March the 3rd, 2022 - Croatian buses and Croatian companies are all making themselves available with either free transport for Ukrainian refugees or with food and accommodation offers when they arrive in the country.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak/Lucija Spiljak writes, the refugee wave of, at this moment in time, half a million people seeking refuge due to the war in Ukraine has activated all institutional mechanisms in the countries of the European Union, and companies are increasingly involved in helping refugees. Croatian buses are also busy transporting those who have fled their country.

Many Croatian companies have become involved in helping refugees with donations of money, materials or the services they provide. In the first step, the help of Croatian buses who can remove refugees from war zones is very important.

Free to Poland

The Association of Croatian Bus Lines announced that they are ready to make part of their fleet with more than 1,000 Croatian buses available. As Drazen Divjak, director of Arriva, explained, Croatian buses are ready to engage their services and drivers for the transport of refugees from the Ukrainian border areas to the safety of the Republic of Croatia.

"We want to give our contribution in manpower and vehicles because it's our responsibility, but also the only way in which refugees can be organised and efficiently transferred from the Ukrainian border to designated locations in Croatia," said Divjak.

They say from FlixBus that their teams are working tirelessly to come to the aid of Ukrainian refugees and offer free transportation across the border in the direction of Poland to all those who need it.

"Several more refugee buses have been added on the lines connecting Ukraine and Poland. In addition, we're additionally transporting all the necessary food and equipment to those in need. Our operational teams are at the border crossings to provide on-site support,'' said Ante Grbesa, the director of the FlixBus CEE South Region.

Humanitarian actions for Ukraine were also launched by Caritas, the Croatian Red Cross and the NGO ADRA Croatia, which made their human resources available and also raised funds. Social media has also been a source of help in the form of offers of accommodation to donations, food and beyond.

The Facebook group "SOS UA Ukraine" has numerous minute-by-minute posts in which Croatian residents are offering transportation and travel services directly to Ukraine in order to transport as many vulnerable Ukrainians as possible. They organise accommodation and all necessities. Additionally, the non-profit organisation Translators without Borders has announced that there is a growing need for translators who speak Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Romanian, Moldovan or German, to whom they have appealed.

7.5 million children in Ukraine are also facing a crisis and danger, so UNICEF is trying to step up its efforts to provide all the necessary humanitarian aid, as well as psychosocial support for children. Regina Castillo, Head of the UNICEF Office for Croatia, sent an appeal to Croatian residents, companies and the media to help the children of Ukraine with their donations.

Constant contact

The Croatian IT company Span, which also has an office in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, which is currently under siege, has expressed great concern, and they are in constant contact with 32 of their Ukrainian colleagues.

“Span immediately activated its crisis team, which aims to help our employees and their families in the most efficient way possible. This primarily includes assistance in reception, transportation, accommodation in Croatia, psychological assistance as well as assistance when it comes to bureaucratic affairs,'' they explained from Span.

Just like after the devastating earthquake in Banovina at the end of December 2020, chefs from the initiative "The chef is cooking at home" became active to help refugees arriving in Zagreb. Brodosplit provided a temporary home and food for two of the seven Ukrainian workers employed by the DIV Group company who arrived yesterday from Lviv and Ternopil.

Croatian companies are also trying to provide Ukrainians with a place to work when they arrive in Croatia. As such, the Bruketa & Zinic & Gray agency announced that it could provide office space for four Ukrainian designers/illustrators and help them find accommodation in Zagreb.

The Ministry of Tourism is also taking care of the accommodation of refugees, and Minister Nikolina Brnjac held a meeting with hoteliers recently during which she invited private Croatian renters/landlords who want to help reluctant Ukrainians to contact them with their options and offers by e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

For more, check out our politics section.

March the 2nd, 2022 - The well respected and heavily read Financial Times (FT) has listed the IT company Syntio as the fastest growing company of its kind in the Republic of Croatia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the IT company Syntio, a Croatian cloud-based IT engineering company, ranked 225th on the prestigious list of The Financial Times (FT 1000) of Europe’s fastest growing companies.

