee is derived from the name Vito / Mihael (my son Vito and Nikola’s son Mihael). Together with Nikola (a partner in the company), I wanted to ensure transparency and availability of information within the food distribution, in translation, “so that our kids finally know what they are eating.” Today, the team consists of eight colleagues plus external associates. ”

Subscribers of the VeeMee platform are small, medium and large users, mostly from Croatia, and targeted from other EU member states and beyond. Secondarily, they generate revenue from smart logistics services, Food Waste and Smart Logistics, which provide customers who import their fresh food products to the HR market or export and place domestic food products on the EU market. In numbers, it looks like this: in 2020, they saved or prevented the dumping of 750 tons of food and reduced CO2 by 40 tons through smart logistics. Behind them are numerous donations, which puts them in a growing circle of the green economy.

In addition, I can only state that working responsibly can also be a business model that ensures existence not only inside but also outside the company, ie towards people with whom we have no direct contact. VeeMee’s vision is to be a participant and driver of change that will result in digitized agriculture and a happier, freer and healthier society and market. We do not look at VeeMee only as a company, but as a family – concludes Marko Kozjak.