20 plasma, and other pharmaceuticals. Dronamics have something to show for their aspirations already. They’ve recently signed two huge deals: a partnership with Hellmann Worldwide Logistics and a partnership with DHL. The first commercial flights are expected to start in 2022. The whole solution that the company is planning to provide is something that has the potential to change the shipping industry as a whole. We have a lot to look forward to with the company that can save thousands of man-hours spent on medium-range deliveries and the considerable amount of CO2 emissions that come with them. Biopix-T This is the newest company we’re covering, but nonetheless, they have plenty to show. George Papadakis and Nikolaos Fikas founded Biopix-T in 2019 when they created a spin-off company to work on a prototype for a Point-of-Care (POC) testing device for the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the Foundation for Research and Technology — Hellas. Point-of-Care devices are mainly used in lieu of a lab, for example, in a doctor’s office, an ambulance, a hotel, or in limitedresource areas. The company initially succeeded with the first version of the IRIS product, but since it was quite difficult for mass production, they pivoted to a second version. Now the startup has developed the Pebble device, a micro POC testing centre, which produces highly accurate results quickly, then automatically transfers the data to a database, and is managed from an easy-to-use Android device. The advantages to this are numerous, but for example, when compared to a standard PCR testing method, the Pebble device delivers results quicker, while it is also cheaper and easier to use. Naturally, testing device startups have been all the talk in the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and of course, the Pebble device also has COVID testing capabilities. Still, the functions of the platform go way beyond that. Currently, Pebble also has the capabilities for BRAF V600E and CYP2C19*2 testing, as well as food & plant pathogens. In early 2021, the Greek startup closed a 1.45 million euro seed round, with the goal to expand the testing capabilities of Pebble to other indications and pathogens. The reason we’re closely monitoring Biopix-T, is that they are way ahead of the competition from a technical perspective, and there’s a massive trend for personalised medicine, which will increase the need for POC tests. Not to mention the potential for such a device in a remote location or even in space. NitroPack NitroPack is a very intriguing startup. The company was founded exactly 10 years ago as a caching solution for the e-commerce platform OpenCart. Though, since then, the world of site speed optimisation has changed a lot, and so hasNitroPack. Today the startup is led byDeyanGeorgiev and Ivailo Hristov and is backed by Eleven Ventures. The company offers a fully-fledged website speed optimisation tool that takes care of caching, image optimisation, lazy loading images, CDN, critical CSS, etc. Integrated with the Google PSI tool, it continuously runs tests and optimises website resources. Why is the company a more interesting case though? Well, it serves to show that resilience is what usually leads to success. Not every startup story can be about a company that went from start to $1 billion in 3 years. NitroPack went through many changes, but the team endured until they landed on a product-market fit, that allowed them to grow their customer base 5 times in the past year. The second question would be, why do we see such potential in this company? The truth is, they are in the right industry at the right time. Google puts more emphasis on website load speeds every year, and they even made speed a ranking factor for mobile searches. Of course, this industry also has plenty of competition, but the overall SEO services market is projected to grow 17% a year and reach more than $100 billion by 2025. That’s why we believe that this company is poised for success.
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