Croatia is a paradoxical country at times. It boasts an outdated, draconian system that likes to throw obstacles wrapped in red tape in the path of success for entrepreneuers and their ideas, leading many of them to either give up or go elsewhere to operate under a different flag, but yet, so many startups and so much success can be found here in spite of an unfriendly and self-limiting system. Meet Aircash.

This impressive Croatian startup, Aircash, has 40,000 users and is already hot on the heels of the likes of Keks Pay and Revolut.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Bernard Ivezic writes on the 10th of November, 2019, Aircash is the first Croatian fintech to launch its own mobile wallet. So far, mobile applications (apps) that allow you to replace your physical wallet with your mobile phone and thus pay that way were only offered by actual banks - Erste bank with KEKS Pay, Zagrebačka banka with Telekom Banking and mZaba, then come the likes of Revolut and Monesa.

Aircash is a little bit different from them all, in the sense that it isn't a bank but a new type of financial institution in itself. The Croatian National Bank (CNB/HNB) has now also granted it a full EU license for electronic money.

So far, only three companies have managed to ''get their hands'' on such a license: HT, PBZ Card and Erste Card Club. In addition to the first major regulatory success for a Croatian fintech, Aircash has also gained market success. The Aircash mobile app already has 40,000 users and is the third most popular fintech app in all of Croatia. For the sake of comparison, Keks Pay has 62,000 users and Revolut has 50,000 users, meaning Aircash is definitely on the right path.

Hrvoje Ćosić, the founder and director of Aircash, says they have been building their market position for just over two years now. In mid-2018, they had 15,000 users and a weekly turnover of 250,000 kuna in total.

"We now have 40,000 active users and 48,000 people have downloaded the app, while the traffic we worked with on a weekly basis last year is now our daily traffic and both indicators are growing," Ćosić says.

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Croatian companies and indeed the entrepreneurs which get them off the ground in the first place experience varying levels of success both here at home and abroad. While the Croatian media tends to publish as much negativity as possible, there are many happy stories of success for the little guy in this country, which sadly get left behind in the array of depressing headlines pumped out by most media portals.

We at TCN try to do our best to always recognise the success, however big or small, of Croatian companies, entrepreneurs and products, because this little country boasts far too much talent and innovation to be bogged down in an endless circulation of miserable articles.

The Croatian state may well be no friend (or at best completely clueless) of the domestic entrepreneur and his business ventures, many other more economically developed countries recognise the quality that Croatia continues to produce across many fields.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Bernard Ivezic writes on the 10th of November, 2019, the Croatian company KING ICT, with its seat registered in Zagreb, has just been chosen for an impressive job with a price tag of 6.4 million kuna attached to it in The Hague (Den Haag) in the Netherlands. 

''We are proud to be able to confirm the professionalism and expertise of our employees,'' stated Sendi Radić when speaking about KING ICT's newly contracted job in the Netherlands. KING ICT has been awarded the job of implementing a high-throughput network and a communications infrastructure solution at the NCIA site in no less than The Hague.

The implementation process will take four months, with a project value of just over 6.4 million kuna in total. Sendi Radić, a member of the board of the Croatian company KING ICT, says this is an extension of cooperation following the successful implementation of a solution for NATO's Communications and Information Agency in the Netherlands.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik/Sergej Novosel Vuckovic writes on the 10th of November, 2019, with over twenty years of professional experience working on the development of advanced electronic systems, as well as a good dose of enthusiasm and ''zeal'' for putting together what they personally care about and love, these two colleagues and friends from Zagreb, Goran Fiolić and Gordan Galić, launched the startup Pixblasters.

This Croatian startup's aim is to create and manufacture an innovative RGB LED controller, an electrical device that would enable both professionals and amateurs, and even those without any experience and knowledge of electronics, to create large video screens using so-called addressable LED strips.

