The State Will Contribute 32 Million Kuna to the Venture Capital Fund

In order to assist in the establishment of the first Croatian venture capital fund, which will finance entrepreneurial projects contributing to the development of new technologies and the realization of innovations, representatives of the Ministry of Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship and the Business Innovation Centre BICRO today signed an Agreement on the implementation of the project “Venture Capital Fund”.

The Agreement was signed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship Damir Polančec and BICRO Director Dalibor Marijanović in the presence of Minister of Science, Education and Sports Dragan Primorac, from whose Ministry the idea for establishing such a fund originated. According to Polančec, the state, or the two mentioned ministries, will contribute 32 million kuna to the Fund, which is about one-third of the targeted 108 million kuna total capital planned to be raised in cooperation with the private sector by mid-next year.

By then, a company will be selected to manage the Fund, which is expected to start operations in July 2009, and Polančec stated that he expects that around ten projects could be financed through the fund already next year. The Fund will enter the ownership structure of the companies that will be financed, but, according to Marijanović, it will also assist entrepreneurs in how to “package” the innovative product they wish to market, in finding suppliers or partners, etc. The greatest interest in cooperation in this project, according to Primorac, has so far been expressed by companies in the fields of biomedicine and information technology, primarily those interested in “spin-off” companies with Croatian scientific institutes.

The establishment of the Fund is one of five BICRO programs aimed at promoting entrepreneurship based on innovations and new technologies under the name VENCRO, and is part of the Operational Plan for the Promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises, which is valued at 350 million kuna for 2008. Of that amount, the Ministry of Economy, with 270 million kuna through 13 programs, encourages the increase of competitiveness and innovation of companies, education in entrepreneurship, raising regional competitiveness, etc., Polančec said. He added that since May, when the calls for these grants were announced, more than 11,000 applications have been received, of which the majority, more than 5,800, were for strengthening the competitiveness of small economies, while nearly 2,500 applications were received for support for women entrepreneurs. (H)