Munich Startup: Who are you and what do you do? Please introduce yourselves!
Optiwiser: Optiwiser A.I. Solutions is a German-Brazilian coproduction. The founding team includes Ediz Erkmen and Maximilian Köhler from Munich and Enrico Miranda from Brazil. Ediz is CEO and has a master’s degree in technology & management with a focus on operations und supply chain management from TU Munich. Maximilian, who is responsible for sales and marketing, completed his master’s studies in management and engineering at RWTH Aachen and is currently working on a doctorate in “human-AI collaboration” at TU Munich. Enrico is our CTO and was born in Brazil. He has a master’s degree in AI and robotics and has more than ten years of experience in the industry.
Munich Startup: What problem does your startup solve?
Optiwiser: A lot is still thrown away in the food industry. And that is often due to inadequate demand planning. It’s simply because forecasts aren’t made properly, which means significantly more sales are planned for than are actually booked. Inadequate demand planning can also crop up in a different way. If there aren’t enough items available to fulfill demand, this can result in a high loss in sales and damage a brand’s image. Bad planning can be due to a lack of financial resources or a lack of technical know-how. In most companies, an Excel list is still the most common method used for demand planning. But that’s been behind the times for quite a while now and simply isn’t up-to-date when you consider the technological options available these days.
That’s why we’ve developed AI-driven, fully automatic software in order to help companies optimally plan their demand and avoid waste and stock-outs. Our software supports the entire demand planning and supply chain department. The customers’ individual processes are bundled in one software program. Moreover, the software can be implemented in less than one day and is financially feasible for SMEs in particular.
Munich Startup: But that’s nothing out of the box!
Optiwiser: Although some AI-driven software solutions do already exist, Optiwiser A.I. Solutions clearly stands apart from the competition in terms of the performance, price, implementation time and user-friendliness of the tool. We developed the product based on pain points of our customers, who were dissatisfied with the software solutions already on the market. From the idea right through to its implementation, creativity and technical know-how were needed. Enrico Miranda (CTO) has a master of science in artificial intelligence and robotics and has worked in the industry for more than ten years. He has invested all of his know-how in the development of the tool, which is what makes it so unique. The business model has already been clearly defined: The demand planning tool ‘Predictwiser Cloud’ is sold as an SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solution. This means customers pay a monthly fee for a license to use the software. Because it is so easy to use, there is no need for integration and coaching on the part of the company.
Optiwiser: “The customer portfolio includes both young startups and established SMEs”
Munich Startup: What have been your three biggest challenges so far?
Optiwiser:
- Developing our first proof of concept for our demand planning software together with our first customer, I·do Biosaft.
- Building a brand that has a serious competitive edge and that obviously highlights the advantages of our solution.
- Establishing a reliable partner network that gives us a broader positioning and makes it possible for us to come in direct contact with customers.
Munich Startup: How is business going?
Optiwiser: The Predictwiser Cloud software is currently used by four companies for demand planning. That means our customer portfolio includes both young startups and established SMEs.
Munich Startup: What do you think about Munich as a startup location?
Optiwiser: Munich, alongside Berlin, is the ideal city in Germany for building a company. The city attracts international talent with its renowned technical university and its many attractive employers. We’re also in contact with many other founders from Munich and swap information on a regular basis.
Munich Startup: Hidden champion or shooting star?
Optiwiser: We see ourselves more as a hidden champion who end users won’t even know about, but who instead make sure that the right amount of goods are available on the shelves of their supermarkets.