August the 28th, 2021 - The Croatian agritech Agrivi startup has entered into a partnership with CGES Group, which will strengthen its position on the African market.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes, the CGES group was looking for a digital solution for its clients from the agri-food industry over in Africa, and after the selection of the Agrivi startup through a new partnership, they plan to work together on projects to digitise agricultural production management in that part of the world.

''Agrivi's software is available worldwide, even in Africa, but through this collaboration, users will also receive support out in the field as the local presence will be further strengthened. Agrivi's shared knowledge and experience of digital agricultural solutions through a local partner will make it even more accessible in this area.

Through local activities, the partner will been shown all of the advantages for the digitalisation of agriculture, and we'll be able to help further develop agribusiness companies in South Africa by transforming and improving processes in agriculture and the food industry,'' they stated from the Croatian Agrivi startup.

The primary problems faced by African farmers are productivity and efficiency in achieving profitable and sustainable agricultural production, as well as stepping further afield, out into the global market.

They pointed out from the Agrivi startup that through monitoring the situations at hand with their digital tools, that farmers can simplify the certification process and facilitate market access. It's worth mentioning that the Croatian Agrivi startup operates across more than a hundred countries around the world, and their software solution is localised in a dozen foreign languages.

They have offices here in the Republic of Croatia, as well as in other European countries such as Poland, Romania and the United Kingdom. Through partners they are also present in South America, Africa and Asia, and in addition to Europe, their focus is also on the US market.

Global recognition

“Through workshops, seminars and conferences, we educate people about the digitalisation of agriculture and what the benefits for all stakeholders are, from farmers, companies to the end consumers. This summer, we also received recognition from the Food and Agriculture Organisation, which ranked the Agrivi startup among the finalists in the category of software for agricultural production management as part of the Digital Excellence in Agriculture event,'' they concluded from Agrivi.

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

July the 18th, 2021 - Innovative and unique Croatian startups keep on popping up all over the place, and the Croatian startup airt is just another in a line of impressive companies. This startup has presented a brand new learning algorithm.

As Novac/Ljubica Vuko writes, the Croatian startup airt, founded by Hajdi Cenan and Davor Runje, presented a new algorithm for learning and predicting behaviour from structured data, which is most often used in the business world, and applied for a patent for its global protection.

As they explained, the Croatian startip airt is building a platform for creating predictive models based on structured data such as, for example, that held by banks or communication service providers, and to process this data internally developed their own deep learning techniques inspired by methodologies used in language processing (NLP/Natural Language Processing).

They used their prior experience they had of working on specific problems from the financial sector to build a fully automated platform for the preparation of the transaction of the data and an automated model building for specific business problems.

In order to compare the quality of the platform, they decided to test and compare it with TabFormer, a system for the same purpose developed by IBM and for which it publicly published a synthetic data set for its testing. The initial test showed that the Airt model surpasses IBM's (F1-score 0.90 vs. 0.86). However, although the accuracy of the model prediction is important, they emphasise that it isn't the most important item for them.

''We believe we can do better than this result in terms of accuracy, but our primary focus isn't on making the most accurate and precise model, but on reducing the resources needed to build one such model automatically. The greatest successes of deep learning techniques have been achieved in the fields of image and text processing, and to make only one such top model requires thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars for the electricity used to make them,'' said Davor Runje.

He added that for such applications, it isn't a big problem because one model is enough for each language, however, when it comes to (many) models used in business, it is clear that there are few companies that could afford something like that.

''Our goal is to achieve almost identical results as these expensive models, but for much less money in order to make our solution available to everyone, from the smallest web shop to the largest financial institutions,'' said Runje.

With this approach, the Croatian startup airt has entered the "deep tech" domain, because the solution they're developing is based on significant scientific and engineering challenges.

''We're intensively engaged in research in and developing our own approaches and techniques. It was with the wholehearted help of Mladen Vukmir and William Zupancic from Vukmir & Associates that we submitted our first patent, which first goes to the EPO (European Patent Office), and then to the USA, for our own deep learning techniques on structured data. This is just the beginning because we aren't going to stop innovating,'' said Heidi Chenan.

The co-founders of "airt'' will also say that with this approach and innovation they are trying to improve the side of deep learning that isn't talked about too much yet, and that is the impact on the environment.

