There are plenty of successful tech companies in the Gdansk Metropolitan Area, including Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot (Tricity). To name just few of them is not an easy task, since there are so many of them — working, developing ideas, gaining market share. But let’s try. Some of the companies mentioned below are start-ups, some, established businesses in which global leaders invested significant amounts of money. All are worth knowing and their services or products deliver new quality to the market. Another important feature of their success — the innovation ecosystem of the Tricity helped them to develop brilliant ideas into market-available products.
Share your thoughts on the interesting tech companies from the Tricity in the comments!
Assistech
The company’s product is C-Eye, a device which helps assess the health of people suffering from diseases of the central nervous system and supports rehabilitation of such patients. The eyesight tracking function is used for interactions between a patient and the display, showing graphics, photos or text. This feature allows testing and stimulation of the central nervous system (vision, hearing, language function, and cognitive functions). In 2013 the system was awarded the “Polish Invention of 2013” award.
No doubt such an advanced solution wouldn’t be created in Gdansk without the mature innovation ecosystem in the region. C-Eye relies heavily on the R&D of the Technical University of Gdansk. Assistech is headquartered in the Gdansk Science and Technology Park (GSTP), a renowned place for science-business cooperation skillfully led by Izabela Disterheft.
But let’s get back to the C-Eye.
“I experienced many beautiful moments using the System at work every day; when after two years with the help of the CyberEye a father could say to his son “I’m proud of you”, and a husband could say to his wife “I love you”. There are many touching and wonderful moments. What do patients say? Well, it may sound surprising, but they often ask for something to drink like coffee for instance or they ask for a cigarette. They often say I want to speak and live — says Agnieszka, a therapist with 5 years of experience with the C-Eye.
Blastlab
BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) is a wireless technology with power consumption significantly reduced, comparing to traditional Bluetooth solutions. Blastlab also uses BLE in its beacons. You can put a beacon on a wall which will work for months on a single battery. A lot of innovative products using beacons have been emerging on the market.
How does it work? Here’s an example: Today we have a lot of applications for navigation from door to door. But what if we need more precise information on navigation inside a building? Here come beacons. Put some beacons on the walls, they will connect with nearby mobile devices and direct you and your smartphone precisely to any room in the building. Not to mention possible advantages of beacons in retail, public transit etc. Blastlab, another company from the Gdansk Science and Technology Park, created IndorNavi which “allows clients like stores to automatically gather detailed information about a user’s behavior and communicate with them in real-time. (…)
Dr Poket
Dr Poket is one of the companies that grew in the Incubator STARTER, a hot spot on the map of the innovation ecosystem of the Tricity, managed by its energetic CEO Małgorzata Jasnoch. The owners of Dr Poket created PillBox, a medication dispenser which is currently prototyped. It beeps when a patient should take a pill and the right dose of medicine is dispensed. For more detailed information and their experience in California’s Plug & Play incubator, just check our story written about them here on Medium.
EVERYTAP
„With Everytap you will discover best places in your city and unlock awesome gifts for orders and visits at your favorite venues”, assure the founders of the application. How does it work? You visit a cafe or a restaurant, buy something and you get points you can exchange for a free lunch or coffee. Beacons are involved in exchanging information between a venue, a client and his or her smartphone. Simple, yet powerful. The idea, developed in STARTER, was liked by TVN Ventures which bought 40% of Everytap shares in 2015.
Ivona
If you have used text-to-speech functionality in your Kindle Fire, you have heard that voice. IVONA Software is one of the world’s leading companies in the text-to-speech technology. Since 2013 it has been also part of products of the company, Amazon, delivering text-to-speech solutions to the giant. It started from scratch in the Pomeranian Science and Technology Park in Gdynia, developing to a key player in machine to human interactions market. It delivers its customers with a variety of lifelike voices in many languages (British, Australian, American English, Polish, French, German etc.). The Speech Cloud solutions provide developers with “natural-sounding Text-to-Speech functionality for devices, applications and speech-enabled services”. Last but not least, Ivona’s voice Ewa is the one you hear announcing stops when travelling on a bus or a tram in Gdansk!
Professor Why
Learning chemistry can be tough. But it can become easier with some nice augmented reality tools. Professor Why is a computer game which helps to conduct chemical experiments in a safe, virtual laboratory. All you need is a web camera, a set of so called “edu-cards” and the software for Mac OSX or Windows. Just look at this brilliant idea “made in STARTER”:
Professor Why can be a perfect tool for schools, teachers and young aficionados of science. What is also important, the software has already gained international recognition. “They are re-imagining education by involving users in a creative learning process in important areas such as chemistry, physics, and mathematics using modern technology like augmented reality”, is the reason for awarding Professor Why with the Creative Business Cup. What else can we add?
StructView
Modern cities need effective tools for planning urban space. These tools should also be participative, including city residents in decision making. StructView helps create interactive, 3D city models, an alternative to traditional 2D maps that are not always easily understandable to “laymen” — people without professional education in architecture. When such a person gets a 3D model of a new investment (let it be a school, a swimming pool or a museum), she or he can do anything with it: rotate it, zoom in and out, view it from different angels and perspectives. It becomes much easier to understand how a new building will affect our neighborhood. As the founders of the Gdynia-based company state on their website, various functionalities are included, like “conducting polls, submitting application forms, mapping needs and spatial problems. Analysis and logging of all collected data.”
Svanvid
Just a few months ago, this company based in the Gdansk Science and Technology Park, was recognized as the “second most innovative biotech company in Europe” by the industry organization EuropaBio from Brussels. Basing purely on scientific research, the company manufactures products for the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. One of the products is, algaeSys, natural oil from microalgae. It is rich in Omega fatty acids, tocopherols and phytosterols. It can be an important ingredient for dermocosmetics, improving skin elasticity and slowing down the aging of skin.
UXPin
It is easy enough to use it without years of experience as a web-developer, and yet it doesn’t miss any important feature. UXPin is a wire-framing and prototyping tool that just “gets it right”. With the tool you can sketch a mockup of your new website within minutes. Choose from hundreds of icons, text frames, images and drag & drop them to a place they should be. “With a few clicks, transform any wireframe or mockup into a fully-interactive prototype. If you import from Photoshop or Sketch, we preserve all layers for prototyping. Unlike other popular prototyping tools, we provide dozens of advanced interactions and animations”, promise the founders of UxPin. The Gdynia-based company is one of a few that received funding from the US venture capital market — approx. 7,3M USD from InnovationNest, True Ventures and other funds.
Written by: Krzysztof Garski, the Mayor’s Office in Gdansk
