Croatia’s Friendly Fire, a chain of gaming cafes, recently raised €4mn to expand through franchising into 11 countries, the latest Croatian company to turn a small domestic market into a platform for selling business models abroad.
The funding, led by AYMO Ventures, takes Friendly Fire’s expansion into a growing group of Croatian brands using franchising to reach consumers well beyond the country’s population of fewer than 4mn people, the Croatian company said in an Instagram post.
Friendly Fire has 31 signed franchise agreements covering 178 locations across 11 countries, with 220,000 users on its platform and more than 1,000 amateur esports competitions behind it. The company announced on September 15 it had opened three cafes simultaneously in Limassol, Rijeka and Vienna.
“Friendly Fire has always been about more than gaming cafés.”, said co-founder and CEO David Kosir, according to the company’s press release. “We’re building a global gaming community, and every new location gives us the opportunity to bring more people into that community. Opening three locations in three different markets on the same day is a major milestone — and we believe it’s just the beginning.”
The company has built a standardised version of a business that might otherwise consist of independent gaming venues. Each cafe connects to Friendly Fire’s proprietary software and centralised management system, allowing the company to replicate its operating model through local franchisees.
“Friendly Fire is focused on a market that has always been fragmented and local, and it’s giving that market a genuinely connected system. Alongside the operational know-how, the technology layer is the part that’s easiest to overlook from the outside, and it’s precisely what turns a good gaming cafe into a network that gets stronger with every new opening,” AYMO Ventures said as quoted in Friendly Fire’s press release.
That model has already helped Friendly Fire expand beyond Croatia into markets including Bosnia & Herzegovina, Austria, Slovenia and Mexico. By June, it had more than 20 cafes across Europe, with more than 200 additional locations in development in countries including Britain, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain. A US launch is planned for Florida and Texas.
The company signed its largest franchise deal to date in May 2025, covering 100 units across the UK, Spain, Poland and Ukraine in an agreement estimated at €10mn-15mn with an operator group whose brands include Domino’s Pizza.
The company’s expansion reflects a broader Croatian trend. With limited room for growth at home, franchising allows companies to export a concept, brand and operating system while local partners finance much of the physical expansion.
In the car-rental sector, Croatia’s Carwiz International reached 40 countries across five continents and more than 400 branches in its first six years. Its most recent market entry was to Egypt in May, when its regional master franchisee Sigma Mobility AE signed an agreement with Elfahd Auto Group – ECRAL S.A.E.
Street food has provided another route. Surf’n’Fries began in 2009 selling chips in packaging designed to be eaten while walking, under the slogan “Walk & Eat. Repeat”. The Croatian company expanded through franchising into international markets, its network now extending from Southeast Europe as far as Santiago and Cape Town. “Surf’n’Fries has grown across 20+ countries and 50+ locations worldwide, proving that one strong concept can adapt to markets around the world,” the company’s site says.
Its founder, Andrija Colak, said in an interview with Total Croatia News in 2023 that after the opening of its Rijeka outlet, sales of McDonalds fries dropped by 50%.
Colak later established a franchise consultancy, Colak Franchise Consulting Group, that has helped package other Croatian concepts for international expansion.
In another success story, Koykan, a street-food chain founded four years ago by Planets Group, now has nine restaurants in Croatia, Germany, Czechia and Slovakia, and opened its first Western European restaurant this year at Munich’s PEP shopping centre.
Koykan is expanding with local partner Xela Investment, with 10 locations planned across Germany, Austria and Switzerland in a project worth about €5mn. The company has set a target of more than 100 restaurants by 2030.
“We have spent decades watching American food brands dominate the European market. Our ambition is to build a European brand capable of competing with them, first across the EU and eventually beyond,” said Boro Milivojevic, the group’s chief executive, as quoted by the Dubrovnik Times.
Some concepts, however, have struggled to turn the franchise model into a global network. The Rakhia Bar in Rijeka became the first Croatian bar of its kind to franchise in 2021, offering more than 100 types of rakija, the Balkan fruit spirit. It launched its own label, The Hogster, with 13 flavours and attracted interest from Italy, Malta and Slovenia. Five years later, it has no international presence.
The country’s franchise story arguably began with a less conventional export: museums. The Museum of Illusions, founded in Zagreb in 2015, has expanded to nearly 70 locations across 27 countries, making it one of the world’s largest privately held museum chains. Today, according to its website, it is actively looking for franchise partners in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
In January, an investor group led by US investment firm Brightwood Capital Advisors acquired the company from Zagreb-based Invera Capital Partners. The new owners said they planned further expansion in North America and Europe, as well as greater investment in infrastructure and marketing. New locations planned for 2026 include Sacramento, London, Birmingham, Miami and San Francisco.
“We are excited to enter this next chapter with Brightwood as our new investor,” chief executive Kim Schaefer said. “Our mission has always been to inspire wonder and joy through immersive, educational experiences.”
Other Croatian museum concepts have also experimented with international franchising. The Museum of Hangovers opened its first international franchise in Shanghai in 2022, while the Museum of Broken Relationships has had a presence in Los Angeles and has taken its collection on international tours.