December the 20th, 2021 - Fortenova CEO Fabris Perusko has spoken out about what this gigantic Croatian company of strategic importance's plans are for the year 2022, including investments and more.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Fabris Perusko writes, back in 2020, we learned how to work and live within the circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic, in 2021, unfortunately, we were shown that such needs weren't going to be solely limited to 2020. The continuation of the global pandemic, shocks in supply chains, demand, rising energy and raw material prices, the growing threat of climate change and demands for the global adoption of a sustainability model that will save the planet… all of this constantly changed business conditions and required almost daily adjustments.

However, despite such pronounced external influences, the Fortenova Group has experienced quite the special year, at least according to Fortenova CEO Fabris Perusko, who has referred to 2021 as a year that was transformational. Throughout nine months of Fortenova's operations, the huge company further increased its profit and generated an impressive 1.3 million kuna in net profit compared to the loss realised back during the same period last year.

As such, 2021 has definitely been a historic year for the Fortenova Group, even without adding the significant implementation of several important capital and financial consolidation projects, the key of which were the sale of the Frozen Food Business Area for 615 million euros and the transfer of Mercator to the Fortenova Group.

The transaction with Nomad Foods, which is entering the region's market for the first time through Ledo, Frikom, Ledo Citluk and some other smaller companies, has been declared the business of the decade in Southeastern Europe by the media and by analysts alike, while the transfer of Mercator in 2021 saw it finally consolidated into the ownership of Fortenova.

Previously, just two years after the implementation of its own financial restructuring, the Fortenova Group had fully refinanced Mercator's borrowing from as many as 55 banks, conducted a public offering and increased its ownership in Mercator to more than 90 percent.

''We expect that soon, after the payment of the remaining small shareholders, we'll have 100 percent ownership in Mercator,'' stated the confident Fortenova CEO Fabris Perusko.

Looking forward to 2022, Fortenova has a total planned investment of as much as 130 million euros, and that will be one of the significant investors in the economies of the countries in which it operates. Namely, the company is facing the realisation of several very important investments in its production companies, and the first of them is in the Jana plant in Gorica Svetojanska, where the most advanced technology for the aseptic line has already been installed, and where refreshing soft drinks will be bottled.

Large investments are also in the pipeline for both Dijamant and PIK Vrbovec, and a strong investment cycle will be launched in the retail sector by opening up new and re-arranging existing stores, as well as the digitalisation of the retail sector across the entire region. At the same time, after the regional retail of the Fortenova Group was merged with the transfer of Mercator, the company can expect to see the strong effects of synergy processes and continued consolidation in this area throughout 2022.

For more, check out our business section.

December the 18th, 2021 - The Zagreb Computer Association has received a valuable donation from the Ingemark IT company in the form of a VIDI X, which will definitely be put to good use.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, the Zagreb Computer Association (ZRS) received a modern VIDI X as part of the "Dream and Realise" initiative, thanks to a donation from the Zagreb-based IT company Ingemark.

VIDI X is the first Croatian development microcomputer designed by the VIDI company in cooperation with engineers from various top quality Croatian technology companies in order to make it easier for teachers and educators to work in the demanding STEM field.

As many as 66 Croatian schools have expressed a desire to have a VIDI X in their classrooms, which is why the "Dream and Realise" initiative was initially launched, which includes numerous Croatian companies who make donations.

The Zagreb Computer Association is a non-profit organisation aimed at gathering children and young people to encourage talent and popularise informatics, and with this donation, Ingemark joined the Croatian Robotics Association, which, like 18 Croatian schools, is now equipped with this valuable technology, making it available to as many as 9,000 students across the nation.

The Zagreb Computer Association's Secretary Zdravko Skokic immediately introduced VIDI X as a new platform for learning programming because it can be used for interesting development projects using C ++, Python and other programming languages ​​that the aforementioned association successfully teaches generations of future engineers and technology entrepreneurs. About 200 children pass through their workshops each and every year.

During the donation process, Magdalena Matic, a member of the board of the Croatian company Ingemark, pointed out that continuous and quality education is the key to success in the modern world.

"Today, the vast majority of the work we do is almost inconceivable without modern IT equipment and all of its associated knowledge, which Ingemark also testifies to in its daily business. The field in which we operate is developing extremely rapidly. We hope that this donation will enable educators better teaching, and students an additional step forward in their education. At the same time, we hope that one day some of these young people may become excellent young professionals to whom we'll be able to offer a job in our team in the future,'' concluded Matic.

