City of Zagreb and the Croatian business angels network are to host the largest conference of business angels and investors in Europe

City of Zagreb and the Croatian business angels network (CRANE) are set to host the largest European business angels and investors conference – EBAN Winter University 2016, which will be held on 29th and 30th of November, 2016, in Zagreb, in the Vatroslav Lisinski concert hall. The conference has been presented today by Davorin Štetner, the president of Croatian business angels network (CRANE), and Milan Bandić, the mayor of the City of Zagreb. EBAN Winter University is held once a year, and the hosts expect 1.500 participants, including 400 investors, with 100 startups from all around the world, which makes it the largest business conference ever held in Zagreb.

“At the last year’s conference in Copenhagen, we spoke with the mayor and the Danish prince. In that moment it became clear that we must bring this conference to Croatia to strengthen and help develop the Croatian business and startup scene. The initiative was, from the start, recognized and supported by the President Kolinda Grabar – Kitarović and the City of Zagreb, headed by Milan Bandić. We lobbied intensively during the last three months and the effort paid off”, stated Davorin Štetner, the president of CRANE.

Slika2“The cooperation between CRANE and the City of Zagreb started last year when CRANE became a partner to Zagreb on the Zagreb Connect project. The cooperation had proven extremely successful and, precisely due to that, we are going to join the Zagreb Connect conference with the EBAN Winter University 2016. This is an event with the same goals – connecting young entrepreneurs with business angels and investors, and in this way we create a unique event in Croatia, and neighbouring countries.

The mayor of Zagreb emphasized the importance of hosting this event for the goal of systemically developing the recognisability of Zagreb, as a place for organization of European business events.

“The City of Zagreb will give its support to the development of high technology companies, in particular through its technological park, perhaps better termed a business incubator, which is being constructed in Pavilion 12, at the premises of Zagreb Velesajam, which will open its doors to our entrepreneurs this very year. We shall ensure premises, mentorship and new financial instruments in financing start-ups, considering that in Croatia such support for our young entrepreneurs is still lacking.”

The conference of the scale and importance of EBAN Winter University will secure for Croatia a lot of attention by international business angels and investors, and will allow Croatian start-ups to pitch their ideas at a global level. In Europe the business angels invest €7.5 billion euro annually, with continuing yearly growth.

Winter University was started by the European business angels network (EBAN), which represents the cooperation of investors focused on start-ups and companies in early stages of development, and numbers over 250 organizations of business angels and more than 20.000 investors. In Croatia, this year, the 15th edition of the conference will be held, gathering the finest experts in the sector of investments, and will offer information and insight into new trends on the world startup scene. In competition for EBAN Winter University 2016, Croatia won against Norway, Sweden and Ukraine. In Istanbul, in February of the current year, at the World Business Angels Investment forum, CRANE was officially awarded the hosting of EBAN Winter University 2016 conference.