May the 18th, 2023 - Croatian entrepreneurs Mate Rimac and Sandro Mur have decided to invest in the already fairly well known Croatian Juicefast food tech startup, founded at the start of 2020.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Juicefast food tech startup has found a way to provide a complete nutritional solution with its cold-pressed juices and nutritionally balanced meals. It was founded at the beginning of 2020 by two brothers David and Marko Dravinec. Since then, it has been successfully growing here on the domestic market and winning over more and more fans of leading a healthy life and ensuring proper nutrition.

All of the products produced by the Juicefast food tech startup are 100% natural, without any additives and preservatives, which ensures top quality and taste, and product safety is achieved using the most modern high-pressure processing technology. With the new energy and capital that Rimac and Mur will bring to Juicefast, the innovative brothers behind it plan to do even more.

With the investments from Mate Rimac and Sandro Mur, already known for their innovative business ideas and wildly successful investments, Juicefast ended up with a dream duo backing their startup. This investment is just another example of two world-class entrepreneurs investing in young companies and encouraging the growth of the startup ecosystem across the Republic of Croatia.

"Over the last few years, I've supported and invested in several domestic business ventures in their early stages, all with the aim of strengthening the Croatian start-up ecosystem. When considering who to support, the most important thing for me is the team behind the project, scalability beyond Croatian borders and the potential to influence the growth of the Croatian economy and create more jobs. The story of my entry into Juicefast is quite unusual, though.

David sent me a short email in which he introduced himself and the brand. Although I receive a large number of similar emails, I wanted to learn more about Juicefast because you can immediately see when someone knows what they're doing and has a professional approach to things. When we met, I recognised the potential of the project and David's passion combined with the persistence needed to create a company. David and the team have a clear vision for their further development, and I believe that the market in which they're located will be increasingly important and larger in the future. After the first meeting, we quickly agreed on an investment." Rimac stated.

The founder of Bellabeat and well-known investor Sandro Mur, who, with his business instincts and passion for technology has become one of the most successful Croatian entrepreneurs of all, also wants to help young domestic startups realise their dreams.

"The Juicefast food tech startup is a brand whose products I first of all used privately, and then over time I realised how much potential there is in the whole story. We're used to the tech sector being the area where the biggest breakthroughs in the startup industry take place, but I'm sure that healthy lifestyle habits and everything that Juicefast represents are the future. They have a vision and they're passionate, and now, with our support and resources, they'll get the opportunity to expand and grow. This is just another step towards the creation of successful Croatian brands that will go on to conquer the world,'' said Mur.

"We have more than 50,000 clients and more than 500 monthly subscribers here on the Croatian market. We recently opened up on the neighbouring Slovenian market, where we also expect excellent business results. The company currently has 20 employees, but we're also planning new hires. So far, we've already sold over 3,000,000 bottles of juice, which is excellent,'' said Juicefast founder David Dravinec.

"We're currently focusing on the B2C segment, primarily through webshop sales, while in the future we will pay more attention to the corporate sector and other B2B channels. I've always believed in the vision of the Juicefast food tech startup, but actually having the support of two ''magicians'' in this game, such as Sandro and Mate, gives me even more hope that we'll manage to achieve everything we've got planned. I'm extremely grateful and happy," concluded David.

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

May the 16th, 2023 - The very young Croatian startup Turneo hasn't even been on the market for a whole year yet, but despite that, their product is already being sought by the Americans.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Josipa Ban writes, at an international level, the tourist experience market (at least the one that represents excursions, tours and attractions and is worth as much as 250 billion US dollars) has somehow remained "offline", and it's even managed to do so in the time of ubiquitous digitisation.

The reservation of what most people travel to different countries for still takes generally place in a more or less old-fashioned way - at hotel receptions, at travel agencies, at an organiser's office or stand... But the young Croatian startup Turneo, founded only in March 2022, wants to change all of that.

After half a year of work on the development of the platform, two friends and founders, Matija Marijan and Fran Kauzlaric, offered the market a B2B platform in August that brings together what was previously incompatible - hotels (sellers), organisers (those who offer experiences), and tourists. And doing that, according to these young entrepreneurs who left successful careers to start their own business, was a big, if not their biggest, challenge to date.

