Are you interested in what is happening in the world of waste in the times of Covid-19? Who could be more competent to answer this question than the leader in providing smart waste management solutions in more than forty countries on five continents? This as well as a couple of other questions we got answered by Andrea Basilova, co-founder, of Sensoneo. Their solutions won over twenty various prestigious national and international prizes and recognitions, beginning in 2015 with the finale of national Start-Up Awards. Some of the last wins are the PropTech Start-Up Europe 2018 Award or the Innovation World Cup Series Smart territory digital challenges 2019.

In a recent podcast with you, we could hear the amazing story of how you came up with the idea to start smart waste management and, actually, who invented the first smart waste management sensor in your company. Can we repeat it here?

Yes, certainly. We came to the idea by chance. Namely, in our pub, which is not our core business, but we like it there very much. There, during a discussion with a friend of ours, we heard about a problem in Nitra – one of the pioneering cities installing new semi-underground disposal containers in Slovakia. The city was not able to monitor when these containers were filled and very often special garbage trucks with hydraulic hands were being sent there when the containers were half empty. Thus, lots of money was being thrown into the air. The city was looking for a solution all over Europe. Interesting thing was that they did not find any solution.

My husband has a strong IT and technological background and he was managing large IT projects at that time. But here, we were missing a sensor. Within our extended family, we have an uncle who is a very skilled hardware maker. At that time, he had been repairing scales in TESCO but was made redundant. And this gentleman made the first prototype of our sensor. This is an amazing realization that after all when a number of sensors developed in different parts of the globe are being tested and rated by large Universities like Cambridge, they evaluate the sensor made by our gentleman as the best one. Of course, we later on finetuned it within our technological team, but at the beginning he was the big brain, the lone soldier who in his cottage studied all the materials in English that he did not even know well and he put it together.

At the beginning, the sensor was big like a shoe box but we had an enormous advantage in a customer who needed it desperately and who thus checked it, tested it, evaluated it and thanks to that we were able to quickly deliver a smaller prototype that was working. Later, we added transmission of data through IoT network that was very big novelty then and still is now. There are few solutions available on the market globally.

So, this was the beginning.

Then, in 2015, I signed our solution for the first national start-up award without even letting my husband know. Looking back, I wonder why they chose us for the semi-finals because at that time we were not even able to describe in a nutshell what we had to offer. We had a product but no marketing. We only had a first paying customer. But this proved to be the perfect thing because many projects are done the other way round. They think about what the market might perhaps need and then they develop something but they do not have any customer. And in the bootcamp for semi-finalists where they have mentors, investors and other business people, who can ask you good questions and give you advice they asked us how big the potential market was. And we started to think – oh boy – it seemed to be a big market. Even if we had not won, right after the competition investors started calling, offering to help us develop the business further and, actually, we started to do the business. At the beginning there were three of us – my husband and I, plus a project manager and software developer in one.

And I started writing about it. I was interested in all the things my husband told me about it. It was ground-breaking, it was Slovak, technologic, it made sense, it had added value, it was a very practical thing and I just started writing about it which is just the very good thing which many start-ups do not have covered at all.

What kind of technologies does Sensoneo use? Do you also use machine learning techniques?

Yes, we use many machine learning applications, but our solutions include sensors, management system, citizen app and smart analytics. They became top-notch from many aspects, features and technologies.

Our ultrasonic smart sensors can monitor any type of waste in containers of various types and sizes. They can provide data in real time and ultrasound sensors proved to be very precise and resilient in bins, where the conditions can be very harsh. They are powered by replaceable batteries. It means we can prolong the life span of sensors rather than throw them away just because the battery is dead. Monitoring frequency depends on customer’s requirements – some set it to measure each 5 minutes, others are OK to receive the info 3 times a day – it depends on purpose. The sensor casing is made from recyclable polyamide optical fibres which makes it very resilient and eco-friendly. Thus, it can work for ten and more years. Our eco-design was recognised as one of circular Innovations of the year within MOVECO project (competition dedicated to supporting and highlighting circular innovations in the region of central Europe).