For more, check out our business section.

December the 16th, 2021 - The Croatian Degordian agency is well known across the country for its success, and now they're eyeing expansion across the pond following their opening of another New York office.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, back in September this year, David Ackermann, the CEO of Croatian Degordian agency for digital marketing and production announced the possibility of opening new offices in international markets where their revenues grew by 180 percent and from where they're getting more projects than ever. Some of these offices are close to home in the rest of Europe such as in the UK and Austria, but the USA has also been on their map. Their announcement came true and they have now opened their fourth office in New York.

Expansion to international markets

The Croatian Degordian agency started out twelve years ago with their first office here in the City of Zagreb. Mostar in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina then soon followed, and then the Serbian capital of Belgrade was next, which "cemented" their very strong regional position, but now, they say, they are targeting the demanding American market.

Over in New York, they plan to build a customer base, expanding to the rest of the US, and produce all of their solutions offered right here in the Adriatic region. The Croatian Degordian agency also pointed out that their desire is to provide a top team of experts across the Atlantic who are confident that they can build and implement the highest quality and most complex global projects.

Their New York office will be headed by Swany Velazquez, and the idea is to create a zero point, ie a starting point for the American market. Their New York business development team will focus on developing partnerships, sales networks, networking, and client network development.

Although New York is known as the world's most advanced market with absolutely enormous needs, Degordian believes that there are only a dozen large and serious agencies there, while others are smaller, have too few people, a very narrow range of services, and often insufficient experience and knowledge. It's natural that they're seeing opportunity in the Big Apple.

The Croatian Degordian agency has won the “Best Employer” award six times and they claim to have better access to talent, an extremely qualified and capable team, but also a stronger set of services. The head of the New York office and executive director for the North American market, Swany Velazquez, sees huge potential in Degordian and says she has been following it for several years now.

“I've always been fascinated by Degordian's culture, talent, team and quality. I’ve been present in the US market for years now, but I don’t know when I last saw something like this. I think Degordian has huge potential both in NYC and globally. I'm really looking forward to new beginnings. We want to repeat what was done in Croatia in NYC,'' said Velazquez of the move.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.

December the 11th, 2021 - Seventeen Croatian enterprises have found themselves ranked among the best of the best when it comes to successful IT companies, which is no surprise when one looks at the blossoming Croatian IT sector, which excelled even during the pandemic in 2020.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, the world's leading ranking platform, Clutch, has published a list of the 1000 best companies in the global B2B market, which includes seventeen Croatian enterprises - in the very impressive seventh place, and also the best ranked Croatian company, is Infinum.

Among the top 100 are Q Agency and Five, followed by Gauss Development, Bornfight, Neuralab, Ars Futura, DECODE, Undabot, Netgen, Inchoo, Ingemark, Kontra, Cinnamon, Mono Software, Agency04 and Human.

Clutch 1000 represents only one percent of the best companies listed on the platform from around the world, specialising in the provision of various services.

They analyse each company based on four criteria - number, quality and latest reviews, the selection of clients with which the companies work, services they offer and user experience, as well as brand reputation and overall visibility in target markets.

“After an unpredictable year, with an impressive backdrop of services, skills and more, these companies are consistently proving their commitment to customers while remaining the best service providers in their fields,” said Clutch founder Mike Beares.

Most of the Croatian enterprises on this list are regularly on the list of the fastest growing companies across Central Europe and the EMEA region, and they have shown that even a global pandemic cannot slow down their growth.

The best-placed of the Croatian enterprises listed, Infinum, recently took over the Macedonian company 3P Development, which is their first acquisition and also their sixth office. Last year, in cooperation with Porsche Digital, they founded the Porsche Digital Croatia development centre which is based in Zagreb.

They announced expansion to the British market, brand development across the rest of Western Europe and continued their expansion over in the US where they are increasing the number of people on their team in New York. After Zagreb and Germany's Hessen, Agency04 opened its third office in the very heart of Split, which exceeded 130 employees. Clutch's new list coincided with the Best Employer Brand Awards Adria competition, in which Q won six awards.

With the new Clutch award, Osijek's Mono Software is the overall winner and winner of the Financial Balance of the Financial Agency for the most successful enterprise according to the financial rating in 2020, and also the winner of the Golden Balance in the information and communication category.

