September 19 (SeeNews) - Croatian startup company Include, the producer of smart benches, expects compound profits for the 2017-2021 period in the region of 11.5 million euro ($13.5 million), the EBRD said on Wednesday.
The company that counts 32 staff is currently valued at $4.79 million, according to a Croatian crowdfunding website, the EBRD said in a report on Include and its founder.
Set up as a one man business by Ivan Mrvos in 2014, four years later Include has placed thousands of its innovative Steora benches, retailing at 3000 euro each in cities around the world.
The Steora benches use solar energy to charge smartphones, have wireless Internet and also serve as street lights.
In the first month of 2018 alone, Include took orders for 370 benches – over a third of the planned 1000 sales for the year.
Ivan Mrvos announced, also in January 2018, that he wants to open an American subsidiary this year.
Include currently runs a 2000-square-metre facility in the area of Split. The company earned recognition in 2017 after receiving more than 400,000 euro in investments through Croatia’s new Zagreb Stock Exchange-Funderbeam joint venture.
($=0.853833 euro)