Sensors can provide many other useful data to cities. Optional features are temperature measurement, GPS position, fire-alarm, tilt alarm and even monitoring of living organisms in bins.

Connectivity of our sensors is not limited to one IoT network; it can be connected to various IoT networks. Actually, Sensoneo was the first commercial installation on NBIoT network in the United States and it was a big success. In Europe, we often use LoRaWan which proved to have many benefits. But we can also use Sigfox, Cat-M or GPRS networks. We conduct all R&D of the sensors in-house.

We also use sophisticated software (Smart Analytics, Smart Route Planning and Smart Management system) with many machine learning applications and tools. They can provide cities and businesses with much more efficient and real data-driven decision making. These analytical tools can result in overall waste collection cost reduction by at least 30% and carbon emission reduction by up to 60% in cities.

Together with global provider of navigation solutions – Sygic we developed special navigation for waste collection companies, which reflects planning and navigation in the most efficient way.

You can also use our mobile app as a citizen for free and if there are data open by the city or responsible waste collection company, you can see where are bins for which kind of waste and also other open parameters – how much they are filled, temperature, even the level of methane or other pollutants. Not every city opens these data but it is a very good tool for providing information to citizens who can then be more actively engaged in improving the waste management system of a city.

I’ve just downloaded the app and it shows me the bins in my district and how much they are filled. How can Sensoneo help in times of COVID-19? What changes do you see in the world of waste and technologies due to corona?

Obviously, the crisis enhances and drives adoption of innovative technologies. Cities, waste management companies and property managers are looking for solutions that could help them cope with the current challenges – standard waste production hotspots have moved, households and residential areas have become the new hot spots. Higher consumption of protective equipment and longer stay at home has led to a 25% increase in waste production. We have developed and offer Waste Collection Efficiency Analysis to help cities and waste collection companies cope with the worsening waste situation. The Analysis evaluates efficiency of the current set-up, simulates and models impacts of possible changes and suggests new collection routes and frequencies. It is very cheap compared to many benefits that it can bring. Cities and waste collection companies will see very quickly how to improve their waste management and reduce cost and carbon footprint significantly.

Thank you very much! These are truly fascinating insights.

Among the three knowledge partners of the biggest European association for real estate professionals we can find an inspiring geospatial partner. Actually, it is a top-notch online platform called City Performer. Although this knowledge partnership has been going on for about six months and the platform is available in nine European metropolises, including London, a short couple of weeks ago, I myself had no idea about its existence, nor that it would be the result of a partnership with a PropTech start-up. Moreover, I had no idea that the start-up could be based in and operating in Bratislava. The very city that I live in.

Thus, just a couple of weeks ago I introduced myself to Peter Augustin, the COO and one of the two co-founders of company THERE Geospatial Analytics that has created this platform. To make the long story short, I got recommended by a colleague of his girlfriend. Then, over two exciting ZOOM meetings he explained to me the amazing story that I am happy to share with you now. I feel that we all need such optimistic stories in these pandemic times.

Peter, how did you get into the geospatial analytics and software development? You sound and look to be very young. By the way, you are under thirty, aren’t you?

Yes, I am not thirty yet. But I have more than six years’ experience in application and business platform development and various previous working experience that started during my early secondary school time and went on during my University studies. If I remember correctly, I sold my first web page when I was sixteen. Actually, I and a friend who wanted to become a designer. We created and delivered a functioning webpage for a basketball club in Handlova (a small town in central Slovakia), from the first Slovak national basketball league. It was such a success that shortly after we were commissioned to make a webpage for a small construction company.

Does it mean that you have been involved in PropTech since you were sixteen?

