The Croatian entrepreneur using facial recognition to tell how you really feel

Josipa Majic speaks to Hazel Sheffield about founding Tacit, the biometrics data company that maps your hidden emotions

Josipa Majic is the founder and chief executive of Tacit, a startup that uses biometric data to measure emotional responses

Josipa Majic, the Croatian entrepreneur behind biometrics startup Tacit, has not always found it easy to explain her career choice to her family.

“For my parents, it was like, ‘You’re never going to get married’,” she says. “Croatia was a part of Yugoslavia. so there were no real companies – we had socialism. It was difficult to explain to them, because the local perception is that entrepreneurs are tycoons and connected to the mafia – not something you would want your daughter to be.”

Croatia joined the EU in 2013. Its ascension boosted the county’s exports from below 40 per cent of GDP in 2008 to above 50 per cent in 2018, according to the World Bank. But tech entrepreneurs from the country have faced challenges including lack of public funding and education to support the sector.