PragmaGO’s expansion in Europe – time for Croatia.
Four markets – one scalable financing model for SMEs
In just two years, PragmaGO Group has built a presence in three foreign markets. After Romania and Spain, the company is entering Croatia to provide local SMEs with modern financial solutions in the embedded lending model.
Croatia is a rapidly growing economy – one of the most promising in the CEE region. Some 226,000 SME companies operate here, 92.6% of which are micro-enterprises, which together provide nearly 70% of jobs in the business sector.[1] The European Commission forecasts GDP growth of 2.9% in 2026, with unemployment below 5%.[2]
Despite the favorable economic climate, Croatian SMEs – like those in Poland or Spain – face limited access to fast, flexible operational financing. The offerings of traditional financial institutions are largely focused on the consumer segment and large enterprises, leaving micro and small businesses with a financing gap. It is into this space that PragmaGO enters with embedded finance solutions that reach entrepreneurs where they do their daily business – in a partner environment.
PragmaPay stimulates small businesses to grow and acts as a financial cushion. It allows you to catch market opportunities, increase your margin and not give up on orders just because you are temporarily short of startup cash. It’s transparent financing – the contract is simple and the costs for the buyer are fixed, transparent and independent of interest rate changes. Through our partnership with Shoper, we are fulfilling our mission – to level the playing field in access to capital for micro and small businesses. PragmaPay gives benefits to both sides of the transaction – both the buyer and seller on the Shoper platform gain
Croatia is a natural development direction for us. It’s a market with high growth potential, a strong SME sector and the increasing digitalization of financial services. By establishing a local company, we want to be close to entrepreneurs and build relationships with partners who, like us, believe that financing should be simple, fast and available in the company’s natural working environment, every day
– says Vjaceslav Lypko, Head of International Expansion, PragmaGO.
In the first stage, Croatian entrepreneurs will gain access to PragmaCash, a Merchant Cash Advance (MCA) financing model. The service is integrated into the partner’s environment, such as the customer panel of a payment terminal operator. After logging in, the entrepreneur sees the available financing amount, fills out a short online form, and receives a decision even in a few minutes. Repayment is made automatically as a daily percentage of turnover with the partner, which eliminates fixed installments and matches the cost to the company’s actual business activity.
[1] European Commission, 2025 SME Country Fact Sheet – Croatia, DG GROW/JRC, 2025, https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/circabc-ewpp/d/d/workspace/SpacesStore/fba5a0bc-0671-4d55-aa79-5969d9a3d919/download, accessed 20.03.2026.
[2] European Commission, Economic Forecast for Croatia, DG ECFIN, Autumn 2025, Economic forecast for Croatia, accessed 20.03.2026.