Four Slovenian tech start-up companies have exceeded their initial funding expectations and managed to accumulate a total of some 400,000 U.S. dollars in funding on the popular crowdfunding site Kickstarted over the last year. Slovenia, a Eu country with a large and growing unemployment rate, has a growing ICT industry and many young entrepreneurs seem to be finding solutions to economic hardship in innovation and seeking funding from abroad while retaining their companies and development centers at home. Inventures.eu covers [1] the success of these start-ups on Kickstarter in more detail:
It took less than five hours for Lumu [2] to raise its initial goal of 20,000 dollars and the campaign [3] still has a few days to go, until 12 July. The project has amassed more than 200,000 dollars in funding and the number keeps rising…
All 50 parts needed to make one Lumu are made locally in Ljubljana. To keep Lumu affordable, the team needs to make electronics in bulk quantities. They also plan on extending the features of the Lumu app. So far, more than 2000 backers have pledged between 1 and 570 dollars. The 79-dollar rewards have already sold out but for a 99 dollars pledge you can get a Lumu pack by October.