They say modern AI models consume an extremely large amount of energy. The computing resources needed to create the best models are increasing exponentially, doubling every 3.4 months, that is, in other words, in the period from 2012 to 2018, they increased as much as 300 thousand times.

''We're aware of the trace that deep learning leaves on ecology and how, if this trend continues, this technology can become an opponent in the fight against climate change. Therefore, we're working intensively to ensure that our system, in addition to scaling to the amount and speed, uses as little computer resources and energy as possible to process these large amounts of data,'' explained Cenan.

It's worth adding that digital transformation is one of the European Union's top priorities.

For more, follow Made in Croatia.

June the 16th, 2021 - The Pula Fizio Tech startup, which is a med tech startup specialising in the aid of people with various problems regarding walking, has attracted attention from not only here in Europe but even from Asia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, in its three years of existence, the Pula Fizio Tech startup has presented prototypes of its two technological solutions for healthcare to help people with walking problems - the Hip Rehabilitation Device (HRD) and Restep.

The Fizio Tech startup team includes mechanical engineers and development team leaders Filip Sironic, Martin Matijasic and Filip Nikolic, full stack developer Ivan Lakovic, electrical engineer Ariana Milasincic, PhD student in neuroscience Dea Salamon, and Petra Josipovic, the co-owner and project manager, who has a PhD in public health at the Medical School of the University of Ljubljana, she also graduated as a neurophysiotherapist and is a certified consultant for EU funds.

She began the story behind the Pula Fizio Tech startup as a project with Sironic during her studies when they developed the first functional prototype of HRD, a device for the therapeutic traction and vibration of the hip. The device was intended for use by people with painful hip conditions themselves, as well as for professional use for physiotherapists dealing with patients with such issues.

However, financial resources and time were needed in order to better dedicate themselves to the development and realisation of the idea, which they didn't have at the time. However, back in 2018, they founded a startup and started applying for tenders for the opportunity to get their hands on some money.

Market placement

A year later, they won the Moj Zaba Start competition, thanks to HRD.

“When we started with the HRD project, we invested everything we had on our own and started building value. When we got the resources from Moj Zaba Start, we decided to invest 120,000 kuna to apply for EU funds and provide 15% of the resources we had to cover, because the EU gives 85% in non-refundable cash.

The value of the project was 943,681.54 kuna. With these resources, we covered the IP application at the EU level, developed prototypes of HRD and Restep, developed a technical map for Restep and implemented QMS according to the ISO 13485 standard.

For HRD, we're currently developing a prototype iteration and conducting a clinical efficacy trial in people with coxarthrosis. We're looking for partners and resources for further development and commercialisation. We've also filed a patent application at the EU level for HRD, and for Restep, we're the owners of the right to a consensual patent,'' explains Josipovic.

Restep is a biofeed device for the treatment of orthopedic patients who have some damage to the leg.

It can also be used by physiotherapists when planning individual patient therapies, because Restep offers the possibility of an application that has the option of analysing gait parametres, which is very important for physiotherapists when coming up with a proper treatment plan.

"Restep can now theoretically be put on sale as a subject of general use, but what we still want is to improve the design and electronics according to the standards for medical products,'' explains Josipovic, who, along with the team, wants to place Restep on the market before the end of 2021, considering that due to the pandemic, business processes are still slowed down.

The Pula Fizo Tech startup works with the Technical Faculty in Pula and the Faculty of Health in Rijeka with which they made a Proof of Concept study, proving that the device works, and they're also present in Urban Rehabilitation surgeries in Pula, OrtoSpina Rijeka, the Kinetic Centre in Pula, Istarske toplice, the Special Hospital in Rovinj, and ReLab in Umag.

The founders of the Pula Fizio Tech startup state that they are open to cooperation with all institutions. There is also interest from potential partners from outside of the Republic of Croatia, agreements are underway with institutions from Slovenia, where they are already cooperating with a nursing home for the elderly. So far, they have received letters of intent from Croatian institutions, and they are also coming from Slovenia, Austria and Serbia. They're even negotiate with potential partners from as far away as Asia.

At the Pula Fizio Tech startup, they plan to hire a sales person soon and at least one more individual to assemble the devices, and there is no shortage of anything when it comes to their plans and ambitions for the future.

