March the 16th, 2023 - Last year was a record year for Croatian startups receiving investments, some of which involved enormous sums of money. What will 2023 be like?

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, there is no winter rest period or a sense of being ''out of season'' for Croatian startups, and despite investors' caution towards making any particularly risky investments, as much as 958.3 million US dollars were invested in Croatian startups in the first three quarters of last year alone. The aforementioned was concluded at the Algebra startup meetup, which was recently held at the Algebra campus in the City of Zagreb, on the Algebra Spark Event Space premises.

Bernard Ivezic, the editor of the Startup Report magazine, said that the appearance of unicorns such as Infobip and Rimac, as well as big exits like Nanobit and Gamepires, and now Photomath's astonishing success with Google, encourage an increase in investor interest in Croatian startups. Last year seeing a record number of Croatian startups receive investments proves that. "However, due to the war in Ukraine and the hectic exit from the coronavirus pandemic, investment values are lower than they were before, although for Croatian conditions they're still very good. 2022 was the second best year so far," Ivezic pointed out.

Four new venture capital funds are coming to the Croatian market, and over the next five years, the amount of money that will be made available to Croatian startups will be 10 times higher than it was in the past - standing at about 300 million euros. A lot of money also means more problems for funds that are going to need to start competing for startups, which makes the entire ecosystem quite dynamic and competitive, especially in an environment of crisis and economic uncertainty.

"In a crisis, it's important to always lead by example, and that's what the leaders of every startup should focus on. Investors expect this period to last 24 to 36 months. It's the most difficult for seed stage startups that aren't yet in the portfolio, because for them the risks are the greatest, as is their dependence on investors.

This is precisely why good networking with potential investors is most important - my advice is not only to look at them, but also at their portfolio of companies and the companies with which they're connected, because building that network of acquaintances is the key to future success," Miryana Joksovic from Arcion Labs pointed out, before reflecting on recent layoffs in the tech community.

"Most of those who were previously employed in large companies can hardly adapt to the new startup culture, so the question is how we can connect this talent to the startup ecosystem, because they're used to different work standards, atypical for the dynamics of those entrepreneurs who are only just starting to build their own companies,'' explained Joksovic.

Matija Nakic, the founder of Farseer, saw that every crisis, including this one, can also double up as an opportunity. "Our process of getting investments wasn't dramatic and we got the hang of it quickly. Investments have slowed down if we look at the environment, while in the last two years there has been a lot of capital and a significant jump in employment and investments in IT companies. I love crises and I think they're a good opportunity to rethink things like business models. People who left large IT companies like Google will surely find a job quickly because they have excellent knowledge and will return to the ecosystem and bring this new knowledge to young companies. I believe that we have an interesting couple of years ahead of us, especially with the increasing influence of AI".

"In 2021 and 2022, capital was cheap not only for startups but also for funds. In the last quarter of 2022, there was a significant drop in investments. There is money, investments have been shaken up, but they haven't stopped", emphasised Vedran Blagus from South Central Ventures.

Despite the data on the reduced investment wave as a result of global economic events, the panelists agreed that the challenging period facing the domestic and global startup scene is only a prelude to the continuation of a fairly prosperous period. Namely, Croatian startups now face new challenges in the form of investment in research and development, as the basis of new innovations that can help them to overcome these times of crisis.

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

March the 15th, 2023 - The organisers of the Green Future conference invite interested startups to submit innovative solutions in the field of sustainable development by May the 1st, 2023 to be in with a chance of winning 10,000 euros!

For the second consecutive year, Green Future is hosting a conference on ecology, energy, and smart cities at the beginning of June in Split's Croatian National Theatre. As part of this conference, the Startup Challenge will be held for companies that develop innovative solutions in the field of sustainable development. In addition to the lucrative main prize, there are also the Green Communication Awards awarded by Infobip for its products and services in the amount of 100,000 euros.

The Startup Challenge 2023 will allow representatives of ten startups to present their eco-ideas to the jury, and in addition to prizes and expert advice, be given the opportunity to network with industry titans and potential investors. The concept of the competition is also praised by last year's winners:

"By participating and winning the Startup Challenge, we received important support from the business and professional community, as well as confirmation that our application is something the market needs and wants to use. What impressed me the most was the incredible energy of the lecturers, participants, and organizers, their desire to go beyond the established framework of business and do something for the benefit of the environment, while at the same time enjoying themselves," said Duško Radulović from Climatig, last year's winner with an application for predicting climate risks.