No, that was just a webpage. I would say that we started to focus on PropTech more seriously around two years ago with City Performer. Before City Performer I worked as a software and application developer in companies of all possible sizes. I worked in a corporation, then in a smaller company and also for just one man. As soon as I realised that it was not too complicated to create and deliver application development services to other businesses, I started to look for ways to my own business. And about four years ago I found a partner thinking on the same wavelength and we founded our first company Pixwell that focuses on software development of business applications and data analytics. The company There, s.r.o. (Ltd) I founded with another co-operating partner from real estate sphere about two years ago. But as you said, back then, no one here reacted to the word PropTech yet. That is why we focused more on smart city fairs where we were gathering inspiration and strategic partnerships. I would like to highlight one of our Czech co-operating partners and a friend who helped us a lot with his advice. It is Mr. Pavel Vokáč from citythinking company and the Czech Smart City Innovation Institute. He is a well-known international smart city expert.

Could you tell us more about City performer? Why was it created and who is it designed for?

City Performer was created based on demand of our real estate customers, mainly representing agents. They needed to make their staff and customers more perceptive and aware of various local specifics during and after the selling or renting process, which they facilitated. It happens quite often to them that when people decide to rent or buy a property, sooner or later they start discovering various local surprises which would have seriously altered their buying or selling decisions or agreed prices if they had known these surprises before. With City Performer we wanted to give them a tool that would enable them to uncover these hidden factors quickly and at the very beginning of the decision-making process.

In general, we enable them to perceive and take into account six groups of various geospatial factors in a very quick, simple and transparent way at once. They are attributable to living environment, wellbeing (living), mobility, safety, amenities and leisure opportunities. At the end, it is summed-up in one summarising number called urbanism index. But you can see that it includes complex performance of the location evaluated by a number of relevant geospatial data sources. Apart from urbanism index, the city performer provides prognostic data analytics of affordability and availability of various kinds of properties in the city locations and dynamic statistics of their average selling and renting prices. These operations are driven by proprietary AI algorithms which take into account various changing price and income indexes that are attributable to specific city parts as well.

You mention various groups of geospatial data. It must vary from city to city. How do you get access to them in various cities?

It is always a combination of specific open data, private data and city data sets. Here again pays off co-operation with international smart city experts like Mr. Vokáč. There are not so many people who would know and understand these various sources. Some of the data are available for free. Actually, some cities send us open interfaces to some of their open data systems as soon as we ask for them, but some data have to be bought in addition. For instance, safety is evaluated based on statistics of various criminal offences in given city locations and these statistics are not always provided by local police for free. Sometimes the data is gathered and provided by private security agencies who have to cover their costs and want to gain profit. On the other hand, greenery is evaluated based on distance and the extent of green areas in a given location that are readable form open data based on currently available satellite pictures. Air quality can be evaluated in more ways. In cities, there is usually a certain number of measuring stations with exact location, which provide regular measurements of various pollutants and CO2 levels. At the moment we are co-operating with representatives of the European space programme called Copernicus. Some of its missions called Sentinels will give us much more precise and current geospatial information, for example, to evaluate air or water quality in specific locations. Measurement of CO2 concentrations should be made possible via current heat maps visible from space based on the latest observation technologies, accessible instantaneously and thus provided in real time.

Levels of noise in the specific locations can be evaluated in cities in various ways as well. I can demonstrate it on my apartment. (Peter stood up in the middle of his speech, showed me view from his window revealing not much distant highway full of moving cars and pointed to the screen with map of City Performer illustrating the coming noise by red cloud between his apartment and the highway). People should know about such noise when buying or renting their apartment, you see?

I can feel your excitement about the really right things you do with City Performer. The positive emotion in your voice reveals clearly that you love what you do and thus you must be doing a great job. I still do not understand, how it could have happened that even if we had been mapping the Slovak PropTech market thoroughly for about a year and had found more than a hundred active companies, we had missed City Performer that is available in nine European Metropolises?

Yes, I have to admit that we were not exactly focused on marketing or on the local market specifically. We focused more on our cross-border product development and international strategic partnerships that could help to further develop City Performer and place it on the market accordingly. Like the one partnership with CEPI, which covers national associations with more than 300.000 real estate professionals in Europe. Now we can see that not only agents would warmly welcome this geospatial sixth sense, but also architects, developers, property and facility managers. Their customers would find it very useful as well. Its technological and marketing development must go on. For example, we are preparing open interface for real estate companies (open API) in the respective metropolises, which will enable them to apply City Performer directly on their portals.

