Bleenco is a Munich-based startup developing AI and human-computer interaction technology for the automotive industry to avoid accidents on the road. In an interview with us, Bleenco’s CEO Irman Abdic talks about his experience with the InsurTech Hub Munich, where he sees his company in five years and what politics should do for startups.
1. What exactly does your start-up do and what is special about your business model?
Our mission is to enhance in-vehicle experience and prevent car crashes. Our proprietary algorithms and tools allow car manufacturers to solve some of the biggest challenges facing the self-driving industry: monitoring drivers in the wild, synchronizing Internet of Things (IoT) technology and sensor data, and updating in-vehicle apps on the fly.
2. Why did you choose the InsurTech Europe powered by Plug and Play Accelerator Program of the InsurTech Hub Munich?
The InsurTech Hub Munich offers us access to a broad variety of different players in the insurance industry. Also, the support we got from all the mentors was incredible and helped us a lot to pursue our mission to reduce car accidents.
3. What opportunities does Munich offer for start-ups?
Munich used to be heavily under-hyped startup hub that rarely showed up on world’s startup lists, but things are drastically changing now. I believe the biggest advantage of Munich over other startup hubs is the immense density of successful corporates that can support startups, especially when it comes to B2B sales and raising capital.
4. Where do you see yourself and your start-up in 5 years?
In five years we would be happy to see ourselves staying true to our mission on preventing accidents on the road and improving human well-being across multiple industries with a significant market share.
5. What advice would you give to other founders?
I can only give a very general advice: work hard, be optimistic and stay humble. Make sure to build up an exceptional team around you, no one can succeed alone.
6. What surprised you most when you founded your company?
There were so many individuals helping us without asking for anything in return – especially the ones we vaguely knew or those we met for the first time.
7. What do you expect from German politics / the Munich region regarding start-up support?
There are several topics, but I personally would consider following being quite important:
Big German corporates have their own in-house IT infrastructure, while small and medium companies cannot afford to setup advanced data centers and maintain them on their own. Many startups look for alternative cheaper options, and typically this are cloud service providers outside the Germany. This makes German companies expose their IP and host the often times important data at unknown locations and non-transparent access control. Subsidizing (maybe some part of the) IT infrastructure costs for startups would allow them to choose local providers and keep IP and data protected.