December the 12th, 2021 - Denis Jasarevic of the successful Croatian IN2 Group has stated how the global coronavirus pandemic which saw the world as we knew it so well shut down only worked to highlight the sheer important of the blossoming Croatian IT sector.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Denis Jasarevic writes, we live in times when what was impossible yesterday is no longer the case today. Over the last two years, there have been major disruptions at the global level, which have revealed that processes with the help of technology can speed up and improve the efficiency of all users in the system. It didn’t happen overnight, but 2021 once again showed the importance of the Croatian IT sector and pushed it to the very forefront.

All forecasts show that economic growth throughout 2022 will be significantly higher than what was initially forecast, and the Croatian IT sector is expected to become a key generator of development and competitiveness of the Croatian economy. Numerous Croatian technology companies in the current environment have managed to succeed worldwide and attract significant investments.

It is reasonable to expect that the growth trend of the Croatian IT sector will continue throughout next year and thus continue to change the paradigm of both the public and private sector in Croatia, which recognised Croatian IT companies as partners in the great efforts to achieve goals in adapting to these new circumstances.

The focus of the IN2 Group next year will primarily be on further development and investment in a wide and quality portfolio of its own products in the fields of health, financial and insurance business, as well as various economic verticals and a number of software solutions for public administration.

The Group is counting on the advantages of digitalisation to be further highlighted and proven in this ongoing crisis period, and the Croatian IT sector expects further progress in business segments that we have previously recognised as those in which we want to develop.

As for the bigger picture, the Republic of Croatia must and can better position itself on the competitive IT map of the world. The main challenge, apart from the availability of experts, which is a prerequisite for further development, is a company's readiness to accept new forms of doing business, and of course investment in the development of the IT sector as a driving force of the Croatian economy and for competitiveness.

For more, check out our dedicated business section.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For more, check out our dedicated business section.

June the 16th, 2021 - When it comes to innovative Croatian companies being noticed on a global scale, the list is only continuing to grow and provide a spring in the step of certain sectors in the country. Clutch has recently listed the Zagreb company Ingemark among the 100 fastest growing.

As Novac writes, with more and more of the population being vaccinated against the novel coronavirus and the gradual relaxation of anti-epidemic measures, the economy also appears to be waking up, finally. According to the latest Eurostat data, Croatia's GDP in the first quarter of 2021 grew by 5.8 percent when compared to the previous quarter.

Last year, the year dominated by an unprecedented global public health crisis, was extremely challenging and impossible to predict for the entire economy, but only positive news came from the blossoming Croatian IT sector. The Zagreb company Ingemark, which deals with the development of custom software, has been listed by Clutch among the top 100 fastest growing.

Clutch, one of the world’s leading global B2B rating and review companies, highlights one hundred of the world’s fastest growing companies each year, as well as the top 100 companies with sustainable growth based on financial data. The Zagreb company Ingemark, which ended last year with impressive revenues of 14.3 million kuna, which is 6.4 million kuna more than back in pre-pandemic 2019, has rightfully been included. Viktor Matic, the director of Ingemark, was also more than satisfied with another success.

''We're flattered to have been placed on the list of the 100 fastest growing companies in the world. That means our engineers are doing a great job and I’m proud of that. The moves we've made over the past couple of years have focused on the development of Ingemark, organisational changes and a much more careful evaluation of projects before we take them over. We've completely changed our organisation and we're constantly evolving, so this inclusion in the top 100 companies is, in a way, a confirmation that we are on the right track, which I'm extremely proud of,'' stated Matic.

The companies on this list are mainly headquartered in the US, Australia and India. A smaller number, about 10 percent of the list, are companies with more than 1,000 employees, and most of them, more than 50 percent, are companies with less than 50 employees, including the Zagreb company Ingemark, which currently has 40 employees, but plans to increase that number.

''The indicative target is to reach 70 employees by the end of 2022. I think it's hard to plan for a longer period than that. With this intense growth in the number of employees, it is important to set up processes that will ensure that all employees know at all times what is expected of them and what they can expect from their colleagues. In that sense, defining the process is certainly one of our priorities, and as part of that, we recently certified the company according to ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 standards,'' said Matic.

For 2021, Clutch’s ranking of the 100 fastest-growing companies is based on their absolute revenue growth rate from 2019 to 2020, while the top 100 companies with sustainable growth are based on their absolute revenue growth rate from 2017 to 2020. With excellent business and an increase in employees, the Zagreb company Ingemark expects revenue growth of up to 25 million kuna by the end of this year.

Judging by the statement of Tajana Barancic, the longtime president of CISEx, who said back in February that the IT sector will grow by at least 10 percent this year, and its exports by 20 percent, more positive news from the Croatian IT sector is to be expected by the end of the year.

For more, follow our dedicated business section.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes on the 22nd of November, 2020, the Croatian IT sector is continuing to achieve great levels of success and recognition, which has been confirmed by the 21st edition of Deloitte's list of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in Central Europe, in which, in addition to companies from 18 countries, Croatia also participated.

Electrocoin, whose main activity is intermediation in cryptocurrency trading and processing, took 6th place in the category of the 50 fastest growing companies in Central Europe with impressive growth of 2617%. Nikola Skoric, a nuclear engineer, founded the company back in 2014, one year after Croatia's EU accession, and was soon joined by Marin Marzic, a computer security expert. It all started as a mere hobby, but Skoric and Marzic ended up creating the fastest growing Croatian fintech startup, little did they know at the time.

"It turned out that we were able to innovate and make a profit, grow at warp speed, push crypto into the mainstream and start a revolution in the payment industry," said Skoric. Electrocoin's bitcoin-mjenjacnica.hr is the first and most popular online exchange office in all of Croatia. In cooperation with Croatian Post (Hrvatska posta), the Crypto Centre was opened last year, which enables the sale of cryptocurrencies across 50 Croatian post offices, and in May, Sveta Nedelja was among the first cities to start the process of accepting cryptocurrencies, pushing the growing Croatian IT sector even further forward.

