Bee Natural is a Slovenian start-up whose vision is to start a skincare line of bee venom products. Beekeeping has been their passion for years.
We talked with founder of Bee Natural Benjamin Pregl about the launch of the start-up and the idea behind their line.
"Our tradition of beekeeping goes back a long way, and we’ve always been fascinated by bee venom. We even discussed and guessed what the potential effects of its use would be, but never actually went into the matter deeper. All this changed when we got to know individuals affected by various neurological conditions or disorders. We started studying bee venom and made a long-term plan to pave the way towards research and production of health products and methods based on the components found in bee venom.
Of course, for a business starting from scratch this was much too complex, I mean in terms of the resources needed, so we went straight to the intermediate step – use of bee venom in cosmetic products. That doesn’t mean we gave up on our dream, on the contrary, by starting up our cosmetic business we also created a special ecosystem that would actually move us along the path to making our dream come true. At the same time, making cosmetics became our passion. It is basically like a unique art in which you take different raw materials from the chaos of the nature and put them together to create a symbiotic world blending all these ingredients into an exclusive cream. This exercise helped us realize the role of nature and how important it is to protect and conserve the environment. Take for example the symbiosis that exists between bees and plants and be inspired by bees - they get energy from the plants on the one hand and are perfect pollinators helping the plants breed, grow and produce on the other. Understanding this deep interrelationship, we knew that we had to become role model and inspire other businesses while raising awareness of our clients about the importance of promoting alliance between man and nature. That is why our business slogan "Bee one with nature" captures the essence of what we do and strive for.’’
The start-up created a bee venom face cream boasting an array of carefully selected natural ingredients proven to help rejuvenate skin. Their latest product is BeeNatural ONE face cream which has undergone challenge test and was dermatologically tested and came out with very good results. The face cream is a high-performance organic cosmetic product whose main ingredients are the following:
- bee venom,
- stem cells of a rare Swiss apple species Uttwiler Spätlauber replicated with PhytoCellTec™ technology,
- hyaluronic acid and
- coenzyime Q10.
Their product development strategy builds on the use of high-quality natural ingredients for the face cream and use of natural materials for the packaging. The face cream is made of organic oil and declared high-quality active ingredients. The idea behind the packaging was to use materials that do not over-pollute the oceans, so they opted to use most recyclable materials to make the packaging. They can now confidently say that they did everything they could to make a 100% natural cosmetic product and offer it in a sustainable packaging.
The young team uses funding opportunities available through EU funds to develop their product. As a start-up in the early stage of development they apply for start-up assistance. They received self-employment subsidy amounting to EUR 5,000 from the European Social Fund. They also obtained a digital marketing voucher from the European Regional Development Fund worth EUR 2,500 to start an online shop. They also applied for start-up assistance under the call for proposals Incentives for start-ups in problem regions (PR2) published by the Slovene Enterprise Fund. The potential start-up assistance would help increase their development potential helping them survive through the early stage of development and grow into an export-oriented business with a particular focus on online product selling.
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Beneficiary: Bee Natural Company |
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Programme: Operational Programme for the Implementation of the European Cohesion Policy in the Period 2014-2020 |
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Fund: European Regional Development Fund |
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EU contribution: EUR 7.500,00 |