Croatia

The following WB EDIF financial instruments are in place in Croatia

WB EDIF Guarantee Facility
EIF signed an agreement with Raiffeisen Croatia in April 2014 for a portfolio of EUR 20m, the instrument is currently being absorbed by the market.

WBEDIF Enterprise Innovation Fund (ENIF)

ENIF, managed by South Central Ventures (SCV), has so far signed the following deals in Croatia:

Agrivi: Agrivi is a global ag-tech company with the vision to change the way food is produced and make a positive impact on more than 1 billion people by helping farmers to reach sustainable, resource-efficient and profitable production.
ENIF has invested EUR 1m in Agrivi, the investment aims to support Agrivi to multiply the operational capacity, keep the customer success rate at the highest level and further speed up market expansion to bring their technology to as many farmers as possible.

Bulb: Bulb Technologies is a telecom software development company specialised in solutions for telecom service management and Customer Experience Management (CEM). Bulb’s solutions enable all types of service providers ‒ fixed, cable and mobile ‒ to deliver superior customer experience and drastically reduce customer support related costs.
ENIF has invested EUR 2m in Bulb to support the global expansion of CEMPRESSO and Bulb’s suite of proprietary products.

Internally managed and advised by the EBRD

WBEDIF Enterprise Expansion Fund (ENEF)

Pula Retail Regeneration Centre: based on the Istrian coast, the Project consists of the development and operation of a retail and entertainment centre in the town of Pula.
The ENEF investment, including co-financing by the EBRD, amounts to EUR 10m, which will be used to finance this development.

The following WB EDIF Support Services projects are in place in Croatia

Triple Helix: this project, run by the OECD, aims to design sustainable policy frameworks for partnerships in Croatia via economy-specific capacity building and implementation support projects. These are based on the three pillars of knowledge based economy (forming the triple helix structure for innovation); wealth generation (industry), knowledge creation (university) and governance of interactions (government).

The Triple Helix structure provides successful models from transition countries which form the foundation of further cooperation adapted to Croatia – where there is a specific focus on Social Innovation.

For more information please visit http://www.oecd.org/investmentcompact/social-innovation-competition-in-croatia.htm

Small Business Act (SBA) monitoring: this project, run by the OECD, provides a monitoring tool which allows for a transparent and comparative way of ensuring that WB EDIF’s reform priorities can create regional synergies between government and donor efforts in supporting SMEs. The upgraded SME Policy Index methodology aims to deepen the assessment, to better capture policy performance and provide more detailed recommendations for Croatia.

For more information please visit: http://www.oecd.org/globalrelations/smallandmedium-sizedenterprisessmepolicyindex.htm

Road to Europe – Program of Accounting Reform And Institutional Strengthening (EU-REPARIS): this project, run by the World Bank, supports the implementation of corporate financial reporting frameworks in line with the EU standards in the countries of Southeast Europe with a view to promoting enhanced availability, transparency and reliability of financial information. Sound CFR provides systematic information to business management (better monitoring leads to greater efficiencies), supports a business environment that is conducive to access to finance, and helps reduce the burden of tax compliance. REPARIS furthermore provides essential support to beneficiary countries to help them ensure their financial reporting frameworks are in line with requirements of the EU acquis communitaire.

Venture Capital & Investment Readiness (VC-IR): this project, run by the World Bank, focuses on two areas of particular priority in Croatia; namely;

1. Venture Capital: for the development of a framework for the assessment of and recommendations for reforms and a tailored technical assistance programme
2. Investment Readiness: for the design, implementation and evaluation of the pilot Western Balkans Membership Assistance Programme (MAP) and generation of a pipeline of projects to be taken up by potential investors.

Advice for Small Businesses (ASB); this project, run by the EBRD, helps SMEs to improve, grow and develop to a point where they are better able to attract investment. ASB provides direct support to SMEs in the WB economies by improving investment readiness of companies, introducing international best practices in accounting and financial management, strengthening human capital and expertise, enhancing innovation and assisting with export compliance standards, to name a few activities

For more information please visit: http://www.ebrd.com/work-with-us/advice-for-small-businesses/croatia.html%20

Support Services management and coordination; the EIB has been nominated as the WB EDIF Support Services Manager and Coordinator; whereby it centralises and harmonises monitoring, reporting and communication strategies, as well as measuring impact and identifying delivery gaps in the market.