"We had to find a way to solve a problem for which no one has yet found a solution at the global level. So, out of nothing, we needed to create a functional platform that would be useful to all of the aforementioned groups. How demanding the task was for us was also showcased by the fact that Airbnb recently paused their "Airbnb Experiences" project, which was supposed to connect tourists with the local offer of tours and attractions. The Tour platform is different because it is oriented towards the business segment, i.e. hotels, apartments, campsites, etc., which, through Tour, can digitally offer their guests a selection of tours, activities, excursions, wellness treatments, etc.'' explained Marijan.

The fact that the creators of the Croatian startup Turneo is very much on the right track when it comes to conquering the market has been also shown by the fact that today, only nine months after entering the market, 39 hotels and about 30 organisers are using the platform. Most of them are Croatian clients, but hotels in Prague and even in distant Zanzibar are also now using it.

Investors were also quick to recognise the potential, and back at the beginning of this year, the Croatian startup Turneo received its first investment of 800,000 euros. That investment round was led by Ascension Ventures and Underline Ventures, with participation from Silicon Gardens and numerous angel investors. Their goal is to conquer the European market for now, but the potential is global.

The founders of the Croatian startup Turneo have pointed out that they already have some serious inquiries from across the pond in America, but they are still a small team, numbering a mere eight people, so their focus will be on Europe for some time yet. The largest part of the investment, as Marijan pointed out, will be invested in the development of the platform, as well as in the operational part of the business, i.e. the management of reservations, the overall user experience, requests and so on.

"We'll be constantly upgrading the platform in accordance with the experiences from the field," explained Matija. In addition to all of that, they 'e only now taking a bigger step into the market and the sales world, which they have not dealt with intensively as yet because they were primarily focused on development and their existing clients. The advantages of using their platform, according to Kauzlaric, are multiple.

"The main thing is the satisfaction of the guests. Guests who book a tour or a specific activity together with hotel accommodation are on average 18% more satisfied than guests who only book accommodation, TUI research has shown. This is also the main reason why hotels choose to use our platform. The next benefit is is that, from the commission on the sold tour or excursion, they generate additional income, and the third is that our service relieves the staff at the reception, because the guests now have all the information about additional activities on offer to them in one place, through the Tour application,'' he pointed out.

In addition, he added, organisers also profit from their platform, as they no longer have to go around hotels offering guests their activities and tours. "When an organiser connects to our platform, they're automatically connected to all the hotels within our network," explained Kauzlaric.

This small and ambitious team is also working on the automation of support for hotel guests in the experience segment through the Marc chatbot, which was created through the implementation of the controversial ChatGPT. They plan to offer this "virtual concierge" product, whose function is to advise tourists on what to do and see when on holiday in a certain place, to major global hotel chains.

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

May the 11th, 2023 - The Croatian startup Ani Biome wants to take on and conquer the ever-demanding global market with its fermented microbeverages, but it needs to raise a few million euros first.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Josipa Ban writes, the Croatian startup Ani Biome, which has developed a very personalised approach to microbiome health, has opened a new investment round in which it aims to raise a massive ten million euros.

The lowest amount that can be invested is 100 thousand euros, and they have already collected their first 100K. The investor, as revealed by Bruno Balen, the co-founder of Ani Biome – is a lawyer and business angel from Germany, and he cannot reveal his identity. According to Balen, co-founder Nika Pintar wrote the contract with the help of the controversial ChatGPT.

"The investor said it was excellent," he pointed out. The young TechAgeBio company, with the very ambitious goal of becoming number one in the world in the longevity industry, plans to invest a third of the desired 10 million euros in scientific integrity, i.e. into studies that will prove that the product they are working on is not just a "cute brand'', but that it is backed up by science. They plan to invest the second third in their production capacities, in which 600 thousand euros have been invested so far, Balen announced, adding that the last third will go to marketing efforts.