Undabot, a Zagreb-based company for the design and development of mobile and web applications, recently won two prestigious international awards - for excellence on the web in the category "Application and mobile phones - Productivity" and W3 award in the category "Mobile features - Best use of mobile camera".

Admittedly, the digital agency Five is no longer, technically, one of the Croatian enterprises, but it is worth recalling their success after their "exit" this year - Five (today Five Endava) was bought by the British Endava for a massive 250 million kuna.

Neuralab has been on Clutch's list since back in 2017, and it is among the Top 1000 global agencies for the third year in a row and the first in the world in regard to WooCommerce technology. This is especially pleasing to director Kresimir Koncic, who duly noted that Clutch bases its assessment of companies on the so-called client audits that aren't very easy to obtain.

“Neuralab has about 33 extremely positive reviews, ie audits on Clutch, but in reality we've completed more than 200 successful projects. Recognitions like this are a helping hand to our team because we're constantly trying to improve our production. The whole of 2022 is practically reserved for projects and we're going to spend the next year ironing out internal workflows, hiring new members of our programming team and increasing the quality of our web applications,'' announced Koncic.

For more, check out our dedicated business section.

December the 11th, 2021 - Croatia Airlines' main man Jasmin Bajic has stated that the national carrier is more than ready for Croatian economic recovery as hopes to finally put the horrendous coronavirus pandemic behind us grow.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jasmin Bajic writes, the global health crisis is having an extremely devastating effect on the world's air transport industry, which is among the most affected economic activities, and the coronavirus pandemic will continue to be the biggest immediate threat to the airline and travel business next year.

Forecasts of the most relevant international aviation associations and organisations say that this is the longest and worst crisis and it is predicted that the recovery of air traffic will take longer than it did during previous crises, and it is believed that a full return to pre-crisis levels can be expected only in 2024.

In particular, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), airlines globally made a historically record loss in 2020 of $137.7 billion, with an average loss per passenger of $76.2 billion.

For the year 2021, IATA estimates total airline losses to stand at $51.8 billion, and in 2022, the projected losses seem that they'll be reduced to $11.6 billion. The pace of recovery will be determined by the implementation of vaccination programmes and the complete lifting of border restrictions, which, together with uncertainty and complex regulations on passenger traffic, are hampering international travel to this day.

In the implementation of the risk management process of Croatia Airlines, the most important risks were identified according to the possible impact on the company's operations, the monitoring of which should ensure mitigation of possible negative consequences and transformation of risks into opportunities, wherever possible. Reduced demand for air transport services is a significant additional risk, which imposes the need for the continuous and up-to-date adjustment of capacity supply and constant optimisation of flight schedules.

Regular traffic planning will continue to depend on external factors beyond the company's control, such as travel and border restrictions, bans and other measures issued by the National Civil Protection Directorate, which directly affect the ability to travel in both domestic and international regular traffic.

Accordingly, Jasmin Bajic says, Croatia Airlines will continue to focus on the flexible planning of their flight network with a forecast of demand for certain types of travel, and they will strive to achieve optimal occupancy and the average tariff in traffic conditions with reduced capacity.

However, a certain optimism we're witnessing is based on the latest forecast of the International Monetary Fund, which in 2022 predicts the continuation of the recovery of the Croatian economy, ie growth of 5.8 percent. In this context, Croatia Airlines says its focus in 2022 will primarily be placed on cost rationalisation and the implementation of the company's now well defined post-covid strategy.

Jasmin Bajic stated that the company continue to take all measures of active liquidity management and business optimisation, as well as the further application of rigorous austerity measures. During this year, the company worked with the leading international strategic consulting company BCG to develop a good post-covid strategy to define strategic initiatives, the implementation of which, with the prior consent of the majority owner of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, will last three years and enable sustainable business.

For more, check out our dedicated business section.

December the 11th, 2021 - A very decent amount of companies have passed through the Rijeka startup incubator, since it was created, and the entrepreneurial ideas seem to just keep on coming.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Ana Blaskovic writes, a regulatory release capsule, a bicycle village, the transformation of trucks into mobile homes for rent, self-service cereal machines, a piano playing learning application for children, a reproductive mental health centre, a platform for managing tailor-made CVs… the Rijeka startup incubator is simply bursting with creative business ideas from the latest generation of users who took to the facility this October.