The winner of the main Green Communication award last year was the Italian startup Must Had, whose mission is to speed up the transition towards sustainable fashion by selling high-quality clothes, created from the surplus of the fashion industry.

"As an international startup, the win enabled us to present projects to many people focused on sustainability and the circular economy. Just participating in the conference was an excellent opportunity for growth, thanks to networking opportunities and access to technical tools to improve our abilities," said Eugenio Riganti, co-founder of Must Had.

Marked as a tech event not to be missed, the Green Future Conference 2023 will be held in Split's HNK, on ​​June 1 and 2, with domestic and international speakers addressing the topics of green transition in the context of technology, finance, energy, environmental protection, public politics, and e-mobility.

"Green Future is a unique platform for connecting and encouraging changes towards a sustainable future, where everyone has the opportunity to network with experts from different industries, exchange experiences, and explore new business opportunities," said Ivan Burazin, Infobip board member for developer experience, emphasizing that the Startup Challenge is an opportunity to learn about the latest ideas on the market, and at the same time help young entrepreneurs on their way to success.

The first Croatian unicorn, Infobip, is also this year's main partner in the startup competition:

"We are proud to be part of the Green Future conference, as a fantastic platform for the exchange of ideas, where young developers get the opportunity to learn, progress and make key contacts." - said Nikola Pavešić, Infobip's director for the startup ecosystem and head of the Infobip Startup Tribe, and invited all young companies and individuals to apply for participation in the Startup Challenge.

Those interested can register here, and you can follow the news about the Green Future conference and the Startup Challenge 2023 on the official website.

For more, check out our business section.

March the 14th, 2023 - The Croatian company Alfatec announced its business results for the past year last week, and it's clear to see that 2022 was the company's most successful yet.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, just last week, the Croatian company Alfatec announced its business results for the past year in front of a group of journalists at the Wespa Spaces premises in the City of Zagreb at the first #1 Alfatec Press Brunch.

As well as announcing a very successful 2022, a short retrospective of Alfatec's 30+ years of existence was givem. 33 years ago, Drago Kornfeld started the Croatian company Alfatec as a family company with a mere three employees, which quickly positioned itself as one of the most successful domestic IT companies on the now absolutely blossoming scene.

In just the past year, the Croatian company Alfatec's financial results have grown by a very impressive 80 percent, and all of this is a positive example of a successful generational change from father to son, which is a unique example in the Republic of Croatia. The past year has also been significant in terms of the personnel expansion of Alfatec, where the number of employees increased by more than 30% with a 10% salary increase to boot.

Many new employees also came through student fairs where Alfatec is present every year (FER, FOI and PMF).

Kristina Simac, the financial director of the Croatian company Alfatec, confirmed that the year 2022 was one of the most successful in the history of this company.

"In the past year, our revenues increased by about 80%, and exports grew by 65%. Together with those set for this year, the investments will amount to more than half a million euros," Simac pointed out. Despite the negative trends being experienced across the IT industry, where this year started with intense layoffs, the Croatian company Alfatec plans to work intensively on additional personnel reinforcements in the form of data engineers, machine learning engineers, full stack developers and other similar experts.

Even more export growth is also planned for Alfatec, where growth is predicted across all business segments with an emphasis being placed on the export of its own solutions.

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

March the 14th, 2023 - The Croatian Jadroplov fleet is set to be boosted with yet another vessel which will sail under the Croatian flag after having been given the green light from the government.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Brnic writes, yet another vessel for the transport of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will soon sail under the Croatian flag - a part of some new reinforcement of the Croatian Jadroplov's fleet. The Croatian Government recently approved the purchase of another vessel with HBOR, making it the second in less than one year.

It's important to emphasise that this doesn't act as an actual guarantee for the loan, and it is merely an approval, which is necessary since it is a company majority-owned by the state and with a debt of more than one million euros. More specifically, we're talking about loans in the amount of 15.2 million US dollars, with a repayment period of 10.5 years and a grace period of six months, and with an interest rate of 6.48%.