There, s.r.o. is still a start-up. Are you able to satisfy the increasing demand quickly enough? Aren’t you looking for a strategic investor that could back-up further development and expansion financially and speed up this process significantly?

Yes, we are. We already are in deeper discussions with a very strong strategic investor but it is too soon to reveal any more details.

My last question will be about these pandemic times. How do you perceive this crisis in your companies and how do you cope with it?

We are having a surprisingly good time. Of course, we all know that the economy is going down, but the “U” will turn up at some point and we expect much stronger economy afterwards. At the moment, we feel absolutely flexible even during quarantine. We can work from home-offices even more than before. We do not have to commute at all. Particularly myself, I am able to handle my whole working day with my PC and I like that. We perceive this time of peace as ideal for technological development, especially the development of software and applications that we are so well-versed in in both our teams.

Posted January 22 on Unissu with the following editor’s Note:
If we are to achieve the necessarily ambitious carbon emission goals currently being rolled out by the world’s nations, it’s going to take extraordinary levels of collaboration and coordination between private and public organisations. But what does this collaboration look like? How does it come about? And who is overseeing and advising the progress to ensure all efforts are heading in the required direction? Milan Bogár, makes his return to Unissu Themes to lay it all out for us. 

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Sustainability is my personal favourite ‘Why’ with regards to my wanting to support PropTech development wisely. I fully realised it during the World Workplace Meets Facility for the Future (WWMFF) conference in Amsterdam last year, after which we visited the impressive new-generation smart building Olympic Edge. This unobtrusive building offers so many unique sustainable and technological solutions, stirring healthy and productive emotions that are certainly worth spreading worldwide.

What else, apart from sustainability, should we support more? Without sustainability there will be neither sustainable property business nor business at all, without doubt. When global climate development trajectories are indicating such bad predictions it becomes clear that without change in overall human behaviour, including the whole society, PropTech alone will not save us. Do not get me wrong, I believe PropTech can significantly increase our chances in many ways, but not all by itself, for sure.

Without sustainability there will be neither sustainable property business nor business at all, without doubt.

Only long-lasting collaborative culture, engaging the whole society, can lead to us successfully coping with the global challenges of sustainability. With the adoption of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 subsequent targets the whole society collaboration, including public-private partnerships, became even more prominent. If compared with the UN millennium goal for 2000-2015, mainly directed at governments and developing countries, SDGs for 2016-2030 are directed at all countries and many more stakeholders than just governments, including the private sector. Forming the public-private partnerships and enabling the participation of all relevant stakeholders and citizens is the crucial difference.

But how to ensure the essential collaborative culture?

In October, we were able to watch, in Slovakia, the presentation of Rhonda Binda from New York, who is a very experienced professional with international background and a track-record of helping a number of sustainable smart cities, regions and communities. She pointed out several success factors for building successful and sustainable communities. In her opinion, these are usually built around public private partnerships that not only include the public sector and, of course, the private sector, but also community groups and academia.

First of all, it is community engagement, where all community stakeholders, especially leaders, need to be involved on every necessary step of the way. The stakeholders must share the same core values, vision, and mission.
The second success factor lies on three technology and infrastructure pillars supporting up to 100% connectivity enabling deployment of all the needed technologies, 100% mobility and 100% resiliency including sustainability.
The third critical success factor lies in policy and funding, where establishing a venture fund financed by the state, city, or private partners is recommended. Policy should be supported by passing progressive regulations supporting sustainability while all factors should become conscious via proper education across the whole community and related generations.

