Júlia Sohajda one of the co-founders of Vespucci Partner’s venture capital fund and Péter Bohács the director of software development at Transcend were guests at Hibrid Startupper, Spirit FM’s entertainment radio show that where the main topic of conversation is startups. The program which usually deals with topics of innovation, the world of startups, plans concerning the future and potential investment opportunities introduced listeners to a unique engineering software that is capable of saving engineers at green investments several hundreds of work hours. 

Early in the radio show we found out that the professionals at Vespucci Partners, a company that has nine portfolio companies, worked throughout the whole summer looking for investment opportunities. Alongside constantly evaluating continuous startup applications they also had the time to take part in the Hungarian Startup University Program which was created with the goal of introducing university students to the world of innovation, modern entrepreneurial knowledge and especially with the operation of startups all through a shared educational platform. The two-semester online course was attended by nearly 2100 students at 21 universities. Vespucci Partners joined this project as a professional partner as they wanted to support the youth generation wherever they can. They welcomed startups at a Mini Demo Day event and also offered mentorship to a chosen few - said Júlia Sohajda.

Breakthrough - Three-million-dollar investment from Vespucci Partners

As is the case with several startups during their early phase - included in the portfolio of Vespucci Partners - such as Haris Digital or Poliloop, the investment professionals saw the potential in Transcend’s technology as soon as they applied and have been supporting and guiding the startup ever since the beginning.

“In December 2019 we invested three million dollars into Transcend and then 17 days later an injection of international capital occurred which increased to ten million dollars” - said Júlia Sohajda who said that the startup is a good example of how successful the hybrid model they promote really is as marketing and sales activity of Transcend happens in New Jersey in the US while the development itself takes place in Hungary. So, what it is this problem that Transcend offers an effective and innovative solution and why is it so simple?

Professionals turn their attention to innovation and adding value

The story of Transcend begins at the Hungarian Organica Water green technology startup which became a well-known provider of innovative wastewater treatment and recycling solutions on an international level. At the beginning the software sped up the design process of industrial and public sewage facilities. The company’s CEO at the time met Ari Raivetz while searching for international investment opportunities. As a member of a New York investment company looking for green solutions, Ari Raivetz helped the Hungarian company which by 2008 had significant results in the area of “recycled water”. After a while, the leaders at Organica were confronted by an interesting problem: the engineers at the company didn’t have the time to invest several hundreds of hours into making quotations as was the case at larger companies. Once they realized the problem, they tried finding a solution to make the process as automated as possible. Transcend got rid of the most boring part of engineering work and in turn engineers could focus on innovation and adding value.

Transcend is a real hybrid startup which is very successful on the American market.

As the co-founder of Vespucci Partners said: “This is a solution to a real problem and has a serious algorithm behind it that was created by a team of professionals. What might be more important however is the fact that the team at Transcend is also clever at selling their product on the American market.”

According to Júlia Sohajda the technology is powerful and scalable, so it is no surprise that they see the potential in becoming a “unicorn” within Transcend which means that with time they could reach the financial goodwill of one billion dollars. We also found out from the show that the company’s short-term and long-term plans include the expansion on the wastewater and drinking water market, scaling up sales and ensuring that smaller companies can access a simplified version of the software solution.