Vacuum cleaner manufacturer Hyla is the best Slovenian fast-growing company, air dome producer Duol is the best SME.
Vacuum cleaner manufacturer Hyla won last year's Golden Gazelle Award for Slovenia’s best fast-growing company. Established in 1999, Hyla operates in 80 countries, offering innovative air and room cleaning systems that utilize water filtration technology. Over the past five years, the company has doubled its revenue to reach 33 million euros, all while employing 75 staff members. The runners-up for the award were Trgograd and Centronics.
Trgograd, the Silver Gazelle winner, is a diversified construction group with 310 employees. Unusually for a mid-size construction company, Trgograd operates two research and development laboratories and is highly digitized, demonstrating a strong commitment to circular economy principles. Caretronic, a global leader in e-nursing solutions, serves over 500 hospitals and nursing homes across more than 50 countries.
The Golden Gazelle awards are presented by Dnevnik, Slovenia's second-largest daily newspaper, while the largest, Delo, recognizes “Entrepreneurial Stars.” Last year's winner in the SME category was Duol, a developer of innovative air-supported structures. Despite its modest revenue of 13.5 million euros, Duol has successfully doubled its sales in five years and operates in 70 countries. Its air domes are designed to withstand extreme conditions, including wind gusts of up to 250 kilometers per hour, and the company collaborates with ESA and NASA on future habitat development for the Moon and Mars.
Companies like Duol and Hyla exemplify the dynamic nature of Slovenian entrepreneurship. Notably, all firms involved in space programs are young, entrepreneurial SMEs. The most remarkable Slovenian entrepreneurs often emerge from technologically advanced sectors such as high-tech measurement solutions, advanced electronics, and biotechnology. Many of these companies are niche market leaders, yet they remain largely unknown to the broader public, even within Slovenia's 2 million population. Typically, they are family-owned and managed by their founders or their immediate relatives. The most iconic examples of Slovenian entrepreneurship include an innovative small airplane constructor (Pipistrel), a high- end exhaust system manufacturer (Akrapovič), a sophisticated measurement systems developer (Dewesoft), and a mobile game company (Outfit7).
These businesses continue to grow. Overall, 2.7 percent of Slovenia's 122,280 enterprises meet the Ministry of the Economy's criteria for fast-growing companies. Notably, the fastest-growing segment of the economy consists of mid-sized companies with 50 to 250 employees, with 16 percent qualifying as fast-growing according to the ministry's standards. This pool represents a promising future for entrepreneurship and may include the next generation of success stories.
