ZAGREB, 3 Oct, 2021 - One of Croatia's leading IT companies, Infinum, continues to expand into new markets and is opening an office in Podgorica, expecting a 25% growth this year, Infinum chief operating officer Nikola Kapraljević told Hina.

"2020 was marked by global chaos caused by coronavirus, but despite the difficulties, people found a way forward and technology played a key role, so we also spent much of the year developing new processes, tools and systems. We continued to cooperate with most clients, and our teams have the opportunity to work on interesting and innovative solutions in health care, education, renewable energy, finance, and even music," said Kapraljević.

Revenue growth of over 20% in 2020, 2021

In 2020, he said, they generated about HRK 100 million in revenue, which was 22% more than in 2019, and they expect continued growth in 2021.

"We want Infinum to continue the growth trend with an additional 25%. When we add our two sister companies, Porsche Digital Croatia and Productive, we expect that the joint revenue in 2021 will amount to HRK 150 to 160 million," Kapraljević said.

Stressing that such results and success were achieved because of the employees, he said they currently employed over 350 people, and in 2021 alone more than 70 new employees joined Infinum, which he hopes would increase to 100 by the end of the year.

Kapraljević said that in addition to the offices in Croatia (in Zagreb and Varaždin), Slovenia and New York, they have a good team in Montenegro with 15 people, and they are currently working on designing a bigger office in Podgorica, since they see great potential in that market.

In addition to Montenegro, they are actively working on developing the brand in Western Europe and expanding in the UK market, and "are keeping an eye on various development centres across Europe, where we plan to establish Infinum as a quality partner for the development of digital products".

Since exactly a year ago, in September 2020, Infinum formed a partnership with Porsche and opened a new company, Porsche Digital Croatia, Kapraljević said that the companies were celebrating the company's first birthday in the best possible way -- the company is growing and developing rapidly and well, constantly employing talented people and working on interesting projects with currently nearly 50 employees.

"We are working on products that enhance the experience of Porsche customers and those that help to optimise... Porsche's manufacturing process," he said.

Kapraljević also said that the company was currently developing a mobile application for functionality control and car surveillance, as well as a platform for short-term and long-term Porsche rental.

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Zagreb, September 8, 2020 – As Hina reports, Croatian domestic IT company Infinum, together with Porsche Digital, a subsidiary of German Porsche, is launching the Porsche Digital Croatia company in Croatia, for software design and development, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, which will see a 10 million euro investment.

Infinum is one of the leading Croatian and internationally recognized companies that has been creating software design and development since it launched in 2005, and the new company with Porsche Digital will be a development center for digital technologies.

"The company will start operating at the end of September and will be located at Zagreb's Strojarska Street, and in the next three years, we are planning to employ 100 experts who will develop and design software, artificial intelligence, that is products and services that are advancing digital ecosystem," Tomislav Car, President of the Management Board and one of the founders of Infinum, pointed out at the presentation.

He added that they have equal ownership shares in the new company with Porsche Digital. Also, after 15 years of creating digital products and services on large projects, in this partnership, they see an opportunity to create a digital future.

"The automotive industry is increasingly adapting to new technologies and business models, which we see as an opportunity for our development as well, and in business plans and joint research of new business models of the Porsche brand, but also others, such as VW," said Car adding that they will work in multidisciplinary teams.

Stefan Zerweck, the head of operations at the Porsche Digital, is also satisfied with the partnership. He assessed that the opening of the company owned by Infinum and Porsche is a strategic venture to expand the global innovation ecosystem because it shares the same business spirit and goals.

"With Infinium as a strong partner and with the international network of teams that share the knowledge, we continue to research all of the possibilities of digitalization. Infinum has everything we've been looking for, from the local recognization, awards they received, to working on the large and complex projects for global clients, where it's also important that they care for employers' education and satisfaction," said Zerweck.

Member of the Management Board for Finance at Porsche Digital, Ralph Knoll, regarding the joint venture, expressed the optimism for future business, and both companies consider that their partnership will attract talents to Zagreb and Croatia from technology and innovations fields, but also contribute to the country's image in terms of being desirable for the automotive industry.

Infinum currently employs about 250 experts to various clients in the world from various industries, and their products are used by millions of people around the world. For several years, even in 2019, they were on the Deloitte list as the fastest growing technology company in Europe and beyond. In addition to Zagreb, they operate and have offices in the USA and several more countries.

Porsche Digital is a technology and digital laboratory for sports car manufacturer Porsche based in Zuffenhausen, Germany, and employs around 160 people in several locations around the world. With their new office in Zagreb, their global network of innovations consists of three more locations in Europe and four additional offices in Israel, China, and the USA, with development centers in Ludwigsburg, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Shanghai, Atlanta, and Silicon Valley.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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