August the 4th, 2022 - The Zagreb startup Brombul is expanding the services offered by its Zuluhood application (app), which has been hailed as the ''Uber of home security''.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, smart homes make it possible to protect the house or apartment itself, the things in it, as well as household members from unwanted accidents or burglaries, so people are busy investing more and more in them.

Research says that at the end of 2020, there were 51.4 million "smart" homes across Europe, and it is predicted that there will be more than 100 million by the end of 2024. On that note, the Croatian "Uber for home security" was born, as was the Zuluhood app, which was developed back in 2019 by the Zagreb startup Brombul.

Now their protection has been strengthened through cooperation with the company AKD Zastita (Protection), which provides its users with physical security guards as and when they're needed. As was explained by this company, headed by the founder and executive director Maja Krejci, it is a platform that is constantly upgraded and provides users with the services they need at that moment in time.

Additional protection

"Zuluhood - the first Croatian mobile platform for home security - now offers the services of the security company AKD Zastita on request. In other words, the principle is similar to that of Uber: through the free application you can order one of Zuluhood's services exactly when you need it," Krejci explained.

Security guards are available 24 hours a day, so their presence can be requested at any time of the day or night through the Zagreb startup Brombil's Zuluhood mobile app. A home inspection means a regular visit to the home and to household members by professional security guards who will inform their clients about the conditions they found there.

In addition to receiving information about whether or not everything is in order at home, the physical presence of a security guard also serves as additional protection because it sends a clear message that the home is properly guarded. For the first time, the alarm forwarding service for smart home systems, such as D-Link or Arlo camera and Google Home and Amazon Alexa, has also been fully enabled.

The service has also now been made available on request and for shorter periods, such as during weekend trips or holidays. The user doesn't have to be physically available - all alarms are automatically forwarded to the monitoring centre, which then dispatches security guards if necessary.

As they pointed out from the Zagreb startup Brombul, cooperation with AKD enables users, regardless of whether they need this service for just a few hours or a few days, to easily order home security services through the application. Ultimately, the Safe socialising service means that when organizing a larger gathering, celebration or wedding, users can simply reach out to a security guard who will make sure that everything goes smoothly.

"The aforementioned services are currently provided by AKD Zastita, but soon users will be able to choose between several security companies. On top of that, new services are being prepared, such as care for the elderly," stated Krejci. The Zagreb startup Brombil's Zuluhood app, he added, enables everyone to distinguish between what is urgent and not. Users can rely on the quick response of a security company available at any time of the day or night, but also on the help of friends or neighbours who will also be notified through Zuluhood in emergency situations.

"Our goal is to enable users to connect various smart home systems to the Zuluhood app. The reactions we've had have all been very positive so far, it's great to hear when they tell us 'I needed something just like that' or when they compare us to the likes of Uber for home security.

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March the 24th, 2022 - The Zagreb BiteMe Nutrition startup has received a very welcome and significant investment amounting to 2.25 million kuna from the Croatian Feelsgood venture capital fund.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Feelsgood, the very first Croatian venture capital fund to invest with social impact, has signed an investment agreement with the Zagreb BiteMe Nutrition startup, which specialises in the production of raw energy bioplates and biscuits/cookies made from exclusively organically grown ingredients which are all gluten-free and without any additives or sugars.

It is an investment worth a massive 300,000 euros or over 2.25 million kuna that will help the Zagreb BiteMe Nutrition startup to make their 100 percent natural products available to athletes, recreationists and people who like to nurture a healthy lifestyle across even more outlets and markets.

A positive impact on society is one of the basic criteria that Feelsgood is guided by when choosing a company in which to invest. The co-founders and employees of BiteMe Nutrition have developed a category of healthy snack products which boast some truly outstanding nutritional properties and ingredients, and in less than two years, they have made inroads with them here on the Croatian market and on as many as seven international markets.

The Zagreb BiteMe Nutrition startup's array of healthy products encourage healthier consumer nutrition and are the work of certified producers of organic products who care for nature conservation. It is an entirely Croatian startup, a member of the Zagreb Innovation Centre (ZICER), and consists of former professional athletes, recreationists and experienced food technologists and entrepreneurs.

"We understood this significant investment as a recognition of the results we've achieved so far, but also as an incentive to continue to build a story that wants to encourage changes in the eating habits of active people - and globally. We believe that a dynamic lifestyle requires a quality diet every day, even when we aren't able to have a complete meal because we might be at work, training or travelling. This is where our BiteMe products find their perfect purpose. However, raising awareness of the importance of high quality standards in the human diet and natural gluten-free foods is only part of our purpose, a broader understanding of the connection with the environment also plays an important role,'' said Edo Mujkic, co-founder and CEO of the Zagreb BiteMe Nutrition startup.

