Who is behind the Aptolux - a company that is going to revolutionize the work of videographers?

Two co-founders of the company - Alvis Rozenbergs and Rihards Strenga - met during the startup competition. Alvis had an idea. Two started to work together and were joined by the third - later co-founder of the company Aptolux - Kaspars Škerba. The team outgrew startup competitions very fast, won some of the biggest startup challenges in the home market in Latvia, and officially established a company Aptolux in 2020.

 

Power of the community

Aptolux is living proof of the fact that the community brings in the best talent. Two of the company Aptolux co-founders mentioned above Alvis Rozenbergs and Kaspars Škerba used to work for the Draugiem Group - a company that supports ideas of creative and crazy people with mentors and first employees so that authors can develop and scale faster. By the way, the first and still only Latvian unicorn company Printful is born inside the same Draugiem Group.

 

Alvis started in 2004 as a graphic, web, app, and lead UX/UI designer at Draugiem Group. He was also doing video editing and filming in parallel. Later Alvis joined some of the most promising Draugiem Group companies as Desk Time, Roadgames, and Vendon. He managed to work for some time also at Printful. But Alvis had a dream about his own company that could be connected with his main passion - videography. 

 

Excited about the innovation

Alvis on the full scale experienced all pains that videographers have to deal with. The biggest - video lighting. Alvis constantly moved through the city mostly by bike so he was able to carry just one backpack. At the end of the day, it was a constant choice between convenience (traveling light) and bringing the best lighting that was nearly impossible due to the fact that every environment has its own requirements. And this is where the idea came from. Alvis decided to create versatile lighting panels that could be super easy to pack, transport, and use in different shapes depending on needs.

He met Rihards Strenga - founder with experience in business, finances, PR, marketing, and sales activities. At that time he had already well established experience of the PR and marketing for more than 7 years. Rihards was looking for innovative ideas to work with. Two were joined by Kaspars Škerba who was also an employee of the Draugiem Group. Kaspars was an expert in robotics as well as electrical and mechanical engineering. He also had 10 years of experience in building innovative hardware solutions.

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100 professionals hungry for the product

So all three together started to explore the market. The idea seemed to be great, but it required some social proof. More than 100 experienced videographers were surveyed about the video lighting problems. The team found out that:

• Current gear doesn't fit in all situations for at least 25% of people;

• 63% of videographers are looking to purchase new continuous lights;

• 40% claims that current gear lacks brightness or portability;

• About 90% of surveyed videographers were interested and couldn't wait for the product. 

 

Smaller and bigger wins

The first step was to get a patent, receive some capital and get investors on board. Alvis already had won several startup competitions and collected about 50 000 euros in funding. The team got 25 000 eur more from the grant program “Atspēriens”. They were runner-ups in the competition “Ideju Kauss” as well as won “Rīgas Drosmes Grants”. The team showed their idea also internationally by taking part in the prototype program “Prototron” making it into TOP 10 and were presenting their idea on the big stage of the “Latitude59” - one of the biggest startup events in the region. 

 

After successful participation in different contests, the team was noticed and was looking for a mentor that could lead it all through the creating of the startup. They found it in the person of the only hardware accelerator in Baltics “BuildIt” and Mr. Elmārs Gengers - a business angel who previously established one of the biggest IT companies in the region Tieto with 1600 employees. Riga Technical University helped significantly with the start of the manufacturing process.

 

“Aptolux” in the Latin language means to fit, adapt, adjust, make ready (apto) and light (lux). Currently, the main goal of the company is to help videographers avoid making compromises on video lighting. The company’s values are based on solving problems, being as user-friendly and as socially responsible as possible. “Aptolux” and its team of five is just one step away now from mass production.