Metabolite studies

The products the Croatian startup Ani Biome plans to conquer the world with are fermented microbeverages. "Our product is a kind of revolution in potential intervention in the field of the longevity industry, that is, in increasing healthy longevity. Therefore, it isn't only important how long we live, but how well we live. We see metabolic fermentations as a tool that can improve everything that is damaged during the aging process and by diseases related to aging,'' explained Iva Hlapcic, the coordinator for scientific projects at Ani Biome, who also pointed out that the Croatian startup Ani Biome is currently in the phase of comprehensive metabolite research.

"We're investigating their interactions, their synergistic influence, i.e. in which metabolic pathways they're involved, so that we can use them to target exactly that pathway and use it as an intervention for a health condition that has caused impairement," explained the young scientist in the field of biomedicine and healthcare, who joined the Ani Biome team three months ago. They also want to confirm the effects of their products with ongoing clinical research.

At the event held at Zagreb's Bird Incubator, where the Croatian startup Ani Biome announced their plans, Hlapcic explained that in addition to metabolite research, their goal is to combine everything discovered with machine learning models in order to personalise them as much as possible. Ani Habit, an app for interacting and anticipating client needs, is already out, but will continue to be upgraded.

Ani Biome's fermented microbeverages improve the overall health of the intestines, that is, the gastrointestinal tract, according to Hlapcic. "We know that the intestines aren't isolated and that they communicate with all parts of the rest of the organism in multiple ways. Today, for example, we know that various neurological disorders such as depression, anxiety and similar conditions can be influenced through gut health. We also know that at the level of mitochondria, which are responsible for the energy levels in the body, we can carry out certain interventions in the body using metabolites and thus improve the level of energy and vitality present. This is something we strive for and something we ultimately believe in," Hlapcic pointed out.

In order for the effect of their products to be as good as possible, the Croatian startup Ani Biome is also developing a bank of metabolites, which currently holds 1,500 of them and which will serve for a personalised approach to each client.

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

April the 20th, 2023 - The very first Dalmatian startup acceleration programme is set to launch in autumn this year, and Digital Dalmatia (Digitalna Dalmacija) is planning to provide the Dalmatian startup scene with a much needed spring in its step.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Josipa Ban writes, Digital Dalmatia is currently busy arranging the launch of the first Dalmatian startup acceleration programme in the City of Split. The plan is for the programme to be launched this autumn, more specifically in October, and negotiations are currently underway with several foreign partners.

The goal, as explained by Damir Brcic, the head of Digital Dalmatia, is to provide the young Dalmatian startup scene with further education, mentoring and ultimately capital. In order to provide them with all of this, they're in negotiations with various European acceleration programmes and a few VC funds.

Brcic has stated that over more recent days, they signed an agreement on cooperation with the well known Slovenian VC fund Silicon Gardens, they are also negotiating with Digitalhub from Bonn in Germany and Silicon Castles from Austria, and Startup Wise Guys were also their guests recently. It is a multiple award-winning European and African accelerator and VC fund that has invested in more than 350 startups in their early stages of development since 2012, when it was founded in Estonia by technology entrepreneurs.

Digital Dalmatia pointed out that this year, Startup Wise Guys has a massive 25 million euros available for investments in startups in their early stages of development, and that their acceleration fund is especially dedicated to areas where startups don't have sufficient access to capital, such as the region of Central Eastern Europe, which includes the Republic of Croatia.

Razvan Suta, Startup Wise Guys' business expansion manager in charge of Central Europe, arrived at the agreement regarding the launch of the first Dalmatian startup acceleration programme in Split with Digital Dalmatia, a project initiated by Split-Dalmatia County to encourage the development of the blossoming ICT sector.

"I'm delighted with the ideas, the teams and projects that I had the opportunity to see. I'm already thinking about the next steps to launch these young startups on the global market,'' said Razvan Suta.

Damir Brcic from Digital Dalmatia explained that they have been actively working on the creation of young startups for four years now through three different startup programmes - Student Entrepreneurship Projects, StartIT Academy and GrowIT competition. He pointed out that to date, they have educated more than 50 teams, of which almost 20 have opened a company or trade.

"Now is the time to launch them on the international market, and for that we need cooperation with experienced foreign investors and accelerators," he said. In cooperation with them, Split should soon receive its first acceleration programme, which should help Dalmatian startups, through education, mentoring and investments, to confidently step into foreign markets.