If we look exclusively at the position in the IT sector, then the IT company Syntio took 55th place in all of Europe, meaning it took first place at the national level of Croatia, with a growth of 673.74 percent in the period from 2017 to 2020. Six more companies from Croatia are also on the list of one of the most reputable business papers in the entire world.

“We founded the company in Zagreb five years ago, in 2017 to be precise. Since then, we've opened branches in the United States of America and Denmark and grown to almost 90 employees. The fact that the Financial Times has included us on this prestigious list is a confirmation that we're developing the company in the right direction, that we are doing quality things and is an additional incentive to continue investing in the development of our services and products,'' pointed out Davorin Cetto, who founded the company alongside Tomislav Domanovac.

Their impressive client portfolio includes leading multinationals in retail, telecommunications, finance and pharmaceuticals, and they see their role in the market through linking data engineering, cloud technology and innovation. In particular, Syntio is one of the leading Google Cloud data engineering partners at the highest level, for the Nordic region primarily, but also globally. In the Nordic region, they work with several large companies to design and create data platforms that enable customers to use data, with the goal of achieving the best business results. In addition to Google, they're partners with Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure.

The well known FT 1000 is the annual list of the fastest growing European companies published by The Financial Times in cooperation with the German statistical company and the Statista portal, and it's been going on for six year now. It shows the companies that have achieved the highest growth rate between 2017 and 2020, and in order to get on the list, they had to achieve a minimum growth of 36.5 percent.

For more, make sure to check out our business section.

March the 1st, 2022 - European Union (EU) funds are up for grabs by Croatian technology companies in the current programming period of the bloc for the period between 2021 and 2027.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Tajana Striga writes, the current programming period of the European Union, planned for the period from 2021 to 2027, is the most generous so far and makes over 25 billion euros available to the Republic of Croatia. By comparison, Croatia's annual gross domestic product was just over 55 billion euros last year. The size of the funds available is encouraging, but it still isn't enough to declare success.

Only the efficient and market development-oriented distribution of those funds can lay a sound foundation for the growth and development of the Croatian economy in the long run. The first step in this is to provide clear, accurate and above all adequate information to potential applicants so that they can identify tenders of interest as soon as possible and start preparing for them.

Among the first tenders announced for this year is the "Commercialisation of Innovation", which is planned for the first quarter of the year. The competition is aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises with mature innovation projects that are close to entering the market (TRL level 7 or higher). TRL (or Level of technological readiness) is a measurement system in which each level is characterised by a stage in the development of technology. There are 9 levels of technological readiness, and in order for a given project to be considered level 7 and eligible for funding under this tender, it's necessary to have a prototype whose performance has been tested out in an operational environment at the pre-commercial level.

In addition to the above, a clear plan for the production and commercialisation of products (TRL 8 and 9) is needed. In order for a product or service to be considered an innovation in the context of this tender, its functionalities when it comes to terms of application and characteristics must differ significantly from existing market solutions. In addition to the innovativeness of the project, the probability of commercial success will also be taken into account.

Although the details of the tender are still unknown, we've since learned from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan that the total budget for this tender stands at a massive 380 million kuna. The investment will be supported by at least 95 small and medium-sized enterprises during one public call/invitation and the amount of financing per project ranges from 760,000 kuna to a maximum of 5.32 million kuna.

Additional points will be achieved by those proposals that contribute to the green transition by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing energy efficiency and stimulating the circular economy, offering blossoming Croatian technology companies a fighting chance. While the contribution to the green transition isn't explicitly prescribed by the tender, the project must meet the principle of "no significant harm", meaning that it must not have a negative impact on the six environmental objectives set within the EU Taxonomy Regulation.

Environmental objectives include climate change mitigation and adaptation, the sustainable use and protection of waters and marinas, pollution prevention and control, the transition to a circular economy, and the protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems. This form of funding can be used to adapt a developed product or service and prepare for the launch of a product or service, which is perfect for many quickly developing Croatian technology companies. For example, eligible activities to adapt a developed product include the additional testing and incorporation of those test results into a final product, consulting services, capacity building, feasibility study audits, product design, and the protection of intellectual property rights.

