Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
During the month of July a crowdfunding campaign ended for the Freewa startup, aimed to increase the availability of drinking water and environmental protection worldwide. Freewa consists of a mobile app, water bottles and bags. The mobile app helps users find the closest drinking water location, either natural or public. The bottle will be made from recycled PET packaging, to further reduce the waste that ends up in seas, and it could also become an original Croatian product and souvenir.
Behind the project are Marko Rašić, Vedrana Vrabec, Goran Ladišić and Mihaela Ivanec, who cooperated in the crowdfunding campaign with Starataparat, and agency owned by Bruketa & Žinić in Vienna, specializing in startups.
The campaign lasted from 29 May to 16 July, and has raised around $31,000 from over 250 supporters from around the world, and has already mapped a thousand sources of drinking water around the world. Already on the first day of the campaign, the community reacted enthusiastically, and both domestic and international media shared the story of an ecological initiative from small Croatia.
Vedrana Vrabec from Freewa explained: “Word of Freewa has spread far and wide. Supporters came from New Zealand, Austria, Luxembourg, UK to the USA, and of course the most came from Croatia. In addition, we have a large number of app users.”
Freewa says the sale goes on, as they plan to finish and deliver the first Freewa bottle series during November. In parallel they work on planned development and improvement of Freewa app and acquisition of new users. “We want a 100% Croatian brand that will become recognizable in the world. We are ready for discussions with potential investors,” they say.
Since its foundation in the autumn of last year, the Startaparat Agency has started to cooperate with several other startup projects, including the global e-gallery of startups 1MillionSturtups and the Croatian app for bus tickets Vollo and others. “In the meantime, we launched two new services,” explains the director of Startaparat Helena Rosandić. “With EU Funds Help Desk startups we are helping raise funding from European Union funds, and we help with Startup PR in tailored PR for individual startup projects.”
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More about Startaparat can be found here.