Cooperation with the Japanese

For this Split-based shipping company, this is an additional spring in its step pushing it back up from the bottom it has unfortunately been stuck in in for years now, and the government will still continue to provide it with insurance and credit for the implementation of its entire financial rehabilitation.

All of this is a prelude to the announced recapitalisation, which should strengthen Jadroplov and see it go from 150 million kuna to 350 million kuna. According to the announcement of the President of the Management Board of Jadroplov, Ivan Pavlovic, the recapitalisation would also provide a basis for continued cooperation with the Japanese shipyard where the two LPG ships, named Marko Marulic and Vis, have been constructed so far, with the plan being that future ships will be able to transport other types of cargo that require cooling.

Although doubts have already begun to appear about the realisation of the recapitalisation, Pavlovic has confirmed that it is being worked on, InterCapital has been engaged, and it will be realised in the typical way, with the issuance of a prospectus and with the approval of Hanfa, the announcement of a public offer and the listing of new shares on the stock exchange.

"We're going forward with the recapitalisation this year", Pavlovic explained, who has been visiting investors for a long time and talking about their involvement in this big undertaking for Jadroplo. Most of all, he says, he wanted pension funds to be involved, but they made it clear to him that they weren't interested in investing in such a volatile activity.

The ideal investors for Pavlovic would be, for example, INA, and he's prefer Croatian shippers, but due to the weak interest in the domestic market, Pavlovic is also talking to people abroad, including shippers in Greece and Turkey, and he is currently going as far as to Japan for talks.

"This is a good model for Jadroplov, because shipping has almost disappeared in Croatia and Split, and with the ongoing modernisation of the Croatian Jadroplov fleet and turning to other niches, trust is gradually returning," said Pavlovic, who hopes that others will recognise this and participate in the recapitalisation process. In addition to entering a new business with LPG, Jadroplov intends to further disperse its business, and their ambitions are turned towards ferry transport.

The already prepared project, for which the ship's builder, the 3 Maj shipyard from Rijeka, has been selected, will apply to the tender for non-reimbursable EU funds intended for the development of green technology, and it regards an electric ferry worth 50 million euros. The ship would carry one thousand passengers and 150 cars and would be the first electrically powered ferry of its size in all of Europe. This project is also a way to send out the message to investors that the new Jadroplov has transformed for the better.

A good couple of years

Over the past two years, Jadroplov operated with a profit, in 2021 more than 100 million kuna was realised, which covered losses from earlier years, and according to the first unaudited data for 2022, 87.4 million kuna was realised. However, the company is troubled by its old obligations, and because of that, it requested and received approval from the government to extend the repayment of the remaining obligations for the loan taken back in 2016 for the sake of financial stability.

Due to the moratorium that was made possible during the coronavirus pandemic, at the end of March, a total of 3.95 million US dollars of principal has to be paid, which Jadroplov will pay out over the next three years. In the meantime, the recapitalisation should ensure further safe navigation for this Split-based company and the new vessel joining the Croatian Jadroplov fleet.

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

March the 9th, 2023 - The rather remarkable Croatian startup Choncha is set to make life much easier for both people and the plants they buy and might forget to take care of and water once or twice, or... maybe constantly.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Josipa Ban writes, plant selection and care should soon be much easier thanks to the unusual and innovative Croatian startup Choncha, which has created a smart plant pot that should be on the market soon. This clever product, which is based on the application of the Internet of Things (IoT), comes in combination with an associated application that scans the conditions in the room the plant would be situated in through sensors, it then recommends the optimal types of plants to the user.

But that's not all. After planting, Choncha the smart plant pot takes care of the plant when it is there entirely automatically, all based on the collected data from its immediate environment.

A hard-working team of experts of various profiles are behind the Croatian startup Chonca and have been busy working on the development of Choncha the smart plant pot for some time now. Among them are people who have completed their studies in computer science, to those who graduated in mechanical engineering and agronomy, and as Frano Primorac, the originator of the idea and head of the Croatian startup Choncha revealed, they're currently completing their prototype.

"We're now working on the preparation for mass production, which we'll be greatly supported in by a Kickstarter campaign, which is currently in preparation. Further plans are definitely an organised capital collection, and since the interest of the public is huge, we're hoping for good results,'' stated Frano Primorac.