“We want to become a leader in the development of physiotherapy and rehabilitation equipment here in the region and beyond. Our long-term goal is to expand the business to prototyping services for clients and quality physiotherapy services where we'll apply our innovations, ie, in a healthcare institution that has its own clinical and research part along with production,'' concludes Petra Josipovic.

For more, follow Made in Croatia.

May the 26th, 2021 - The Vodnjan company Infobip, which has been in the news for all the right reasons more or less since its very creation, has created the Infobip Startup Tribe. The move marks yet another positive step forward for this remarkable Croatian company.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, this Vodnjan company's new Infobip Startup Tribe is the name of the newly established programme aimed at finding and gathering the most innovative Croatian and global startups, and accelerating and monitoring their growth and development. Under the programme, eligible startups can apply for amounts ranging from 10,000 US dollars to 60,000 US dollars worth of using Infobip’s communication technologies and use them to further grow and improve their own respective businesses.

In addition to the hefty amounts mentioned above, Infobip will provide invaluable know-how and direct connections with global investors and industry leaders to the startups involved, which can open the door to additional capital and new markets. In addition to numerous training sessions, the Vodnjan IT company will open up the possibility of making office space in more than 65 locations around the world available to startups, which, at the time of their growth and expansion, will certainly become a significant benefit.

In addition, the startups involved will have special access to the Infobip Shift conference, the recent acquisition of Infobip, which plans to grow into one of the largest developer conferences in the world.

An established department for startup ecosystems within Infobip

The Infobip Startup Tribe will be led by Nikola Pavesic, the director of this newly established Infobip department. Pavesic began his career at the United Nations in no less than Tanzania, and he continued his journey at the UN in Tokyo, where he has been living for the last decade. In addition to running his own startup, for the past five years, he has held a leading position for partnerships at Nikkei, the world's largest business newspaper and owner of the prestigious Financial Times (FT).

Pavesic will manage the newly established Infobip Startup Tribe programme, and in addition to leading the programme itself, providing support to startups and selecting registered startups, his task will be to form an advisory council consisting of some of the world's most famous investors and carefully selected partners from around the globe. The aforementioned partner network will contribute to a strong step forward of this Infobip initiative, and startups from their portfolio will have direct access to the equal benefits of the Infobip Startup Tribe programme.

"With this programme, we're showing that we're ready to invest in society, not only through our products, but also through all other resources at our disposal, and most of all with knowledge, experience and connections with the business and professional community. Working with startups will bring Infobip into direct contact with new ideas, ways of thinking and approaches, and these components enable companies to make better use of their own resources and technology in favour of a stronger and more positive impact on society.

I’m excited to have joined Infobip in the construction phase of the company as an even more powerful developer-oriented development organisation. Although it's a global initiative, we're especially focused on our climate because we think that this is a kind of milestone in the development of entrepreneurial and technological ecosystem, and that with a lot of quality work, we can significantly influence their development. I look with great optimism and enthusiasm towards the upcoming period in which we'll bring even greater value to all those involved through our cooperation with startups,'' said Nikola Pavesic.

The application criteria for the programme is rather flexible, all with the goal of bringing together as many fast-growing startups as possible. All those who have raised a maximum of five million euros of investment or have a maximum of 100 employees can apply, but the programme will also receive exceptions if they show great growth potential in their industry.

All interested startups that meet the above criteria can easily and quickly apply by filling out the form at startups.infobip.com.

"I've always had a special relationship with startups, and Shift, which is now part of Infobip, started as a startup conference. I'm really glad yo be coming back to my roots and that the whole initiative with startups is entering our new department for relations with developers,'' said Ivan Burazin of Infobip.

With this valuable Infobip Startup Tribe programme, the company has once again shown that it is ready to invest in society as a whole, not only through the transfer of its own products but also through all other resources at its disposal, selflessly giving them to companies that, much like Infobip, have the potential to grow and become a new driver strength for the Croatian economy.

For more, follow our dedicated business section.

May 24, 2021 - The new method, me.mum, only needs a drop of saliva for analyzing hormones and predicting fertility. The project aims to present a reliable solution for all women and couples who are planning a pregnancy or trying to conceive but are experiencing difficulties.

