The idea of PLATIO solar pavement was coming from three childhood friends, Imre Sziszák, a mechanical engineer, József Cseh, a chemical engineer, and Miklós Ilyés, a landscape architect, co-founders of the company. Miklós was involved in designing several urban squares and pavements and was shocked by the amount of building materials cities use to build dull, grey pavements, while humanity still has no idea what to do with the ever-increasing, slowly decomposing plastic waste. So the question has risen: ‘Why not make paving stones from recycled waste? And if so many surfaces are paved in the city, why don’t we make use of it and generate energy too?”

In 2015, PLATIO was just an idea, but development quickly got moving. The co-founders submitted their idea to the Design Terminal’s Smart City Lab competition, and they successfully won with PLATIO. The startup competition caught the attention of many people and gained private investors to the company.