Meeting of Croatian Web Entrepreneurs with Potential Investors

Croatia is increasingly becoming a leading country in the Southeast European region in web entrepreneurship, with growing interest from major European investment firms in its projects, as highlighted during today’s Central European conference on technological (web) entrepreneurship and investments “TMT.Ventures’08” in Zagreb.

The conference, organized by the international company "New Europe Events" and the Association for the Promotion of Software and Web Entrepreneurship Initium, gathered around 150 participants. Among them were IT entrepreneurs and managers from Croatia and the region (Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Poland, and others), as well as representatives from about 20 large investment firms and funds from Central and Eastern Europe, such as Eagle Ventures, Poteza Ventures, Fidelity Ventures, MCI Management, RSG Capital, Quaestus, Intel Capital, and others.

This is also the first time that a larger number of Croatian web entrepreneurs have met in one place with potential investors in their projects (startups), some of whom indicated today that Croatia is a true discovery for them in this segment. The conference also emphasized that web entrepreneurship represents a new generation of IT entrepreneurs, whose companies achieve good results throughout the region and beyond, and since they operate online, they also influence the global market.

Five finalists of the "7 Minutes" competition for web entrepreneurs were also presented, showcasing their startups or innovative projects in the fields of mobile and internet services, e-commerce, multimedia innovations, technologies that integrate offline with online, web 2.0, and electronic innovations for end users.

Among the finalists, who had the opportunity to present their projects at the conference, were two companies from Croatia – Split’s Gideon Multimedia with the project "MobiEXPLORE" (a new generation of mobile tourist guides) and Zagreb’s Envox with the Renzzo project (for mobile marketing). The TMT.Ventures conferences gather entrepreneurs, investors, and managers of technology companies from Central and Eastern Europe, and besides Zagreb, they were also held this year in Kyiv, Prague, and Warsaw.  (H)