As Novac/Bernard Ivezic writes, Infobip and Damir Sabol have invested in the Rijeka robotics startup Stemi, a startup which successfully developed the very first Croatian educational robot and created an educational platform around it that reaps good results across the Atlantic in the USA.
The trio announced the above at the jubilee tenth Infobip Shift conference in Zadar, and this is Infobip’s first investment in a startup so far. The Vodnjan company has received many investments from others, but hasn’t, until now, made one itself.
They didn’t want to reveal any of the details for now, and instead, Stemi has stated that they are preparing a big surprise for the end of September in the City of Zagreb. Stemi has recently been heavily involved in the promotion of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in education, and has been supported in this by Infobip. In addition, Rijeka robotics startup Stemi is one of the first members of the programme in which the Croatian unicorn encourages young technology companies from around the world to use its technology – the much talked about Infobip Startup Tribe.
The Infobip Shift conference is being attended by more than 13,000 visitors this year. In Zadar, over 3,000 live visitors gathered physically in the Kresimir Cosic Hall, and over 10,000 bought tickets for the online following of the conference. Thus, this year’s Shift conference, the first organised under Infobip, has grown into the largest developer conference not only in Croatia but also in Europe.
Ivan Burazin, Infobip’s board member for developer relations, boasted at the opening of the conference that Infobip has the best communication platform in the world, which is sold according to the service model.
”This year, we’re under the auspices of Infobip for the first time. That’s why it’s now called Infobip Shift, but we’re still Shift and this year we’re dealing with what developers are doing – problem solving,” explained Burazin.
Izabel Jelenic, the co-founder and chief technical officer, then took the stage, greeted the audience briefly and told them that they were “just starting”. This is the slogan of Infobip, which, after becoming the first Croatian unicorn, is strengthening its operations and actively taking over other companies. It first took over the American OpenMarket, then the Croatian franchise of the Shift developer conference, and then the Irish company Anam Technologies. That’s why it is speculated that the market value of the first Croatian unicorn far exceeded last year’s billion dollars.
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