The main mission of the Croatian Feelsgood Fund is to invest in young and promising companies across Croatia and in neighbouring Slovenia whose business brings positive change in society by meeting at least one global goal of the UN for sustainable development. The fund has been fully developed right here Croatia, and all investment capital of approximately 30 million euros is located within the borders of this country.

The Slovenian family company Medex was the first investor in the Zagreb BiteMe Nutrition startup, which contributed to the strong presence of its products under the BiteMe brand (Raw Bar and Lava Cookies) in that neighbouring market. In addition to the neighbouring nations of Croatia and Slovenia, they can currently be found on shelves in other European countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Greece and Estonia. When looking much further afield, they're also present in Hong Kong.

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As Lucija Spiljak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 21st of May, 2019, the Zagreb software company Ingemark and the RoomOrders startup, launched by Croats despite having been registered in America, created the first application (app) for ordering food from hotels to hotel rooms and started to conquer the many challenges of the huge global market. They began with the development of this application at the end of 2017, and back then, as a pilot project, they first tested it out at the Hilton Hotel in Boston.

According to them, they will launch RoomOrders at the Hilton Sydney hotel, and then in Belgrade's Hilton in Serbia by the end of the month. The application's software, in which 2 million euro has so far been invested was started by the Zagreb-based company Ingemark, which has been in existence since as far back as 1990, and as of 2006, it has specialised in software development by order.

Funds for the application's development have also been withdrawn from EU funds. In the list of references are big clients such as Agrokor, Adris, HT... One of the most significant cooperations was, as they say, one in the Middle East where clients developed a platform that distributed multimedia content, and soon their latest project, ZorroTines, a regional music platform, will see the light of day right here on the Croatian market. Right now, it seems that this Zagreb company's RoomOrders app is going to go very far indeed.

As Eugene Brčić Jones, the marketing and sales manager at RoomOrders revealed, last week at the International Hotel Technology Forum in Zagreb, the company negotiated with numerous hotel industry leaders about integrating their products.

"We've intrigued the leading world chains and deepened the existing relationships, about which we're certain will bring us to the position of ''disrupter'' of the in-room dining segment within the hotel industry," Brčić Jones said, adding that he believes that in several years, it will be present in a number of world hotels which boast 4 and 5 stars.

"With the help of the RoomOrders application, guests in hotels can order food to their rooms in a few clicks and not in the ''old fashioned'' way. In addition to it having a faster mode, hotels can embark on this project without any large investments," explained Ingemark's director Jurica Mikulić, adding that the application has managed to receive some excellent initial customer reviews and financial results for the hotel. Hilton in Boston has increased its average order value by as much as thirty percent.

''We offer a simple solution that not only increases revenue, but promotes hotels through user-generated content and facilitates analytics. The greatest benefit is that this solution can be implemented without disturbances to the processes involved, and it provides almost instantaneous results,'' Brčić Jones added.

The author of the application, Haris Dizdarević, explained that the creation of RoomOrders was triggered by the current rather obsolete ways of ordering and the obvious need for faster selection and the changing of the menu that guests want in the room.

"We realised we should digitise the offer and thus expand it. The simple idea has become a complex but a successful project," said Dizdarević, explaining that the positive signal was the fact that hotel guests continue to use the application after the first time of using it, and for several days in a row. Although they acknowledge that the Croatian market is not really a priority, they're still negotiating with several Croatian hotels in Dubrovnik and with Maistra, Blue Lagoon (Plava Laguna) and Liburna, and that soon, the application will be launched in Sheraton, part of the huge global Marriott hotel chain.

Otherwise, RoomOrders was introduced DoubleTree by Hilton in Zagreb a few months ago, but then it was a modified version of the app.

"With the new application or system, the guest can, as soon as he is given the room after booking, in advance, even when travelling, immediately choose a range of dishes and orders so that it's ready and waiting in the room upon their arrival. The guest doesn't need to order it from the hotel room, they can do it in advance and choose from a simple and flexible application where all the photos, descriptions and the prices of the food and drinks in the hotel's offer are,'' they explain from hotel Sheraton where this new type of offer and service will be on offer by the end of May, which will, as they say, bring about improvements.

"The application also enables sharing of guest experience on the platform, real-time appraisal of food and services so that the hotel can almost react at the same time to all guests' comments and adapt to the current wishes and preferences of the guest," they added from Sheraton.

"We're sure that at some point there will be some competitors in this segment on the market, but we believe that we're strong and already ahead of them all. We're focusing on the development of this product which we want to make perfect. Along with marketing, the analytic component is the most important, to be more concrete, the analysis of the reactions, comments and the number of orders, so, the entire internal process. We hope to conclude this year with good results and continue to expand successfully,'' Brčić Jones concluded.

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Click here for the original article by Lucija Spiljak for Poslovni Dnevnik