The Power of Connection | 26 November 2026
From Idea to Investment. From Croatia to the World.
Croatia has the expertise, entrepreneurial talent and startups ready to compete internationally. How can we help them access capital, seize new opportunities and grow globally?
Zagreb Connect 2026 brings together founders, investors and experts shaping the future of the European startup ecosystem. This year, we focus on Europe’s competitiveness, international expansion and lessons from entrepreneurs who have already taken their businesses global.
This year, we’re also opening up a new opportunity for startups from across Croatia. On the Investor Connect Stage, selected teams will pitch their solutions to investors, while the Accelerator Stage will host the finals of ZICER’s accelerator programmes.
Two stages. One day. Endless opportunities to connect.
Admission is free. Registration is required.
6000+
visitors
200+
speakers
160+
startups
12
successful years
Two stages.
One goal.
INVESTOR CONNECT STAGE
Up to eight selected startups from across Croatia will present their solutions to investors in three-minute pitches.
ACCELERATOR STAGE
Finalists from ZICER’s accelerator programmes will showcase their achievements and compete for cash prizes.
The Grand Finale of ZICER’s Accelerator Programmes
Behind every startup are months of hard work, crucial decisions, countless challenges and the people who helped turn an idea into a viable business.
The Accelerator Stage will showcase the finalists from ZICER’s Startup Factory, Growth, Global and Deep Tech programmes. With support from our mentors and experts, these teams have developed their solutions, refined their business models and prepared for their next stage of growth. Now, they are ready to take the stage in front of an audience and investors.
In the grand finale, they will share their achievements and ambitions for growth, competing for cash prizes for the best pitches.
Startup Factory
Growth
Global
Deep Tech
Zagreb Connect 2026 Speakers
Frane Šesnić
CEO, ZICER
Sanja Sever Mališ
Dean, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb
Mato Njavro
Dean, Zagreb School of Economics and Management
Daniel Šimić
Senior Director Enterprise Division, A1 Hrvatska
Gordan Kuvek
Executive Director Strategy Division, HBOR
Charles Hope
Founder, Your Startup Advisor
Anto Širić
CEO, Sportreact
Ignacija Glavina
Attorney-at-Law
Josip Povreslo
Founder, Field39
Mislav Crnogorac
Founder, Parsec Lab
PRO
GRAM
GRAM
09:00 — 09:30
Lounge
Registration
09:30 — 09:40
Lounge Stage
Opening of Zagreb Connect
Frane Šesnić
CEO, ZICER
09:40 — 10:00
Lounge Stage
Keynote Address
10:00 — 10:30
Lounge Stage
PANEL 1:
United for Innovation: Can Croatia Build One Powerful
Innovation Ecosystem?
10:35 — 11:35
Accelerator Stage
PITCH ROUND 1: ZICER Startups
Argus I ARFE I DharaOne I EnigMaker I Flatie I FynTwin I KAGE Ghostpad I Lyzor Therapeutics I PERMEDIS I proto2 I Fibryion I Symbiont
11:35 — 11:50
Lounge
Coffee Break
11:50 — 12:20
Lounge Stage
PANEL 2:
EU Inc.: Can Europe Finally Become One Startup Market?
12:25 — 13:05
Accelerator Stage
PITCH ROUND 2: ZICER Startups
Crobotic Solutions I Odonata Technologies I RenewXchange I TINFE HTS I Green Energy Pal I GRID one I Yure.ai
13:05 — 13:45
Lounge / Catering Area
Lunch and Networking
13:45 — 14:15
Lounge Stage
PANEL 3:
What Does It Really Take to Build a World-Class Startup?
14:20 — 15:20
Accelerator Stage
PITCH ROUND 3:
Open Startup Pitch – Startups from Across Croatia
15:20 — 15:40
Lounge Stage
Awards Ceremony and Conference Closing
Discover New Investment Opportunities.
Expand your deal flow and connect with promising startups from across Croatia that are developing innovative solutions and seeking opportunities for further growth.
Across two stages, the Investor Connect Stage and the Accelerator Stage, you’ll have the opportunity to meet selected startups and finalists of ZICER’s acceleration programs, hear their pitches, and explore potential investment and collaboration opportunities.
ANGEL INVESTORS
CORPORATE INVESTORS
ANGEL INVESTORS
PRIVATE INVESTORS
Startup Factory 2026 Teams
Argus
Argus is an Edge AI system for predictive maintenance that helps users detect mechanical issues in industrial machinery before they lead to costly breakdowns. By continuously monitoring vibration and temperature, Argus learns how motors and pumps normally operate and alerts maintenance teams to anomalies and potential faults. It is designed to make predictive maintenance simple, affordable and accessible to every factory.
ARFE
ARFE (Aircraft Records & Fleet Evaluation) is a due diligence platform for aircraft and component transactions. Using AI models, it reads and verifies extensive aircraft technical records that experts still largely review manually, and assesses the condition and market value of aircraft and their key components. The result is a consistent, auditable assessment that helps buyers and sellers make better-informed decisions in transactions worth millions of euros.
DharaOne
DharaOne is a platform built on the belief that small-scale farmers and family farms deserve a digital tool that understands what working on the land is really like. Rather than adding to a farmer’s workload, it organises it, bringing everything a family farm needs together in one simple, affordable platform. It is designed to support the digital transformation of small farms, with scope to grow into more advanced capabilities such as analytics and precision agriculture.
EnigMaker
EnigMaker is a Zagreb-based startup developing smart, IoT-connected locks and modular puzzles for escape rooms, offering everything from individual components to complete installations that turn an empty space into a fully operational escape room. The team brings together Sven Matković and Marta Peričić, students at the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing with experience in robotics projects, and Ivan Kunović, who has extensive industry experience and runs Robokacija. They are currently testing their first sensor-fusion prototypes, aiming to launch pilot installations in Zagreb and modernise the escape room industry by replacing outdated mechanical locks with smart electronic solutions.
