November the 24th, 2022 - The Zagreb IT company BISS, which works with artificial intelligence (AI) is currently working on a very innovative new solution which could see their revenues shoot up over the next year.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Josipa Ban writes, the Zagreb IT company BISS is known for developing solutions based on AI, which make doing all kinds of business much easier for clients. They're mostly oriented towards the development of platforms in the field of delivery and public safety, and with this brand new solution they are currently developing, they are within reach of concluding a deal that should result in an increase in income of as much as one hundred percent in the next year alone.

"We've been developing this solution for several months now and have already demonstrated it in front of some of our clients. We're now waiting for the implementation of the contract,'' is all that Aleksandar Radovan, the director of development of the Zagreb IT company BISS, could reveal at this moment in time. What can be said is that this regards a solution that will change the public warning system, that is, automate it. They called it Reverse 112, and they have already made a proof of concept.

"The system is designed to work through public surveillance cameras. If you upgrade them by taking pictures from these cameras, you can detect various risky situations, such as car accidents, fires, floods, the gathering of too many people in too small a space and so on. The system automatically reacts and sends notifications to the services in charge of public safety,'' explains Radovan. In addition, this new system could be integrated with telecommunications operators and thus send notifications to all people, warning them of a certain disaster and giving them instructions on how to behave.

"When we had the coronavirus pandemic and the earthquake at the same time, people were sent conflicting information. Some people were told to go out into the streets, and others were instructed to stay inside. People were confused. With this system, which is centralised and authorised by the 112 service, people would receive a clear message and would know exactly how to behave. Thanks to Reverse 112, you wouldn't have to call 112, it would call you," explains Radovan.

He adds that the system, based on AI, virtual reality and autonomous security, is so advanced that it can detect, based on roaming data, whether or not the recipient is a foreigner and then send a warning message to them in their own language.

"Artificial intelligence was tried to be developed 50 years ago, but then the technology wasn't at a level that would enable its efficient use. Today we have the technology and huge amounts of data. Today, artificial intelligence can truly and efficiently solve many problems and bring automation to boring and repetitive jobs," said the director of the Zagreb IT company BISS.

Even their biggest client, the well-known company DPD, was skeptical of their Aimago solution, a package delivery management system.

"In the beginning, the solution was abstract to them, but when we showed them how it worked and what advantages it brings, they soon accepted it," Radovan points out. Not only did they accept it, but they asked that the software of this Zagreb development company, which employs 70 people, be continuously upgraded.

"We're currently improving its functionality so that it will be able to distinguish company packages from those of physical persons," says Radovan, adding that the goal of the system is to detect incorrect or wrong addresses in order to optimise delivery and reduce costs. Differentiating the packages of companies from individuals is important to DPD because they still have different contracts with companies, but they often have a larger amount of packages. Ultimately, all this data contributes to the better organisation of work, and then to greater savings.

DPD is currently the Zagreb IT company BISS's largest client of all, with which they have been successfully cooperating for a decade now, and thanks to which they generate 50 percent of their revenue on foreign markets. This share could also increase due to large projects in the field of public safety.

For more, make sure to keep up with our dedicated business section.

November the 22nd, 2022 - The European Union (EU) average when it comes to companies being placed in serious jeopardy because of poor financial discipline is higher than the Croatian one, but that doesn't mean that Croatian companies aren't also finding themselves in hot water more often than they should.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, almost two out of three companies operating within the European Union (EU) believe that customer payment discipline will worsen in the coming period, according to the thirteenth representative EOS survey entitled "European payment habits", in which 3,200 companies spanning sixteen different European countries, including those operating here in the Republic of Croatia, were examined.

When it comes to Croatian companies, however, things are (quite surprisingly) a little bit more optimistic than the European Union average; namely, only one in three out of four Croatian companies currently predicts a worsening of payment discipline, and as they state, a quarter of them even believe that it will improve. In comparison, back in the very successful pre-pandemic year of 2019, every other company operating in this country held the opinion that improvement was around the corner.