Last but not least, Rhonda encouraged us to look at usage of global platforms like the one used by the United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC), a global initiative focused on facilitation and a smooth transition to smart sustainable cities. U4SSC serves as a global platform to advocate for public policy and to encourage the use of ICTs to facilitate and ease the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 11, i.e. make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

U4SSC uses a platform facilitating collaboration called Solved Together. It was developed and is operated by company called Solved. With the help of the Solved Together platform (Platform as a Services), and thus without the need to develop its own solution, U4SSC was able to launch its branded and customised marketplace instantly and got access to on-demand expert advice and an agile workforce to tackle complex challenges and help create sustainable smart cities.

“Without change in overall human behaviour, PropTech alone will not save us”

With regard to collaboration with governments, last week, I got a newsletter containing a teaser to a very interesting report on E-governance Global Industry Landscape Overview 2019. The report describes two models of cooperation between GovTech start-ups and the governments.

The first one is ‘open’, typical for start-ups, SME enterprises, innovators, and entrepreneurs that are invited by governments to contribute their technologies and ideas. This model is stemming from the notion of GovTech as local phenomenon with its own policy, population, diversity, stability, etc. and also the tech companies are predominantly local.

The second one is ‘closed’ (or traditional) and it is based on building the public sector systems in-house or by large IT corporations. In the closed model, the government develops the services and IT corporations and start-ups provide the tools. Selection of the specific models depends on the priorities and the approach of each government, whether it is global or local.

Where can GovTech and PropTech overlap? Overlapping services can be seen in all 4 GovTech areas illustrated in the report:

E-government with widening digital tools from e-identity to e-participation encompassing transparent e-information, e-consultations positively impacting the whole urban planning and construction process up to e-decision-making, etc.
Smart city with numerous sensors and disaster monitoring, energy savings, waste management, etc.
CrimeTech encompassing cyber security, smart recognition and identification, etc. and Government management focused on longevity technologies as a priority, e-health, e-schools, various sensors and IoT technologies as well.
All in all, GovTech constitutes a driver of change inducing governments to reimagine themselves, their functions, and relationships with citizens ensuring sustainable future as well as PropTech should constitute a driver of change for construction and real estate sector.

Although GovTech and PropTech are not the same, there can be seen a relevant overlap. Sensoneo (smart waste management), the winner of the Proptech Start-Up Europe Award, was placed among 100 global GovTechs and Martin Basila, CEO of Sensoneo, was ranked among 40 GovTech influencers of 2019 according to the report. It seems a very good example of successful collaborative culture on Sensoneo’s part. Congratulations.

Posted on August 28 2019 on Unissu
Slovak PropTech market has a number of promising players. Not to leave it in a hidden galaxy for us and the rest of the PropTech world, the goal of this article is to introduce the market in a structured view. Because it is evolving and I do not possess any magic glass ball, naturally, this snapshot cannot be exhaustive. However, I am convinced that it offers some interesting opportunities. Anyone who cares is welcome to fill possible gaps through feedback.

For the sake of clarity, I find it pertinent to work with the five PropTech categories used by PropTech House in its free e-book. In this article, I focus on Vol. 1 – Smart real estate, covering two categories: 1. Live & Work and 2. Manage & Operate, although the boundaries among all five categories are far from definite and instead, frequently blend together. In Vol. 2 I would like to introduce more developed FinTech and ConTech parts of Slovak real estate market, corresponding to categories 3. Finance & Invest, 4. Design & Build, 5. Market & Transact.

Vol. 1 – Smart real estate
1. Live and Work

I have already mentioned several players in smart real estate. For me, the current trends in this category are best grasped by HB Reavis with its Symbiosy concept of smart offices (B2B) and by more B2C oriented scale-up Domotron.

In smart home segment (B2C), competing complex solutions are offered mainly through Smarterhome by hascon which offers smart home solutions based on appliances of various brands. Among other brands, hascon is the official FIBARO distributor for Slovakia. FIBARO is a very innovative and successful Polish brand. HomeSystem offers it as well. Both companies, hascon and Homesystem are members of Z-Wave Alliance associating more than 600 various smart home brands and businesses. Antik Telecom has a different strategy of inventing and offering its own smart home product line. Simpler smart home solutions, typically without more extensive possibilities of choosing from different HW or SW are also being offered by traditional telecommunication operators, such as Magenta home by Telekom, Modern living by Slovanet, O2 Smart Box by O2, or by gas and electricity suppliers, such as SPP smart home or Intelligent household offered by ZSE.

