Croatian president receives World Business Angels delegation after office opening in N-W Croatia
- by croatiaweek
- in Business
22 January 2019 – The President of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović received the Chairman of the World Business Angels Investment Forum Baybars Altuntas and his delegation, who are on a visit to Croatia for the official opening of the first office of this business network in the European Union.
The official partnership in the organisation of the World Business Angels Investment Forum was assumed by Krapina-Zagorje County, and the office in Croatia which was opened yesterday in the Bračak Castle in Zabok will be managed by the Entrepreneurial Centre of Krapina-Zagorje County.
The President of the Republic congratulated Krapina-Zagorje County for having become part of this financial and business network, and she expressed confidence that the newly-opened office will help Croatian early stage entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in an intensive growth phase with their business connections, and will ease access to capital to which she lends her full support.
The office makes Krapina-Zagorje County part of the world’s financial and business network aimed at facilitating access to capital for startups and scaleups, it was said at the opening.
The WBAF is an international
WBAF president Baybars Altuntas said at the inauguration that last year 340,000 business angels in Europe invested EUR 9.8 billion in startups.
Today innovation is important. The challenge for entrepreneurs in the 21st century is to find investors, but they need the know-how, mentoring and networking. Money can be found in a number of sources, but only business angels can provide the rest, he said.
Altuntas said he chose to open an office in a small country while watching the 2018 FIFA World Cup in which, he said, small Croatia played. It doesn’t matter how big a country is but how big the dream is, he added, HINA reported.