Eligible activities for product launch preparation include the preparation or revision of a business plan and/or marketing plan, market research and testing, product testing with potential customers, production preparation and zero-batch investment, as well as operational marketing activities.

In addition to the aforementioned "Commercialisation of Innovation", the first quarter is expected to have yet another tender announced "Grants for start-ups" intended for innovative small and medium enterprises in high-tech sectors and knowledge-based sectors for TRL projects level 5-8, or those projects maturity beyond the concept-proof phase, but not yet ready for the market.

Companies that have been present on the market for a maximum of five years, with a somewhat defined team, and projects with a credible path to commercialisation can apply. The grant serves to support product development and increase existing production capacities, including upgrading, designing, verifying performance, market validation, testing, pilot line development, intellectual property protection and external services aimed at developing innovative ideas (product, process, service, etc) as well as training on the

Funded activities may also include part of the cost of accessing global business networks/clusters, which also involves the adopting of new marketing tools and accessing new markets. Eligible costs include the purchase of equipment, materials, staff recruitment and outsourcing. The total budget for this tender is planned in the amount of 141.7 million kuna, and the investment will support up to 141 small and medium-sized Croatian companies with individual grants of up to 1 million kuna.

In general, the focus of policies and measures of this EU programming period is the pursuit of systematic integration of sustainable development and green and digital transformation of the economy, which is something most Croatian technology companies also place a focus on, be it directly or otherwise. Thus, in the second quarter of the year we can expect the tender called "Digitisation Vouchers" with a maximum grant of 150,000 kuna, as well as the tender called "Digitisation Grants" with a maximum grant of 750,000 kuna on offer.

During the year, the announcement of the tender "Support to companies for the transition to energy and resource efficient economy" with a maximum amount of support of 7.5 million kuna is expected, and eligible applicants will be micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, and investments will be directed to energy-intensive industries.

In addition to all of the above, in the second half of the year, we can expect the announcement of the tender "Strengthening sustainability and encouraging the green and digital transition of enterprises in the tourism sector." Eligible applicants for this tender will be micro, small, medium and large companies engaged in the field of tourism and hospitality, and the primary focus will be on investing in less developed tourist areas of Croatia.

In the potential lack of pre-tender public consultation, the timeframe for preparing extensive draft documentation is relatively short. The very serious preparation of projects that maximises the probability of success in the tender takes months and requires a significant amount of human resources. At the same time, despite the significant increase in the amount of available funds, the level of competition among interested applicants has increased, as more and more companies are turning to this form of financing.

On top of that, significant interest in grants can be expected from young and innovative companies, such as Croatian technology companies, given the fact that traditional banking financing is often not a realistic option for them, while alternative sources of financing in Croatia are still at negligible levels.

For more, check out our dedicated business section.

February the 28th, 2022 - The European Union and powerful non-EU European countries such as the United Kingdom have imposed some of the harshest possible sanctions on Russia following its unjustified invasion of Ukraine just a few days ago. The exclusion of Russia from the SWIFT system is among the harshest, but could it have negative effects for Croatian enterprises as well?

As Jutarnji/Novac/Vedran Marjanovic writes, Croatian consultant Goran Saravanja explained that Russia's exclusion from SWIFT is primarily aimed at financially depleting the Russian Federation, hindering the international trade of the Russian economy, its exports, but also the import of what it lacks. Economist Drago Jakovcevic, however, warned that Croatian enterprises will also suffer as a result of the move, for example, in the form of the collection of goods delivered to Russia.

How the expected expulsion of Russia from the international SWIFT system for financial transactions will be seen in practice remains to be seen, but the consequences will certainly be borne by Croatian enterprises which have to charge for their exported goods to Russia.

