Country: Croatia
Category: Energy
Name: ‘Tinja’
Project Aim: encourage exploitation of renewable sources of energy
Awards: Startup Europe Awards
What is Tinja?
Tinja is an online platform for simple and efficient matching of solar panel installers and interested users who want to install solar panels at their property. The aim of the platform is to encourage exploitation of renewable sources of energy, primarily solar energy, since by the 2020, Croatia will be forced to pay high penalties for not having enough implemented infrastructure that uses renewable sources of energy.
How does it works?
When the user opens up our platform, he will enter basic information about his/her property. Then, the platform will give him/her the information on whether his property is suitable for solar panel installment, what would be the initial cost of investment and after how many years will the investment pay off. If he/she wants to continue, he/she can sign up and we will provide him with the offers from all local solar panel installers. Additionally, if a foreign investor is, for example, looking for a place to buy a property and wants to make the most use out of renewable sources of energy, he/she can check out the map, on which basic information about every city is shown, such as number of sunny days, return of investment based on the region, local subsidies available etc.
How is the bussines going?
Tinja has won the award for the best project idea at the Open Data Youth Academy 2016 in Pula and we will therefore present the project at Open Government Partnership Summit 2016 in Paris. At the Startup Europe Awards Croatia, we got the award in the Best Energy Startup category and will participate at the Startup Europe Awards finals in Brussels in 2017. We are currently part of the Zagreb Entrepreneurship Incubator programme and are in the customer development phase. We are in contact with various Croatian companies in the fields of solar energy and solar panels in order to figure out their problems and cooperate with them. Soon, we are planning to complete the platform and launch it online, along with promoting it across Croatia.
‘Our team consists of 6 people from Croatia, United Kingdom, Serbia and France – Nikolina Hojsak, Mario Marić, Arthur Imbert, Peter Lunt, Mihajlo Anđelić and myself, Kaja Pavlinić. Going to the European finals means a lot since, as a team, we are all young without much experience in entrepreneurship, and are appreciating such recognition and each form of help. Networking also plays a big part in the development of our platform. Participation in the finals also represents a big honor – to be among top startups in Croatia and Europe. All of the mentioned above gives us large amounts of motivation and pushes us to work harder.’