They formulated their desire into a project and launched it on the Crowd Supply web platform, intended for the group financing of (technology) projects. The crowdfunding campaign started about a month ago and has already raised about 6,000 US dollars out of a target of 18,000 dollars in this round that ends in twelve days. Why did they decide to make such a bold move, both in terms of production ideas and in raising capital? Who are the real minds behind Pixblasters?

''We're a ''maker'' duo with experience in significantly more complex projects executed for the global market. Today, when the startup culture and entrepreneurship that are lagging behind here when compared to Western countries are justifiably promoted, we may be a slightly different team that embarked on a project primarily out of fun and curiosity.

After completing the prototype, which surprised us both with its attractiveness and at the urging of our friends and colleagues, we decided to launch a project with the aim of producing a professional electronic controller that would be commercially interesting. We like to do things that interest us. It can be a small electronic dust detector or several hundred pounds a heavy machine with electronically controlled pneumatic and electric motor subsystems,'' explains Galić on his own and Fiolić's behalf.

They knew just what they were talking about when it comes to LED screens and their experiences stretching twenty years, and the story of Pixblasters was born.

"It really is a true anecdote. We were both thinking of building such screens at the time, but it was an undertaking that went beyond the capabilities of most self-builders. A minimum of 3 LEDs are required for one pixel (dot on the screen) of LED screens: red, green and blue. While red and green diodes were relatively inexpensive at the time we're talking about, the blue ones cost about 40 kuna  per piece due to their specific construction.

The purchase price of diodes for a display with a resolution of 120x50 pixels, like the display from our campaign, costed around 300,000 kuna, without the cost of purchasing other electronic parts. We've concluded that as technology advances, such a device today has to cost significantly less and must be accessible to everyone. Indeed, our calculation has shown that LED screens of this resolution could be built today at 100 times less cost,'' explains Gordan.

This pair of Zagreb techno ''makers'' point out that the Pixblasters device is fully prepared and adapted for batch production, which is, after all, their ultimate goal. However, they emphasise that their LED controller is not a finished consumer product, but a device that just allows for the construction of large and attractive LED screens.

“The first series will be produced in Slovenia because of our previous business connections.

When thinking about Croatia, the manufacturing capabilities and capacities of Croatian electronic device manufacturing companies have grown significantly in recent years. I think they are also unduly underrated. Until a few years ago, it would have been relatively difficult to produce a Pixblasters controller complexity device in Croatia, but today it's possible and we plan to work on it,'' Galić reveals.

They are aware that for the needs of the big market, they should also have larger sources of funding, for example, from competitions from ministries or indeed from private sponsors, but for now, Pixblasters is being promoted as a DIY solution.

The advantage of their controllers, they describe, is that they would, with maximum cost-effectiveness, deliver the most important features of LED screens: simple content generation, attractive video display, remote application management and large dimensions.

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Croatian entrepreneurs are taking the limelight once again with their ideas, innovation and good business sense, but this time, the recognition comes from outside of Croatia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes on the 7th of November, 2019, a startup has designed a tool for digital documentation and communication in the building industry, and one of the people at the top is a Croat.

PlanRadar, which has developed a digital documentation and communication tool in the construction and real estate markets, was awarded the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Austria in the Startup category.

An expert jury awarded PlanRadar one of the most prestigious entrepreneurial awards currently available, assessing growth, future potential, innovation, employee leadership and social responsibility. It is a solution that is used weekly on more than 25,000 projects across 43 countries in total. One of the founders of PlanRadar is Croatian national Bojan Petković.

He recently said as director for Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia that, that although these three countries are their main focus, the company will not neglect others in the region.

Their main market is the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), but PlanRadar has recognised the potential of the Croatian market and plans to develop the application even further.

"PlanRadar enables the construction industry and the real estate market to have digital documentation, manage tasks and deficiencies throughout the project," says Petković. The benefits of PlanRadar have been recognised by large international companies such as Strabag and Hochtief, and in Croatia by the likes of Kamgrad and Abilia.