"The startup scene in Dalmatia is gradually becoming richer, and there's no shortage of quality teams and projects. What is currently missing is an accelerator, which would enable all these startups to learn, grow and further develop in Split, without the need to develop their businesses elsewhere outside the country,'' Brcic pointed out.

The Dalmatian startup acceleration programme could be a tailwind for the development of the startup scene and ecosystem across Dalmatia, which still lags behind Zagreb, and in which Include's Ivan Mrvos stands out.

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

April the 18th, 2023 - The Croatian startup Revuto launches a new project which allows for the close engagement of the public who can become owners of shares in the company.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Josipa Ban writes, the Croatian startup Revuto, which developed an application (app) for managing subscriptions, has recently announced a brand new project in the launch of which, through a crowdfunding campaign, people can also participate as investors, and in return they will receive shares in the company.

The plan is to raise about 1.7 million US dollars in total, and as far as the project itself is concerned, the Croatian startup Revuto has announced the launch of a card programme for the overall better control of subscriptions.

With it, as they explained, Revuto's users will get the opportunity to use virtual debit cards to make payments and have greater subscription control. They will be able to top up with debit or credit cards and through cryptocurrencies, and the main goal is to provide privacy and protection from any irritating and unwanted costs.

The app's users will also have an overview of all subscriptions in one place, so it will be easier to manage them. Small investors will also be able to participate in the launch of this programme.

"Through all the activities so far, we have achieved significant growth, secured all of the necessary regulatory permits, integrated with our partners and are fully ready to launch our most important product on the market, Revuto debit cards. With this crowdfunding campaign, we want to offer small investors a share in our company so that the project remains in the hands of the community that supports us, and our community grows alongside us," Vedran Vukman, the co-founder and CEO of the Croatian startup Revuto, pointed out.

It's important to note that the number of investors is limited. As such, today, on Tuesday, April the 18th, 1,500 investors will be free participate in the crowdfunding campaign, which will last only 24 hours.

From Revuto, a startup that raised 10 million US dollars of investment back in 2021 and whose services are used by more than 355 thousand active users at this moment in time, they also note that by investing, the investors will, in addition to a share in the company, also receive a return of up to 15% of the investment in the form of the REVU token.

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

March the 28th, 2023 - The recently held Invento Summit in Zagreb brought together the leaders of Croatian startups and others from the world of investment and technology, including Photomath's creator, Damir Sabol.

As Suzana Varosanec/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, over the last decade or so, the Croatian startup ecosystem has changed an enormous amount, and while young entrepreneurs used to depend on themselves and themselves only, they can now count on advice, mentorship and even money from those who have succeeded, and there are no longer so few of those here in Croatia.

Damir Sabol, currently the most talked about entrepreneur in the entire country, who is waiting for regulatory approval of the sale of his third company - Photomath - to the global giant Google, said from the Invento Summit that after the sale, the approval process of which is quite arduous, he plans to help others.

"I see myself helping other people achieve what they want," Sabol said, noting that everyone expects him to do something, and contrary to expectations, he believes that the time has come to dedicate himself to others. The power of giving back was also the motto of the Invento Summit regional conference, which gathered more than 200 experts in technology, business development and investments in Zagreb on Friday.

Sabol, one of the conference panelists, certainly has an awful lot of skill to pass on. He has been in the world of entrepreneurship practically since his student days, and as he recalled, when he told his colleagues from FER that he was going to found his own company, nobody believed him.

"The prevailing attitude was that you can get a job and work for others, but not that you can found your own company. We have to change that," emphasised the founder of Photomath. He also noted that we must work on better communication. "Americans know how to communicate well, which is very important and that's their advantage. In this country, on the other hand, neither the education system nor employers insist on having proper communication skills,'' stated Sabol, who continued in his belief that ideas should be shared and not merely kept to oneself.

Although the idea itself doesn't have to be crucial for success, it was not so in the case of Albert Gajsak, the well known 24-year-old founder of CircuitMess.

