(Editor’s note: This Croatia Tech Digest is part of Dispatches’ Tech Tuesday series. We cover tech because so many of our highly skilled internationals are searching for career or investment opportuntities.)
Croatia’s startups keep attracting international attention, but the incubators and accelerators that help them find their feet are also getting noticed. The Financial Times included Nuqleus on its list of top startup hubs in 2026. The Zagreb-based venture builder operates within the Nikola Tesla Innovation Centre at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER). Nuqleus has been recognised for the second year in a row as one of Europe’s leading startup hubs according to a recent survey by the Financial Times. Nuqleus improved its position, climbing to 52nd place among 180 ranked hubs from 39 European countries in FT’s 2026’s edition. In 2025, it was ranked No. 60.
A climb in the FT rankings for the Croatian startup hub
The Financial Times survey, conducted in collaboration with Statista and Sifted, included an analysis of the quality of startup programmes across Europe through various criteria including mentorship, legal and business support, networking opportunities and access to investors and financing. The opinions of startup alumni, investors, entrepreneurs and academic experts were all given particular weight in this detailed assessment.
An impressive 25 spin-off startups spanning the sectors of biomedicine, cybersecurity, pharmaceuticals, energy and more have emerged from Nuqleus thus far.
“Nuqleus being included among Europe’s leading startup hubs for the second year in a row now is clear confirmation that Croatia can indeed successfully and systematically create a competitive deep-tech ecosystem,” stated Matija Srbić, Nuqleus’s coordinator and director, bsiness development.
The Nuqleus Liftoff Conference coming up in July
The Nuqleus Liftoff Conference was created to connect the most promising startups from across the entire CEE region with international capital and talent. The launch of the Nuqleus Liftoff conference, one of the biggest deep- tech events in Croatia and the region, contributed to the Financial Times’ recognition and new ranking. Last year’s edition held in Zagreb drew more than 500 participants, from leading European investors and tech leaders to scientists and policymakers at both the national and European level.
The 2026 edition of the Nuqleus Liftoff Conference is schedued for 30 June and 1 July at the Mozaik Event Centre in Zagreb. Tickets start at 30 euros, and you can get yours here.
Croatia’s Orqa receives 12.7 million euro capital injection to produce more than one million drones anually
Croatia’s Orqa has received a new injection of capital with the goal of tripling production to more than 1 million drones per year. Lider Media reports that with its current production capacity of 280,000 drones yearly, Orqa will continue expanding its operating model on a global scale. Orca produces standardised aerial systems based on original designs and the company’s own components through an international network of manufacturing partners.
London-based Expeditions, a leading investor specialising in early-stage European security, is the lead investor. AYMO Ventures (the first Croatian fund to invest in Orqa), Radius Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Taiwania Capital also investing.
New global partnerships are looming
Orqa, which is based in the somewhat unlikely eastern Croatian city of Osijek, designs and produces advanced first-person view, which allow operators to see in real time, and unmanned aerial vehicles. It gained international attention as a result of the war in Ukraine. Orqa will use the capital to cut delivery times. Its supply chain for dual-use technology will also extend to global markets.
Orqa’s co-founder and CEO Srđan Kovačević stated that the company has become the Western first-person view drone ecosystem’s key driver in the defence sector during the last four years. “There’s been strong expansion across the drone industry in recent years, with the sector projected to reach $29.8 billion by 2030,” Kovačević said.
Expeditions co-founder and general partner Mikołaj Firlej said that one of their top investment theses is to offer support to companies in control of crucial points of European supply chains, with a particular emphasis on the defence sector. “Orqa fits perfectly in this sense. Everything it creates has been designed and produced in Croatia, which guarantees the complete sovereignty of the entire supply chain. “Their extremely quick commercial success, manufacturing advantage and superior capital
efficiency caught our attention,” added Firlej.
Farseer raises $7.2 million
Croatian financial planning startup Farseer has raised a $7.2 million A round they plan to use to expand their team and global expansion. Farseer has indicated that its next move is to add sales and marketing teams, engineers and consultants. North America and Western Europe are their targets for expansion.
Two Zagreb-based VCs made the commitment to Farseer. AYMO Ventures led this Series A investment round according to Forbes Croatia, with the re-participation of SQ Capital The latter supported Farseer from the start during pre-seed and seed investment rounds.
The crucial next step for Farseer following this significant capital injection us expansion into foreign markets. While previous phases focused on product validation, this A round investment begins the
accelerated scaling phase. Farseer is on the hunt for experts to create solutions for some of the biggest companies in the world outside of the borders of Croatia and its immediate region, but Europe-wide. Engineers and technical consultants for software implementation are being primarily scouted, as well as sales and marketing teams to provide full support to the startup’s expansion into Western Europe and North America.
You can see all the job listings here.
Fil Rouge Capital invests in 2DNAC RigX
Zagreb-based Croatian venture capital firm/fund manager Fil Rouge Capital announced yesterday that it has invested an undisclosed amount in 2DNAC, a Novi Sad-based startup creating 3D production technology. (The 2DNAC website is the weirdest thing we’ve seen lately, which must mean they’re doing cool work.) 2DNAC is interesting, but the real story here is FIl Rouge and its funds focused on early stage businesses from pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds of investment.
Fil Rouge Capital is a small fund with about 100 million euros under management. But it has invested in more then 170 startups, supporting 300 founders. Its portfolio companies have raised a collective 430 million euros in capital and it has closed an amazing eleven exits, according to media reports.
“Fil Rouge” translates to “red thread” in French, and a co-founder is indeed French. Julien Coustaury has his own crazy story, starting out as a telecom executive before jumping into startups, getting into Y Combinator in 2011. Since then, he’s used the Y Combinator model, which seeded Airbnb, GitLab, Reddit, Stripe and about a million other Unicorns, to created accelerators in Slovenia and Croatia.
You can submit your startup pitch to Fil Rouge here.
–––––––––––
Read more about Croatia here in Dispatches’ archives.
Lauren Simmonds
Lauren Simmonds is the editor of Total Croatia News, the largest English language portal in Croatia. She lives in Zagreb, Croatia, and is a translator, content writer, interpreter and the co-author of "Croatia - A Survival Kit for Foreigners," which was published in 2022.
