J I Ventures

Slovak startups
becoming global
Roman Hauser
Deputy Head of Mission
Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Tokyo

JOI特別会員である駐日スロバキア共和国大使館より、次世代を担う有望な同国ベンチャー企業６社、MultiplexDX（100％正 確なが んプロファイリング 作 成 ）、PowerfulMedical（AIによる臨床判断をサポート）、Auglio（よりリア

you add to the strong digitally oriented universities anexcellent language skills of the young generation and astable investment supporting policy - all of this further
enhances its appeal as a conducive environment forstartup growth.

ルなオンライン試着ツール）、MATSUKO（オンライン会議の3Dホログラフィック・プレゼンス・アプリ）、CloseRocket

Let me give a few examples.

（営業人材プラットフォーム）、CloudTalk（AIコールセンター・ソフトウェア）について紹介いただきました。

MultiplexDX (www.multiplexdx.com)

Slovakia’s innovation ecosystem is still young but issuccessfully catching up on the rest of the EU. And thepast years have shown that there is a very good perspective.
You might be surprised to realize that many big names
known globally like ESET, Sygic, Pixel Federation,
Vacuum Labs, or Innovatrics were founded in Slovakia.
One of the recent success stories of the home-grown
Slovak company is the case of Minit, a leader in processmining technology, acquired by Microsoft in 2022. In2021, Slido - a technology company providing audienceinteraction platform was acquired by Cisco, and in thesame year, Exponea - the leading customer data andexperience platform was acquired by Bloomreach.

The founder of MultiplexDX Pavol Čekan is the recipientof many prestigious awards in the fields of science,technology research and entrepreneurship. MultiplexDX
is one of the most innovative biotech corporations, createdto bring its revolutionary technologies to the market ofpersonalized molecular diagnostics. The company has
representation in both U.S. and European markets(National Cancer Institute, Rockefeller University, Albert
Einstein University, Vanderbilt University, Cornell
University, Queens University). MultiplexDX IP-based
and innovative platform merges histopathology methods,biomarker quantification, visualization and geneexpression. This cross-validation approach eliminates
diagnostic errors and creates 100% precise cancer
profiling for each patient which allows clinicians tosuggest specific, personalized cancer treatment.

But what are the main comparative advantages ofSlovakia? A vibrant startup community thrives not only inthe capital - Bratislava, but also in emerging hubs neartechnical universities in Košice and Žilina or around themedical faculty in Martin. These ecosystems span various
sectors including healthcare, fintech and mobility,fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. Slovakia’s
strategic location in the heart of Europe, with easy accessto surrounding markets and its membership in the EU andthe Eurozone, makes Slovakia an attractive destination
for startups wishing to penetrate foreign markets. And if

SASK kick-off, May 2024, Bratislava（JOI編集部より）362024.7

スロバキアPowerful Medical (www.powerfulmedical.com)
Powerful Medical leads one of the most important shifts inmodern medicine by augmenting human-made clinicaldecisions with artificial intelligence. It was founded in 2017and is using artificial intelligence to help medical professionals
diagnose serious cardiovascular diseases in early stages. It
integrates AI technology into a mobile app compatible withany smartphone, thus having the potential to contributesignificantly to greater access to cardiac care, even at the
primary care level. Their newest solution – OMI AI ECG
Model can diagnose acute obstructive heart attacks more
precisely and faster than current solutions. It cuts the numberof missed or delayed acute obstructive heart attacks by 50%.

conferences more productive, attractive, and effective,
MATSUKO’s solution promises to redefine remote meetings.

CloseRocket (https://www.closerocket.com/)
CloseRocket is an innovative project which connects
commerce and technology and is changing the future oftrading. It harnesses the potential of AI tools to themaximum. Potential users just need to register, and thesystem takes care of everything – assigning sales
representative based on the customer’s needs, preferences
and the chosen country, the same as the strategy for theproduct. CloseRocket is growing quickly and is currently
operating in 12 countries.

Auglio (https://auglio.com)

CloudTalk (www.cloudtalk.io)

Bratislava-based Auglio developed an AR/Virtual Mirror
SaaS platform. It is bringing online shopping experience toa brand-new level and is bridging the gap between physicaland virtual worlds. It is a virtual try-on tool creating 3D
products from 2D images and enabling customers to try
products using camera and augmented reality before thepurchase. It simulates a physical-like shopping experience,
helps online customers to make confident buying decisions
and reduce the return of the products.

CloudTalk was founded to make it easier for businesses tomake phone calls to their customers. It removes any needfor hardware and the entire system runs in the cloud in
about a dozen data centers around the world. CloudTalk canvery efficiently route incoming calls and at the same time
provide an important and up-to-date information about theperson who is calling or handle the entire call itself. It
means that the callers do not have to wait unnecessarily
long to be connected to the appropriate operator and they
are connected to the operator who can help them the best,
most efficiently and quickly. At the same time, the systemshows to the operator all the necessary and useful
information about the caller before he picks up the call.
CloudTalk therefore saves time and energy on both sides.
****
Slovak startups benefit business acceleration services,
either through specialized programs like Challenger,
HealthCare Lab or Elevator Lab. Universities in
Bratislava, Košice and Žilina are fine-tuning their efforts
to keep up with the rest of the world and provide thehighest quality and sustainable early-stage incubation
services. The Slovak startup scene is certainly to bewatched for new promising startup opportunities.

MATSUKO (www.matsuko.com)
MATSUKO’s aims to revolutionize video conferences byenabling real-time, real-space presence through holographic
communication and therefore enhancing remotecollaboration. The company created the world’s first
holographic presence app, aiming to transform
communication across distances. Their technology converts
2D video captured by a single camera device into a 3D
hologram of the upper part of the human body, projected inreal-time. This innovation enables remote communication
through 3D augmented reality holograms, significantly
improving collaboration and productivity by incorporating
human presence into remote interactions. By making online

お問い合わせJOI 事業企画部
E-mail: bd@joi.or.jp

駐日スロバキア共和国大使館
E-mail: emb.tokyo@mzv.sk
https://www.mzv.sk/web/tokio-en/home2024.737