"Although it's less than the European Union average, the fact is that as of 2019, almost twice as many Croatian companies, based on experience, estimate the deterioration of their payment habits, while there are also significantly fewer who believe that they will improve. This is a clear indicator of future trends, given the current economic figures and high inflation," said Barbara Cerinski, the director of EOS Matrix.

Otherwise, payment habits across Europe have worsened quite significantly over the last three years, as was confirmed by this research, which points out that the above-mentioned development is causing approximately one in five companies to suffer legitimate fears for their own existence.

For more on Croatian companies, startups and entrepreneurs, make sure to keep up with our dedicated business section.

November the 22nd, 2022 - The share of Croatian women who started their own businesses last year is incredibly encouraging, with the number of companies with women at the helm on the up.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, last year, a group which is made up of 47,041 enterprises had at least one woman on the Management Board or Supervisory Board. Croatian women held 95,777 functions, of which 51,535 were management functions, while in 1,846 cases women held supervisory functions (members of the Supervisory Board), and in 42,396 cases - they appeared as company founders. The above was shown in Fina's recent analysis that looked into the results of the aforementioned group's operations according to GFI data for the years 2019-2021.

"Back in 2021, the observed group of enterprises held capital in the amount of 161.6 billion kuna and had total assets in the amount of 752.5 billion kuna. Compared to 2019, the number of companies in the observed group increased by 12.2%, their total income increased by 11.7%, their total expenses by 11.0%, their profit for that period by 23.5%, their losses for that period by 14.0%, while the number of employees decreased by 0.6% in 2021," stated Fina's analysis, and as we know, Fina itself is strongly represented with a high proportion of women employed in managerial positions.

Out of a total of 291 employees working in management positions within Fina (management, director of sectors and other organisational units), 210 were Croatian women, which makes up a share of 72%.

According to the data from the processed GFI for the year 2021, 473,821 employees were employed in this group, and those companies achieved 471.5 billion kuna in total revenue, a period profit of 31.4 billion kuna, a loss of 6.9 billion kuna, and an impressive net profit in the amount of 24.4 billion kuna kuna.

The largest total revenues (73.0%), profit for the period (69.6%), and loss for the period (75.8%) were achieved by limited liability companies. In second place came joint-stock companies with a share in total revenues of 22.9%.

The largest number of enterprises of this group operated in the City of Zagreb (34.8%) and Split-Dalmatia County (10.3%). Companies of this group in the City of Zagreb employed 44.4% of the total employees and achieved 53.9% of total income, 57.4% of profit for the period and 53.3% of loss for the period. Analysis by activity shows that the largest number of enterprises within this group operated in professional, scientific and technical activities (20.7%) and wholesale and retail trade (19.8%). The largest number of employees was in the processing industry (25.0%) and wholesale and retail trade (19.3%). The largest total income was achieved by companies from wholesale and retail trade (29.8%), and the highest profit of the period was achieved within the processing industry (26.7%).

"The largest number of companies of this group (73.3%) operated in the form of limited liability companies (d.o.o.), which employed as many as 73.2% of the employees of the observed group. In second place in terms of representation came simple limited liability companies (j.d.o.o.) with 20.1% (they employed only 3.5% of the employees of the observed group), while enterprises with other forms of organisation occupy less than 3.0%.

Natural persons engaged in registered activities (crafts, freelance professions and OPGs) in the observed group participated with a relatively small percentage (2.8% in terms of the number of enterprises, 1.0% in terms of total income) which is to be expected because most of these entities are income tax payers, not profit tax payers," Fina's analysis stated.

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

November the 17th, 2022 - Just when you thought the remarkable Croatian technology company Infobip had done everything, it turns its hand to fashion. Techno hoodies, to be more precise.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Josipa Ban writes, many would assume that a successful combination of fashion and high technology is impossible, the two couldn't be more different, right? Wrong. Apparently. The Vodnjan-based Infobip has definitely made sure that technology has no limits, and also now that it can be combined with fashion. It recently presented its very own technologically advanced hoodies.

According to Infobip, these impressive techno hoodies were made in collaboration with IUTD Studios and a young Canadian designer with Croatian roots, Joshua Cirjak.

