Meet Slovenia’s 8 Top Founders in the Blockchain Startup Space

At Bleeding.Technology we track over 100,000 web 3.0, NFT, DeFi & crypto startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.

This list showcases the top Slovenia based Founder operating in the Blockchain space. If you think a Founder is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on [email protected].

The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:

Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.

Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.

Gregor Boroša

Tech Co-Founder of Boson Protocol

Gregor Boroša, Tech Co-Founder, was previously the lead engineer of major bank & payment systems, including the Central Bank of Slovenia. As a blockchain technologist, Gregor was a lecturer on the blockchain and digital currency Master of Science course at the University of Nicosia and has also worked as a blockchain architecture consultant & developer.

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About Boson Protocol: Boson Protocol is the decentralized network on which future commerce will run.

Dejan Roljič

Co-Founder and CEO of Elly (previously: Eligma)

Dejan started his entrepreneurial path as very young. In his twenties, he founded ABC Accelerator, connecting startups all over Europe and in Silicon Valley. ABC Accelerator has invested in more than 150 startups worldwide. Three years ago, Dejan founded Eligma, a company for smart commerce solutions. Eligma has created two very interesting products for merchants and consumers. The GoCrypto infrastructure enables merchants to accept crypto – currently in more than 60 countries. Eligma also built the Elly multi-functional wallet; it allows users to buy, sell, transfer and spend crypto while getting a token-back for every purchase. Eligma is becoming a global facilitator of seamless and secure crypto payments. It utilizes blockchain technology to establish communication standards for crypto payment networks, and runs an infrastructure of more than 60.000 stores and services accepting cryptocurrencies. Eligma is now releasing its holistic product, which processes all kind of payments: card payments (Visa, MC, Diners), digital payments (WeChat, Alipay) and of course crypto payments through their own solution, GoCrypto. Eligma closed a series A round in Nov. 2020, invested by Bitcoin.com, on a 50 MIL EUR valuation. Dejan is still very active on the startup scene and continuously invests money into promising individuals and startups that want to leave a mark in the high-tech industry. He is also an industry advisor and thought leader at Cryptonite Ventures, a community of world-leading blockchain developers and industrials.

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About Elly (previously: Eligma), Viberate: We synergize payment methods and additional POS services into one solution, transforming the POS terminal into a tool for business growth.

Rok Černec

Co-Founder & Vice-President of ARK Ecosystem, SCIC (ARK.io)

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About ARK Ecosystem, SCIC (ARK.io): ARK is a modular platform for rapid blockchain development.

Srdjan Mahmutovich

Founder and CEO of Kriptomat

I am an entrepreneur at heart and had my first brush with the world of startups at the age of 19; I built a sales network of 40 insurance reps for an insurance network. That was my first assignment and gave me immense learning, and I realized the importance of unit economics and customer service fundamentals. After that I moved as a call center agent to VoljaNet and was promoted to the position of Internet Manager, where I hired, trained and lead a team of internet professionals to develop value added services like online games, photo albums, blogs etc. These were an instant hit with users and our website traffic grew by 50X, making our network number one in Slovenia in visitor reach. After the VoljaNet stint, I moved forward to set up my second business, Spletnik. I used the principles of a lean startup in those days (Though Eric rechristened it later on) to build a category leader in Slovenia. Spletnik has received numerous client accolades making it one of the fastest growing companies in Slovenia in that segment. At Spletnik, I have productized the highly commoditized Internet and online search services, thereby making it easy to scale up on demand with a minimalistic cost increase. As a result, our online services are standardized and streamlined, they are more like a “McDonalds” product – inexpensive and quick to produce, but always providing the same exceptional business results. My latest venture is Platformax; we are trying to reduce the inefficiency in sales by using automation as a tool. We are a sales automation platform that gives you all the functionality you need to be an ace salesperson. We are currently working on Platfromax 2.0 that will enable people to have sales genie, one on the lines of what Aladdin had. My love and passion for Archery made me a National archery champion for four years in elementary and middle school. Today I am a proud father of two boys and I enjoy tremendous support of my spouse.

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About Kriptomat: Kriptomat cryptocurrency exchange platform is easy to use, fast, safe and in your local language.

Domen Ursic

Co-Founder and CMO of Authtrail

As a PR and marketing expert, Domen has been involved with blockchain projects since early 2016. He has supported global brands, such as Uber and European Commission, and honed his PR and marketing skills with international companies and startups and by winning political campaigns.

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About Authtrail, Hive Project: Authtrail is a fast and simple data integrity platform that stores data and periodically anchors its fingerprints to the block-chain.

Tadej Vengust

Co-Founder and CTO of Authtrail

Tadej Vengust is a Co-Founder and CTO @ Authtrail.

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About Authtrail: Authtrail is a fast and simple data integrity platform that stores data and periodically anchors its fingerprints to the block-chain.

Dushan Spalevich

Founder, CEO & Host of iBlock TV

Dushan Spalevich is the Founder, Host & CEO at iBlock TV and Founder & CEO at iBlock Capital. Dushan Spalevich – startup strategist, investor, menthor, public speaker, events moderator and Founder & CEO at iBlock TV, a blockchain starup Youtube channel and MyBitcoinPitch.com, an educational platform for Bitcoin beginners. As a very young manager responsible for a whole country business he was personally acknowledged, by at that time, global SC Johnson CEO Bill Perez, later also CEO of Nike & Wrigley and was also appraised by Mr. Perez personal visit to Slovenian headquarters. Dushan is also a private investor with more than 20 years’ investment experience in different asset classes including stocks, bonds, commodities, ETFs etc. and a big fan of portfolio management using different “asset allocation theories”. As a start-upper by the soul and private investor, Dushan was immediately attracted by the new opportunities of blockchain technologies and new investments vehicles in the form of TGE, ICO, ITO etc. After several investments in blockchain startups, blockchain & tech space became his full time passion and work at the same time.

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About iBlock TV: iBlock TV is a tech startup channel that provides a unique insight from the ecosystem that is composed of startups, investors, and service.