Business / technology
Continued revenue, export and employee number growth
Croatian Independent Software Exporters (CISEx) Report

Croatian Independent Software Exporters (CISEx) traditionally conducts annual analyses of the business results of member companies. During the research, they use publicly available data for current members.
Since the membership structure changes each year, CISEx provides multi-year indicators for the current membership.
Data for 2021, like in previous years, is a record of absolute income values, export, and the number of employees. However, CISEx reports they are not satisfied with the profitability indicators or the growth rates themselves.
Export of CISEx members grew 21% YOY
The total member income excluding affiliated companies exceeds 5.85 billion HRK, while income from abroad reached 3.23 billion HRK in 2021.
The growth of income from abroad is 21% compared to 2020. The fact that the share of export in sales revenue continues to grow and amounts to 58% of sales revenue is particularly pleasing.
In 2020, CISEx recorded higher revenues from abroad than in the domestic market for the first time. The average share of exports in the income of the IT industry in Croatia is 43%.
Comparison to other sectors
At the same time, CISEx looked at the indicators of all approximately 145,000 companies in Croatia with available annual reports; the average share of exports in the business income of our economy is, unfortunately, a modest 23%.
However, these companies achieved revenue growth of 21% and exports of 35%. The leading sectors were electricity and gas supply, transport and storage and accommodation, and the manufacturing industry achieved export growth of a very high 35%.
Profit increased by 107%. The IT sector also contributes significantly to the total growth of income and exports, with only the IT group recording a growth of 20% in income and 35% in exports. The profit of the IT group in absolute terms grew by 31%.
Almost all activities significantly declined in all observed indicators in 2020, while IT grew significantly even then. Sectors that were declining in 2020 are now experiencing higher growth.
CISEx opened 1,211 new jobs last year and employed 9,571 employees according to working hours, an annual growth of 14%.
Net exports of CISEx members amounted to a solid HRK 2.1 billion (export minus import).
Revenues per employee stagnated in the observed CISEx members in 2021, the first time since they’ve been conducting analyses. However, exports per employee increased by 6% and amounted to HRK 338,000.
Member analyses
CISEx today gathers 28-35% of the Croatian software industry in terms of revenue, export and number of employees.
- Revenue per employee in 2021 is higher by 5% at the sector level
- The number of employees is higher by 13%
- Net profit per employee is by 16%
- Export is 35% higher than the previous year
- Export of CISEx members grew by 22%
- The profitability of the IT sector grew by a high 31%.