The campaign will be launched this week, more precisely on Wednesday March the 8th, and the plan is to collect six thousand US dollars. The price of the Choncha smart plant pot will be 59 USD on Kickstarter, and it will probably be cheaper here on the domestic market in the end. However, as Primorac noted, it's somewhat difficult to estimate how much they can collect.

"For now, we have a good number of collected emails on our website where people who want a Choncha pot can leave an email to be notified when the Kickstarter sale is launched," he said. As for the profile of the investors, they're targeting a type of profile that would otherwise buy this product.

"Through this viral marketing campaign, we discovered that the people who would purchase one of our smart plant pots are mostly mothers and tech geeks. Through Kickstarter, we hope for a more global reach, but we aren't yet sure in which niche we'll manage to garner the greatest response,'' he explained.

He added that successful and experienced Croatian entrepreneurs Albert Gajsak, the founder and director of CircuitMess, and Domagoj Boljar, co-founder of the well-known ecological tennis brand Miret, are helping them with advice in preparing for their Kickstarter campaign, which should contribute to their overall success. After the campaign, which they hope will end successfully, they are starting the last part of the job – that of mass production of Choncha, that is, their innovative smart plant pots.

Primorac, who graduated from the FOI in Varazdin and worked for an IT company for a year now, was motivated to start his own business because of a problem he had with growing plants.

"The idea itself arose from a problem I had as the worst botanist I know. The logical decision was therefore to spend ten months on automating the process of growing plants, a job that would take me half an hour a week. That's how the Croatian startup Choncha, and the idea of the plant pot, was born," he explained, adding that there are five permanent people working on the team who all knew each other before.

"We're all on the same page and are aware that we can't expect salaries at the start because we're simply bootstrapping, but that's why morale and fun are always paramount," said the initiator of the idea of a smart flower pot. He also pointed out that their biggest challenge has always been financing. They had no problems with the development of the prototype itself, primarily due to the expertise of the mechanical engineers and part of the team that worked on it.

As far as actual production is concerned, it will be based on 3D print technology, and the first prototype will be exhibited at FOI. "The plant pot itself and the application function as one product, is all very simple from the user's side. Choncha itself can scan the surrounding conditions and recommend optimal plants for the space, but the user can place any plant in it they want and in the connected application just tell Choncha which plant it is. Choncha waters the plant perfectly and warns plant owners about other conditions," he explained.

All the user has to do to successfully grow the plant with minimal effort is to turn on the button on the pot. Then they need to download the app, log in and pair the app with the container. The aforementioned institution from Varazdin otherwise played a major role in the creation and development of the Croatian startup Choncha, as this young team gained its first entrepreneurial experiences through their Startup@FOI program.

Through it, FOI provides financial and operational support to students and young innovators in the development of their various entrepreneurial ideas and product placement on the market. They also get an office in the premises of the Technology Park in Varazdin, as well as help in managing accounting, tax advice and consultation.

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

March the 9th, 2023 - The Croatian-Austrian startup PlanRadar is making waves on the other side of the world, with the digitalisation of the largest infrastructure project in Tasmanian history.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, the Croatian-Austrian startup PlanRadar, a company whose eponymous cloud platform has been designed to digitise construction processes, has been selected as the software supplier for the 786 million Australian dollars (500.45 million euros) Bridgewater Bridge project over the Derwent River in Australia.

The work of building the bridge is being managed by Burbury Consulting, and it is the largest infrastructural transport project in the entire history of Tasmania.

It's interesting to note, as they pointed out from PlanRadar itself, that the Peljesac bridge project right here in Croatia was one of their main references for getting this job in distant Australia. Domagoj Dolinsek, the founder of the Croatian-Austrian startup PlanRadar, explained that this is their biggest project in Australia so far, and also one of the biggest in the world.

A strategic step forward

"We've been present in Australia for a year, and with last year's investment in our company of 69 million US dollars, a stronger exit from the European market to the global market, primarily North America, the Middle East and Australia, was made possible," explained Dolinsek.

The new Bridgewater Bridge project will use PlanRadar to manage all of its various inspections, quality assessments, task management, construction documentation, site audits and other key aspects of construction project management. PlanRadar pointed out that they are a leading player in this particular industry with over 120,000 clients in their global base using their property and construction project management software platform, and this is their first infrastructure mega-project in Australia.

