Inside Croatia’s startup scene: 10 startups worth keeping an eye on in 2026
As part of our annual country-by-country series, we now turn our attention to Croatia, a market that continues to build momentum within Europe’s innovation landscape. While smaller than some of its neighbours, Croatia has developed a growing base of startups working across deep tech, software, fintech, and applied AI.
Croatia benefits from a strong engineering tradition, increasing access to early-stage capital, and founders building products for international markets from day one. Zagreb remains the main hub, but more companies are also emerging across the country, reflecting a broader shift toward export-ready technology businesses.
In this article, we highlight 10 promising startups based in Croatia that are worth keeping an eye on in 2026. Together, they show the range of what is being built in the country today and where the ecosystem is heading next.
Zagreb-based Arkensight is developing an AI-powered visual intelligence platform for organisations that operate and maintain critical infrastructure. The platform connects to existing visual sources such as CCTV, drones, satellites, and mobile cameras, and uses artificial intelligence to detect assets, identify damage or anomalies, and monitor changes over time.
Founded in 2024, the company has raised €600k to move from early pilots toward commercial deployment. Arkensight is targeting sectors such as transport, energy, logistics, utilities, and smart cities, where regular visual inspections are costly and time-consuming. Its approach focuses on helping organisations reduce manual inspection work, spot issues earlier, and extract more value from camera systems they already have in place.
Vižinada-based Electric DB is building database technology that helps developers add real-time data sync to modern applications. Its core product, Electric, is a Postgres-based sync engine that keeps data consistent across users, devices, and services. The technology allows teams to replicate only the data that is needed, making applications faster, more collaborative, and easier to scale without building custom sync infrastructure from scratch.
Founded in 2021, the company has raised €550k. Electric DB focuses on developer-friendly tooling that works with existing stacks and frameworks, allowing teams to adopt real-time sync gradually. The platform is open source and is used by companies building collaborative apps, dashboards, and AI-driven systems that rely on up-to-date, shared data.
Čakovec-based Genesis Space Flight Laboratories is developing reusable re-entry capsules that enable frequent and affordable access to microgravity research. The company focuses on supporting biological, pharmaceutical, and materials science experiments by allowing samples to be sent to low Earth orbit and safely returned to Earth. Its GEN capsules are designed to fly multiple times per year, offering researchers a more flexible alternative to traditional space station-based missions.
Founded in 2025 and having already raised €300K, Genesis Space Flight Laboratories builds modular microgravity platforms that can host a wide range of experiments without requiring astronaut involvement. The team has already flown biological payloads through its MAYASAT-1 mission and is preparing upcoming GEN missions planned for 2026. The company aims to make in-space research and manufacturing more accessible to universities, research institutes, and commercial partners across Europe and beyond.
Zagreb-based Hypefy operates an AI-powered platform that helps brands plan, run, and analyse influencer marketing campaigns more efficiently. The platform automates key steps such as influencer discovery, campaign setup, content review, payments, and performance tracking. By using data from social platforms rather than a closed internal database, Hypefy aims to match brands with relevant creators and reduce the manual work typically involved in managing influencer campaigns, particularly those using micro and nano influencers.
Founded in 2021, the company has raised €1.6 million. Hypefy works with more than 100 brands across multiple markets and supports campaigns on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. The funding is supporting further product development, team growth, and expansion into additional markets.
Zagreb-based Jurlina Coenergy is developing a magnetic plasma shaping system designed for fusion energy reactors. The company’s technology uses magnetic fields to influence plasma flow, control density, and reduce turbulence, with the goal of improving confinement and stability in magnetic confinement fusion systems. Its approach is based on modular magnetic constriction zones that aim to modulate plasma behaviour without direct material contact.
Founded in 2024, the company has raised €2.7 million. Jurlina Coenergy is progressing through testbed development and simulation-led refinement, with the longer-term aim of integration into toroidal configurations. The team is also positioning itself for participation in the EIC Pathfinder Open programme through a strategic consortium.
Zagreb-based Legit is a regtech company focused on helping organisations manage data privacy and compliance in an increasingly regulated digital environment. Its core product, Data Privacy Manager, is a cloud-based platform that automates key privacy tasks such as personal data discovery, consent management, data removal, and privacy programme governance.
Founded in 2022, Legit has raised €650k to support product development and market expansion. The company has gained international recognition, including being named to the RegTech100 2026 list, and its technology is used by organisations that need practical, scalable tools to meet data protection requirements. Legit continues to invest in applying AI to privacy protection to make compliance more efficient and easier to manage across complex data environments.
Zagreb-based Luppa is an employee satisfaction and engagement platform that helps organisations understand how their teams are feeling and where improvements are needed. The tool uses pulse and in-depth surveys combined with analytics and AI-generated action plans to give HR teams and managers real-time insights into engagement, productivity, and retention.
Founded in 2022, the company has raised €275k. Luppa is used by organisations across different industries to track trends, benchmark results, and support data-driven decisions around people management. Its focus is on providing a practical, easy-to-use solution that turns employee feedback into concrete actions rather than static reports.
Zagreb-based Revuto is a fintech startup focused on helping users take control of their subscription payments. Through its mobile app and virtual debit cards, users can approve, block, or temporarily pause any recurring charge before money leaves their account. This gives people greater visibility over subscriptions and helps prevent unwanted charges, free trial traps, and forgotten renewals across entertainment, software, and other digital services.
Founded in 2021, it combines traditional payment infrastructure with blockchain-based elements, allowing users to manage subscriptions using standard cards, cryptocurrencies, and decentralised finance tools. The company has raised €1.82 million and continues to expand its product offering, including additional rewards and token-based features, with the aim of giving consumers more flexibility and control over how recurring payments are handled.
Zagreb-based TABU is a salary analysis and benchmarking platform designed to bring more transparency to the job market. The platform allows individuals to compare their pay and benefits with peers in similar roles, while companies can benchmark internal salaries against market data to support fair and informed compensation decisions. It relies on real, anonymised user input rather than job ads or estimates, covering salaries, benefits, seniority, company size, and working conditions.
Founded in 2022, the company has raised €100k. TABU operates a freemium model, offering basic insights for free while charging for more advanced analytics and reports. Its goal is to help professionals prepare for salary discussions with realistic expectations and enable employers to make data-driven decisions that support retention, fairness, and long-term workforce planning.
Zagreb-based WASP is building a developer platform that simplifies full-stack web application development. They offer an open-source framework that allows developers to define an application’s structure through a simple configuration file, while continuing to work with familiar technologies such as React, Node.js, and Prisma. By handling common tasks like authentication, data synchronisation, and deployment out of the box, WASP reduces repetitive setup work and lets teams focus on product-specific logic.
Founded in 2020, the company has raised over €4.5 million and is backed by Y Combinator. WASP is focused on growing its developer community and expanding the framework’s capabilities, positioning itself as a practical option for startups and small teams looking to build and deploy full-stack applications faster without stitching together multiple tools.
By the way: If you’re a corporate or investor looking for exciting startups in a specific market for a potential investment or acquisition, check out our Startup Sourcing Service!
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