As we hear about the latest technological advances and discoveries, the first thing that comes to mind might be a Tesla truck or a new social network available in the app store. Thus, we wonder, what purpose does technology serve? We believe, therefore, that today's progress in the technology industry is dictated by the latest trends, whims, and social needs of the human being (and it is worth clarifying that it is not all bad).

me.mum

But it also depends on where we look, because not every day people and ideas appear willing to change the course of, for example, the way we know about family planning and predicting fertility. A Croatian entrepreneur, based on her life experience, decided a few years ago to take action on the matter and revolutionize the way in which women can better know their bodies and plan the desired pregnancy with their partners through an innovative method, and it only requires an easy-to-use device and a mobile application.

In 2015, after two years of expectations, disappointment, and hopes, Maja Bujas felt pushed towards four years of developing me.mum, which is an innovative portable fertility monitor and app that can accurately predict women's fertile days by analyzing the levels of luteinizing hormone (LH) from saliva. Its technology is built from scratch, and provides personalized insights into women's hormone profile, and detects the most fertile days, which significantly increases the chance of conceiving. Chances of getting pregnant are higher when women can identify their fertility window. me.mum combines the most popular methods of determining the fertile days: period calendar and measuring luteinizing hormone (LH) from saliva, instead of urine.

Maja Bujas, founder of me.mum

After conceiving the idea, the research and development stage followed. In 2017, the first functional models and app were designed. In the two following years, two prototypes of me.mum were developed, and in December 2020 the final product was completed. That way, after four years of development and two prototypes, Maja can finally share one simple to use solution for all women and couples who are planning a pregnancy or trying to conceive but experiencing difficulties. When you are trying to conceive, the most important thing is to determine your fertile days. With me.mum you will do it easily and simply.

Its use is very practical and easy to learn for all those interested in predicting fertility in few steps. The best time to use me.mum is in the morning, but you can use it during the day too. Before using, it is important not to eat or drink anything, except water. That way your saliva will be clean. According to Maja and her team of developers, the process of using me.mum can be summed up in only three easy steps! 

Currently, the product is already on sale in the early-bird mode, in which all those interested in buying it can access an exclusive price. The market price will be €119, but at this time one can order it through two packages: one for €59, which includes the smart fertility monitor device and the me.mum app. The other, for €69, also includes an online nutrition course for boosting your fertility. The estimated shipping date worldwide will be July 2021. The app will be available as soon as the first me.mum devices are delivered.

Likewise, the me.mum crowdfunding campaign is still in effect, with 25 more days for all those willing and interested in collaborating with its developers, who would like to hear feedback from the early users and grow the me.mum community. Also, through their crowdfunding site, you can learn more about me.mum, the team behind its development, how to use it, any updates in purchasing and shipping, and more!

For more, follow Made in Croatia.

May the 2nd, 2021 - Croatian startups are becoming more and more well known on the international scene as the great minds this country continually produces take to the world stage in various entrepreneurial and innovative forms. The Croatian startup Revuto is just one of them, and it is aiming to become the name to hold the fifth highest startup investment this year.

As Bernard Ivezic/Novac writes, the Croatian startup Revuto has announced that it is entering an investment round with which it aims to become the holder of the fifth largest startup investment this year. The company's ambitious plan is to raise a massive nine million euros in capital.

In the first quarter of this year, Croatian startups attracted more than a billion kuna in investments. The largest investment, from Porsche, was received by Rimac Automobili, followed by Endava's acquisition of Five, the Menlo Ventures investment in Photomath, then Swisscom Ventures and their investment in Cognism, followed by the M + Group's entry into the Croatian startup Bulb.

The Croatian startup Revuto would jump from a target of about 11 million US dollars and be just between Cognism with 12.5 million dollars and Bulb with 8.5 million dollars.

Revuto, launched by Josipa Majic and Vedran Vukman, is developing an application (app) that would manage an individual's subscriptions - from Netflix to Apple and from Google to PlayStation, even including the likes of Tinder, Spotify and Asana. The idea is that on this mobile application, users will be able to manage their monthly subscriptions as they do with video or virtual machines. They could pause, cancel, pay, track and add, all in one place.

More will be known in the next ten or so days as the startup plans to officially present its investment round and start raising funds.

The Croatian startip Revuto was initially conceived for the payment of subscriptions, and therefore has an internal user reward system. It was this option that the Croatian startup launched at the beginning of last year, just before the pandemic struck, when it invited users to subscribe to its website and collect reward points, which can be exchanged for subscriptions, or so-called Revuto tokens. However, in order to be able to use them, it was of course necessary for the startup to launch a mobile application, which has been announced for the autumn of this year, ie after raising fresh capital.