“PlanRadar has previously been used in similar infrastructure projects across Europe, notably in the case of Peljesac Bridge, one of Europe's largest construction projects, along with its surrounding network of roads and tunnels. The Peljesac Bridge project is still one of the largest mega infrastructure projects in southern Croatia, with a total value of 550 million euros,'' they stated.

Bart Crowther, the Croatian-Austrian startup PlanRadar's regional manager for Australia emphasised the importance of this project for their future presence in that part of the world. "The opportunity to work on any infrastructure project of this scale is truly extraordinary, and the positive impact on the Tasmanian community, both for the 22,000 daily users of the future bridge and for the improvement of freight and logistics routes on it, is extremely important to us. We're looking forward to working with the Tasmanian Government and the Burbury Consulting teams and helping guide their day-to-day ongoing site inspection processes,” Crowther said. A Burbury Consulting representative said PlanRadar was chosen for this project because of its data-driven reporting capabilities.

"When it came time to choose our project inspection software, we unanimously chose PlanRadar because of their ease of use and incredibly detailed data-driven reporting capabilities that help us better manage timely reporting, inspections, audits and verifications," it was stated.

Otherwise, this new Bridgewater Bridge will replace the existing 75-year-old cable-span bridge and will have a length of one kilometre in total. The main works on the bridge started last year, and it is estimated that it will be completed in 2024. The river crossing between Bridgewater and Granton in Tasmania has a long history and the first bridge was opened in 1848.

The existing Bridgewater Bridge was built back in 1946 and is the fourth bridge at this location, but the planning to replace this bridge began over 20 years ago, with many different designs and plans developed over that time, and the current project was completed and finally approved in 2018. The Croatian-Austrian startup PlanRadar, born from the idea of builder and founder Domagoj Dolinsek, enables the management of all construction documentation via mobile phones, tablets and computers, and is used in both the construction industry and on the real estate market.

By digitising the workflow, PlanRadar reduces the frequency of what could be costly and frustrating errors, saves time for all parties involved and enables huge efficiency gains: users report saving an average of seven working hours every week.

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

March the 7th, 2023 - Five Croatian companies have made it onto the Financial Times' prestigious list of the fastest growing companies based in Europe.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Josipa Ban writes, as many as five Croatian companies have been included in the prestigious Financial Times list of the fastest growing European companies. This ranking follows the growth of company revenues in the last three years, ending in 2021, and according to the growth criteria, five Croatian companies have entered the prestigious rankings of the 1000 best.

At the very top of the list, in a very impressive fourteenth position, is Aircash, which makes it the best positioned domestic company, but also one of the fastest growing in Europe. Devōt (87th place), Syntio (551st place), Heloo (712th place) and SysKit (771st place) also follow.

At number one on the FT list was Tripledot Studio, a mobile video game development studio from Great Britain whose three-year average revenue growth rate was 794%. The most fast-growing European companies on the list come from Italy (260), Germany (217) and Great Britain (155).

The impressive growth in income achieved by these companies, writes FT, can be best explained by the situation they found themselves in back in 2021. It was a time of restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic and interruptions in supply chains. Because of the above, many sectors, especially tourism, catering/hospitality and trade, faced a significant drop in sales and an increase in costs. And while they were fighting for survival, the IT and technology sector was blooming. Namely, people were forced to work, and then do their shopping from home, which accelerated the digitisation process and the growth of online sales.

"The FT's great recognition for our company is also a confirmation of the success of our continuous work and efforts in the development of innovative financial products and services. We managed to radically and permanently change the way the traditional industry functions, and this is a confirmation that we 'e going in the right direction", said Hrvoje Cosic, the founder and director of Aircash, the company that developed the very first Croatian digital wallet, which is used by more than half a million people today.

Their growth, he says, was significantly influenced by the expansion of operations to several new EU markets last year. Investments in the development of new technologies and products will be crucial for their continued growth and maintaining their leading position in this industry, he pointed out.

"Further expansion plans will further strengthen our global position, and considering the fact that we work to improve the user experience every day and offer simpler and more efficient solutions for our users, this recognition further motivates us to continue working on the development of new services and products and the establishment of new partner relationships in with the goal of further business expansion,'' the founder and director of Aircash stated as his plans for this year.

With impressive growth of 155% and revenues of 2.6 million euros, Devōt, which is focused on product development within the so-called health tech system is the second best positioned domestic company on the list.

