As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes on the 9th of September, 2020, the leading Croatian software design and development company, Infinum, in partnership with Porsche Digital, a subsidiary of Germany’s Porsche, is opening a development centre for software design and development, artificial intelligence and machine learning called Porsche Digital Croatia. The centre wil be located in Zagreb.
Representatives of both companies announced at a recent press conference that Porsche Digital Croatia will start operating at the end of September and that Infinum and Porsche Digital will invest a massive ten million euros in the company and product development over the next three years. The company will, among other things, develop digital products and services that will improve the digital ecosystem of the Porsche Group. It will first work on expanding existing offers and creating new online ones designed for customers.
They have already started hiring employees in Zagreb in Strojarska, where Infinum is located, and where the headquarters of the new company will be, where about fifteen people are already working on projects. By the end of the year, that number will grow to thirty employees, and over the next three years they want to hire about one hundred experts across various fields.
The adaptation of the automotive industry to new technologies was a great opportunity for Infinum, said Tomislav Car, CEO and one of the company’s founders. A car lover himself, he points out that the automotive industry was a step further for Infinum.
Porsche Digital Croatia plans to hire 100 experts in the next three years
”We have equal ownership shares In the new company with Porsche Digital. With fifteen years of experience in creating digital products and services on large projects, this is an opportunity to shape the digital future with Porsche,” said Car. Infinum, which started with just two workers, employs about 250 professionals across ten countries around the world today. To recall, Infinum has stood out for several years in a row on Deloitte’s prestigious list as the fastest growing technology company in Europe and beyond. The two companies are connected, the representatives of Infinum and Porsche Digital agreed, with the same business spirit and way of working.
Porsche Digital Finance Member Ralph Knoll said that Infinum is like ”what Porsche Digital was looking for”, thanks to Infinum’s awards and global projects, as well as their investment in employee satisfaction and education.
”We need an international network within which we can use all the possibilities of digitalisation, and with it good teams. The first step towards that is the strong partner we found in Infinum and the new office in Zagreb,” said Stefan Zerweck, Chief Operating Officer of Porsche Digital. This new partnership is important for the competitiveness and placing Croatia as a desirable IT destination on the world map, but also for the opportunity to expand and strengthen the image in the automotive industry.
Zagreb is already considered one of the growing innovation centres in Europe with a strong technology scene and academic community, as well as very many talented young engineers and developers. In addition, as Knoll pointed out, their partnership will attract young talent to Zagreb and Croatia, especially since they offer employment opportunities to engineers, designers, project managers and more.
Engineers will develop process-oriented products in the new company Porsche Digital Croatia, as well as top quality for the Porsche and/or the VW Group, and some of the employees will focus on improving the user experience. Infinum also revealed that it will work on backend systems, data analysis, mobile and web applications, data science and user experience design, but didn’t reveal much about the products at hand.
“It will be a similar principle as it was before in Infinum, but with a focus on the automotive industry,” the company said.
Locations in Europe
Porsche Digital employs around 160 people in several locations around the world, and in addition to the Croatian capital city of Zagreb, the global innovation network consists of three other locations across Europe and four additional offices in Israel, China and across the Atlantic in the USA. They also have development centres in Ludwigsburg, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Shanghai, Atlanta and the famous Silicon Valley. This isn’t the first investment of this German sports car manufacturer here in Croatia. It was huge news that Porsche bought a stake in Rimac Automobili two years ago, taking a 10 percent stake, and it was among the first Porsche investments ever and the first in the field of electric cars, with the aim of developing electric vehicles and their related technology. Last year, there was also talk of Croatia’s involvement in a large investment by Volkswagen in the European southeast worth a billion and a half euros.
No conversation with the ministry took place, despite the claims that Croatia would ”fight for an investment like this”…
Then, Darko Horvat, the former Minister of the (former) Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts (which is now the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development) announced that Croatia would fight for such an investment. Infinum stated plainly that there was no discussion of a new partnership with the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development on the matter whatsoever.
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