This leap into the world of street fashion for the most famous domestic cloud communication platform will certainly delight all lovers of hoodies, but at the same time disappoint them because the series is limited to only 300 pieces.

They decided on this move, they say from Infobip, because they want to strengthen their image among developers and in the wider technological community which is, rather surprisingly to many, somewhat dominated by hoodies of all things.

"Developers absolutely love hoodies, and almost every tech company has promotional items which belong to it. However, at Infobip we decided to make a limited edition fashion piece. In addition, we have added some advanced technology to the hoodies," said Ivan Burazin, a member of the Infobip Management Board for developer experience.

"Each hoodie also contains a special NFC chip that, when scanning it, gives the owner the possibility to own it in both of the parallel worlds in which we live - the physical one and the digital one," explained Joshua Cirjak, the creative director of IUTD Studios.

For more on Croatian companies and domestic creations, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

November the 15th, 2022 - The Croatian startup Green Energy Pal has taken the energy crisis into its own hands and developed something that will help individuals and companies alike to keep the numbers on their electricity bills down.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Josipa Ban writes, reducing energy costs due to the ongoing energy crisis is a priority for both households and companies. However, it is almost impossible to achieve savings, or energy efficiency, without undertaking any proper analysis of your consumption.

Ivan Pavic, one of the members of the Croatian startup Green Energy Pal, explains that although energy efficiency is talked about a lot, most people don't know how they can increase theirs properly and concretely.

"The reason lies in the fact that they don't have the basic prerequisite solved, that is, they don't know when they spend the most, how much that is and which devices cause that consumption. If we don't know that, how can we plan the actions that will have the most effect, and with the least investment, and then result in the reduction of consumption, and thus the electricity bill?'' asks Pavic.

Guided by this problem, four colleagues from FER, Ivan Pavic, Domagoj Badanjak, Alen Hrga and Ivan Sudic - developed Enpulse. It is, as Pavic explained, a private energy consultant which explains to users in a simple way how to achieve greater energy efficiency and how to reduce their electricity bills.

The reality that their idea and product on which they worked for 18 months to develop has great potential has also been shown by the fact that they were declared the best in the competition of startups from four countries of the region at the BASF Adriatic competition. With this, they entered the grand final of the BASF Innovation Hub 2022 as one of the six best solutions in the field of sustainable development in all of Central and Eastern Europe. This recognition, as expected, means a lot to them, and for several reasons.

"First of all, the expert jury, with excellent comments and questions, drew our attention to the segments of the product and its presentation on which we need to work further. Second, we gained recognition, which contributes to better marketing and the better acquisition of new customers, and in the end, the monetary award we received is very useful for us,'' stated Pavic, a member of the team at the Croatian startup Green Energy Pal.

However, there is still a lot of work ahead of the team who are developing their private energy consultant which is composed of three parts (an electricity metre on location, a backend system that stores data, and the user interface) in their spare time. Pavic explained that they have set themselves three goals - increasing the number of users, expanding the features of Enpulse and attracting investments.

"The increase in the number of users brings us financial support and enables us to develop new product features. Namely, a good part of our background tools are based on big data analysis and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, which also require a large amount of data. In other words, without new users and data, we can't even develop any new features," noted Pavic.

In addition to all of the above, for further growth and development, they will need a financial injection, so their plan is to find an investor. "We need an investment so that we can fully devote ourselves to product development and employ experts from various fields of IT, AI development, energy, sales and marketing," they announced from the Croatian startup Green Energy Pal.

The reactions to the product so far, which has only been on the market for a few months, are very positive. "The current users from the household category are very satisfied with the product," said Pavic, adding that, although their target group of users is both companies and households, they still give preference to companies.

"SMEs have significant energy costs, often accounting for 10 to 30 percent of their total costs. However, these costs aren't so high as to require extensive analyses by energy experts and consultants. This is precisely why we're developing a ''digital energy consultant'' which can give people advice on increasing energy efficiency at a very low cost. Our idea is that the investment in hardware companies pays off within one or several months, and that the monthly software subscription is only a small part of the savings achieved with our product,'' noted Pavic, adding that the use of their product in households is still less profitable than it is in companies.