"He had an idea, but no plan on how to realise it,'' Tomislav Car, the co-founder of Infinum, and today the director of Productive, recalled the beginnings of this young and successful entrepreneur. Car is otherwise the only investor in Gajsak's idea, as well as the mentor of the business, which turned out to be a good and smart move, because CircuitMess currently generates revenues of 2.3 million dUD ollars and cooperates with Walmart, the largest retail chain in the entire world. This collaboration began when Car decided to pay for a plane ticket for a then young high school student, Albert Gajsak to go to a European robotics competition.

"My parents didn't have money for that ticket, so I sent emails to all the IT companies I knew, asking them to help me out," recalled Gajsak, who was bored with school because there weren't enough practical exercises for him to engage in. That was also his motive to start a private business, the product of which is STEM toys.

In addition to CircuitMess, Car also invested money and time in Rentlio, he said at the Invento Summit. It is important, he believes, that young people have a role model and that they understand that a lot can be achieved with a bit of hard work.

"I have a nice car, so when children stop me and ask how I got it, I tell them that they have to study and go to school, and they don't believe me. In Croatia, the prevailing opinion is that only politicians and thieves can drive a nice car," stated Car.

Sharing knowledge, and then money, was also the motive of the entrepreneurs who founded the Slovenian VC fund Silicon Gardens. Gregor Rebolj said that it is in their interest to help young entrepreneurs out. "When we help, we don't ask for anything in return except that they also help themselves and don't turn their backs on their ideas," he stated.

For more, check out our business section.

March the 18th, 2023 - Algebra LAB, one of the oldest startup incubators in Croatia, provides young innovators with a symbiotic ecosystem in which business ideas are continuously maturing for the 11th year in a row.

Despite investors' caution towards risky investments, as much as 958.3 million dollars were invested in domestic start-ups in the first three quarters of last year alone – it was concluded at the Algebra startup meetup, which was held at Algebra's Zagreb campus, in the Algebra Spark Event Space.

Algebra LAB, as one of the oldest startup incubators in Croatia, has had an uninterrupted series of incubator generations since 2012, thanks to the systematic support available to them in the innovation ecosystem that combines higher education with entrepreneurship: 

“At Algebra LAB, we try to ensure that both sides profit symbiotically in development - our students from the fact that their incubator is located in the building where they study and listen to lectures every day, and that they can find themselves in the world of entrepreneurship in a short period of time, and our start-ups from the fact that some of their mentors and lecturers work in the higher education system, which means that they are constantly at the source of new knowledge and information. In such a collaborative system that combines cutting-edge innovation and science with entrepreneurship, we see the key to getting out of every crisis, of which there has been no shortage in the last ten years. Algebra LAB has spawned many successful entrepreneurial stories today – Farseer, Velebit AI, Sport React. We invite all those who are thinking about starting their own business and need support on the way to the realization of an innovative idea to join the new incubator generation for which the enrollment cycle starts at the end of the year," said Maja Brkljačić, head of Algebra LAB.

Startup Report magazine was also presented at the event. "The appearance of unicorns, Infobip and Rimac, as well as big exits such as Nanobit and Gamepires, and now Photomath, encourage the growth of investors' interest in Croatian startups, so last year a record number of startups received investments. However, due to the war in Ukraine and the hectic exit from the pandemic, investments are less than before, although the situation in Croatia is still very good. It was the second best year so far," said Bernard Ivezić, editor of the magazine.

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

The impact of the economic crisis and the crisis caused by Russia's aggression against Ukraine on the investment climate is not negligible, which was discussed at the panel discussion, along with Maja Brkljačić, by Matija Nakić, the founder of the Croatian fintech Farseer, which flourished in Algebra LAB, Miryana Joksović, co-founder of Arcion Labs and member of the ACAP Board, and veteran of the Croatian startup investment community Vedran Blagus, principal of the oldest Croatian VC fund, South Central Ventures. Representatives of the start-up scene had the opportunity to hear first-hand useful tips for surviving a turbulent social and economic environment, as well as the importance of leadership from experienced start-up founders:

„In a crisis, it is important to always lead by example, and this is what the leaders of every start-up should focus on. Investors expect this period to last 24 to 36 months. It is the most difficult for seed stage startups that are not in the portfolio, because for them the risks are the greatest, as well as the 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 companies and the companies they are connected to, because building that network of acquaintances is the key to future success," said Miryana Joksović from Arcion Labs and referred to the recent layoffs in the tech community: "Most of those who were previously employed in large companies can hardly adapt to the start-up culture, so the question is how to connect these talents to the start-up ecosystem because they are used to different work standards atypical for the dynamics of small entrepreneurs who are just starting to build their companies.