“Twenty teams entered the thirteenth generation of users of the Rijeka startup incubator, out of a total of 31 applications. There are currently 18 teams in the incubation process, which are developing their own initial entrepreneurial ideas with systematic support. We're satisfied with the indicators which, despite the unpredictable and unstable economic and social situation caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, signal that interest in entrepreneurship isn't declining, rather the opposite,'' said the head of the City Administration for Entrepreneurship Jana Sertic.

The new generation has entered the first educational module, and they have lectures and workshops, a workspace with high-speed Internet access for one year and the support of professional mentors in developing their ideas, with all of this support being free and the best teams receiving cash prizes of 100,000, 50,000 and 25,000 kuna, which facilitates and enables starting a business safely.

Many young entrepreneurs from the Rijeka startup incubator will testify that the immense help is assistance in creating a business plan, a kind of ID card in connecting with potential investors and in cooperation with the international startup scene, which opens the door to further business connections. The Rijeka startup incubator, an integral part of the City Administration Department for Entrepreneurship of the City of Rijeka, has otherwise been operating for eight years now. It is designed as a springboard for all individuals who independently (or within a team) want to develop their own entrepreneurial ideas.

Unlike typical business incubators, all natural persons who want to go into business waters can apply in Rijeka. Since its founding back in 2013, 195 teams have passed through it, which means 478 users, 332 training sessions and 1013 individual consultations have been held there.

In the first five years of its existence, it was intended exclusively for young people under 30, but from November 2018, the only condition for application is an idea, regardless of how old you are. Then, monetary awards were introduced to the best teams from each generation of participants, an expanded education programme and a mentoring network.

As of February this year, the Rijeka startup incubator has moved to a new address within the RiHub centre where it operates in a larger space.

In order to move into the Rijeka startup incubator, entrepreneurs need to apply for the incubation programme, which starts every autumn and lasts for eight months. 

For more, check out our dedicated business section.

December the 8th, 2021 - Mate Rimac has done more to show the world that it is very much possible to succeed in Croatian entrepreneurship than anyone else. Perhaps Ivan Mrvos comes a close second, but for the automotive world which would never have given the country a second look, what he has done is truly historic.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Zoran Vitas writes, after a joint venture with Bugatti and the creation of the new Rimac Group, Mate Rimac and his dedicated team have a much harder job on their hands in Sveta Nedelja near Zagreb than they did before. When the German Manager Magazine announced that it was considering going public with an expected estimated value of five billion euros, a lot was written about that possibility.

It was even mentioned by Lutz Meschke, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board and a member of the Finance and IT Management Board at Porsche AG. One day an IPO would make sense.

''Mate Rimac must first implement his company's operational plan, but he can count on our support,'' said the leader of the cult German company.

Mate Rimac explained back in November for Automobilwoche what the implementation of such an operational plan means. He was short and clear - profitability. That is, significantly improved profitability.

“At Bugatti Rimac, we're focused on profitability. We don't want to rush, but instead we want to give ourselves time to prepare everything thoroughly. This could be done in 5-10 years,'' said Mate Rimac about the brand with which, realistically, Volkswagen had some trouble.

"It would be easiest to take the Nevera, redesign it and call it Bugatti. But that is absolutely not what we're going to do,'' Rimac repeated. When Bugatti's last Chiron leaves the factory in Molsheim, it will be Bugatti's turn,'' which, as he said during Ursula von der Leyen's visit, makes the most sense.

“Porsche runs on carbon-neutral or even positive fuel because of the way it is produced. In the medium term, it would make the most sense for Bugatti to be a hybrid. It is true that Porsche wanted us to go to electricity immediately, but we said that we'd like to work with petrol engines for some time to come, with a new generator. But that's where I'll stop,'' said the head of Bugatti Rimac, stating that they have been working on the development of the new Bugatti in Croatia for a year now.

"We want to make a profitable company, but we won't recycle anything. We will not redesign the Chiron and thus make a new model, or just hybridise it, we're developing an entirely new product. And that product will still have an internal combustion engine. We're also looking at it in the long run knowing how Bugatti has known diversity throughout history that can be used not only to make hypercars. It's an opportunity to produce different and exciting cars that will be both electric and electrified. We'll have fully electric Bugattis in a decade,'' Mate Rimac said in conversation with the British Top Gear.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.

