December the 8th, 2022 - Croatian innovator Albert Gajsak's product, which is made right here in Croatia, has ended up across the pond on the shelves of American stores.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, young Croatian innovator Albert Gajsak of Circuitmess was a recent guest on N1 television where he talked about breaking into the challenging American market of educational toys. This rather remarkable entrepreneur explained how his Croatian product ended up on the shelves of one of the largest US retail chains of all - Walmart.

"We produce electronic devices that serve to educate children, such as legos with electronics. So, people receive it when it's disassembled and have to put the toy back together, while the children get to learn something about electronics along the way," explained Gajsak.

One of the products that will be on shelves across the USA is Cheter. "It's a set of devices that look like small mobile phones, through which children can send messages to each other, but in doing so they create their own "network" while the kids learn a thing or two about encryption," stated Gajsak. When parents buy it for them, it comes in parts and then the children have to put it together themselves.

"The children can exchange messages between two or more devices and connect to a chat group. But the point is that it can be connected to a computer and programmed, which is what our application (app) exists for," he said.

Croatian innovator Albert Gajsak produces his devices right here at home in Croatia, and said that it's great that he not only produces it here, but also designs the hardware, software, appearance and packaging within Croatian borders as well, making it a true Croatian-made product.

He explained how Walmart contacted him during a campaign, adding that it took three years to assemble so many devices to enter the American market and explained that he had to solve a lot of administration issues and logistical problems in order to be able to place the product successfully on the American market.

"It's interesting to note that our campaign was covered by numerous American media such as Forbes, and that's probably when they saw our product in Walmart, which caught their attention," explained the talented Croatian innovator Albert Gajsak.

"The whole point of our brand is that we create different electronic devices that teach children about all kinds of different topics, from wireless communication, computer vision and so on," he explained, adding that the plan is now to continue cooperation with Walmart. The US retail price is otherwise, $99, a price recommended by Walmart itself.

He explained that they manage to withstand the shortage of chips and semiconductors on the market and added that the problem is, as it is with most other companies at this moment in time, finding labour.

"It's always difficult to find people who are professional, hardworking and want to work, but we do manage somehow. The best thing is that we have full creative control over the production process. From the idea to the final product itself, it's all our own,'' noted Gajsak, who added that he tries to be competitive with the wages he pays his staff in order to attract good employees.

For more, check out our business section.

May the 5th, 2022 - The Zagreb company CircuitMess is busy helping people in Nigeria further develop their technical skills thanks to a decision to team up with the Nigerian Shiny Gloves Club, which was made a couple of years ago.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, the Zagreb company CircuitMess and the Nigerian Shiny Gloves Club have been collaborating for two years now, and last year, CircuitMess donated part of the proceeds from the sale of their DJ counter to their association to give as many Nigerian children as possible the opportunity to participate in their programme and develop their skills.

In one of their classrooms sits gifted and willing student Blessing Yohanna. She is a very bright young girl with a great interest and talent for electronics and making things. Unfortunately, she's in danger of becoming a part of some rather pessimistic statistics. According to a UNICEF survey, more than half of girls in northern Nigeria don't attend classes or have regular schooling. Although Blessing desperately wanted to continue her education and enroll in electrical engineering college, her parents dissuaded her from doing so because they could not afford to continue her education and didn't see any prospects in it as she is a female.

“When we heard that Blessing Yohanna was no longer attending classes and why, we wanted to do something about it. We contacted her family and asked them if we could send her some more of our kits directly to her home address, to encourage her to continue learning and developing her talent for electronics, at least from home,'' said Albert Gajsak, the CEO of the Zagreb company CircuitMess.

A visit by a Shiny Gloves Club employee to her family home bore fruit - when they saw how much Blessing was looking forward to these kits, they decided to give education another chance and allowed her to re-attend the workshops she loves so much.

"It's not that her family was vehemently opposed to her education, but just that they simply can't afford it. I don't think they wanted to give her false hope, because it's impossible for them to imagine that we could raise enough money for Blessing to go to the college she wants to attend so much,'' explained Albert.

That’s why  Shiny Gloves Club first launched the Go Fund Me campaign to raise funds to enable Blessing to continue to study electrical engineering.

“This campaign wasn't launched by us, but by our partners from the Shiny Gloves Club, but we want to do as much as we can to spread the word and help raise the necessary funds. The standard of living in Croatia is much higher than it is in Nigeria, and in most cases we can enroll in college for free. In order to be able to enroll in college, she needs to raise 10,000 US dollars. It seems like a lot, but I believe there are a lot of people who are willing to give up one coffee in a coffee shop or some other little things, and every kuna raised means a lot to make this a beautiful story with a happy ending. Thank you to everyone who donates and shares this news,'' concluded Albert Gajsak of the Zagreb company CircuitMess.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.

October 5, 2021 - CircuitMess Batmobile is the new DIY product made by a Croatian company which has made a name for itself by making products that promote STEM technology.

From ''do it yourself'' (DIY) videogame consoles, to DIY mobile phones, DIY DJ sets and much more, the Croatian company CircuitMess has well and truly made name for itself internationally.

Led by 22-year old entrepreneur Albert Gajšak, this company creates products which don't just provide fun, but also education about electronics and programming with hopes to popularise the STEM area (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) for younger generations. With the need on the market growing ever larger, but with the lack of interest for the field, CircuitMess want to both entertain and direct kids to STEM and show that it isn't dull, nor does it have to be tough.

As with previous products which were supported by Kickstarter, a web platform where people can propose their ideas and get financial support their projects (through crowdfunding campaigns), and this is the case with their next big product: The Circuitmess Batmobile.