 The fact that every crisis, including this one, can be an opportunity was seen by Matija Nakić, the founder of Farseer, on her own example: "Our process of getting the investment was not dramatic and we managed 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 there has been a significant jump in employment and funding in IT companies. I love crises and I think they are a good opportunity to rethink yourself and your business model. 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 growing influence of AI."

"In 2021 and 2022, capital was cheap not only for start-ups but also for funds. In the last quarter of 2022, there was a significant drop in investment. There is money, the investments have been shaken, but they have not stopped" – emphasized 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 start-up scene is only a prelude to the continuation of the prosperous period. Namely, start-ups now face new challenges in the form of investments in research and development, as the basis of new innovations that can help overcome the crisis:

"As far as the activities and interests of start-ups are concerned – there has been no reduction, in fact there are more of them than ever before. There is a large number of applicants and those interested in our Lab, and the so-called scene or material fatigue does not exist, according to what we see – and that is the reaction to the events and the applications themselves, you can see the liveliness of the scene. In Croatia, there are more and more investment funds that heal the wound of the lack of early capital, such as Fil Rouge Capital and South Central Ventures, which enable start-ups not to think about money, but about their product or service they are developing. I see no reason for concern for the Croatian start-up scene, except for the caution required when hiring new people – especially when changing culture and moving to scale-up" – said Maja Brkljačić, head of Algebra LAB, adding that the number of 500-600 of startups from the beginning of last year, according to some estimates, rose to as many as 900 as estimated at the end of 2022, thus signaling that the start-up scene is growing despite unfavorable circumstances.

At the event, two start-ups from Algebra's LAB (EcoWashers and TablePop) presented their innovative ideas to the public through five-minute pitches. EcoWashers allows the user to order a vehicle wash on a smartphone in a few steps, and through the dry ecological washing system, it uses a unique nano-technology that is safe for the environment and a minimum amount of water. TablePop is a platform that allows guests to order and pay contactless in restaurants by simply scanning a QR code. In addition to them, the start-up IoTaaP presented its innovations and experienced member of the start-up and technology community Ivo Spigel presented his new fintech project Pontyx to the attendees.

Algebra Spark Event Space and Algebra Spark Coworking, an innovative and unique space in the western part of the city, was introduced to the audience by Hrvoje Josip Balen, a member of the Board: "Unlike other similar co-working spaces, Algebra's rooms are specially designed and focused on business development and the creation of an entrepreneurial microclimate suitable for serious companies that focus on business growth. Algebra's innovative space enables companies to organize larger or smaller business events, lectures, workshops, as well as a number of other private or commercial events with all the necessary infrastructure. Interested companies and individuals can also rent additional space of over 12,000 m2 within Algebra Rent Space, which includes top equipment and technology with the aim of achieving the maximum level of functionality - through the synergy of office spaces with Algebra LAB, as a scientific research center intended for small and start-up companies."

Algebra's Spark Coworking Space is also used by Matija Matija, a young start-up who designed the Lanke website, which shows all available new real estate projects in one place. Matija reflected on his stay in Algebra's offices: "I was most impressed by the location, which suits me because I myself am in the western part of the city, and on the other hand, the quality and equipment of the office, which contains everything I need in one place. Last, but not least – I appreciate the peace that the office space offers, which I need to focus on work, which I'm not sure I would find in other similar coworking spaces in Zagreb."