''The exclusion of Russia from SWIFT is certainly a fair measure towards Russia, because such aggression against one country, as Russia has undertaken against Ukraine, has not been seen since World War II. This is the least that can be done out of solidarity with Ukraine,'' Jakovcevic said in reference to the decision of the United States and its allies here in Europe to expel Russia from the SWIFT system.

The full name of the SWIFT system is the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication and it serves commercial banks and other financial service providers as a communication platform and not, as can often be heard, as an international payment system. The expulsion of Russia from SWIFT means that for all those who do business with Russia, business operations will be much more difficult, expensive and uncertain. This includes a list of Croatian enterprises which are now in difficult circumstances.

''The announced exclusion of Russian banks from the SWIFT system is part of a package of sanctions that the EU, the UK and the US have already imposed or intend to impose on Russia, so the decision in relation to SWIFT should be viewed in this context,'' commented consultant Goran Saravanja, adding that that context is the financial depletion of Russia.

''We can see that energy and food are currently excluded from Russia's sanctions, as resources that can be imported from that country. If we talk about the effects of excluding a country from the SWIFT system, we should take into account the fact that Russia isn't actually the first country to have this happen to them, one other example is Iran. And as we know, even after being expelled from SWIFT, Iran continued, for example, to export oil, recording, however, a significant drop in revenue,'' Saravanja noted.

Drago Jakovcevic pointed out that the expulsion of Russia from SWIFT, which is imminent, will not only affect Russian banks, but also companies and regular residents of that enormous country.

''Pulling Russia out of SWIFT has the function of discouraging it, making it more expensive and making doing any business with Russia much more difficult. Apart from Russia's economic and financial isolation, its exclusion from the SWIFT system has the function of preventing those in the rest of the world who are now preparing to make money from the devaluation of the ruble from doing so,'' Jakovcevic pointed out.

In support of the statement is the statement of former Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin that the expulsion from SWIFT could cost Russia a drop in its GDP by five percent a year. Kudrin made the statement during one of the previous announcements of the USA and its allies that Russia would be expelled from SWIFT, but that the move was very appropriate for the current moment since the SWIFT blockade is just one form of the latest portion of sanctions against Moscow for attacking Ukraine.

For more on Croatian enterprises, check out our business section.

February the 28th, 2022 - Some Croatian companies will end up feeling direct consequences as a result of the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, and as the situation continues to escalate in that Eastern European county, it's difficult to predict how hard those consequences will be to deal with.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Petrokemija, Ad Plastik, Prvo plinarsko drustvo (PPD), Span, Jadran Galenski Laboratorij, Fortenova Group and Sberbank… are just some of the business entities that will be directly affected by Russia's attack on Ukraine, Vecernji list reported.

Last year (during eleven months), Croatian companies exported goods worth 1.36 billion kuna to Russia and 362 million kuna to Ukraine. The value of imports from Russia doubled in one year, to 3.3 billion kuna, probably due to the significantly higher prices of energy, gas and fuel.

Imports from Ukraine stood at around 280 million kuna. When it comes to gas, Croatia is entering a precarious group of countries that are heavily dependent on Russian gas imports, which are still flowing underground while Russian boots spend their time trampling all over everything on neighbouring Ukrainian soil.

Only about one percent of Croatia's merchandise exports go to Russia, so the eventual loss of part or all of the revenue will not result in any shocks or a recession, but it would certainly be a blow to Croatian companies that have struggled for years to be present on what is typically a very difficult market.

The blow to Croatia and Croatian companies will come indirectly, first through inflation and the spillover of the costs of the war on energy and food. The annual inflation rate in Croatia is already at almost six percent, and food and energy are its big generators. Croatia is dependent on imported gas (imports 70 to 75 percent), oil and electricity, but also food.

Russia and Ukraine hold a quarter of the world's entire wheat production, a fifth of the corn production and four-fifths of sunflower oil production. Ukraine is the world's largest producer of sunflowers and potatoes, the sixth largest producer of corn and barley, followed by rye and soybeans, which immediately raised prices on agricultural commodity exchanges.

