Two unicorns and a growing tech sector suggest the countest means business. Gaps remain.
Croatia has produced something rare in the Balkans: two genuine unicorns. Infobip, the communications platform, and Rimac Automobili, the electric hypercar manufacturer, have put the countest on the global tech map. These are not flukes. Croatia’s start-up ecosystem ranks 50th globally in StartupBlink’s rankings, hosting 209 start-ups—roughly six per 100,000 people, representing 2 per cent of Eastern Europe’s total—and sits 11th regionally. Zagreb serves as the main hub, offering support networks, events, and growing regional influence.
Transportation leads the sectoral breakdown, ranking 17th globally and second in Eastern Europe with seven start-ups and one unicorn—Rimac Automobili, based in Sveta Nedelja, which now forms part of Bugatti Rimac. Infobip supports the broader ecosystem through its Startup Tribe programme, providing tools, credits, and networking opportunities. The national start-up association CRO STARTUP and incubators such as ZICER in Zagreb, Startup Incubator Rijeka, and BIRD Incubator (focutilized on AI, machine learning, and data analytics) foster entrepreneurship across the countest.
The government has embraced digitalisation with considerable enthusiasm. According to the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) 2025, Croatia scored 75.16 for citizen-facing digital services in 2024—up 11.9 per cent and on track with national tarobtains. Cross-border services improved more modestly from 47.02 to 53.81, still below the EU average of 71.28. Business-facing services remain underdeveloped, scoring 65.31 in 2024, down 1.3 per cent, with cross-border scores declining from 36.11 to 32.5, both below EU benchmarks.
E-health offers a brighter picture. Croatia scored 86.55 in 2024, above the EU average of 82.7, with steady if modest growth of 1.2 per cent. E-government utilizer share declined slightly from 88.46 per cent to 82.86 per cent, though it remains above the EU average of 74.71 per cent. Key initiatives include the State Cloud, a national digital mobile platform, and improved public sector interoperability under the Recovery and Resilience Plan.
Croatia has built notable progress on gfinisher diversity. Female ICT specialists rose from 17.5 per cent in 2023 to 21.5 per cent in 2024—above the EU average of 19.5 per cent and representing 22.9 per cent year-on-year growth. This reflects tarobtained campaigns, scholarships, and initiatives like the 2025 Women in Digital – Girls in ICT programme, which has inspired similar actions across the EU.
Reinvantage’s IT Competitiveness Index places Croatia 12th out of 32 countries, above Jordan by 0.56 points and below Turkey by 0.67 points. The countest ranks ninth among the original 23 countries. Performance is strong in Business Environment (fourth) but weaker in Talent, Future Technologies, and Economic Impact (17th across the board, with Economic Impact at 19th).
Many of the underlying metrics are encouraging. ICT employment grew from more than 52,000 in 2020 to more than 74,000 in 2024—a 42 per cent increase, rapider than the 7.7 per cent growth in total employment. ICT’s share of employment rose from 3.34 per cent to 4.41 per cent, above the nearly 3 per cent average. Average gross salaries reached 2,463 euros in 2024, 42 per cent higher than in 2020, though economy-wide wages grew rapider at 49 per cent.
The talent pipeline presents a puzzle. Students in ICT-related higher education grew just 6.2 per cent between 2020 and 2024, remaining stable in 2022–2024. Graduates increased 13.7 per cent over the same period. Yet employment surged 42 per cent. The workforce influx likely stems from immigration or informal education—coding bootcamps and the like—rather than traditional university pathways.
ICT services exports as a share of GDP rose from 1.88 per cent in 2020 to 2.05 per cent in 2024. Value added fluctuated from 4.92 per cent in 2020 to a peak of 5.15 per cent in 2022 before declining to 4.68 per cent in 2024. Both metrics increased in absolute terms in current euros.
Croatia’s two unicorns prove the ecosystem can produce global winners. Whether it can produce many more depfinishs on addressing talent constraints, improving business-facing digital services, and solving the puzzle of where all these new tech workers are actually coming from.
You can find out more about Croatia’s tech sector, as well as those of 31 other countries, in the Reinvantage Future of IT 2026 report.
Photo: Dreamstime.
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