UWB students’ ZdravoBucha succeeds at the Invest Day; Pilsen high schoolers succeed too

Students from UWB’s Faculty of Economics and Pilsen’s INFIS took second and third place in this year’s business plan competition in České Budějovice. At the University of South Bohemia final, they presented ZdravoBucha fermented drinks and an AI project helping pupils choose a secondary school.

ZdravoBucha is a functioning business idea focused on the production of kombucha and other fermented foods. This project by students of the Faculty of Economics of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen (FEK) impressed the jury of the Invest Day competition so much that it awarded it second place in the final ranking. “Our own positive experience with the impact of fermented foods and drinks on health led us to this field. That is why we decided to start our own business in this area and, under the slogan ‘Health in every drop’, offer people products that support a healthy lifestyle,” said the authors of the idea, Lenka Toušková, Štěpánka Toušková, and Viktorie Hulinská.

UWB also helped secure third place in the competition. Thanks to expert guidance from the Center for Entrepreneurship and Sustainability at FEK, this position went to students from the Secondary School of Informatics and Financial Services in Pilsen (INFIS). They succeeded with their Stredni.AI project, which uses artificial intelligence to support decision-making when choosing a secondary school. “We have experienced ourselves how difficult and confusing it can be to choose a secondary school. We want to create a smart and accessible solution that will help students find a school that really suits them,” added Ivan Alipov from INFIS on behalf of the team.

According to the organizers, this year’s competition was record-breaking, with almost 50 students taking part. “Among other things, this shows the growing interest in entrepreneurship across fields and faculties. The involvement of students from three secondary schools in Pilsen was also noteworthy and further underlined this trend,” summarised Jiří Kutlák from the Center for Entrepreneurship and Sustainability, which helps organize the competition. Two more teams from UWB’s Faculty of Applied Sciences also advanced to this year’s final inter-university round, but they did not reach the winning positions. First place went to Jakub Korous from the University of South Bohemia with LeadHeat, an idea focused on professional LinkedIn management.

Students of the University of West Bohemia have repeatedly placed well in the Invest Day competition. Many of them have also already turned their ideas into reality. One example is AutomatBEZ, which has been offering healthy, gluten-free, lactose-free, organic, and vegan foods on the UWB campus for more than two years. Other examples include Destinisco, the world’s first adaptive escape game created by student Filip Kouba, and Ergosenc, a smart ergonomic chair developed by doctoral students in the Faculty of Economics, Eduard Šuster and Lukáš Pilc.

Invest Day is an inter-university competition focused on developing business ideas among young students and university graduates. It has been organized by the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice since 2014, with the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and the Prague University of Economics and Business gradually joining the initiative.