South Bohemians dominated the Czech-Austrian final of business ideas and startups

Congratulations to Ondřej Otáhal (HERBAVITA CZ, startup category):

Ondřej has been working for a long time with the problem of overuse of antibiotics in livestock farms. In the HERBAVITA CZ team, he develops and produces complementary feeds for livestock based on the effectiveness of phytobiotic mixtures, essential oils, organic acids and vitamins that support the health and strengthen the immunity of animals. In a Czech-Austrian competition, he presented the company's new project in which he uses artificial intelligence to automate, accelerate and facilitate the detection of the causes of one of the most costly diseases in dairy cattle - mammary gland inflammation. The new technology, combined with natural feed supplements, has the ambition to make a significant contribution to reducing the use of antibiotics in dairy farms across the EU.

and Jonah Benjamin Tekel (AI Cardio Detector, idea category):

Jonáš and the AI TEK team developed and presented an application that uses AI to identify patient ECG graphs, thereby eliminating potential medical errors. The team of enthusiastic students and PhD students are well on their way and have many more AI applications planned in addition to the presented idea. They have convinced the IKEM in Prague of their knowledge, which has released anonymised patient data that no AI application can do without.

The cross-border competition CROSS-BORDER IDEA & START-UP CONTEST is based on a memorandum from the governors of the South Bohemia Region and Upper Austria and aims to jointly support innovative entrepreneurial projects in both border regions. As last year, regional innovation centres, the South Bohemian Science and Technology Park and the Austrian incubator tech2b were entrusted with the expert preparation of the competition and intensive cooperation with its participants. This year, the chambers of commerce from both regions were also involved, bringing new and interesting initiatives and a number of additional supporters of the competition gained from their partnership cooperation. A total of 39 competitors were involved in this year's 2nd edition of the competition, 24 projects came from South Bohemia and 15 from Upper Austria.

Let us now introduce all the Czech finalists, as each of the competition ideas is worth our attention. All of them bring a new, fresh wind to the entrepreneurial life in South Bohemia...

Karel Šimek - Adventurer Solutions, startup category

Karel is the winner of the regional business ideas competition Jihoczech 2021 and an adventurer in every sense. He is the founder and CEO of Adventurer Solutions, marketing specialist and project developer. His other projects include WitSocks and Guide Group. Together with the Adventurer team, he develops and operates a user-friendly platform that makes it easy and fast for people to plan their outdoor adventures based on verified and up-to-date data and information. The Adventurer - Hike and Explore app connects adventurers, shares experiences, offers transport, accommodation, shows weather forecasts. And much more. It becomes a reliable and faithful guide when travelling through the wilderness.

Jindřich Packa - MONTONE sport, startup category

Jindra, together with his partner and the MONTONE team, develops and produces protective packaging for transport and storage. The pilot products are packaging for bicycles and their individual parts. Transporting bikes by car (on the roof, behind the car) causes contamination of the bikes and fouling of their mechanical parts (chain, disc brakes, handlebars with display and shifting mechanism, e-bike batteries). This causes not only the need for further handling of the bike after transport (cleaning, repairs), but also often irreversible damage to very expensive bikes and their parts. Based on demand from manufacturers and dealers, they are gradually expanding production to include reusable roof box packaging with a higher purchase price and reusable car transport packaging.

Dana Kalistová - Re-use department store, category idea

Dana is the first lady of South Bohemian re-use, whose expertise in the topic of re-use has long gone beyond the borders of the South Bohemian region. For a long time she worked in large companies mostly in marketing. She moves between business and non-profit. Mutual cooperation and sharing of experience makes a lot of sense to her. With unremitting efforts she founded and operated the furniture bank of the South Bohemia Region, she is the founder and actor of the Czech Federation of Furniture Banks and Re-use Centres. Currently, she is most involved in the Cabinet CB project, which is a re-use centre mainly with furniture. She comes to the Czech-Austrian competition with a completely new business idea - the first re-use department store in the Czech Republic. Inspired by world trends, it is as usual going tirelessly and determinedly towards its goal.

And all these ideas are born in the south of Bohemia. They originate in the heads of creative entrepreneurs who are not afraid to put their time and energy into interesting and ambitious projects. We are very happy to be close to them in the South Bohemian Science and Technology Park and to offer them a helping hand and facilities to launch their novel and innovative projects.