The innovative young team developed an on-line platform called GoAvio, which allows users to search, explore and discover low-cost flights in Europe and around the world.

"We were very happy about the award and we see it as a recognition that we are on the right path with our start-up. However, this is just a recognition, not an achievement. We still have to travel the same path to reach the goals we have set," said Matej Gaser, initiator and founder of Nizkocenovci.

Low-cost flights in one place
Even though flight tickets can be very expensive, it is often possible to find much cheaper, low-cost flights. However, the problem was that there was no website that would offer all these data in one place. Until now. Nizkocenovci brought all low-cost airlines together in one place and thus enabled users to search for affordable flights in a faster and easier way.

"We got the idea because we faced the same problem when we wanted to fly to Berlin and had to search for low-cost flights on the web sites of each carrier separately," said Matej Gaser. Some time afterwards at a start-up weekend, they tried to see if others deal with similar problems and found that such a search engine would indeed be useful for many people. They conducted a thorough survey on the needs and desires of potential customers and started looking for new solutions. One year later, the website nizkocenovci.si/goavio.com was completed. It is unique because it displays lines on a map through which the users can explore all flight connections of low-cost airlines in Europe to find the nearest direct connection to their destination. Both websites have a monthly visit of 12 thousand users, but the goal of the highly motivated team is to attract thousand times more.

The web site allows passengers to take a look at all options offered by low-cost airlines in their vicinity because the team figured out that a lot of people do not look for a flight on a specific date, but first check where they could travel and on which days the tickets are the cheapest, and only then decide to buy a ticket on a given date.

Travelling green and thrifty
After setting up the web site, they recorded great numbers of visitors, but they wanted even more. At the time, they did not yet have a business model, but today they are on the right path. "We found a business model that will allow us to extend our technology to a wider range of users. This means we will be able to help more people. We are currently working on a technology that would combine planes, trains and buses and find cheaper routes between cities," explained Matej Gaser.

The technology will optimise the organisation and realisation of travels to the fullest extent and will be useful for large search engines dedicated to travels, flights and other means of transportation. GoAvio currently includes more than 120 low-cost airlines and more than 10,000 connections from all around the world; with an investment of one million euros they want to enter the European market in the first phase. The planned upgrade of the system will include rail and bus connections, so that their system will be able to find the cheapest, fastest and most ecological connection to any place in Europe.

This new technology will make travelling more affordable, optimally fast and friendlier to the environment. Matej Gaser is confident that they can find a cheaper and better way for approximately 40 million passengers per year.

The winning team
After the British investment and the investment by the Slovenian Enterprise Fund at the beginning of 2016, the team acquired further €300,000 from the Bulgarian venture capital fund Launchub and the Czech fund Credo Ventures.

In this year, the Nizkocenovci company expects a turnover of €15 million, which is a high, but realistic number if they manage to carry out all agreements made with major search engines dedicated to travels, flights and other means of transportation.