December the 7th, 2021 - The Croatian Podravka brand is aiming to strengthen its position on the more wealthy European markets, and Martina Dalic says this is an ambitious goal of hers.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jolanda Rak Sajn writes, an even bigger and stronger Croatian Podravka brand is an ambitious goal that has been entrusted to the new President of Podravka, Martina Dalic, since the beginning of this year. This aim has the strong support of Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and the pension funds, which are the main shareholders of the Koprivnica food giant.

Behind the prematurely deceased Marin Pucar, one of the most important regional companies, which is the holder of most of the development of a good part of the Croatian food and retail industry, remained on good foundations, with excellent results and a stable position across many markets.

However, even in this difficult and uncertain year affected by the coronavirus pandemic, the Croatian Podravka brand has maintained high growth rates with even greater focus on consumer preferences and conquering potential markets in Western and Central Europe while maintaining a dominant position and strengthening competitiveness in the Adria region where Podravka has been in business for more than 70 years,

In the first nine months of this year, the Podravka Group generated a net profit of 259.3 million kuna, 23.4 percent more than in the same period last year. Sales revenues amounted to 3.38 billion kuna, as well.

The Nutrition segment generated 2.6 billion kuna in revenue and Pharmaceuticals generated 749.5 million kuna, with the largest contribution from the Prescription Medicines category, which increased by 5.4 percent in total. Revenues from the sales made by Podravka d.d. in the first nine months of 2021 amounted to 1.65 billion kuna, which is 3.9 percent more than in the same period last year.

Just like last year, due to the epidemiological situation, there was an increase in demand for Podravka's products and the creation of large stocks of customers in almost all markets, and this year's growth has been even more significant.

Compared to pre-pandemic 2019, revenues grew even more, by 5.4 percent, and sales revenue growth was achieved in almost all business programmes. In the Western Europe region, it amounted to 9.5 percent, and the highest growth was generated by the Culinary, Podravka food and Baby food, sweets and snacks segments.

In Central Europe, growth stood at 4.4 percent, and in the Adria region 2.9 percent. The price of a Podravka share on September the 30th this year amounted to 664 kuna, and on the last day of 2020, it was 485 kuna, which is an increase of 36.9 percent.

In accordance with the Strategic Plan of the Podravka Group for the period 2021-2025, adopted after the arrival of Dalic, the company began investments worth 5 billion kuna in production and logistics modernisation and digitalisation, marketing and acquisitions.

The five-year plan includes both divisions of the group, Nutrition and Pharmaceuticals (Belupo), through three development pillars - about 1.7 billion kuna of investment in the modernisation and digitalisation of production and logistics processes, about 1.4 billion kuna in marketing for organic growth and around 2 billion kuna for acquisitions.

The future rapid growth and development of the Podravka Food Division will be based on product categories with greater export potential such as food additives, soups and bakeries, and a focus will be placed on Europe's richer markets. Self-sufficiency will be increased through agricultural production and cooperation will be strengthened in order to reduce import dependence and stably manage risks in the primary part of the supply chain, including through the use of EU funds.

The Croatian Podravka brand recently received 19.4 million kuna in grants from the Rural Development Programme for the modernisation of fruit and vegetable processing plants, the development of new technologies and new products of Kalnik with a total value of more than 38 million kuna, and 5.2 million kuna for the construction project involving solar power plants, worth a total of 10.33 million kuna.

Belupo, on the other hand, is preparing for stronger growth across Central and Western Europe.

For more, check out our business section.

December the 5th, 2021 - Sustainable Croatian tourism is a goal that the vast majority of actors in this most important economic branch are busy aiming for as mass tourism continues to bring as many issues as it does kuna into the country. Valamar is making concrete moves in this direction.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, following on from the finalisation of the second phase of the capital increase in Imperial Riviera worth a massive 690 million kuna, the Supervisory Boards of the Valamar Group companies approved the transfer of three hotels down in Dubrovnik from Valamar Riviera to Imperial Riviera, a joint venture for Valamar and Allianz ZB for the management of mandatory and voluntary pension funds.

This capital increase and the transfer of the hotel to Imperial aims to accelerate significant investments in the reconstruction and further construction of resorts in the destinations of Dubrovnik, Makarska and Rab, for which Imperial has planned 2.1 billion kuna over a five-year period. Soon enough, the Valamar Group will launch investments totaling 500 million kuna in hotel and tourist facilities and facilities managed by Valamar.