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Despite the media loving to spread the negatives, there is an enormous amount of positivity in Croatia, and the level of innovation and drive from certain Croatian companies is impressive. One can only imagine what the results would be if the political and economic climate turned in their favour. One such company is a very small one with just eight employees, located in Samobor.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 2nd of November, 2019, the world is gradually being ''conquered'' by the radars of a small Samobor company which boasts just a handful of employees. They strengthened their position on the global stage by entering no less than the highly prosperous Chinese market. The Samobor-based company's production program is the result of its very own development, and almost all of its production is realised right here in Croatia, HRT reports.

Sensors in hydrology, industrial sensors and radars for security systems used across five continents are all produced in the unassuming continental Croatian town of Samobor, just a short drive from Zagreb.

''We first started selling various electrical appliances and software development services to companies around the world, and then relatively early on in the development of the company, the idea came up to start developing our products and we started with our radar story,'' says Tomislav Grubeša, Geolux's technical director.

That story led them to a hold a thirty percent share of the Chinese market, and a ten percent share of the global market.

''A little luck mixed with a bit of coincidence saw us able to reach some really good partners over in China, who managed to push our products into a large number of water measurement projects, ie, flow measurement across rivers in China,'' said Grubeša.

This Samobor-based company's currently best-selling product is a set of radars for flow measurement in hydrology.

''From this, it's possible to calculate the total flow of water, in cubic metres per second, which is actually needed by hydrologists to be able to plan, for example, flood defenses or plan for the use of energy in hydroelectric power plants,'' said Nikša Orlić, Geolux's director.

Such sensors, in addition to the large Chinese rivers, are also found on the Hendrix Bridge, in Gunja, and more recently on Vrljica. They are also currently working on four new projects, including detection to help detect drones.

"Because every flight drone has to spin propellers that produce a certain sound, they can actually be accurately detected by an acoustic camera," Grubeša explained.

Geolux has recently introduced such new radar platforms for security systems in Northern Europe, more precisely in the United Kingdom, to NATO members as part of a military exercise.

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As Novac writes on the 1st of November, 2019, the Croatian company Infinum, which, by the way, operates not only here in the Republic of Croatia, but all over the world, said that simply changing their web domain from infinum.hr to infinum.com saw great changes follow.

''We started the company back while we were still students with lots of ideas but very shallow pockets, so we had to be careful what we spent. Since we started in Croatia, we got the ''.hr'' domain for free. But to expand our business abroad, we needed a country-specific domain,'' Tomislav Car wrote on the Infinum website, adding that he and his colleague, Matej Špoler, had decided in this context to buy the .co domain because it was the "closest" to .com, which was still too expensive for them at the time.

But as many as 495 of the top 500 American companies in 2016 had the .com domain, he points out, so it seemed to the two that this was one of the conditions for a successful business, and as Infinum grew, so did Car and Špoler's investment opportunities. When the company reached a figure of 30 employees, they decided it was time to take a step further. Still, the infinum.com domain was taken.

''Alexander had a software development company of the same name and had no intention of selling us the domain name. His clients knew him by that name, so the change was risky,'' recalled Tomislav Car, who was not stopped by this obstacle on the way to his desired address for the company's website.

Instead, he sent mail to Alexander five to six times a year for the entire seven years and each time offered him more money for the letter 'm' in the domain name. While the Croatian company Infinum was growing and enjoying more business success, the American company of the same name decided to change its focus, so the name of the company no longer meant that much. Still, Car claims, "Alexander wasn't ready to give up his domain."

''It made sense. We were the only buyer, and he was the only seller. My first offer was 3,000 US dollars while his counter offer was 100,000 US dollars. Our seven-year bargaining would even embarrass the traders from Istanbul's Bazaar,'' said the co-founder of Infinum, adding that after these painstaking and lengthy negotiations, they paid 25,000 US dollars for the letter.

Yet, he believes, it has paid off. Search engines like Google, as Car explained, are well known for ranking domains not related to a particular country when listing results.

