For Croatia’s startup ecosystem, last year couldn’t have started better. Autonomous driving company Verne raised whooping €100M, which brought first half of the year to €124M in total funding.
Total of the top Croatian funding rounds in H2 2024 amounts to €20.6M, which is a bit short to the first half (taken that we discount Verne’s round). However, the ecosystem is by no means stalling.
Croatia’s startups cover a substantial variety of verticals, so in H2 2024, we see AdTech, Travel Tech, Defense, Legal, and Retail filling in the gaps of already diverse industries from H1. There is a steady amount of regional VCs from Hungary, Czech, Slovenia, and Romania investing in Croatian startups, but most importantly, we see a rising number of American investors as well.
This article is part of the CEE funding mapping series. Please feel free to contact us if we missed something: [email protected].
1. All eyes on screens
Country: Croatia
Stage: Series B
Investors: Taiwania Capital, Lead Ventures, J&T Ventures, and South Central Ventures
Total Funding: €20M
Founders: Kristian Curkovic and Marin Curkovic
Vertical: Advertising
About: AEOS has been a key player in the European TV advertising space, using data-driven solutions to revolutionize campaign planning and audience measurement. Started in 2012 under the name of „AdScanner“ in Croatia, AEOS is now active in 5 European countries: Croatia, Austria, Bulgaria, Germany and Switzerland. The company is set to further accelerate its growth, expanding into new markets and strengthening its product offerings.
2. Orqa
Country: Croatia
Stage: Seed, post-revenue
Investors: Lightspeed Venture Partners, Radius Capital, Decisive Point, Day One Capital
Total Funding: €7.5
Founders: Srđan Kovačević, Ivan Jelušić, and Vlatko Matijevic
Vertical: Drones, Defense
About: Orqa was founded in late 2018 and is located in Croatia’s city Osijek, where its development and production is also based. Orqa is enabling technology for Remote Reality by building innovative drone-tech products that can solve current pain points in the FPV (First Person View) market. Their technology pipeline is focused on innovating and developing all parts of the FPV technology stack including antennas, radio controllers, headsets and most importantly, low latency video signal transport systems.
3. Turneo
Country: Croatia
Stage: Seed
Investors: Bessemer Venture Partners, Underline Ventures
Total Funding: €3M
Founders: Matija Marijan and Fran Kauzlaric
Vertical: Travel Tech
About: Founded in 2022, Turneo enables hotels to offer guests the ability to browse and book in-destination activities and transfers on a hotel’s website or app, and it gives the hotels a single platform to manage in-house and partner activities. The company also intends to further develop its artificial intelligence capabilities to offer personalized travel experiences through hotels.
4. SplxAI
Country: Croatia
Stage: Pre-seed
Investors: Inovo.vc, South Central Ventures, Runtime Ventures, and angel investors: David Politis, founder of BetterCloud with Elad Schulman
Total Funding: €1.9M
Founders: Kristian Kamber and Ante Gojsalic
Vertical: AI Security
About: Founded in 2024, SplxAI is a cybersecurity company specializing in automated security testing for GenAI-powered conversational apps, ensuring they remain safe from manipulation and data breaches. The platform continuously monitors and tests chatbots for vulnerabilities such as prompt injection, context leakage, social engineering, and other advanced threats.
5. Legit
Latest round: €650K
Country: Croatia
Stage: Early-stage
Investors: Vesna VC, InnovX
Total Funding: €650K
Founders: Drazen Orescanin and Marijan Bracic
Vertical: Legal
About: The Legit carved its way out from Poslovna inteligencija/Bird Consulting and as of 2022, the team continued its journey as a separate company. They developed Data Privacy Manager, a cloud-native privacy automation platform that is using cutting-edge proprietary AI / ML technologies to help companies protect privacy and develop their businesses in the digital and connected world.
6. Bitreport
Latest round: €300K
Country: Croatia
Stage: Early-stage
Investors: Purple Ventures
Total Funding: €400K
Founders: Marko Cacic and Domagoj Rade
Vertical: Retail
About: Founded in 2021, Bitreport is a Croatian application that optimizes operational processes for companies with multiple locations. Specializing in the retail and hospitality sectors, it offers an accessible and intuitive solution for task management, audits, and issue tracking. Currently, Bitreport operates in Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia.
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Other highlights
In summer 2024, Croatia’s IT company Koios acquired Yard, a British data analytics company. By merging with Yard, they are continuing their expansion in the British market and starting cooperation with clients including a leading telecom, an international bank, an energy company, among others.
