Milos Milisavljevic, CEO of Strawberry Energy – Smart benches for London and another two cities in Europe soon

We've initiated the crowdfunding campaign at Crowdcube with the target amount of GBP 300,000 looking to expand the reach of our company, to use the great social potential of our project, which focuses on the welfare of the local community and to turn it all together into a good marketing campaign. Of course, each investment is welcome, but this time, we are focusing on the marketing. It has proven to be a good idea, as we managed to reach and exceed the set goal in the first fifteen days of the campaign, and considering the great interest, we will probably extend the initial deadline (August 26) by another seven days, in order to successfully complete all the negotiations we've started and enable as many investors to get involved as possible. The call is certainly open to all interested people in Serbia, and there have already been some investors from the country.

This is how Milos Milisavljevic, founder and CEO of Strawberry Energy, explains why one of the most successful startups, which has been operating since 2011, has opted to collect funds for the further development through crowdfunding.

In his interview with eKapija, he reminds that the main purpose of smart benches is to improve the quality of life in the city by offering useful services – phone charging and wireless internet, as well as measuring the quality of air and the level of noise in a certain spot, allowing citizens to see at any moment what the air they are breathing in is like, which street is the noisiest, which park is the best for jogging... Strawberry Energy has recently penetrated the Norwegian market as well – they've installed two smart benches in the country and they also plan to expand fairly quickly to another two major cities in Europe.

eKapija: The mission of your company and the smart bench project is people-oriented and features a noble component of improving the local environment. It seems that, as such, it has been accepted in the community, as over 230 investors have taken part in the Crowdcube campaign so far.

– That's right. That is precisely why we've decided to provide the opportunity to people to support us this way and to invest an amount in the infrastructure they might end up using themselves. Practically, the community we want to contribute to thereby becomes a part of our project, and Strawberry Energy gets not only the investment, but also the network of brand ambassadors, that is, fans, who are additionally motivated to promote the project in some way – by talking about it, photographing the benches, sharing information on social networks... We needed this so that word would spread about us in London, so that people would know where the benches are located and what their purpose is and finally, to have a certain support base, as the largest number of investors do come from London.

We therefore now have that argument on our side in our negotiations with new London municipalities. We can now say that, as a company, we are not only interested in benefits for us, but also for hundreds of people in London who want to see this kind of infrastructure on their streets, so much so that they've even invested money in the project.

eKapija: What are your expectation from the new investment and what will it entail?

– This amount of GBP 300,000 and slightly above, depending on the sum collected at the end of the campaign, will be put into the expansion of the smart bench network in London. To clarify, in addition to classical sales, we have developed another specific business model in London, whereby we provide the city and its municipalities with benches for free, allowing people to use them without compensation, and we in turn retain the exploitation rights. This means that, after the benches are installed, we make sponsorship agreements and advertise various brands and companies on them, collecting a monthly amount and thereby covering the costs of the preparation, installation and maintenance, while securing our profit. We call this model “Smart City Infrastructure as a Service”, as opposed to a product.

eKapija: Why have you decided to develop this new business model in London? How does a Serbian startup decide to do business in the capital of England?

– As for the business model, first of all, we needed a city with global prestige, which will be a future reference for us, because, what happens in London is copied in Dubai, New York, Tokyo... On the other hand, we had a very good starting point thanks to our previous cooperation with London and when you put these things together, the city becomes a very good choice.

When it comes to entering the English market, Strawberry Energy has come to London quite spontaneously. The city itself wasn't our goal. We simply used the opportunity when we were invited to join a Smart City accelerator. We were offered a three-month program and we started looking for clients during our fist stay there, and we practically found our first client through the program – Canary Wharf Estate. This is one of the most prestigious commercial quarters in eastern London. We sold our first benches in England to them and then, using that as a reference, we made agreements with other big companies dealing in real estate primarily. In the meantime, we've also won awards at various startup tournaments in England, so we feel quite at home in England. We already have a very developed network of local partners. It hasn't been easy or cheap, but it can be done!

eKapija: Who are your main partners and clients, but also advertisers within the business model you implement in London?

– We truly have a big list of clients featuring almost thirty famous brands. In this second model of an ongoing partnership we have with London and which we want to expand to other cities, our partner is the City of London (three London municipalities). We aim to cover around a dozen central municipalities, of a total of 33. On the other hand, there are commercial partners. Our first branding partner was Cancer Research, the biggest humanitarian organization in Britain. We then had Ford and now Crowdcube.

The idea was to change the partner with each expansion. We signed the first agreement when we installed the first 10 benches, the second one when we expanded to 20... The principle is to always have one partner for the entire network, and the aim is to soon establish a cooperation that will last for several years. Since we plan to reach the amount of 100 benches in central London in late 2018 or early 2019, that's when we plan to also sign a long-term agreement with one brand and to dedicate ourselves fully to further expanding the business in London and other new cities as well, using the same principle.

eKapija: Do you plan to expand the network of smart benches in Serbia as well?

– In principle, yes. We haven't done anything concrete to that end yet, but we would like to realize that endeavor as well. The concept would be the same as in London, which means that we would need to partner with the city, which we are always interested in and we have established certain communication in Belgrade already. We would also need a good business partner that would rent out the space, as well as a branding partner. We've already had talks, but without specifying concrete cooperation.

In the meantime, we continue to produce and sell benches. For now, we are exporting them to 17 countries of the world, and the entire production is being done in Serbia. We believe that the new investment will enable us to expand the Strawberry team, which currently numbers around 15 employees, along with numerous subcontractors.

eKapija: You have recently launched a new smart bench model – Smart Bench 2. What makes it different from the first version and what upgrades can users count on?

– Smart Bench 2 is a new model which we launched in mid-August, featuring an entirely different design from the first one. It was designed in line with the feedback we've gotten in London, so the new bench up takes up a little less space, is of a more regular shape and features a simpler and more minimal look. It also has a solar panel on top, as well as two sitting sections, a smaller and a bigger one. This model is more adapted to industrial, that is, serial production, which is important, as it means that we will be able to produce larger amounts more easily, whereas the first model was more artistically unique and almost had to be handmade.

We are developing a mini version of the bench, which will be somewhat cheaper, that is, more accessible to a larger number of users.

eKapija: How do you rate Strawberry's results so far and what are the company's plans for further development? What is the next step?

– We are satisfied with our work so far and the way the company is developing. I believe that we've accomplished a lot so far, but compared to what we're planning, this is just the beginning. Our plans are very ambitious, and the next step is to expand to another two major cities in Europe and the plan is for this to be realized relatively quickly. We are already working on it and we intend to initiate parallel negotiations with several cities in order to eventually pick those with which we reach an agreement most quickly.

We therefore want Strawberry to keep on expanding and continuing to be a Smart Tech provider for cities, towns, settlements, campuses and smaller territories looking to provide a better service in their public space – Milos Milisavljevic announces in his interview for eKapija.

Marko Andrejic

Strawberry energy Beograd

Milos Milisavljevic

crowdfunding

smart benches

Smart Bench

Smart Bench 2

solar Strawberry smart benches

Strawberry Tree

Canary Wharf London

mobile phone charger

solar benches

public solar chargers

wireless internet

wi fi spot

measuring air quality

measuring noise level

smart bench network London

smart benches in London

smart benches in Belgrade

Cancer Research UK

Ford

Crowdcube

startups

Smart City Infrastructure as a Service

Smart Tech

smart city

London