Due to their focus on innovation in business, start-ups are one of the segments of the economy that will significantly influence the future development of the entire society, and their role is not only in their own progress, but also have the potential to significantly accelerate the growth of other economic branches. Today, start-ups are not limited only to the IT sector, but also appear in agriculture, hospitality industry, and banking, where they help accelerate the growth of entire ecosystems, and their incidence in Croatia is growing year by year, which, in addition to private investors, is mostly contributed by incubators such as Algebra LAB -a, who provide them with support in the early stages and beginnings of business ideas.

For more, check out our news section.

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 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.

January the 24th, 2023 - Despite being founded half a decade ago, the newly updated VeeMee platform is coming soon, and it aims to be the largest web platform for the sale of Croatian food yet.

As Josipa Ban/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the VeeMee platform, founded five years ago with the aim of increasing the competitiveness of domestic agricultural production, should be upgraded by the end of this year and thus become the largest market place, or online store of food produced in all of Croatia. This was announced by Marko Kozjak, the co-founder and director of VeeMee.

VeeMee has brought together more than thousands of Croatian food and agricultural producers, as well as some from Greece and Spain, and by the end of this year, Kozjak pointed out, all of them should have a unique online place to sell their products. The director of VeeMee explained that his main motive for starting the platform, which should be the largest in Croatia when it is launched, is the chaos that currently reigns strong in the online sale of local food.

"Just as an example, if someone wants to buy kale from a Croatian producer today, it can get extremely complicated for them. When they enter kale in the search engine, they'll get thousands of pieces of information about kale, but it will be difficult to find the actual producer, that is, the person from Croatia selling it.

VeeMee was conceived as a Google of sorts, but designed for people shopping for local food. When a consumer enters, again let's say kale, into our search engine, they will be able to select a region and get an overview of kale producers from that area, so they'll be able to buy their desired food easily and directly online.

Therefore, VeeMee's goal is to centralise the web shop, to unite manufacturers in one single place, because now they're scattered around and so often invisible to consumers," explained Kozjak. Currently, he stated, they're working on upgrading the VeeMee platform, on payment solutions and organising logistics.

"We want to enable more logistics options. We want to offer a solution to the route and cost of delivery to the small producers, and to the large ones the establishment of a central warehouse through which their sales would go," he said.

In addition to all of the above, for existing users who have a producer identity (PID) on the VeeMee platform, web sales would be a bonus as the price of the packages they currently pay for wouldn't increase, revealed Kozjak, adding that by launching a digital market place, their goal is to attract new, small producers who are want to carry out more web sales.

The additional competitiveness of the VeeMee platform is precisely the price, because the premium package paid by producers on the VeeMee platform is currently 300 euros per year, and when the market place, i.e. online sales, comes to life, the price will remain the same. VeeMee's solution should also increase internet sales achieved by Croatian agricultural products, which are currently very low, and which even the state platform Trznica.hr/Market.hr, launched back during the coronavirus pandemic, failed to increase.

''By setting up the VeeMee web shop, peoples' orders will arrive via SMS, WhatsApp or email, and the manufacturer will then have to confirm it,'' explained the co-founder of VeeMee, who, together with his former partner Nikola Vid, launched the first neutral identification of origin (PID) and thus made it possible (through a QR code) for customers to digitally check the product and manufacturer, i.e. where the products are coming from and what path the food they're planning consume has taken to arrive to them.

More than 25 thousand tonnes of food is ''sitting'' behind that QR code, which allows customers to easily check their food's origin and traceability. It is precisely this concept that gives them a sense of security because they know where their food originates and what path it has taken before arriving at their doorstep. The manufacturers, through marketing campaigns run by VeeMee, get to enjoy more visibility, and suppliers get a verified manufacturer and traceability of their goods.

"Last year, our visibility on social media increased by 36 percent to 700,000 people," Kozjak pointed out. In addition, he added, their entire concept contributes to socially useful goals, such as reducing the amount of wasted food and greenhouse gas emissions.

"With smart logistics, we save more than a thousand tonnes of food annually from being discarded, and we reduce the emission of greenhouse gases by that much," said Kozjak, emphasising that they're focused on the end result in everything they do, and the same will be true with the VeeMee web shop.

The company, whose primary goal is complete data transparency when it comes to domestic agricultural production, food traceability and increased production, finances all of its new projects from its own income.

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