In addition to higher prices, shortages are possible, which will work to dispel dreams and plans about inflation as a short-term phenomenon that will dissipate by summer and which could be responded to with a one-time package, no matter how expensive that package of measures might be. While waiting for technical instructions and details on sanctions against Russia, Croatian companies are currently putting out the fire, writes Vecernji list journalist Ljubica Gataric.

For more, check out our business section.

February the 27th, 2022 - The global coronavirus pandemic which struck the leisure and tourism industry hard back in 2020 and 2021 is far from a distant memory for those working in the sector despite the much more favourable epidemiological situation now. Valamar Riviera, a very well known and wildly successful Croatian hotel company, still hasn't managed to make up for the damage the pandemic caused to its business operations despite an excellent result for tourism in 2021.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, back in 2021, Croatia's Valamar Riviera generated operating revenues of an impressive 1.6 billion kuna, or 74 percent of what it made back in the pre-pandemic, record year of 2019, while its operating profit (EBITDA) reached the level of 84 percent of pre-crisis 2019.

In addition, in the third quarter of 2021, Valamar Riviera recorded the normalisation of its business operations in almost all of the destinations in which it operates up and down the country, achieving excellent results in Northern Adriatic destinations, on its campsites and in the premium segment. However, down south in Dubrovnik and in the 2 * and 3 * facilities, no significant business recovery was achieved, the company has since reported.

On top of all that, although the business results in 2021 were very positive, the realised losses from the coronavirus crisis period during the pandemic has largely not been covered by the company's recovery so far. Uncertainty in the wider environment will continue to affect tourism business and the economy in the near future, and the normalisation of tourism and its related business is expected during 2022 and 2023.

As it is known, back in 2021, Valamar Riviera started a new phase of growth by expanding its cooperation with investment partners across Croatia and the further internationalisation of its impressive portfolio in Austria, by buying its second hotel in Obertauern.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Valamar continued to develop its products, services and tourism portfolio with a two-year investment cycle spanning 2019/2021 in the amount of almost 870 million kuna. At the end of 2021, a new investment cycle in the amount of 525 million kuna was launched in facilities managed by Valamar with the aim of further developing the quality of its portfolio, resorts and camps, developing green tourism and digitalising its business processes.

Work is also currently underway on the investments of the Dalmatia Hotel [PLACES] by Valamar in Makarska, which is planned to open in May this year, as well as on the first fully sustainable eco-resort for family holidays, Valamar Amicor Green Resort on the central Dalmatian island of Hvar.

For more, check out our business section.

February the 23rd, 2022 - The Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) is seeking aid for large Croatian companies as well as for micro, small and medium enterprises as the energy crisis continues.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Brnic writes, the state of emergency for the Croatian Government will likely leave even less room for negotiations on the possible "inclusion" of large Croatian companies in the package of assistance measures which entrepreneurs are seeking through the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) even after its presentation last week.

There is a little more than a month left until the start of the implementation of the recently revealed government inflation measures worth almost five billion kuna in total, during which the criteria and methods of obtaining aid should be determined, intended - when it comes to entrepreneurs - primarily for micro, small and medium enterprises. Large Croatian companies appear to have been somewhat left out in the cold.

The Croatian Chamber of Commerce believes that the aforementioned package of inflation measures should be expanded and should include large Croatian companies that have a high share when it comes to their number of employees, as well as their exports and revenues. Otherwise, they say, those companies with a large number of employees and industrial plants with high energy consumption will hardly be able to overcome the impact of the price increases that have and will continue to hit them.

The measures as they stand today envisage subsidies for smaller companies in the amount of 15 lipa per kWh for those with a consumption of up to 10 GWh, and it is planned that 600 million kuna will be made available for vouchers from this measure by the end of March next year.

The Croatian Chamber of Commerce has called on its members to take measures to reduce energy costs for all end users and help companies and industries overcome problems caused by rising prices, and many of them have introduced measures for all consumer groups, thus including large and energy-intensive companies.