© CircuitMess

This new edition, a small robotic car that drives around autonomously using AI and machine learning was presented by Gajšak himself at a press conference at CircuitMess on October 5, just as the kickstarter campaign was officialy launched. The campaign will last until December 4, and at the time of writing this article, the very same day it started, the campaign had received am amazing 70,178 US dollars. This result with 476 backers in just a few hours is even more fantastic when you see that the initial goal was a mere 15,000 dollars. With 59 more days of the campaign still to go, things seem to be going in the right direction.

''The Circuitmess Batmobile has one camera, and a processor that will allow for machine learning so it can memorise visual cards or a ball (part of the package) and much more. Batman is a superhero who has no superpowers, instead, he has technology with which he saves Gotham. This is line with what we try to promote and show children. You can be like Batman, if you use your hands and learn,'' explained Gajšak at the press conference.

The work on the CircuitMess Batmobile lasted for around two years, and the project was pitched to and approved by none other than the globally famous and respected Warner Bros company. When asked about the design (black with a distinctive bat-head on the front), Gajšak mysteriously said they had various ideas for the design which will be recognised by Batman fans. A little later, he confirmed for TCN that their inspirations included the 1992 animated series and a ''Batman Rebirth'' comicbook from 2016.  

''By landing this cooperation with Warner Bros, we hope to show that CircuitMess is no longer a small company,'' said Gajšak The company indeed grew with around 50 partners that distribute CircuitMess products worldwide either through webshops or in physical stores. Over 52,000 of their products have so far been sold globally, mostly in the USA, UK, New Zealand, Singapore and Australia.

Whether the Batmobile will be the coolest product made by CircuitMess is yet to be seen (although the kickstarter results look promising), but it's definitely the easiest product for the user to assemble so far. Suitable for kids over six years of age, this product has magnetic connectors and requires no soldering.

''People sometimes get scared when they need to solder our products because they worry that it could be dangerous or just for professionals. So, here we have magnetic connectors. We'll see how they will do and perhaps open up some room for more creativity in the future. So far, when a CircuitMess Product, for example, gives you instructions to build a game console, you have to end up building a game console. But when I was a kid and I played with Lego, I followed the instructions to some point, then I ended up building something completely different. With magnetic connectors, there's a chance for that, too,'' explained Gajšak.

However, the success of the Circuitmess Batmobile will determine whether or not magnetic connectors will be used in next products made by the company.

Even though the easiest DIY product (estimated to take 60 minutes to be built and then you're onto programming and playing), Gajšak pointed out it will not be boring for those who want more. An additional ''Inventor pack'' has more components and even more possibiliters are presented in the ''Ultimate pack'' for the pros.

Along with the excitment of presenting the CircuitMess Batmobile, Gajšak also used the press conference to point out the problem of crowdfunding in Croatia.

''We're using a mediator in the US for our kickstarter campaigns becuase we have no access to kickstarter in Croatia. Croatia is part of the EU so there's no reason for it to be that way,'' complained Gajšak, hoping to see change and the allowance for both CircuitMess and other entrepreneurs in the country to propose and get support for their projects with more ease.

Learn more about Croatian inventions and discoveries from Tesla to Rimac on our dedicated TC page.

For more about STEM technology in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page

As Novac/Benard Ivezic writes on the 8th of September, 2020, after Croatian agricultural products were placed on the shelves of well known, heavily frequented supermarkets, large retail chains operating within Croatian have also shown keen interest in offering their customers high-tech Croatian-made products. CircuitMess, a Croatian startup, has succeeded in getting its games consoles on sale.

On Monday, Kaufland Croatia started selling a new version of the first Croatian mobile gaming console MAKERbuino, otherwise the best-selling product from the Croatian startup CircuitMess, which was founded by 21-year-old Albert Gajsak from Karlovac. The new version of the console is called Nibble and is technically far more advanced than the previous version was.

Albert Gajsak, the founder and director of CircuitMess, says that Nibble is the first product they have fully localised for the Croatian market and that they have high expectations from its sale. This is supported by the size of Kaufland's order, as well as the unofficial fact that it is currently being sold in 33 Kaufland stores.

''For CircuitMess, this is the single largest order to date and is our best-selling product so far. I can't talk about the size of the order, but I can say that in the last three years we have sold a total of 12,000 MAKERbuino consoles,'' said Gajsak.

Marija Franic, Head of Corporate Communications at Kaufland Croatia, revealed that they had ordered as many as a thousand Nibble consoles. She added that their collaboration with CircuitMess is excellent.

"We believe that it is very important to support Croatian startups, especially those that bring new technologies closer to children," noted Franic.

Gajsak added they agreed to co-operate in just three months. He stated that they have experimented a lot with sales channels from the beginning. So far, they have focused on the web, and now they are turning to physical stores as well.

CircuitMess managed to create MAKERbuino by raising more than 100,000 US dollars via Kickstarter three years ago. In the meantime, it started selling on eBay and Amazon and a number of other web stores.

''We lack cooperation with large retail chains like Kaufland and that's why, from a sales perspective, this is a new chapter for us. We'd like to reach an agreement to enter Kaufland with our products at least occasionally or even on a permanent basis,'' said Gajsak.

The innovativeness of this particular Croatian startup is also reflected in the company's business results. CircuitMess, which was founded just three years ago and today employs fifteen professionals, in its first full business year, 2018, had revenue of 1.1 million kuna and a net profit of 10,643 kuna. It jumped five times last year. Its revenue in 2019 stood at 5 million kuna, and its net profit amounted to 238,065 kuna.

"This year has started quite terribly, but because of everything we're doing, I hope that we'll manage to repeat last year's income or exceed it. However, it's difficult to try and predict that,'' concluded Gajsak.

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Fancy a phone you can just put together yourself?

Following a crowdfunding campaign that raised $100.000, a young Croatian startup is about to conquer the international scene with their innovative product