Rewarding users is also important because the Croatian startup Revuto intends to compete with PayPal and Revolut with its functionality. Both parts of their popularity are due to the possibility that subscriptions can be managed through them in one place, but not even close to the level promised by Revuto.

So far, the wildly popular Revolut has gone the furthest here, as it allows you to leave credit card numbers that you have virtually created within Revolut's application to various Internet services, which you can turn off or cancel at any time. This actually allows for unsubscriptions, as the online service can no longer be charged given that you have cancelled your ''virtual'' card.

However, apart from the size of the new Revut investment round, the way in which it will be implemented is also of interest. This is the first major decentralised finance (DeFi) project in all of Croatia. DeFi, after the inital coin offering (ICO), which were the crypto counterparts of the IPO, went a step further.

Investors in DeFi seek earnings not only through tokens or cryptocurrencies, but also through the actual use of financial instruments that are created through DeFi. The Croatian startup Revuto has announced on its website that it plans to issue a REVU token on the Cardano blockchain and that it will have several interesting applications to boast of.

Cardano’s cryptocurrency, ADA, is the sixth largest in the world with a market capitalisation of more than 42.5 billion dollars. The top five are Bitcoin, Ether, Binance coin, Ripple and Tether.

The Croatian statup Revut's interest in joining DeFi isn't particularly surprising, as it experienced a big jump a couple of years ago. With 40 million dollars invested in such projects back in early 2019, it has exceeded 40 billion dollars to date. That's why it remains the focus of investors' interest in the crypto world today. However, it should not be forgotten that it is high-risk, that many compare the risk of investing in DeFi with that of ICOs, and that there are those who have been very badly burned because of DeFi projects.

How Revuto's planned DeFi will fare remains to be seen, as they are still explaining their business model. They state that the average European consumer spends 130 euros a month on subscriptions, which is about five percent of their total monthly consumption.

''Almost a fifth of consumers never check their subscriptions, which is why half of them often pay for products and services that they either no longer use or do not consider valuable. Revuto, a Croatian startup whose mission is to completely redefine the experience of subscription management and save its clients time, energy and money, has achieved sensational success. With the strong support of Cardano, a blockchain platform, Revuto is entering the first token hall on that platform with the aim of raising eight million euros of capital,'' they concluded from the startup.

For more on Croatian startups, follow our business page.

April the 27th, 2021 - When it comes to Croatian startup investments, things have been going excellently in the first three months of 2021 despite the ongoing coronavirus crisis and all of the economic woes it brings with it.

As Bernard Ivezic/Novac writes, In the first quarter of 2021, Croatian startup investments reached more than one billion kuna in total, as was stated in the analysis of Novac.hr.

Although the figure stands at more than 170 million US dollars, it isn't a total amount because the value of some major transactions hasn't yet been made public. Some examples of figures that aren't yet known include the numbers behind Ispsos' purchase of the most successful Croatian marketing startup, DotMetrics, Infobip's acquisition of Shift, as well as the value of M + Group's investment in the domestic startup Bulb. The latter is speculated to be at the level of seven million euros.

Frane Sesnic, the director of ZICER, says that it was only a matter of time before the achievements of the Croatian startup scene would come to light.

''All of those results come after long and persistent investments, knowledge, time and money, and these aren't merely overnight successes. This is just the beginning of a new stage of Croatian entrepreneurship based on knowledge, which is proving to be successful and globally competitive,'' he stated.

The largest startup investment in the first quarter was of course Porsche's 70m-euro investment in Rimac Automobili. The market value of Mate Rimac's company has since jumped to a massive 978.5 million US dollars and it is certain that by the end of the year it will achieve its so-called unicorn valuation, ie a market value of more than a billion US dollars.

The second largest of the Croatian startup investments in the first quarter of 2021 was the 250 million kuna exit of one of the largest mobile application manufacturers in Croatia, Zagreb's Five. It was taken over by the British company Endava and is the second largest startup exit in Croatia so far, just behind Nanobit.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

In third place is Photomath’s 23 million US dollar investment round. A VC fund from no less than the Silicon Valley, Menlo Ventures, has invested in the startup, which was started by Damir Sabol and which boasted that its artificial intelligence is used by a million people a day. The Croatian-British startup Cognism is the fourth largest investment in the quarter, it received 12.5 million dollars from Swisscom Ventures, the VC fund of the largest telecom of the same name in Switzerland.