Examples of quality measures include Belgium, which has banned unilateral changes to contracts whereby energy distributors and suppliers can increase prices on their own in fixed-price contracts, and in nearby Italy, which abolished network charges in the first quarter of 2022. Italy also reached for a 20 percent tax cut on its large consumers for energy purchased and consumed in the first quarter.

"Following these measures, the members of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce proposed the abolition or reduction of tariff items where possible, or to at least keep them at the same level until the market stabilises," said the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, noting that it is crucial for industrial consumers to have stability in their contracts within the gas year, ie contracted fixed prices.

One of the solutions that can help this category is to reduce the amount of income tax liability by up to 50 percent of the value of investments in renewable sources, retroactively According to their proposal, the compensation for the reduction of the tax liability could be used for a period of four financial years.

For more, check out our business section.

February the 23rd, 2022 - The Croatian company Infinum has made quite the name for itself over recent years and for all the right reasons. It seems that this leading Croatian digital product design and development company is about to bring about an even bigger smile on employee faces.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, as a reward to its employees for excellent business results over the past year, the wildly successful Croatian company Infinum has increased its engineers' salaries by 30 percent, while the company-wide maximum number of days off a year has been increased to 30.

Last year alone, they grew by 91 employees, and in the 15 years of their existence they have built a team of 350 professionals working on the design and development of digital products across ten locations in Europe and the United States. In addition to right here in Croatia, Infinum has offices in the USA, Great Britain, Slovenia, Montenegro Macedonia.

They say that in addition to salaries, the length of service of their employees is growing, which they see as a confirmation of the success of their continuous work on improving conditions for their employees. So far, 48 five year ''anniversaries'' have been celebrated within the Croatian company Infinum, and recently, Adis Mustedanagic celebrated ten years at Infinum.

“When I came to Infinum, there were 10-15 of us in the same room and that was practically the whole company. Today, my team alone numbers more than 30 people, so it’s probably easier to list things that have stayed the same; the people who stayed with me and the desire to make the best products we can have always been the same,'' said Adis.

The Croatian company Infinum also awards special prizes to its employees for special anniversaries called Maltazar. It's silver for the first five years, gold for ten, while both come with a prize trip.

Back in 2021, the Croatian company Infinum won the award for the best employer in all of Croatia, for the third time in a row and for the fourth time overall. Regular systematic examinations, gym and fitness programmes of your choice, a budget for literature, courses and conferences, and paid English language classes are among the basic benefits for all employees.

As more and more parents have recently joined Infinum, more parental benefits have been introduced, such as a day off for a child to go to school or kindergarten, a Christmas bonus for each child, and a Christmas party for employee children was held back in December for the first time. On top of that, all new parents working for this company are entitled to a one-time bonus of 5,000 kuna, while for an adopted child this amount is raised to 10,000 kuna.

“We work on great projects with global clients and we aren't limited to one country or one office. Our first priority is employee satisfaction, and we primarily focus on transparency and openness in communication,'' concluded Matej Spoler, the co-founder and CTO of the company.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.

February the 22nd, 2022 - The very well known Zagreb IT company Q is vusy expanding its business by opening an office in the Serbian capital city of Belgrade.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, this year, the Zagreb IT company Q has ambitious plans to employ 40-50 people who will work on global projects from neighbouring Serbia. After London and Zagreb, Belgrade is the third European city in which Q will expand its already impressive team of experts.

Their new Belgrade office will build on the one already open here in Zagreb, and the two facilities will work together on projects. Just like here in Croatia, in Serbia, Q will offer work in a fast-growing company with employees being put first with international projects and transparent communication.

"Here at Q, we've been cooperating with numerous IT experts from Croatia's immediate region for years now, and we've recognised Serbia as a market with quality staff to offer. We're sure that the opening of the headquarters in Belgrade will enable us to strengthen our presence and attract more top quality people. We're looking forward to gaining some new colleagues,'' pointed out the CEO of Q, Filip Ljubic.

