May 31

All about the first closed investment at this year’s PODIM!

Damir Mujić, member of the board of directors of CRANE (Croatian Business Angel Network), closed an investment into the Bosnian-Herzegovinian startup Lionscube at this year’s PODIM. Lionscube is a web SaaS app changing the current way of writing, publishing and selling authors’ eBooks through the internet. It’s a first system of its kind, specialized for currently more than a hundred thousand eBook authors. The app is in its final development stage and will be launched to the market by the end of this year.

Innovative product for eBook authors
“Considering I’ve been working with web technologies and apps for a number of years, it isn’t surprising that the Lionscube project attracted my attention. It’s an innovative product solving many problems for eBook authors, which is why we can expect it to quickly generate income on the market. I think that the best recipe for success is the simplest possible product that solves a concrete problem of a narrow target group at the global level. Besides this, I know and have been following company founders for a number of years, and they are an excellent team of young, talented and hard-working people, which additionally encouraged my decision to support them with capital,” said Damir Mujić from CRANE after a successfully closed investment.

Potential global actor
“This is our first project that fulfils all the conditions for becoming a global actor in its field,” said Nedim Šabić, co-founder and CEO of Lionscube at this opportunity. “For its realization, we also had to become more mature as a team and, of course, find each other and connect beforehand. The maturity of the market and investors also plays an important role. We’re very happy that Damir Mujić and CRANE recognized our potential right at the very beginning and thus made conquering the global market easier,” added Šabić.

A great example of regional collaboration
The investment, which victoriously concluded the first day of activities in the 1:1 Arena of this year’s PODIM Conference, is also a “great example of regional collaboration of startups, business angels and accelerators. At the conference, we were able to meet many promising startups, interested investors and inspiring speakers, and realized that borders don’t exist when we speak about business and capital. We must continue to connect our talents, support them and encourage their aspirations for global success,” said Davorin Štetner, CRANE president, to conclude the announcement of this positive news.

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The Croatian Business Angels Network or CRANE is an organization that connects private investors interested in investing into innovative companies in early development stages. The network, which was founded in 2008, is one of the oldest in Europe. In seven years of successful operations, it has carried out more than 30 investments in the joint value of more than 3 million euros.

Besides investing, CRANE members are actively involved in encouraging entrepreneurship through organizing events such as Startup Wednesdays and CRANEbrunch. They also participate at various conferences as mentors, consultants and lecturers, and collaborate with numerous national and international organizations, including Start:up Slovenia and the PODIM Conference.