Bellabeat, one of the most successful Croatian start-ups in terms of hi-tech investment attracted, decided to expand its overseas presence by opening an office in New York.

The move comes with a change in strategy, as having developed health and fitness trackers and apps for women, the Zagreb-based company decided to expand its range into yoga and meditation markets, Poslovni dnevnik reported on Monday (March 19).

The start-up, which currently employs 50 people, announced 20 new vacancies in its brand new New York office which is intended to boost their overseas presence. Co-founder and CEO of Bellabeat, Sandro Mur, said that the company wants to invest more in distributing their products, as opposed to R&D, which until now took up most of their resources.

“Bellabeat is expanding its team in the areas of distribution and supply chain. San Francisco was always going to be a problem for us because of the huge time zone difference and too few strategic partners in our consumer space on offer. But we have been researching New York for more than a year now, and now is the right time for such a move,” said Mur.

The company, which sells smart jewellery products called Leaf, a smart water bottle, as well as artificial intelligence software, it recently unveiled the newest addition to their range, an air freshener called Mist. According to Mur, Bellabeat wants to introduce technology and good design to the wellness products market.

Their latest product presents an additional challenge, as the company plans to use it to test applying a subscription service to a hardware product. “The market for aroma diffusers will grow to three billion U.S. dollars in the next five years, and this type of products are already among the top five bestselling items on Amazon in 2018,” Mur said.