Global Wolf Motors: innovation vouchers help develop new products
Over the past couple of years, Global Wolf Motors, a Liepāja-based company that develops the Mosphera range of multi-purpose electric vehicles, has steadily strengthened its position in international markets. The company’s vehicles are being used in more than 20 countries worldwide by the police, emergency services, the agricultural sector, the logistics sector and the military, whilst the product range has also been expanded to include a new patient evacuation platform for medical staff and rescue workers. Innovation vouchers from the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) have also made a significant contribution to the company’s development; the group has already utilised these vouchers in four development projects.
In its latest project, supported by a LIAA innovation voucher, the company refined the industrial design of the casualty evacuation platform and developed a final prototype. This has enabled the product to be prepared for commercialisation considerably faster and offered to customers in Latvia and abroad.
“Without the LIAA innovation voucher, this product would have reached the market at least a year or two later. The support enabled us to bring in professionals who helped refine the industrial design and reach the final solution more quickly,” explains the company’s co-founder Klāvs Ašmanis.
This is not the company’s first experience with the innovation voucher programme. In total, the Global Wolf Motors Group has already utilised this type of support in four projects, developing an ever-increasing range of new products and technological solutions.
“This programme is extremely valuable for companies working on new products. It allows us to significantly speed up the development process and collaborate with high-level specialists whom we might not otherwise be able to afford to bring on board,” Mr Ašmanis says.
The company highly values not only the funding instrument itself, but also the collaboration with LIAA specialists. “My experience has been entirely positive. I really don’ have anything to criticise – the consultations, project evaluation and communication are all professional and efficient. It’s clear that the Agency has developed significantly in recent years and has become a true partner for businesses,” emphasises Mr Ašmanis.
He also particularly highlights the support provided by LIAA offices abroad, which help to find new partners and open doors to export markets. “They help you find the right contacts and shorten the path to potential customers. For a company operating in the international market, this is a very important support,”Mr Ašmanis notes.
Information material prepared with the support of the European Regional Development Fund