As regards smart offices and smart buildings I feel it necessary to highlight a start-up by name of Biotron. The company provides collection of data from various sources of its customers and adds sophisticated automated analysis of the collected data. Then, based on the analysis proceeds further with actions and decisions which can also be related to smart offices. Biotron won CESAward for being the best new start-up of 2018. I am looking forward to seeing Biotron at Green-Tech session during SlovakiaTech in Kosice on 9 October 2019.

Another successful start-up, eDocu – winner of the Central European Start-Up Awards as best IoT start-up in Slovakia of 2017 and 2018, also provides various smart company solutions. eDocu has been a partner of ASSECO Group since 2014. Asseco Central Europe is the second biggest software house in Slovakia with more than 600 IT developers under its roof. OMS, originally the biggest Slovak producer and developer of lights and lighting systems, has in recent years developed and now offers quite an impressive smart product line including smart offices, smart exhibition stands or smart classrooms. When talking about smart exhibition stands, OMS had a very impressive one at URBIS Smart City Fair in Brno in June this year. It was 400 square meters and epitomised its complex smart city offer by the name of CitySys. But smart city is a bit more complex category than smart office or smart building.

Smart city

When talking about smart real estate, we should not omit the part where the real estate owner is a city, a town, a village or another public authority. Many other players are willing to be involved in the development of this real estate part. Together, these players represent rather impressive technological potential that could be capitalized on in other PropTech categories as well.

When talking about smart real estate, we should not omit the part where the real estate owner is a city, a town, a village or another public authority.

I must mention two associations able to deliver integrated smart city solutions in Slovakia that can serve as inspiration for other buildings, cities or countries. Necessary to add that creating consortiums is often a precondition for funding smart solutions, especially when the funding is public (e.g. Horizon 2020 plans to open a third call with 55 mil. budget on 3 September 2020 for Smart Cities and Communities and again, with this precondition).

The first association I am about to highlight has a Slovak name of Chcem smart mesto which means “I want Smart city”. It comprises seven inspirational players with scalable smart offerings that together cover various smart city features. Five of them are Slovak-based, two are Czech-based.

1. Waste management company Sensoneo with solutions that won several prestigious Start-Up competitions including PropTech Start-Up Europe 2018 Award or Smart territory digital challenges 2019 in the Innovation World Cup Series.

2. Sygic has been developing and providing smart mobile navigation, fleet and parking solutions for several years already and has a portfolio of around 200 million users worldwide.

3. Seak brings smart lightning solutions in a number of European countries as well as Israel and India.

4. Gospace has invented smart parking IoT solutions that are provided in more than 22 countries.

5. ParkDots is a smart parking and fintech solution by PosAm that was included among the world’s top solutions during the 8th Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona in 2018.

6. Smart city integrating platform in this association is provided by a Czech innovator Invipo, the winner of Intertraffic Innovation Awards 2016 and Smart City Service Awards 2017.

7. Analyses based on advanced algorithms of machine learning from data gathered from all smart metering sensors are safeguarded by another Czech innovator, Microft Mind.

The second association by name of Slovak Smart City Cluster (SSCC) is more complex and bets on a functioning triangle of collaboration among all smart city stakeholders – entrepreneurs, cities and other parties such as universities and other supporting and non-profit organisations. SSCC is composed of 21 members, including twelve larger Slovak enterprises. Majority of them work with core participation of foreign capital, though a few are purely Slovak. Members include four Slovak cities, three universities, one local incubator and one foreign agency. The twelve companies are SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC SLOVAKIA, Atos IT Solutions and Services , innogySolutions, Slovanet, KOOR, FIN.M.O.S., Cisco Systems Slovakia, KEDROS, Engie Services, ZSE, Sensus Slovensko, OMS. (F)ITcubator, n.o. is a non-profit organisation that was originally established for support and development of young talented IT people from the region below High Tatra Mountains. Recently, it received funding from European Social fund for project “Smart concepts in management of local and regional development” of the regional city of Trenčín. One of its five founding partners, mvi, develops and integrates IT systems, internet portals and smart mobile applications for hotels, cities/tourism, schools and energy. KOTRA is Korean Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, which is important in Slovakia, because a few of global Korean companies, such as KIA and Samsung with dozens of their suppliers have heavily invested in their industrial parks in Slovakia. Smart cities have a big potential of either creating even more effective conditions for supplying their inputs or becoming buyers of their technologies.

