Winner of the DIGI-SI Digital Innovation Challenge 2025: LynxCraft digitizes home construction

As part of the final conference of the Slovenian European Digital Innovation Hubs, the DIGI-SI Challenge of Digital Innovation 2025 was also held, which was organized by EDIH DIGI-SI this year for the third time in a row, and the victory was won by the LynxCraft team. The challenge is aimed at identifying and supporting the most promising digital solutions of Slovenian companies and promoting the development of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, automation, data analytics and IoT.

Winner 2025: LynxCraft – Digitalisation of the latest analogue industry

The winner of the DIGI-SI Digital Innovation Challenge 2025 was the LynxCraft team, which convincingly addresses one of the biggest challenges of modern society – the opaque and unpredictable process of building a home.

Building your own house is the biggest investment in life for most people, but the process is still fragmented and opaque. More than 70% of smaller housing projects exceed the planned budget and most are delayed by 30-50%. The investor who bears the financial burden often has the least control over this.

The company was co-founded by Marko Hozjan, an entrepreneur with extensive international experience, and Dr Iztok Šušteršič, a construction expert with a doctorate in the field of seismic safety of wooden structures. Their vision was to create a "digital brain" of construction – a system that integrates architecture, cost, regulation and implementation into a single data-driven process.

Product: co-pilot for the construction of the house

Lynx Platform is an AI-supported cloud platform for private investors. It allows:

• Generating spatially and legislatively coherent conceptual designs on the basis of plot data,
• Ongoing financial assessment of the project,
• Recommending verified architects, contractors and suppliers,
• Digital management of the project from concept to implementation.

At its core is an algorithmic building system that converts architectural and engineering data into machine-readable logic and enables simulation and optimisation of thousands of scenarios in real time. The platform creates a digital twin of the facility and allows the investor to make data-driven decisions.

Instead of coordinating many stakeholders, the investor gets a single user interface and greater transparency, control over the costs and timeline of the project.

Market Potential and Vision

The target group is younger, digitally literate private investors who want more control over the construction process. Approximately 600,000 single-family or twin-family houses are built annually in Europe and North America, representing a multi-billion dollar market.

The company has already exceeded the minimum acceptable product (MVP) stage, acquired the first paid users and established a network of verified partners. In addition to the founders, the team consists of experts in the fields of architecture, product development and international business scaling.

LynxCraft's vision is clear: From an individual, often chaotic construction process, create a repeatable, transparent and data-driven system that restores investor control and promotes sustainable and efficient construction.

DIGI-SI This year again, the challenge of digital innovation confirms that Slovenia has exceptional technological knowledge and entrepreneurial energy. With the support of the EDIH ecosystem, such solutions gain space for growth, integration and integration into the wider European innovation landscape.

The finalists were evaluated by an expert committee composed of:

• Dr Aida Kamišalić Latifić, State Secretary at the Ministry of Digital Transformation, with responsibility for the Information Society and the Development of Digital Solutions,
• Dr Jerneja Jug Jerše, Head of the European Commission Representation in Slovenia,
• Mateja Lavrič, Director of high-tech company Qlector.

Finalists 2025 – clear impact digital solutions

Five outstanding innovative teams presented themselves at the conference, which with their solutions respond to the concrete challenges of different sectors:

• LynxCraft(Marko Hozjan) – a digital platform that significantly speeds up and makes the construction process cheaper with the help of artificial intelligence, algorithmic design and building systems.
• Dr. Hause(Boris Grivič) – AI-supported application for voice transcription and automation of medical documentation, which reduces the administrative burden on medical staff.
• transportpartner.online (Lovro Krašovec) - a comprehensive digital platform for ordering transport, which automates the process from demand to execution.
• DocuWise (Anže Škodlar) – a platform for the automated production of legal and business documents, which enables the rapid creation of customized documents without manual legal work.
• SandBoxOS (Jure Lampe) – an open-source platform for the fast, safe and efficient deployment of IoT solutions in smart cities, industry, agri-food and healthcare.

The finalists demonstrated a high level of technological knowledge, a clear market orientation and the ability to turn advanced technologies into concrete, useful solutions.