"Today, our team has almost 20 full-time and associate team members and we are the world's leading company in the development of vision technologies for unmanned platforms. These are radical innovations that we have developed with our internal capacities; from a sketch on paper to the product ready for mass production"
The best drone control glasses in the world are produced in Osijek
Just a few years ago, the notion of unmanned aerial vehicle or drone was a complete unknown to the general public. Today, these aerial vehicles are ubiquitous. In addition to security surveillance, mapping, and shipment delivery, drones have become an indispensable piece of photographic and camera equipment in the entertainment industry. It is the camera that has made drones extremely popular, and drone racing is becoming one of the more popular sports in the world. In the segment of video glasses for operating and driving drones and other unmanned platforms, Orqa FPV glasses.One are known as the best in the world ... and they come from Osijek!
The Osijek company Capital Hook primarily deals with research and development of hardware products and devices, and it became known to the domestic and international public precisely because of the Orqa brand, within which they launched the aforementioned glasses. With these glasses, the Orqa team won the Idea Knockout competition last year, giving them the opportunity to present the product at this year’s CES in Las Vegas. In order to secure the funds for production, in mid-June this year they conducted the fastest growing Kickstarter campaign in Croatia, as part of which they rasied a record HRK 1.5 million in less than 24 hours!
Capital Hook is the real example of a successful startup, which was proven by the fact that it has already achieved its five-year projections. “Today, our team has almost 20 full-time and associate team members and we are the world's leading company in the field of vision technology development for unmanned platforms. We have already had the opportunity to work with a large number of domestic and foreign hardware companies for which we have developed consumer electronics and medical devices, cameras, sensors and radars. These are radical innovations that we have developed with internal capacities; from a sketch on paper to the product ready for mass production ", claims the company's director Ivan Jelušić.
In cooperation with numerous companies, a large number of colleagues and associates of the company are former and current students and professors from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, J. J. Strossmayer University in Osijek, and in addition to developing their own products, their business objective is to provide services to other hardware startups from Croatia and the European Union.
Jelušić believes that the Croatian Agency for SMEs, Innovation and Investments (HAMAG-BICRO) has recognized the needs of the market, i.e. of small enterprises, because it helps them to scale their business and grow in foreign markets. Through its SME Competence and Development program, the Agency has allocated HRK 300,000 to Capital Hook to equip laboratories for research and development of hardware products, small-scale production and professional training of employees.
“Purchased equipment allows us to create iterations of new products in a faster and cheaper way and to offer new services to our customers. Although our current focus is on Orqa FPV.One glasses, we have also been working on a number of other projects such as development of wearable medical devices, development of wearable sensors for body temperature monitoring, development and production of low voltage power sources, measuring devices for monitoring energy consumption, development of specialized telemetry equipment for overseas ships, production of industrial robots, development and production of educational robots and more”, says Jelušić and adds that the equipped space is multifunctional and space at the same time serves as a representative office space, laboratory, universal production line and training of new employees, and it is adapted to the employment of persons with disabilities.
The purchased equipment allows us to create iterations of new products in a faster and cheaper way and to offer new services to our customers
Ivan Jelušić
Director of Capital Hook
Orqa glasses are currently primarily used for racing and entertainment, but Jelušić and his team see its application also in medicine, protection and rescue, and autonomous driving of vehicles and aircraft in the future. There is room for improvement, but without a doubt this young Osijek startup can already be considered successful.
