DataFruit IIoT is one of the 17 startups selected to participate in the 2024 edition of S3E Charge, the EU-funded accelerator program fostering deep tech innovation and entrepreneurship in Southern Europe.
We spoke with Miglena Dogan, Head of Business Development, Marketing and Sales at DataFruit IIoT, to learn more about how this Bulgarian startup is building an integrated platform to enable automated manufacturing that promotes sustainable practices, their reasons for joining S3E Charge, and their ambitions to grow the business in the next 5 years.
Hi Miglena! Tell us about DataFruit IIoT, the mission behind the business and the technology you’ve developed.
DataFruit is a deep tech company based in Bulgaria and it’s several years old, but only in the last few months we’ve been developing the business side — so you could say it’s a baby startup!
Our technology is based on advanced Internet of Things (IoT) and we are developing a fully open and integrated platform that enables successful automated processes across the whole workflow for businesses operating in the energy, manufacturing, logistics and transport sectors. In my role, my main focus now is to show our current partners and potential customers what kind of advantages they will have with our product.
How would you define your entrepreneurship journey so far?
Challenging, yet very exciting, of course!
As a small deep tech company, what makes it challenging is people having this misconception that the technology we’ve created will make their lives harder, but it’s right the opposite — our platform is intuitive, extremely user friendly and it has the capacity to become a huge asset to help companies save lots of money and time, and to adopt greener day-to-day practices.
We are a small but very powerful team, and we’re led by our drive and passion for what we do as we believe our technology will make a big impact in the way manufacturing companies operate. We’re very excited about the journey we’ve embarked on!
Why have you decided to enrol in the S3E Charge accelerator?
We’ve seen similar programs but they’re mostly focused on offering funding to startups, and that’s not what we’re looking for right now.
What we need is access to expert know-how on topics like marketing and business development but related to our particular needs as a startup, which is what S3E Charge offers. So far, I’ve really enjoyed the meetings with our mentor, Svetlana Stotskaya, who has been given us many ideas on how to improve and grow our business – I’m learning every day!
What are the key ambitions for your DataFruit IIoT? Where would you like to see the business in 5 years?
Our dream is to see our customers improving their efficiency rates and their manufacturing costs thanks to our product. We want them to think about our technology as a tool that’s accessible for everyone and which supports our clients to grow steadily; so, in the next 5 years, we hope to see many happy customers using DataFruit!
Drawing from your experience, what piece of advice would you give to an entrepreneur who’d like to launch their own startup?
Passion, motivation and patience are key to push the entrepreneurship journey forward. If you have those three embedded within your attitude and your mindset as an entrepreneur, everything is possible.
Connect with the DataFruit team on LinkedIn and visit their website to learn more about their technology.