Only four cities are members of SSCC, though further eight cities and municipalities are members of Smart Cities Klub (SCU) association that has signed a memorandum on cooperation with SSCC. SCU also cooperates with other smart city associations, including two Scandinavian, and many state authorities. The vast majority of Slovak cities and smaller municipalities are not members of these associations. Their only co-ordinating association is Association of Cities and Municipalities of Slovakia (ZMOS) or none. The regional city of Nitra has an original smart city strategy based on open participation of its citizens and other stakeholders. Last year, the capital city of Bratislava approved its Concept of Smart City Bratislava 2030 as well.

2. Manage & Operate

This category of Slovak PropTech market is relatively stable. I noticed two start-ups in recent years in B2B segment. The first one has been eDocu with its smart company product line including asset and facility management. The second start-up is Verde Group that provides automation in management and operation of property based on smart platform Ausemio. Other players with their asset, facility, and property management platforms have been present here for much longer time, including the Czech provider Alstanet. However, new automated IoT solutions have recently been developed by some of them. eNGIE introduced a complex automated smart metering and operation solution based on various IoT networks and its analytical software C3NTINEL encompasses advanced machine learning algorithms. eIoT consortium of companies Chastia, Koor and AmiNet was created with the purpose to provide another IoT solution leading to more efficient facility and energy management. Further stable players are present in B2C segment focused on management and operation of flats and blocks of flats. One of the most innovative companies in this segment is Anasoft which has come up with an advanced system Domus. With regard to other players I see a greater deal of opportunities for innovation as majority of Slovak families live in blocks of flats.

Here is a highlight of four upcoming events connected with smart real estate:

1. Trend conference Smart City 2019 on 24 September 2019 in Bratislava.

2. International SlovakiaTech Forum and Expo on 8-10 October 2019 in Kulturpark Košice.

3. The program and dynamics of the 5th Annual Smart Workspace Design Summit & Expo 2019 on 17-18 October 2019 in Amsterdam seem very attractive. Although it is not in my conference calendar this year, I must admit that I would love to read about experiences from this event or its site visits. The opportunity to meet there facility manager from Burj Khalifa, or head of smart workspace from LEGO or vice-president from Cirque du Soleil seem very promising. This event is organised by a Slovak-based company Fleming trainings.

4. ITAPA – the biggest international congress in Slovakia devoted to IT in public administration including artificial intelligence, smart cities and regions, cybersecurity, eGovernment, effective public administration, smart healthcare. It is held annually in autumn (this year on 12-13 November) with partnership of the biggest IT Partners of public sector in Slovakia. ITAPA has a spring edition as well.

Conference Building of Smart Cities and Regions already took place on 18 June, with further important smart city players to be seen there. For example Finnish-Slovak company Solved introduced its international platform for wide virtual co-operation of various smart city experts. JRK Slovensko introduced smart waste monitoring solution which records waste in every household, and the previously-mentioned CvikerAR introduced its augmented reality platform as a smart communication tool of cities with its citizens.

To sum up, there are around 51 active technological companies in Slovak smart real estate. Majority, around 28 are purely B2B oriented, 19 focus on both B2B and B2C, and only four are purely B2C oriented. It is up for discussion how many of them are true PropTech players that bring digital transformation to the Slovak real estate market and how many of them provide just digitalization or just digitization of some traditional real estate services. For now, I am happy to write that they all are ready to add value that was not here before their digital services had come.