Third, in 551st position, comes Syntio, whose average three-year growth was 57.4%, while its revenues in 2021 amounted to 3.4 million euros. It is a company that was founded in 2017 and deals with cloud-based data engineering. Today, they have 110 employees, and their clients come from all over the world, from Scandinavia to the USA to South Africa.

"Year after year, we've been recording positive business results, and this prestigious award confirms that we're carrying out quality work for the second year already," pointed out Davorin Cetto, the co-founder and director of Syntio.

With growth of 47.3 percent, the company Heloo, which achieved 12 million euros in revenue in 2021, also took 712th place on FT's list.

The last of the Croatian companies that managed to enter the list thanks to its business results is SysKit. This particular startup, which develops a platform for managing Microsoft's environments, is positioned in 771st place with a growth of 44.8 percent and three million euros in revenue in 2021.

"Although for the last few years we've been extremely focused on scaling the company, due to the great competition, we didn't expect to be included on the list. This is an additional confirmation that our continuous investment in people, knowledge and product enables us to stand among the most successful European organisations,'' said Toni Frankola, the CEO of SysKit.

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

March the 7th, 2023 - The Croatian DOK-ING continues to impress across the board, and the latest event they've performed excellently at is the German Enforce Tac fair.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Croatian DOK-ING company reported last week that it has premiered its multi-functional machine, called the MV-3 Hystrix, intended for special, intervention, anti-explosion and anti-terrorist units of the police and military at the German Enforce Tac fair, which it believes will attract great interest.

According to the Croatian DOK-ING company customer manager Dina Isasegi, they came to that fair, which was held in Nuremberg from February the 28th to March the 1st, to present their newest robotic system to the ever-demanding global market.

"The MV-3 system is unique in the global sense and was created to bridge the identified gap in capabilities observed when performing counter-terrorist tasks of special forces. It is used in the tasks of combating terrorism and resolving high-risk crisis situations such as terrorist attacks, hostage crises, and the like," he said.

The Croatian DOK-ING company's impressive innovative system is primarily intended for solving crisis situations in closed spaces - such as in shopping centres, airports, concert and sports halls, he added.

According to Alenko Ribic, the former assistant for operational tasks of the Croatian Interior Ministry's special units, and who is now an external associate of DOK-ING, the MV-3 gives the tactical team the ability to use the system with or without the involvement of a physical team, which enables flexibility and a modular approach without the need to risk exposing special tactical teams to immediate danger.

If the machine goes out into a particularly risky area without a tactical team, it boasts the possibility to carry out research and reconnaissance with an advanced video system of 9 cameras and 2 LCD monitors. In addition to that, it can remove dangerous obstacles thanks to its additional tools, and it also has detectors for certain gases (for example, butane, propane, etc.).

The machine can carry another 700 kilograms of additional specialist equipment, such as formation protective ballistic shields, weapons and ammunition, ladders and more, according to the Croatian DOK-ING company's announcement.

Otherwise, DOK-ING produces robotic and autonomous systems and equipment for special purposes and has more than 80 percent market share in more than 40 countries around the world.

For more, check out our dedicated business section.

March the 2nd, 2023 - The Croatian Atlantic Group is no stranger to success and eye-watering figures when it comes to revenue, and it only expects that trend to continue. Another hope is for yet another record year.

As Marija Brnic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Croatian Atlantic Group (Grupa) ended last year with record revenues, and despite the expected less favourable economic conditions, the company expects to continue this trend this year as well. They expect to be able to mark up record sales totalling around 900 million euros.

According to the company's just published unaudited financial report, the Croatian Atlantic Group concluded 2022 with total revenues of 6.37 billion kuna, (850 million euros) which were 11.8% higher than they were back during the previous year.

Such optimism within the Croatian Atlantic Group is based on estimates that the prices of raw materials, packaging materials and energy sources should not reach record levels from back in 2022, but they still expect significant volatility. Negative pressures, on the other hand, will be alleviated by Croatia's entry into the Eurozone and the Schengen area which took place on the very first say of 2023.