Flatie
Flatie is a SaaS platform that digitises residential building management in Croatia, bringing property owners, their representatives and professional property managers together in one place. It offers electronic voting with legally valid identification, document and financial management, and smart notifications, replacing fragmented communication through paper documents, noticeboards and WhatsApp groups. The Flatie team combines legal and technical expertise, and the product was developed in line with Croatia’s new Building Management and Maintenance Act, which came into force in 2025.
FynTwin
FynTwin combines built-in professional expertise with real client data to turn accounting records into reliable business insights and analysis. It saves significant time and brings financial analysis up to a standard previously available only through highly experienced professionals. Its RAG system automatically generates and analyses financial statements from journal entries, drawing on Croatian Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS, Croatia’s Accounting Act and tax regulations, and a knowledge base of more than 1,000 pages compiled from practical experience.
KAGE Ghostpad
KAGE Ghostpad is an invisible controller built into a mousepad. It lets gamers, creators and professionals trigger shortcuts, macros and commands without adding hardware to their desks. The project aims to turn one of the most passive objects on a desk into an entirely new category of input device.
Lyzor Therapeutics
Lyzor Therapeutics is developing a platform that uses machine learning to predict which bacteriophages could be effective against E. coli. The aim is to speed up the selection of treatment candidates, particularly for infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The platform is currently being prepared for experimental validation through laboratory testing of the model’s predictions.
PERMEDIS
PERMEDIS (Personalized Medical Solutions) is a startup that develops and manufactures personalised medical devices using additive manufacturing, or 3D printing. It has developed two prototypes in gynaecology and established active collaborations with professors at the University of Zagreb and University Hospital Centre Zagreb. It is currently based at the ZICER Incubator and participates in ZICER’s accelerator programme.
proto2
proto2 develops digital solutions for engineering and high-tech industries, focusing on simulation, optimisation and support for technical decision-making. The project aims to accelerate the development of complex products and reduce the time needed for analysis and design iterations. Its goal is to enable more efficient product development, lower costs, faster decisions and greater competitiveness in aerospace, automotive and other industries that rely on advanced simulations.
Growth 2026 Teams
Crobotic Solutions
Crobotic Solutions is a startup developing innovative AI-based technologies to integrate robots more quickly into dynamic, demanding and flexible manufacturing processes. Its software product, FORGE, lets operators teach robots through demonstrations rather than conventional programming, saving time and money. Alongside developing its own product, the startup delivers EU-funded projects and works with academic and industry partners.
Odonata Technologies
Odonata Technologies is an intelligent warehouse inventory system that compares actual stock with data from warehouse management systems (WMS), turning discrepancies into accurate, structured and actionable inventory information. Odonata gives warehouses a reliable view of stock levels, locations and items that need attention, without manual counting or disruption to day-to-day operations.
RenewXchange
RenewXchange is a digital matchmaking platform that helps renewable energy producers and business customers in Southeast Europe conclude power purchase agreements (PPAs) quickly and transparently. These long-term agreements enable the direct purchase of green energy at a pre-agreed fixed price. The platform gives buyers access to more affordable green energy while securing buyers for producers and improving project returns. It uses AI to automate analysis, financial viability calculations and contract drafting. Users enter their energy supply or demand, and the platform matches them with suitable partners based on key criteria. The RenewXchange team then supports them through to signing the agreement.
TINFE HTS
TINFE HTS is developing cloud-based software that automatically corrects the inner filter effect, a common optical distortion in laboratory fluorescence measurements. The project helps biotechnology, pharmaceutical, academic and analytical laboratories obtain more accurate data without buying new equipment or changing their existing workflows.
Global 2026 Startups
Green Energy Pal
Green Energy Pal is developing Enpulse – an energy management platform supporting the green energy transition and the digitalisation of the energy sector. Enpulse serves both energy users and companies that install or invest in energy assets, including solar PV systems, batteries and EV chargers. It also optimises and manages these assets, for example by scheduling battery storage operations to make the most of dynamic electricity prices.
GRID one
GRID one is developing a platform for collecting, processing and visualising electricity consumption data that is often unavailable, difficult to access, incomplete or available only in aggregate form. The platform uses P1-Link to collect metering data for grid users with large numbers of metering points, and incorporates an AI module to improve energy efficiency.
Yure.ai
Yure.ai is developing an AI platform that helps legal teams work more efficiently, powered by specialised AI agents. It analyses and drafts legal documents, conducts research and supports better decision-making, allowing lawyers to focus on strategic work. The project aims to transform how legal teams operate and set a new standard for AI in the legal sector.
Deep Tech 2026 Startups
Fibryion
Fibryion is developing technology to produce cellulose film for food packaging using residues from agriculture and the wood industry. Its adaptable film is cost-competitive, biodegradable, fully bio-based, sustainable and recyclable, with a lower carbon footprint than commercial fossil-based or bio-based alternatives. The film meets the EU’s sustainability and circular bioeconomy criteria.
Symbiont
Symbiont is an operating system for AI employees that enables organisations to turn their internal knowledge, processes and communication practices into specialised digital agents for sales, customer support and onboarding. Developed by 7Sense Digital d.o.o., the solution builds on co-founder Stella Antolović’s doctoral research in organisational knowledge management. It uses RAG architecture and behavioural marketing to train and manage persona-based AI employees. Unlike general-purpose language models, Symbiont works exclusively with an organisation’s private knowledge base, eliminating hallucinations and delivering measurable business impact in real time.
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