It's worth mentioning that Cognism, which has developed a cloud system that allows companies to use Internet technologies to improve sales and marketing, is one of the fastest growing companies in the investment portfolio of South Central Ventures.

Vedran Blagus, an investment manager at South Central Ventures, says that given the fact that startups have been building their story globally for more than a decade now, it isn't unusual to see their apparent “overnight success” now.

''If we go back only a year or two, activities on the Croatian startup or technology scene were sporadic, at least in terms of their size and the amount of investments and acquisitions which took place, now they've placed Croatia on the map for large foreign investors and partnerships in terms of acquisitions and investments,'' said Blagus.

Green technologies

It is also worth mentioning that M12, Microsoft's VC fund, invested 12.5 million dollars in Memgraph, a Croatian startup with whose technology another Facebook can be created.

Of the Croatian startup investments that exceed eye-watering amounts, there is also the investment of 10 million kuna received by the Osijek startup Orqa from the Hungarian fund Day One Capital, as well as smaller investments in various startups. The startup ecosystem in Croatia has become richer for the BIRD Incubator, the first to specialise in artificial intelligence startups. SPOCK, the incubator of the largest technological faculty in Croatia, Zagreb's FER, was reactivated, and ZICER, the largest startup hub in our country, showed the results of as many as eight local green startups.

In addition, the American analytical company ABI Research named Gideon Brothers the fifth most successful manufacturer of autonomous robots for the transfer of cargo in the world, and the largest VC fund in Croatia, Fil Rouge Capital, was named the second most active such fund in Central and Eastern Europe.

For more on Croatian startup investments and domestic companies, make sure to follow Made in Croatia.

March 31, 2021 - During a year of being bombarded with Zoom calls, social media, and outrageous news, it was only time before a more uplifting and inspirational online offer came along. With the world in lockdown, gigs and concerts indefinitely stopped and individuals more isolated than ever, the team at Aymolive.com were busy working away thinking how to reconnect creatives.

Vanja Perić, one of the cofounders of Aymolive reminisced about spring 2020 and how the idea was born. “As someone who would go to concerts on a regular basis, bars and cafes closing really hit home, as it removed that ability to watch artists live and engage with them after.” 

“We’re also connected to the creative scene in Croatia, with friends and family members part of bands like Young Shuttle, the national theatre and artist collectives like Split Nomad Gallery, and seeing all of those suddenly close was tough on us all”, added Jana Šaljić, the second of three cofounders. 

Poets and artists, from Croatia to Canada

After going live this year, they’ve attracted the likes of poets, writers, artists, bands, painters and actors from places locally like Croatia and Slovenia to those further afield like Canada and the UK. Most recently they’ve partnered with nightclub Judino Drvo for their live streaming fundraising sessions happening over the coming weeks.

“Knowing the increase in live streaming but through massive channels that prioritise profit over art, we wanted to enter the space with something a bit more personal and targeting those who may not have a large audience yet. Our main focus is on creating a community of creatives to share their talent, and when places like HULU Split or Judino Drvo got in touch, it confirmed our original value proposition.”, concluded Ivan Magaš, the third cofounder who himself has entertained the AymoLive audience with his traditional bottle weaving.

The future of live performances

As we spoke more about the platform and the individuals and groups AymoLive were trying to reach, it was clear that there was a strong feeling to get the creative scene from the Balkans out there to the wider world.

“We want and can’t wait for live in-person performances to return, however they limit creatives to a location. Through AymoLive we want to enable creatives to reach new audiences within the AymoLive community, on a platform made for them”, explained Jana as she showed us the website.

“That’s where we outdo Facebook and Twitch, where you are hidden behind pet videos or gamers. AymoLive is a place only for creatives to showcase to people looking for others who can inspire and support them”.

If you’re a creative, check out their site, sign up and stream for free today. Also get involved with the Judino Drvo live stream fundraiser over the coming weeks, and support the creative community.

For more stories of Croatian excellence and innovation, check out the TCN Made in Croatia section. 

March 25, 2021 - In a time and place where people are desperately searching for transport solutions to environmental problems, car traffic, crowds, and limited amounts of parking, especially during the tourist season at hotels and parks, the Croatian company IDDI decided to step forward and design the first Croatian electric scooter.

