Croatian Start-Ups Dominate Regional Competition

Six out of the Top 10 startups at the conference came from Croatia…

Croatian start-ups comfortably proved themselves to be the champions of startups in the region after the 4-day ‘Pioneers of the Balkans’ start-up conference ended recently in Zagreb. Six out of the Top 10 placed startups were from Croatia, the conference organisers, who were the European Commission, World Bank, Venture Capital funds Speedinvest, J&T Ventures and Startlabs.

There was plenty of interest from investors at the conference, which saw 589 startups from the region enter. Out of the 54 that made the final, 22 of them were startups from Croatia.

Big winners of the conference included Supracontrol, a spin-off of one of the five biggest system integrators in the country, Storm group. The firm took out the ‘Business & Productivity’ category, attracting a 100,000 euro offer from and Austrian-American venture capital fund. Supracontrol were also invited to attend Pioneers of Asia conference.

“A number of Japanese investors and large companies are following the European startup scene, and the invitation we gave to Croatian teams for the Pioneers of Asia conference will give them an opportunity to present to potential large investors in the East-Asia market,” said Yoshihiro Hirata, director of Nikkei, who was present in Zagreb.

Zagreb startup Dental BioSciences, who are amongst other things developing new materials for fillings, took out the Bio-tech category, whilst Croatian startup SailRouter, an application to help boat owners optimise fuel use, won the ‘Mobility and Transport’ category.

Another Croatian startup, Boya crayons, creators of an innovative drawers tool that provides freer and safer movement in artistic expression, took out the ‘Lifestyle’ category.