It's worth mentioning that this is one of the very few startups that is actually benefiting from the energy crisis, although they didn't count on such a development when they started developing their product.

"Now we have more open potential collaborations with different companies. We assume that the demand for our product will grow significantly,'' concluded Pavic.

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

November the 15th, 2022 - Brodosplit has built yet another large and valuable structure for a well known company, this time an innovative buoy for the collection of data out at sea.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, OCG-Data, an innovative buoy for collecting/recording biodiversity and metocean data, was successfully launched in the port of the Split's shipyard. It was built for the client Ocergie, the French branch of the American company Ocergy, Brodosplit announced. As they stated, with this project, the Split-based company is proving its capabilities on the wind offshore market, and it is realistic to expect the signing of new contracts for the construction of more new similar buoys and floating platforms soon, which implies the delivery of structures with an annual steel consumption of more than 100,000 tonnes in the period up to the year 2030.

The American Ocergy is otherwise a relatively young company, but according to its CEO Dominique Roddier, it wants to become one of the leaders in the field of offshore solutions for offshore wind farms (Floating Wind Foundation Design), which is "the result of the progress they have made over the last few years".

“This new innovative data collection buoy will gather information that will be used to better understand everything from wind turbulence to air and marine life around the project site. The pilot unit, part of Ocergie's ''Blue Oracle'' project (buoys with Lidar-optical radar and underwater equipment to assess ocean resources and characterise life in the environment) has received approval from the French authorities to be deployed at a site where several of the first floating wind power plants in the French region of Occitanie will be situated,'' they stated from Brodosplit.

The project itself is also supported by ADEME within the Investment Programme for the Future, and according to Roddier, this innovative buoy is important in multiple ways, both as an integral part of their wider business plan and as the first step in the development of the ''OCG-Wind FOW'' platform.

"We have an increasing number of pre-commercial projects before the year 2030, until the offshore wind industry implements large GW commercial FOW (Floating offshore wind) projects worldwide," said Roddier. The innovative marine data collection buoy made by Brodosplit will be deployed near one of the windy ''macro-zones'' in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of southern France.

"Despite the financial problems you've been facing at Brodosplit, we are extremely grateful for the full engagement of your team and employees, and very satisfied with the excellent work that Brodosplit has done in creating our platform. While you're discussing different business projects with investors, I believe that companies like Brodosplit can play a significant role in the energy transition and become a strong driver of the commercial development of the FOW industry, not only for projects here in the Mediterranean but throughout Europe," emphasised Roddier.

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

November the 10th, 2022 - The innovative Rijeka startup Gamio, which was born out of a love of video games, has attracted an impressive five million kuna, and now it is on the hunt for experts to add to its team.

As Josipa Ban/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, young entrepreneur Marko Matijevic decided to turn his passion for video games and gaming into a proper business. Last year, he launched the Hall of Game (HoG), the largest gaming arena in all of the Republic of Croatia, while simultaneously working on the development of the unique and innovative platform Gamio.GG, which is based on web3 technology.

Thanks to that platform, gamers should soon (as early as next year) start making money while playing. This play2earn concept is in complete contrast to the traditional gaming concept where players have to pay to play. Investors were quick to recognise Marko's unique idea, and the Rijeka startup Gamio recently received an investment of five million kuna. How the Gamio.GG platform will function, what the money will be invested in, and when we can expect it on the market, was explained by founder Marko Matijevic.

How did the idea and then the work on the development of the Gamio.GG platform come about?

The idea was actually "born" through the Hall of Game (HoG) in a conversation with various brands we work with. Before the very opening of HoG, there was an idea of the ​​parallel development of an eSports platform, but after the initial few events and tournaments that we did for brands, we realised that, as much as we love eSports, a lot of platforms are already trying to break into that segment, and the number of players who participating in esports competitions is limited.