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Croatia is a little country with some impressive acheivements. From the sporting world to the scientific one and everything in between, there's no denying that Croatia outshines many other countries with its talent. One Croatian company from Zagreb has won an impressive award which just goes to further confirm that Croatian innovation is among the best.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Ivan Tominac writes on the 23rd of October, 2019, a Zagreb system integrator confirmed its impressive level of expertise as a long-standing partner of a German company.

The Croatian company King ICT is truly one of the leaders in implementing innovative business solutions, as has now been evidenced by the recognition they rightfully won at the EMEA Summit (Europe, Middle East and Africa).

It is a recognition of the Best Solutions Growth in Europe awarded by Schneider Electric and that award is now firmly in the very deserving hands of this regional integrator system because it has achieved the highest growth at the EU level.

Thus, the Zagreb-based Croatian company reaffirmed its expertise and professionalism, and they take the prestigious Schneider Award, they say, as an additional incentive to continue to provide their clients with even better service and help build a technologically modern and connected future.

King ICT is a longtime partner of Schneider Electric, and the title of Elite justifies the trust of the clients they assist in the implementation of the project, from consulting all the way down the line to the final implementation.

"As an expert in software, infrastructure, networking and technical security, King's team has achieved one of the best results in the category, and we'd like to congratulate them on that," Schneider said of this Croatian company.

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A total of seven Croatian technology companies competed in the Deloitte Competition of the 50 fastest growing companies in Central Europe this year, six of which are in the main category and one of which is in the Most Disruptive Innovation category, as Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 18th of October, 2019.

This year, which is otherwise the twentieth edition of the Deloitte Competition of the 50 Fastest Growing Central European Technology Companies, saw the attendance of companies from across eighteen European countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, Kosovo, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Serbia.

In the main category, known as the Technology Fast 50, among the 50 fastest growing technology companies, this year saw the placement of 37 new companies for the first time, and it became clear that the region is the focus of innovative and creative young companies who are shaping the future.

Of these, four companies were ranked as Rising Stars last year (a special category for fast-growing companies that are not yet mature enough to be included in the Fast 50 main category). This also points to the good health of the technology sector within the region, as start-up companies have seen significant growth and become established fast-growing technology companies in just a few years.

The report, which ranked and profiled the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in the entire region, highlighted the Lithuanian company Voltas IT as the fastest-growing, with an average growth rate of 5,734 percent over the four-year period between 2015 and 2018. Voltas IT has developed an affordable and easy-to-use automotive diagnostic system for drivers, and their accelerated growth continues as 1,000 new customers connect to their system every single day.

The second on the list are last year's winners from Prusa Research, s.r.o., from the Czech Republic, with a growth rate of 4,527 percent. This company has definitely established itself as one of the most consistent innovative companies in the global 3D printing industry.

Third in the rankings went to another Czech company, BLINDSPOT, founded back in 2014 to develop a wide range of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, and fourth place went to the Slovakian Itrinity, s.r.o., which provides SaaS solutions (Software as a service) for internet marketers.

The Croatian online shopping platform BAZZAR.HR's ranked fifth with an average growth rate of 2.821 percent.

As previously stated, from here in Croatia, a total of seven companies competed this year, six of which are in the Top 50 Fastest Growing category and one in is in the Most Disruptive Innovation category.

The Croatian company Rimac Automobili has been awarded the Most Distruptive Innovation Award.

Here is how the Croatian companies were placed:

BAZZAR.HR came fifth place with growth of 2.821 percent, Q took 16th place (927 percent), Ars Futura d.o.o. took 27th place (685 percent), AG04 Innovative Solutions d.o.o. took 35th place (551 percent), Delta Reality came in 47th place (449 percent) and Agrivi d.o.o. took 50th place (432 percent).

The winner of the Most Disruptive Innovation award, the Croatian company Rimac Automobili, is otherwise the very first Croatian company to win in this category. Rimac Automobili has been participating in the Deloitte Competition for four years now.

