Filip Koprčina, founder and owner of the startup Energy Shift, is the Croatian representative on this year’s renowned Forbes ’30 Under 30′ list, a list of the most influential people under 30 who have distinguished themselves in some way with promising projects in their industries.
Energy Shift is a blockchain platform where citizens can become co-owners of solar power plants or invest in renewable energy sources, and Koprčina received the European Union award for sustainable energy in the Youth Energy category for democratizing solar energy ownership.
For renewable energy and entrepreneurship, Koprčina has been interested since he was young, and he just needed to combine his passion and knowledge and turn it into a business venture.
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—– The goal is, of course, to expand first throughout Europe and later the world, and to become a unicorn, that is, a company worth a billion dollars in a few years – he said.
There is a common saying that one should think globally but act locally. It is precisely for this reason that Koprčina, as the youngest member of the Technical Working Group in the UN High Dialogue on Energy, proposed the abolition of taxes on renewable energy production equipment, which could result in 30 percent cheaper solar panels, making investment in them quite worthwhile.
– The main goal of taxes is anyway to collect money from taxpayers to redistribute it for good purposes. Since Croatia is a member of the Paris Climate Agreement and many other climate agreements, renewable energy seems to be a sector where tax money should flow anyway – explained Koprčina, also commenting on the energy production situation.
He stated that Croatia does not produce enough energy to meet its own market needs, as it imports energy.
– Currently, we import both electricity and fossil fuels from which we produce energy. This costs Croatia billions of kuna annually for something we could easily produce ourselves! – said Koprčina.
His Energy Shift was also selected in the TOP10 startups, thus becoming part of the Startupbootcamp accelerator, one of the most respected global programs for fostering early-stage companies.
Young Hopes
This year, numerous faces from finance, culture, influencing, sports, media, and marketing, as well as science, manufacturing, technology, and sales, made it onto Forbes’ ’30 Under 30′ list. Footballer Kylian Mbappe and Formula 1 driver Charles LeClerc, the music group Måneskin, and rapper Aitch are just some of them, and we bring you those who are not so often on the covers.
Dan Beckles and Monty George are young entrepreneurs who decided back in 2015 to skip schooling to launch the online store Furniturebox from Wiltshire, England.
In their early days, they decided not to accept external merchants but to earn money for investment by buying and selling products through eBay to develop their own furniture brands – Habitat and Dunelm. Now, the store operates directly through their web shop, as well as through Amazon, Tesco, and Wayfair, and this sales model has brought them 20 million dollars in the last 12 months.
Georgie Hyatt from South Africa, with the help of her co-founders, managed to raise 2.3 million dollars from various merchants for her company. Rotaro, based in London, operates on the principle of renting and reselling clothing, and they have also partnered with the tree planting program Ecologi to promote sustainable development.
Young Swede Oliver Edholm raised 20 million dollars from well-known companies such as EQT Ventures and Tiger World for his company Depict in just two years. This company helps small online stores become competitive by recreating and enhancing the placement and identity of their products on the Internet.
Croats in Forbes
This year is not the first in which Croats have made it onto Forbes’ ’30 Under 30′ list.
Last year, professional League of Legends player Luka Perković and chef Mario Mandarić made the list as promising young people in their fields.
Croatian innovator Ivan Mrvoš also made it onto the same Forbes list, but in 2019 with his company Include, which among other things produces smart solar benches.
Let us remind you, in 2017, Mate Rimac also made the list when he was 28 years old.