For this reason, we turned our attention to everyday players, who actually make up the vast majority of HoG visitors, and to a slightly more "casual" approach. We tested the initial ideas with the players themselves, pivoted them and finally found the perfect investor and partner - Hellens Rock.

In that process, I was lucky and met the core development team, without which such rapid progress wouldn't have been possible. We've come up with many solutions together and I'm extremely glad that we've been participating in the development of the company together from the very beginning.

What are the biggest challenges you've faced in developing the platform?

Quality personnel is the greatest issue I've come across yet. I'm not just talking about product development, but also operationally speaking. Gaming is interesting to everyone, but not everyone understands the business side of "playing games". So, we're also looking for experts from other industries who primarily have an interest in this type of product and understand the gaming culture.

How will the platform actually work? Which video games will all gamers be able to play and earn GG cryptocurrency?

Players simply select the tasks they want to complete while playing their game. This can be in the form of "Get the highest score in one single game" or "Assist 10 times in one hour". The so-called "Ticket" currency is collected, which is used to enter exclusive tasks that then carry our GG cryptocurrency. In addition to all that, there are many options that players can use to increase their chances of winning bigger prizes or simply take a bigger risk for a bigger reward.

What kind of interest do you expect, especially considering that the crypto market isn't doing well at the moment?

Our primary market is gamers, and only then crypto users. For investment reasons, we postponed the release of the cryptocurrency and devoted ourselves to product development. The interest of early testers was even greater than expected. We plan to launch GG during the next year, depending on the growth of the number of users and the state of the crypto market going forward. During this time, users can decide whether they want to exchange their GG tokens for rewards within our "Shop" system, wait until they can cash out on their cryptocurrency exchanges, or simply reinvest them within the platform itself.

You recently received a pre-seed investment for its development, i.e. initial investment in the development, in the amount of 660 thousand euros, i.e. five million kuna. What will that money be invested in?

It takes considerable time to develop a custom-made blockchain-based platform. Headlines about investments in web3 companies always look bombastic, but most of the investment goes to development itself and later to marketing. The investment is being used primarily for employment and product development, but also for the first permanent users. We also equipped some modern offices in Rijeka and a smaller regional office in Zagreb, which is soon expected to move to a more attractive location.

You received the investment from the Hellen's Rock investment fund, which was founded by entrepreneur Sacha Dragic. How easy or difficult was it to secure the investment? How did you attract the investor?

Sacha is an extremely capable entrepreneur surrounded by experts like Stjepko and Andrea Cordas, who have immense experience in managing tech companies. Since we're friends from a similar industry, it wasn't difficult to have a similar view on the future of the company's business. The whole process didn't really last long because we all knew what numbers were important and what realistic goals to set in the coming period. As I already mentioned, an acquaintance from the same technology sector actually made it possible for us to speak a "similar language" and also made it possible for us to achieve cooperation much faster than it would have been through some more classic VC paths.

When should the platform be finished and be made available on the market?

The MVP is already ready and has been tested several times. We're now dealing with all of the final preparations in order to start the closed phase of market entry and the beginning of marketing. In the beginning, we're going to be targeting a few hundred gamers and will gradually increase the number of players on the platform. Finally, with the issuance of GG tokens to the cryptocurrency market, the platform will become available to everyone.

Which markets are you targeting, and which gamers from which countries?

We're starting with Croatia's more immediate region because through the Hall of Game, we've gained a very good insight into local trends, cooperation with various organisations, and we also want to give our players the opportunity to try the product first. After a short phase with Croatia and the region's market, our goal is certainly America, but until that moment comes, we're going to focus on markets such as Latin America and Turkey. The USA is a logical choice, but it's also the most financially demanding, and we'll start with it after we prove our profitability here on these other markets. Of course, then there's the rest of "Tier1" in European countries like the UK, Germany, France...

Last year, you launched the Hall of Game, a gaming centre in Zagreb's Z shopping centre, in which one million euros was invested. Are you satisfied with the level of attendance and your work there?

The first year was phenomenal. We've done a lot of events, both our own and partner's. We put ourselves on the "gaming map" not only of this particular region but also of Europe with the recent Call of Duty tournaments.

