Startup of BME energy engineering students makes a revolution in the e-mobility

Four of BME Faculty of Mechanical Engineering students, launched a startup for developing an application for e-mobility navigation. This startup was born as a project not only winning the MVM Edison energy startup contest but also receiving investment from a subsidiary. Interview with Kornél Kálmán, co-founder of Volteum.

 What has inspired you to develop the application?

 

Kornél Kálmán: In the current Volteum team, four of the founders are contributing, and all started at BME on Energy Engineering BSc programme. We have got to know each other at the Student Association of Energy on BME, where we participated in various projects and also the management of the association. Besides our studies, we were also curious about the challenges and current development directions. We always have wanted to be part of these, so we got into the rapidly growing e-mobility sector.

Kornél Kálmán

 

With our conception, we nominated to the Edison energy startup competition of MVM, the Hungarian state-owned power company in January 2019. In the competition, which is the biggest in Eastern Central Europe, we became finalists of the competition with more than 100 applications. Within the competition, we participated in an incubation programme, which contributed to the success of our idea. The 8-week series of seminars ended with a live final, where we had to convince the jury during a 3-minute speech and a question section. We succeeded so our team won the competition.

 

Then we started our discussions for investment, resulting in seed investment from the MVM’s venture capital investment subsidiary, the Smart Future Lab. The Volteum as a startup was founded in January 2020, and then started the development of the application. 

 

What would have been the point of your initial ideas?

 

Kornél Kálmán: In the beginning, our project was linked to the e-mobility as well – we envisioned a charge management application. Initially, we applied to the MVM Edison Startup contest with this idea. Due to market conditions, we changed the plan during the seminars, and instead, shifted into a route planning project. 

Planning a route with an electric car is a complex problem because the range of electric vehicles is an easily changing rate, a complex subject of internal and external parameters. The Volteum application considers mechanical condition and specifications of the car, speed limits, environmental temperature, usage of air conditioning and heating, and also topography and geographical parameters, during the whole planned journey.

The application makes route planning process for e-car users easier and quicker. The background of the application is an algorithm, estimating the point of discharge, and if necessary, includes optimal charging points for the driver. 

 

What was the biggest challenge in this project so far?

 

Kornél Kálmán: The most challenging part was the time, as we all were still studying. Frequently happened, that we found arranging meetings difficult, also going on with the project with the proper intensity, while we had to cope with our studies as well. But we always solved these challenges, making us possible to enter the Hungarian market with the beta version of the Volteum application with five months of development.

 

What makes this application unique on the market?

 

Kornél Kálmán: With the Volteum application, a journey can be planned only with a few clicks. The charger comparing view – which is, for now, a unique function – electric car users can easily compare the price and length of the chargers specifically for his car. Another advantage of Volteum that the majority of the chargers in Hungary are present in the application. This advantage also shifts Volteum app from its competitors. 

 

What plans do you have?

 

Kornél Kálmán: In the next period, we have to dedicate resources for paying attention to user feedback and implement corrections. Moreover, we have numerous other essential ideas and directions for developing the Volteum app. Until the end of this year, we would like to build a solid foundation for entering foreign markets, and also prepare a second-round investment.

 

László Benesóczky