First Croatian Venture Capital Fund to be Established

Croatia’s Minister of Finance and World Bank Croatia head sign the deal in Zagreb on Wednesday

The first ever Croatian venture capital fund is to be established…

The goal of the venture capital fund is to help secure financing for small and medium-sized enterprises in Croatia and to help make the nation’s private sector more productive and competitive.

On Wednesday Minister of Finance Boris Lalovac signed a 20 million euro loan contract for the project with Carlos Pinerua, the head of the World Bank’s Croatia office. The World Bank loan has been approved for 10 years, with a 4-year grace period.

“This is the first type of this kind of project in the region. The key to economic growth in Croatia is innovation and to support these kind of enterprises is important. Most of employment generated is from new ideas and the biggest problem faced is capital and we hope to address that with this project,” said Pinerua.

Minister of Entrepreneurship Gordan Maras welcomed the deal, saying that government were keen to create a simple channel for the growing of said of innovative enterprises in Croatia to secure investment capital.

The net investment amount from the venture capital fund will be 12 million euros in public funds and at least eight million in private funds.

“With this 20 million we are giving our young innovative entrepreneurs, who can not go to London or Silicon Valley for capital, opportunities,” said Maras.

A separate fund, to be managed by the Croatian Agency for SMEs, Innovation and Investments (HAMAG-BICRO), will also be set up as part of the project to help mainly startup enterprises secure smaller investment capital.