Of course, collaborations with big brands only improved the perception of HOG. We also had problems and learned some things the hard way, but that's why we are extremely confident in what we do. I think it can always be better and I hope this is just a fraction of what we want to achieve.

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

November the 8th, 2022 - The Zadar agency Telum has created a new and innovative tool which will help us rethink our personal data protection as things are set to change significantly with third party cookies.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Josipa Ban writes, privacy protection, which is most obviously reflected in the abolition or blocking of third-party cookies, has caused tectonic changes in digital advertising, and as such in ever-present digital media.

Huge changes are happening in this field because over more recent years, digital advertising has become "dependent" on third-party cookies. How could it not rely on it, when you take into account the fact that cookies are what lead advertisers to exactly where they need to be and who they need to be shown to by said individual's preferences?

In addition to targeted ads, cookies also enable advertisers to measure their own campaign results, user profiling and optimisation, all with the aim of achieving the best possible marketing results. However, third party cookies are increasingly being blocked by users and web browsers themselves due to privacy protection issues.

For example, the Safari browser has already discontinued them, and the consequences of such practices can be seen in the Zadar agency Telum, which is a marketing agency that has been involved in the creation, management and optimisation of Internet marketing campaigns for fourteen years now. The most important goal of marketing is performance, i.e. earnings and the growth of the client.

"When it comes to measuring the success of campaigns, we're already noticing that 50 percent of solutions that rely on third party cookies become invisible precisely because of their rejection," explained Mario Ivic, the founder and director of the Zadar agency Telum.

The situation will become even more difficult when one of the leading web browsers, Google's very own wildly popular Chrome, also chooses to block their use, which has already been announced for the third quarter of 2024. The consequences of such a move will be felt not only by advertisers but also by digital media.

"Everything starts with the advertiser themselves. They should adapt the measurement of campaign results to the increasingly frequent blocking of third party cookies. If they don't, they'll lose a lot of information, and this affects the quality of data optimisation. That being said, a much bigger problem is that with weaker targeting and user segmentation capabilities, campaigns become less efficient, and therefore less well paid. This inevitably spills over to publishers, that is, digital media, who have to reckon with a smaller number of advertisers and lower prices," explained Ivic.

Advertisers and digital media must therefore adapt to these new market conditions, and the solution, says Ivic, who is also the co-owner of Midas Network, a platform for native advertising, is in the preparation of technology for "first party" data, which enables user profiling on only one single domain.

"This somewhat reduces the quality of the data, but there are solutions that minimise this effect. These are CDP (Customer Data Platform) or DMP (Data Management Platform) solutions that enable user segmentation. By standardising these segments, over time, you can achieve a situation in which advertising becomes almost as good as it was with third party cookies,'' Ivic pointed out, and adding that some publishers are already using these solutions, while others haven't even started preparing for this yet.

The Zadar agency Telum, a marketing agency that stands out of the crowd for its own development of digital tools that help clients make their campaigns more successful, is also working on a solution to this problem, and that saw it placed on Deloitte's ranking of the fastest growing technology companies in Central Europe for three years in a row (from 2016 to 2018).

However, Ivic doesn't want to reveal much at all until the product is fully developed, so he just briefly pointed out that the software should be on the market in about three to four months, and its specialty will be that it will be the first solution adapted to the specifics of the Croatian market and at the same time be the only Croatian solution of that category for digital advertising using first party data.

Telum's brand new digital tool should be an additional tailwind for the company that has carried out more than three thousand campaigns to date, which achieved 18 percent growth in revenue in 2021, and which should be even higher in 2022. It should help advertisers and digital media minimise the negative effects of privacy protection policies and cookie blocking.

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

November the 3rd, 2022 - A very special application (app) by the Croatian startup Spiritus is turning graveyards into virtual museums, telling the stories of those lying at rest there.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Mladen Miletic writes, a team of Croatian tech experts from the Zagreb startup Spiritus has designed an application that turns cemeteries across the Republic of Croatia into virtual museums, and it has already attracted more than three million kuna in investments intended to expand this heartfelt idea to other European markets.

