Ondřej Švrček is the CEO and founder of Munipolis, Civic Tech tolls that are number one on the Czech market for collecting digital feedback from citizens and smart communication between municipalities in the Czech Republic. Ondřej’s platforms have recently proved their competitiveness on the international market. We met with Ondřej to answer a few questions.
How do you view the inclusion of your company’s product in the first global catalog of civic tech tools published by People Powered?
I consider this a great thing. It is an honor for us to have an opportunity to be included in such a list of innovative projects that have a social impact. We see such listings, memberships, and participation in official events as a very good support for our project. Because we operate in the field of state administration, it is important for us to be a part of such events. Also, by going abroad, the Munipolis project opens up to foreign markets, and so it is exciting! In addition, only a few Czech companies are included in the catalog. So, it’s great that we are in the top ten.
How did the COVID crisis affect your product?
Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have experienced a large increase in both the number of active clients as local governments and registered members within local communities. People have a greater need to be informed. In addition, confidence in the central government weakened, and people started to rely more on local governments. The number of messages sent through our tools increased from 2,000 per day to 150,000. In the first year of the pandemic, we grew from 500 municipalities to 1,100. This year, up to 2,139 local governments use our services. So, in the segment of local communities with over 3000 inhabitants, we exceeded the 50% meaning that every other municipality uses the smart communication network Mobilní Rozhlas. The number of registered people is 640,000, which is three times as much as in 2020, when the corona crisis began.
During the time, we also created, for example, a covid report feature in cooperation with ÚZIS. It transparently informs citizens about the occurrence of the disease in their vicinity.
Under the brand Munipolis, you have launched an international expansion. How is it going?
We are gradually expanding our foreign reach, led with a reinforcement from Kiwi side by Zdeněk Komenda. During this year, the expansion of Mobilní Rozhlas under the Munipolis brand to other countries began. We have been operating in Slovakia for two-three years now. There we work with 170 local governments. Over the past year, we have expanded to Germany, where we have around 60 to 70 municipalities involved. We are gradually preparing to launch into other markets such as Spain, France, and Italy. We are very actively looking for opportunities in the USA, where there is a large number of municipalities (around 45,000 municipalities) and hence a huge market.
Are you preparing any new products?
We are preparing a lot of new things! The novelty of the moment is that our platform will gradually open up to other associations, institutions, groups, and especially companies. We adjust the whole thing so that it is relevant to the needs of these other segments. The opening of Mobilní Rozhlas to new entities is a crucial generational step for us.
Among the product innovations that help us expand our options, we can name Smart Newsletter, easy building options for the app’s content, or Voting. We are also strengthening technologies to make them more friendly through, for example, Universal Distributor managing client databases.
You can find more information on Munipolis here.
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