Croatia Innovation Ecosystem — A land for friends
BøthOfUs recently travelled to Croatia, this is not the first time we went too Croatia however this time is special one for us.
As an outsider, the speed at which Croatia is growing is amazing, this article explains about Croatian Innovation ecosystem and also to share our experience in Croatia.
Racism or Discrimination? What is that?
Being a country with only 4 million people, the acceptance of diverse people in Croatia is a global admiration.
Anywhere in Croatia, Being brown and black people travelling across the Breadth and length of the country, we have never experienced even a single racism or hate speech towards us.
People of Croatia, warriors in the past are now warriors of peace and acceptance.
English
Almost, everyone in the country can speak english which makes it easy to connect to people.
The question is how or why? all can speak english?
The movie and TV series broadcasted in Croatian television are not translated into Croatian language instead they are usually played in English with Croatian subtitle which helps everyone to learn English from very young age and then it spreads to others when they talk with friends.
Innovation ecosystem
The major innovation hub or ecosystem is spread around Zagreb, the capital city of Croatia. Innovation also happens majorly centred around universities in other places such as Split, Dubrovnik and other major cities.
Universities innovations are tied closely with state innovations.
Web3
Croatia is really becoming a pioneer in Web3 technologies, because of the software engineers and ability to create softwares oriented towards web 3 concepts, there is a deep understanding and implementation of web 3 technologies and associations.
Ecosystem
Promotion of innovation is impressive, almost everyone knows each other in top level in innovation eco system so there is very less overlap of doing similar things around Croatia.
Here are some of the innovation ecosystem which promotes innovation in Croatia
Challenges
Even though people are great and innovation is booming with intellectual ability, Croatia has some limitation as well.
Funds
The biggest problem is funding, Croatia lacks funding for innovation, the country is primarily dependent on EU funds, the local investment scene is still in its infant stage, availability of private funds and promotions of innovation from private actors could be a great help for Croatia.
The bureaucracy hierarchy is still very traditionally modelled, even though it has shown great changes in recent time. The system is still in its changing phase when the system reaches its maturity of change, the traveller to Croatia will not only be a tourist but for reading powerful case study from amazing academia's and innovation from Croatia.
Warning
A final warning is, do not travel to Croatia for business if you are just going there for business and not interested in human connection. People of Croatia respects friendship, a very welcoming community, highly civilised, promotes and respects human connection as highest priority.
BøthOfUs have formed collaboration with Croatian projects, purely for the reason that it is so refreshing with people of Croatia on how much they respect human values and friendship even on a very high level.
Interesting fact
We were told that the modern day Tie we wear roots from Croatia and so does the origin of Dalmatian dogs.
