The first day of Lider’s Financial Investment Forum concluded with a particularly interesting panel on investment funds, where Stevica Kuharski, a partner at Fil Rouge Capital, stated that there is more than enough capital in Croatia and the entire region for good companies and excellent founders.
– What we are looking for is an excellent team with a very good product, and what we provide is strategy, framework, and preparation for future rounds – said Kuharski.
Fil Rouge Capital is exclusively focused on the IT sector, and as Kuharski mentioned, they receive around a thousand funding applications each year. Naturally, the IT sector is specific compared to others, as IT companies can achieve growth of 20 to 30 percent monthly, which is unsustainable growth for other sectors, Kuharski noted.
While many might argue that startups from, say, France, the UK, or even the US are of higher quality than domestic ones, Kuharski claims that domestic startups are nearly on par with foreign ones, and he pointed out that one of the problems with young founders is the large amount of money they sometimes request for very little idea.
– The IT sector is specific because it is the easiest and cheapest to fail quickly, while in others, it tends to be much slower – said Kuharski.
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Matej Runjak from Advance Capital Partners also spoke on the panel, whose fund invests in IT, renewable energy, energy solutions, logistics, specialized trade/e-commerce, healthcare, and industry, and the fund also invests in other special opportunities that arise in the market.
– It’s not about industries but about companies – Runjak emphasized, asserting that there is enough room for all and that he believes the fund sector is still at the beginning.
– People are used to banks, and soon they will get used to us too – concluded Runjak.
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