In 2015 over 1.5 million Kuna of investments and a great number of new members

On Friday, February 26, in the hall of the Croatian Chamber of Economy, CRANE’s annual meeting was held, summarizing all of last year’s activities and unanimously confirming the plans for 2016. CRANE’s biggest success last year refers to the increased number of members and investments, as well as significant progress in the area of international cooperation, while in 2016 we are expecting EBAN Winter University and the arrival of over 400 business angels and investors from around the world.

In March of 2015, Davorin Štetner was elected President of the Association, while Damir Mujić, Mihovil Barančić, Saša Cvetojević and Hrvoje Prpić were elected members of the Board of Directors. Throughout the year, CRANE accepted 9 new members – Alan Sumina, Zoran Vučinić, Nikola Serdar, Danijel Pevec, Dennis Rukavina, Dario Marenić, Aljoša Domijan, Mario Petric and Dražen Turujlija. The number of investments was nearly tripled compared to 2014. There were 6 investments, in the start-ups Wemy, Ultijack, LikeRi, Unigluko, Snaptap and Trillenium, with the total amount of over 200,000 Euros.

Significant steps have been made with regard to international cooperation. After many years as a member, CRANE officially became the nation lead in the European Business Angels Network (EBAN) and a member of the newly founded Global Business Angels Network (GBAN). Members of CRANE often participated in many international projects such as the Paccino conference and Innovation investment forum, where they participated in the initiation of the Adriatic Ionian Business Angels Network.

On the national level, the cooperation with the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Crafts was strengthened, as well as with the agency Hamag-Bicro and the city of Zagreb which officially gave their support to CRANE in organizing  the EBAN Winter University conference and included CRANE as one of the partners at the Zagreb Connect conference. In mid-2015, Davorin Štetner, President of CRANE, entered the Council for Economic Affairs of the President of the Republic as the representative of CRANE in order to promote CRANE’s measures for the improvement of the business climate in Croatia.

Members of CRANE have often participated in different conferences in Croatia and abroad in order to promote entrepreneurship and to be a part of the networking on a global level. To name a few, they visited EBAN Winter University 2015 in Copenhagen, where they had an audience with the Danish Prince Joachim, the Zagreb Connect and the Balkan Venture forum where they participated as speakers and panellists.

The tradition of organizing Startup Wednesdays has successfully continued this year as well, and throughout the year over 10 events have been organized. One of the new CRANE events is also the CRANEbrunch, an informal gathering of entrepreneurs, investors and representatives of the relevant institutions with the goal of improving the business climate and increasing the investments in Croatia. At the CRANEbrunch in September, Paulo Andrez visited us, he is the President emeritus of EBAN and the President of the Portuguese business angels network, and one of the first in Europe to introduce a model of tax reliefs for business angels.

The highlight in 2015 was submitting candidacy for the organization of the EBAN Winter University conference, and already in the beginning of 2016 CRANE was officially named the host. With the organization of the conference, CRANE will bring over 1000 participants to Croatia, more than 400 business angels and investors and 100 start-ups form around the world. From the start, The President of the Republic of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, and the Mayor Milan Bandić have given their support.