IDDI d.o.o. has announced their crowdfunding campaign on the Croatian platform CroInvest this week, where the goal is to raise the amount of HRK 250,000 for the completion of production and for R&D to make the world's first electric scooter from biodegradable materials.

IDDI, under the Rolla brand, has developed a product package consisting of the first Croatian electric scooter with a charger and a mobile application, designed and developed for the rental concept. The team, lead by Ivan Šimatović, consists of a group of young visionaries and engineers who want to prove to everybody that Croatia is ready to design and produce high-tech products and be part of the solution to the global problem of transport and climate change.

The Rolla charging station (Image: IDDI d.o.o.)

By offering high-performance scooters, advanced safety systems, and smart sensors that limit speed in populated areas at an affordable rental price, IDDI wants to change the negative public perception caused by the use of inappropriate and often insufficiently safe electric scooters. The Rolla scooter is also weather-resistant and has all-terrain big wheels, allowing it to adapt to almost any circumstance. 

Take a better look at the Rolla product package: 

According to the team, the Rolla project will also offer its users the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful outdoors and tourist attractions in Croatia, such as the Plitvice Lakes, in a more innovative and interesting way. The company has signed contracts with 4 renowned Croatian hotels for this tourist season, and the plan for the delivery of scooters is planned for mid-April.

Rolla isn't made just for the city, but for almost anywhere in Croatia. (Image: IDDI d.o.o.)

IDDI d.o.o. and the Rolla project have been already recognized by HBOR (the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development) through the credit line entrepreneurship of young people, women, and beginners under the guarantee of ESIF, and has close cooperation with Croatia’s National Tourist Board.

Learn more about the Croatian innovators behind the project:

You can read more about the project HERE. 

For more about everything made in Croatia, be sure to follow TCN’s dedicated page.

March the 25th, 2021 - The Croatian startup Amoda and Croatia Osiguranje (Insurance) have teamed up to offer a driver rating service with rewards to users.

As Bernard Ivezic/Novac writes, Croatia Osiguranje, the largest insurer in the Republic of Croatia, was the first to introduce a driver rating here on the Croatian market. On its Laqo mobile app, it has added new functionality that tracks the way a driver drives and then rates it. The brand new service, called LaqoPrevent, is the result of cooperation with the Croatian startup Amoda, which two years ago was named one of the five best InsurTech startups in the world by the highly respected Financial Times (FT).

Davor Tomaskovic, President of the Management Board of Croatia Osiguranje, says that their goal with this cooperation with the Croatian startup Amoda is to promote and reward driving safety and that is why they started the first such prevention programme here in Croatia.

"Laqo has recently become one of the strongest digital brands on the Croatian insurance market, and with the LaqoPrevent programme, we're going one step further and contributing to raising the overall level of safety in society. We'll promote and reward responsible behaviour in all aspects of life, starting now with traffic safety,'' stated Tomaskovic.

He didn't enter into any discussions about financial indicators, despite that, Croatia Osiguranje revealed that the new Laqo website was visited by more than a million people in just five months and that their calculator for calculating the price of insurance through Laqo was tested out by 125,000 people.

Ana Zovko, the director of the digital development department at Croatia Osiguranje, explained that vehicles can be secured through Laqo, but within LaqoPrevent, using telematics within the app, users can track different aspects of their ride. They can track their speed, braking mode and mobile phone usage while driving. For positive practice while driving, she noted, Laqo will reward them.

"The programme rewards good drivers, so the users with the best grades will be provided with exclusive additional coverage when contracting a new insurance policy, because we want our customers to know that we're their partner which systematically works on accident prevention,'' said Zovko.

Marijan Mumdzijev, the executive director of the Croatian startup Amodo, explained that they have developed a piece of technology that allows for the monitoring and generation of a driver rating, which is used by LaqoPrevent.

"It's a great pleasure to be a part of this project, although Amodo has users all over the world, to do something like this in ''your own backyard'' is of special importance to us and we're glad to have found a partner who, like us, isn't only ready to follow global trends, but to actually go out there and set them,'' he said.

It's also worth mentioning that the innovative solution developed by the Croatian startup Amodo is used by the largest American insurer AIG among others, followed by Triglav and P&V.

For more, follow our business section. For all current travel information, border rules, testing sites and all other coronavirus information specific to Croatia, bookmark this page.