In 36th place on the list comes the consumer platform for online shopping, Bazzar.hr. with excellent growth of 695%. It is the Croatian counterpart of Amazon, founded by brother and sister Viktor and Tana Zimmermann.

"The biggest challenge was to change the perception of people in Croatia when it comes to online shopping, as well as to position themselves out there on the e-commerce market. Despite everything, we've been recording 100% growth from year to year since the very beginning. We're proud that Deloitte has included us on this prestigious list for the second time, which is another confirmation of the decency of our business model,'' the owner stated. This year, they've recorded more than 250,000 users, while next year they will focus on growth right here on the Croatian market, with investments going to innovation and service improvement, a wider offer, better prices and a better overall user experience. "We're also planning strong expansion into the regional market," Zimmermann announced.

In 39th place is Agrivi, which grew by 640%. The company is credited with developing one of the most successful agricultural production management platforms in the whole world. With impressive growth of 549%, 44th place was taken by Include from Solin, which is engaged in the development and production of urban street equipment for smart cities and the production of solar benches. Zagreb's Eco Mobile, which specialises in ICT solutions to support waste management processes took 47th place with brilliant growth of 530%.

The rising Croatian IT sector stars of... Krizevci!

In the Rising Stars category, Speck placed third with amazing growth of 1076%. In a mere two years, this Krizevci-based IT agency has acquired clients for whom they work on web and mobile development and design services.

"After three years of working in a team consisting of more than 40 experts and creating solutions for global clients with a massive influence at Fintech, EdTech and MarTech, I'm proud to say that the teamwork is truly a dream," said director Tomislav Tenodi.

In the special category Stars of Positive Influence, which was launched only this year, three Croatian companies were presented - Rimac Automobili, Infinum and Infobip. Josip Biscan, managing partner at Infinum, says that when Infinum was founded, there weren't many who knew how to programme for mobile devices and the "boom" of the Apple Store hadn't yet happened. Then, they started hiring smart people who didn't yet have any experience, but did have a true desire to learn, and Matej Spoler, the co-founder of Infinum alongside Tomislav Car, taught them to programme for the now wildly popular iPhone - today's iOS platform.

''We've continued to employ those who love technology, want to learn and share their knowledge. We have maintained this practice to this day and that's why Infinum is continuously growing. The average annual growth over the last five years has been around 40% per year and the goal is to continue to grow sustainably, not fast or exponentially,'' says Biscan. Together with their colleagues from no less than the gigantic Porsche, they want to employ about 100 experts in the development of digital solutions for Porsche and beyond at Porsche Digital Croatia located here in Zagreb.

"The Croatian IT sector is a strong community with a lot of potential, to which the general public may only now be beginning to pay any real attention,'' he concluded.

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As Vedran Marjanovic/Novac writes on the 1st of April, 2020, although not as directly threatened by the spread of coronavirus as the tourism, hospitality and trade sectors are, the Croatian IT sector is already slowly feeling the effects of the coronavirus impact on the economy, with widespread concern about how long the crisis will last and what its consequences will be.

''Due to the significant percentage of drop in orders and cancellations of already ordered jobs, there's a challenge with the workforce, and the number of cancelled projects is worrying because the inflow of new revenues can no longer be predicted and existing receivables are more difficult to pay off due to a kind of panic in the market,'' stated Ivan Ante Nikolic, a member of the executive board of the Association of Information and Communication Activities of the Croatian Employers' Association and the president of the board of Blink.

For understanding the position of the Croatian IT sector on the overall market, warned Nikolic, it is important that IT companies cooperate with different sectors of the economy, which has made and will continue to make them less exposed to disruption in certain parts of the economy.

''The impact on companies in the Croatian IT sector depends on the decline in activities in the sectors our clients work in. As expected, the biggest concern is with companies whose clients are in the tourism and hospitality, transportation, logistics, construction and other sectors which are more exposed to the effects of coronavirus,'' he noted.

On the other hand, companies in the Croatian IT sector which operate with banks, telecommunications or pharmaceutical companies, show less concern about the current situation, but, as Nikolic pointed out, everyone is fully aware of the uncertainty that the epidemic is bringing to their long-term business plans and the damage it might ultimately cause.

Commenting on the government's 63 measures to help the economy overcome the effects of the coronavirus, Nikolic proceeded to urge the Croatian Government not to forget about the Croatian IT sector, while it isn't exposed to the coronavirus crisis like other sectors are, the government must not forget to identify further ways of helping out businesses in the field.

''Emergency loans to preserve liquidity should be defended by all forces in these situations so as not to create side effects. We hope that these loans will not be much more generous than the HAMAG BICRO loan in the amount of 25 thousand euros,'' Nikolic said.

Companies in the Croatian IT sector assembled at the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP) to support a general request to exempt businesses from needing to pay income tax, contributions and surtax for a minimum of three months, as well as to abolish corporate tax advance payments and provide a moratorium on repayment loans and leases for twelve months.

They also want to hear the government's ideas for what will happen in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. For them, as they pointed out, the direction is clear and requires an unprecedented investment boom that would launch investments and alleviate the negative effects in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic.

''Investments must and can be initiated through multiple courses of action. The government must establish a faster and more efficient system for EU funds so that the real sector can reach investment funds more quickly,'' Nikolic said, noting that private investment funds will also be needed to put the Croatian economy back on its feet after the coronavirus pandemic passes.

Make sure to follow our business page for more. For rolling information and updates in English on coronavirus in Croatia, follow our dedicated section.