They're now focused on Western Europe and the American market

The successful Zagreb IT company Q is already cooperating with a dozen experts from Serbia, as in these new collaborations it will be crucial for people to fit into the culture of Q. New employees will have a number of benefits at their disposal, including annual education budgets, special fees for working from home, choosing their own type of equipment, as well as private health insurance and a Fitpass.

In addition to all of the above, Q has announced that they will keenly listen to the needs of the market and their employees and, according to the feedback they receive, they'll continuously model the benefits to best suit them.

Experts from Serbia will join their colleagues on client projects such as Novartis, The Times, Manpower Group, Smart, Vaillant, BBC, Hilti and many others. This year, Q remains focused on the DACH region, the United Kingdom, the US and Canada, with continuous business expansion and progress.

It's worth mentioning that this Croatian company recently won its second consecutive award for the best employer in the category of medium-sized companies according to a survey conducted by MojPosao (MyJob), and at the Best Employer Brand Awards Adria competition, they stood out as the leading company in the field of employee satisfaction with as many as six awards.

For more, check out our business section.

February the 21st, 2022 - The Israeli company Whitesource has purchased the Croatian DefenseCode, which was initially founded way back in the year 2000 by IT expert and hacker Leon Juranic.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, this is the latest exit of a Croatian company specialising in application security. As its founder Leon Juranic pointed out, he founded the company back in 2010 "with one laptop and a lot of knowledge and will". He has since developed the Croatian DefenseCode ThunderScan and DefenseCode WebStrike solutions that the company sells abroad, mostly in the United States.

"After they contacted me, I can say that I was pleasantly surprised," said Leon Juranic, a hacker and information systems security expert. ThunderScan, for which they are best known, is a software solution for the security analysis of application source code that supports 30 programming languages ​​and a number of development tools and environments. WebStrike is a software solution for security testing of websites.

Today, these products are also used by global Fortune 500 companies. the Croatian DefenseCode opened a subsidiary over in Ireland back in 2017, and two years later in the United States.

The team previously consisted of seven people, six of whom are moving to the Israeli WhiteSource company and will be working remotely, so there will be no need to relocate any of them. It will integrate its ThunderScan SAST for application security analysis with WhiteSource's security solution.

“The key people of the Croatian DefenseCode team joined WhiteSource after the acquisition and will continue to develop state-of-the-art security solutions, only now with the well-coordinated and large machinery provided by such a world-renowned and renowned company as WhiteSource. DefenseCode has always strived to produce the best solution for security analysis of application source code, a solution that provides accurate, relevant and usable results, without unnecessary and with very few false positive warnings. It's a solution that is not only fast but also very easy to use. We're looking forward to working together in the WhiteSource family on a new generation of innovative SAST solutions that will, I'm sure, leave their mark in the time to come,'' said Juranic.

He thanked his wife Tanja and his parents who gave him the share capital to open the company 12 years ago, as well as investors and others who are part of the story. The initial investor in the Croatian DefenseCode was Vlatko Kosturjak, and then, back in 2015, also as an investor, they were joined by IT security expert Lucijan Caric.

"I can't say that I've got something strictly planned for the future at this moment in time. For some time now, my friend Boris Debic, an IT expert who has built a career at Google, and I have been considering establishing an institution to deal with extremely complex situations that occur mainly in management, decision-making processes and security affairs. In addition, I thought about trying to solve the problem of practically automated privacy violations on the Internet and the incredibly widespread (mis) use of user data,'' announced Caric.

Although the amount of the acquisition and negotiations remain a secret for now, they were, he says, long and complex, and the consulting team was led by Mate Lovric.

Caric added that he is glad to have quickly recognised Leon's talent, knowledge and product potential all that time ago, but also his keen ability to "organise a great team in limited and not always simple conditions and create a respectable software solution that was eventually recognised by one of the leading companies in the industry."

"I hope that there will be talks about what the investment scene looks like, mostly here in Croatia and in the European Union, especially in the field of information security and key technologies for the protection of information systems. But now is the time to congratulate Leon and the team he led,'' he concluded.

For more, check out our business section.