Saint John’s University graduate Dusan Kosic ’07 and his HTEC Group announced Jan. 25 that the company has secured $140 million from investment firm Brighton Park Capital in an equity deal to accelerate its global expansion.

“Exceptionally hard work during last decade and razor-sharp focus during the last three years have proven that we are moving one step closer toward our vision of evolving HTEC Group into a truly leading platform for development of our people,” said Kosic, co-founder and current president of the Serbia-founded, United States-based IT services, consulting and software company.

“Dusan is an extraordinary leader. He’s practical, sensible, strategic, wise beyond his years,” said former SJU board member and Interim President Dan Whalen ’70, who was instrumental in bringing Kosic and a cadre of students from Bosnia-Herzegovina to Saint John’s in the mid-2000s.

“The idea is to merge the best of what Southeast Europe has, and that is sophisticated engineering, with product design in the United States and Great Britain," added HTEC Group CEO and co-founder Aleksandar Cabrilo in an interview with Reuters.

Kosic’s company was founded by a small team in Belgrade, Serbia in 2008, one year after Kosic graduated from SJU. The company branched out in 2017 to San Francisco, where most of its revenues have come from.

“I would like to personally thank each and every HTEC team member for making this possible with your continuous professionalism and devotion,” said Kosic, who serves on the executive committee of the SJU Bosnia-Herzegovina Alumni Chapter and lives in Belgrade with his wife Maja and their children Mila (8), Stefan (5) and Marko (2).

“We are giving our best every single day to make you better and more successful,” added Kosic, who grew up in Banja Luka, Bosnia.

HTEC Group currently employs over 1,000 people, most of them in Southeast European countries, with 70 new jobs being created monthly. It is one of the fastest-growing digital services companies in Europe, posting 100 percent annual growth.

HTEC Group has a strong track record of innovative product development, such as in digitizing the shipping industry, creating wearable devices that measure fetal health and building robotic hands for warehouses. And Kosic traces much of that success to his Saint John’s background.

“Saint John’s has been a transformative factor in my life and career,” said Kosic, who credits Whalen as a major influence.