In the main category of the 50 fastest growing companies, as we have already stated, the best placement was achieved by the Croatian online shopping platform BAZZAR.HR which took fifth place, followed by Q and Ars Futura, who were also placed on the main list last year, while AG04 Innovative Solutions d.o.o., Delta Reality and Agrivi d.o.o. made their first appeatance on Deloitte's impressive list this year.

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Early next year, the successful Croatian startup, Bellabeat, plans to launch a new product.

As Bernard Ivezic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 15th of October, 2019, as of early next year, Bellabeat, the first Croatian startup reach a record a 4.5 million US dollar investment from Silicon Valley investors and the first to hit a record 6.5 million US dollar sales contract, will launch a new generation of its product with which it has embarked on global expansion.

What the product itself is, is smart jewellery which, through a mobile app and modern technology, would create the world's largest women's wellness club. Urška Sršen, the co-founder of Bellabeat, says that the company is developing and expanding into new categories in the highly competitive wellness market.

"By the beginning of 2020, our new smart jewellery, new generations and new designs will appear on the market to measure additional performance," says Sršen.

Bellabeat was launched back in 2014 and has about seventy employees today, and as many as 65 percent of them are women. The company, which operates from Zagreb while legally based in the US, was founded by Croatian mathematician Sandro Mur, today CEO of the company, and Slovenian artist Urška Sršen, who is now the creative director of the company.

Their first product was a smart Leaf pendant, in the shape of a bracelet and chain.

Bellabeat, meanwhile, has developed several new versions of Leaf, and is currently developing the latest version with Swarovski crystals. In addition, Bellabeat has expanded its offering to include its own Hybrid wellness watch, a smart water bottle called Hydration tracker and an Aroma diffuser with its own line of essential oils.

At the end of 2017, the company was in crisis. It then let go a part of its employees and then withdrew from the public. Last year, Bellabeat received the second largest startup investment in Croatia, 14.2 million dollars from AOL Ventures, and increased the number of employees to seventy. Hamag-Bicro also states that it gave them 1.49 million kuna.

When asked, Sršen says that they are satisfied and proud of the results in their business.

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As Bernard Ivezic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 29th of September, 2019, the 2018 annual report states that Mate Rimac's company has increased its investments to an enormous 106.7 million kuna, four times more than the year before. The level of investment offers some of the answers as to why Mate Rimac continues to do so well.

Mate Rimac, founder and CEO of the most famous Croatian startup Rimac Automobili, told Poslovni Dnevnik that he expects that in three to five years, his company will start to grow rapidly in terms of revenue. According to Business Croatia (Poslovna Hrvatska), Mate Rimac's now famous company has increased its revenue a more than impressive 7.5 times in the last five years. Last year, it amounted to 79.8 million kuna.

In addition, this week, the Croatian electric car maker was named the third fastest growing technology company in Europe, the Middle East and Africa by Deloitte, which also noted that it had experienced an increase of an amazing 361 percent.

"It's relatively easy to get on this list once, but this is our fourth year of being on it, which we're proud of, because it shows that we're able to sustain an upward trend in the long run," Rimac stated. He clarified that he also has a long-term strategy.

"Every year, we have significant growth, but our goal is to reach much more significant figures in five years, which is much more important to us than our previous financial results or the results in the next two to three years," Rimac said, adding that this year, his company has seen significant and quick growth.

As previously mentioned, the company's 2018 annual report states that Rimac Automobili has increased its investments to 106.7 million kuna, four times more than the year before.

"The development of a car takes 4-5 years, and just as long ago we started developing components for small-scale manufacturers such as Koenigsegg and Aston Martin, which means that these projects are now in series production," noted Mate Rimac.

He stated that in the past year, they have been transitioning from prototyping and small-scale production to large-scale production and the development and production of large series components for companies like Porsche and Hyundai.

Rimac says there are also more partner companies, but he can't mention them. This is similar to the agreement on cooperation with Pininfarina Cars which was signed off last September. It involves the development of a platform, propulsion components, batteries and other systems, and the job is worth a huge 80 million euros in total.

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