Sustainable Croatian tourism, more precisely ''green'' tourism, and digital transformation, as well as investments in the premium segment, will form the backbone of the development of Valamar's portfolio in the coming period. In order to implement investments and transform their business, the management of the Valamar Group will be reorganised, for which the top management was given a mandate until 2026.

President of the Management Board Zeljko Kukurin and member of the Management Board Marko Cizmek have been reappointed for a new five-year term, while former Vice President Ivana Budin Arhanic has been appointed to the Valamar Riviera Management Board with a focus on further internationalisation, sustainable Croatian tourism and business digitalisation.

Alen Benkovic has been appointed President of the Management Board of Imperial, and is set to become Senior Vice President of the Valamar Investment Group. Davor Brenko has been appointed Senior Vice President of the Valamar Sales and Marketing Group with a focus on product development and increasing direct sales. David Poropat will take over the position of Senior Vice President of Operations with a focus on strategic partnerships and service management.

Sebastian Palma has been appointed to a new term as a member of the Board of Finance for Imperial Riviera and becomes Vice President of the Strategic Controlling Group. Ines Damjanic Sturman has been appointed Vice President for Human Resources Development as a strategic function in Valamar's business, and Tomislav Dumancic is becoming Vice President for Dubrovnik and Dalmatia, where significant investments are planned in the coming period. Vlado Mis, the current President of the Management Board of Imperial Riviera, will become an Advisor to the Management Board and Director of the destination of Rab.

Croatian sustainable tourism is something that will allow the country to escape from the binds of the classic ''three months of sea and sunshine'' that it has been embedded in ever since tourism took off here following independence. Given that this little country has so much to offer and diversity like few others, making this move could place it firmly on the year-round tourism map and allow for a far more stable economy.

For more, check out our dedicated business section.

December the 4th, 2021 - The Solin company Include, headed by Ivan Mrvos, is turning towards the current global shortage of chips. In pursuing that goal, it has started another Funderbeam campaign.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Ana Blaskovic writes, the Solin company Include, which is very well known for its smart benches, is launching a new Funderbeam campaign. With a more modest amount when compared to some of the previous ones, this time it aims at between 400,000 and 1 million euros of capital, but with a great ambition - to overcome the shortage of chips.

"Over the last two years, we've been working on developing new solutions so that the company can move away from the bench story in the direction of new products for cities to solve specific problems, from waste to air quality measurement," said Include's founder Ivan Mrvos, who at just 26 years of age has done more than most.

''With this round of funding, we aim to overcome the global challenges that everyone has, including that of chips. We'd ensure that we can make whole chip boards within our own production, which would allow us to buy from several sources, which would significantly speed up our production process,'' he said.

The Solin company Include currently has a “full order book until March” that includes more than a hundred products, smart benches and air quality metres. "It's about 300,000 euros worth of sold good, but they've not been delivered yet. Until then, the situation should stabilise so that we can create a stock of products, so that when customers order, we can deliver them in a few days,'' he explains. The latest Funderbeam campaign is their third in a row through that platform, and back in 2017 they became the first Croatian company on that platform.

In the year before the global coronavirus pandemic struck, they set a record for the largest Croatian campaign on that platform to date, with 1.5 million euros raised. The current round, a kind of ''pre-series B round'', is an overture to the large 5.5 million euro campaign planned for the end of 2022, about which they're already in contact with venture capital funds.

The condition for this is to scale production and revenue up to the desired 200,000 euros per month (from the current around 110,000), which opens the door for talks with larger funds, and potentially in the future is a step towards opening the doors of the United States. The Solin company Include entered the entrepreneurial scene with Steora smart benches, and at the end of 2020, it set out in the direction of solving some of the biggest global challenges we currently face.

In addition to the recently introduced Aerys air quality measurement stations, this includes Terra bins that reduce waste collection by 80 percent. Today, Include exports to 59 countries and more than 500 cities around the world.

“Since Funderbeam started, Ivan Mrvos was the first person that Ivana Gazic and I identified as a good young person for Funderbeam. This is our third campaign in just four years, and the company's valuation today stands at 17 million euros,'' said leading investor Ivana Soljan.

"Ivan has exceeded all my expectations these years. I think that Include is one of the future large companies in this area that will become a global company ", she added, and so far she has invested almost 200,000 euros in the company.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.