In their unaudited financial report, the Croatian Atlantic Group estimates that purchase prices, regardless of stabilisation measures back at the end of 2022, are significantly above the level from the pre-crisis period, and based on this they expect a lower normalised EBITDA margin this year. They also note that in the first half of 2022, the impact of the increase in the price of raw materials and packaging material was significantly lower compared to the second part of the year, considering that Atlantic acquired a large part of the quantities they had at more favourable prices than the then market prices. That alone would result in a drop in profitability in the first part of 2023, primarily in the first quarter. On the other hand, they expect to see the beginning of the recovery of their profit margins in 2024.

This year, as can be seen from the report, management's focus, in addition to dealing with the problems of inflation and supply chains, will be on the internationalisation of certain brands and the development of the distribution business by strengthening existing and acquiring new principals, and on possible mergers and acquisitions.

The Croatian Atlantic Group closed the last business year with a net profit of almost 196 million kuna, at the same time, revenues grew by 11.8% on an annual basis, while profit was weaker by 43%, and according to the unaudited financial report, EBITDA was reduced by 20.6% compared to 2021, to 575.4 million kuna in total. The biggest impact on the drop in EBITDA was the high costs of raw materials, energy and logistics, the very negative impact of which exceeded sales growth across all Atlantic's business areas.

"Despite numerous challenges, the Croatian Atlantic Group achieved historically record sales results during 2022, and growth was achieved across all business and distribution areas. After the years dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, 2022 was marked by Russian aggression against Ukraine, which caused an energy crisis, additional disruptions in supply chains and significant price increases for almost all strategic raw materials and services.

We were only able to partially compensate for these price increases by optimising our internal resources and to a lesser extent by increasing our sales prices, which, as expected, led to a drop in profitability. Regardless of this, we continued with our investments in business development - innovations in our production portfolio, the modernisation of our production capacities and the continuation of the digital transformation,'' noted the President of the Management Board of the Croatian Atlantic Group, Emil Tedeschi.

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

March the 2nd, 2023 - The Croatian company Span has marked the year 2022 as its most successful business year to date, with the most growth for the company seen right here in Croatia and across the pond in the United States of America.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Croatian company Span came out with its unaudited financial results for 2022 recently, and despite the current (and ongoing) challenging geopolitical and market circumstances, the year ended with growth across all key business indicators.

Span's revenues in 2022 amounted to an impressive 829.7 million kuna, which represents an increase of 8 percent when compared to pandemic-dominated 2021. EBITDA also increased by 48 percent and amounted to 72 million kuna at the end of 2022. EBITDA after non-recurring items increased in the observed period by 65 percent and amounted to 70.1 million kuna. The Croatian Span company's net profit at the end of 2022 therefore stood at a 50.7 million kuna, which is a very encouraging increase of 113 percent compared to 2021.

The highest growth in revenue within the Croatian company Span was achieved by services with high added value - mostly from the business area Software development and business solutions, which grew by 62 percent, and the area of Infrastructure services, Cloud and Cyber security, which achieved growth of 49 percent respectively in the observed period. The decrease in revenue in the Software Asset Management and Licensing segment results from a decrease in revenue over on the Ukraine market, where Microsoft provided Span's customers with free use of its products and services until the end of 2022. The decrease in revenue in that market was fully offset by revenue growth in other markets and in other segments business.

The share of revenues that the Croatian company Span achieved in foreign markets in 2022 amounted to 68 percent, with the markets of both Croatia and the USA recording the most significant growth of all.

"The circumstances that followed us in 2022 posed numerous challenges, but also created new business opportunities for us. It was a year in which we did everything to help our Ukrainian colleagues, but also a year in which we carried out some of the biggest projects in Span's history. The increased market demand presented us with the challenge of finding new experts, so during 2022, we hired as many as 228 new colleagues at Span and entered the new year as a team of more than 800 employees. Strategically, we remain focused on the growth of services with high added value with a focus on the areas of cloud and cyber security,'' emphasised Nikola Dujmovic, the company's founder and president of Span's Management Board.

Among the special events that marked the last quarter of 2022, the launch of the digital platform span.zone, which enables business users to manage existing licenses and cloud services, is worth noting. This was a tick in the box of achieving yet another of the company's strategic goals. The excellent business results achieved by the Croatian company Span after the IPO were also recognised by the European investment community. Span was included among the three best European small and medium-sized companies that entered the capital market, for which it was awarded the Rising Star award. For the second year in a row, Span also received HR Cloud's "Excellence in employee experience" award.

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