Through the application, the families of the deceased can write stories about their lives, as well as receive photo suggestions or stories about their loved ones that they may not have even known about. The Spiritus application was premiered in Vukovar, and on October the 31st, 2022, it arrived at almost all major cemeteries in the country.

"We've been preparing the project for more than a year now, and we hope that it will be recognised and supported by people. There are so many untold and inspiring life stories that we want to preserve for our descendants," explained Spiritus director Dino Jerkovic.

So far, the application has more than 700,000 memorials spanning more than 50 city cemeteries loaded into it, from Vukovar to Zagreb, Varazdin, Osijek, Karlovac and Split.

"We believe that every person who has ever lived has at least one story worth telling. These are often wonderful and inspiring life stories that will be forgotten over generations. We want to find such stories and enable families to keep hold of them forever," added Dino Jerkovic.

"We'd like to thank our previous partners for recognising the potential of this project and we're looking forward to future collaborations. The goal is that every family in Croatia has the opportunity to preserve the memories of their loved ones through technology. Pictures, stories and biographical information can remain indelible on the Internet, in fact they're eternal. As such, the memories of our grandparents can remain for all generations. Of course, we do check all of the content placed there. It's very important to us that all of the content on Spiritus is dignified and respectful of the deceased," concluded Jerkovic.

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

November the 3rd, 2022 - The Croatian Dalekovod company is set to engage in a new job for a large Norwegian client - Statnett, which chose Dalekovod's offer during a tender as the best.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, the latest job that Dalekovod has got its hands on, with the proviso that the contract will be concluded after the final confirmation, concerns the construction of a new 420 kV transmission line over in Norway, more specifically on the Aurland - Sogndal section, spanning a total length of 41 kilometres.

After an evaluation process in accordance with the tender criteria, the Norwegian client Statnett chose the Croatian Dalekovod company's offer, and the intention to conclude a contract was quickly expressed. At this moment in time, the appeal period is still running, and if there are no surprises or bumps in the road, Dalekovod's Management can peacefully wait for the conclusion of this important contract on the execution of works for this well-known partner.

They are just finishing the construction project of a new 420 kV transmission line between the substations Skillemoen and Skaidi for the aforementioned Norwegian client, which spans a total length of 89 kilometres and is specific given its geographical position in the far north of Norway. Because of that, it was built in arctic weather conditions.

Approximately 70 to 80 percent of the Croatian Dalekovod company's business revenues are generated on foreign markets. About 80% of that is realised in Scandinavia, which means that on an annual level, 50% of Dalekovod's income is generated by jobs carried out over o the Scandinavian market.

Scandinavia is therefore an important stronghold for this Croatian company, and there is still a significant investment cycle on which Dalekovod is building its plans, although apparently at a reduced intensity. The electricity transmission company Statnett is otherwise the Norwegian counterpart of Croatia's very own HEP.

The Croatian Dalekovod company's cooperation with Statnett started way back in 2007 and then continued with a series of projects in which Norway, due to its geographical shape and terrain configuration, has been successfully connecting the north and the south with a new distribution network for the past fifteen years.

As many as 350 Dalekovod employees have worked there on certain projects, sometimes under extremely demanding conditions. Similarly, only in later dynamics, cooperation was achieved on energy projects in nearby Sweden. Dalekovod's latest contracts concern two Swedish investors, Elevio AB, the owner of the distribution network, and Svenska Kraftnät, the national energy company. The management is also still trying to position the company on the demanding German market, and Dalekovod established a branch in Germany again this year. It is estimated that by 2030, the largest investments in energy will take place there.

Business recovery

The recorded 36% drop in the Group's revenues in the first nine months of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021 (when revenues amounted to 705.7 million kuna) was mostly influenced by the stoppage of work on two projects in Ukraine for obvious reasons, and less activity in Scandinavian countries.

Business recovery was noticeable in the third quarter of 2022, in which 264 million kuna of revenue was realised with a net profit of 3.6 million kuna. Dalekovod's management expects these positive trends to continue.

For more, make sure to keep up with our dedicated business section.