In the research that was conducted on a sample of 167 startups, and was carried out as part of the “Take an Idea” project, which the consortium gathered around the “Digital Serbia” Initiative is implementing with the support of USAID, it is stated that it is expected that another 3,000 people will be employed this year, and that almost two thirds of startups expect business growth of more than 50 percent this year.
As stated in the research, although in the last three years the number of startups in the domestic ecosystem has been growing by 20 to 30 percent each year compared to the previous one, startups also face certain challenges, and the three biggest challenges for Serbian startup companies are financing, recruitment and acquisition of customers.
Nebojša Bjelotomić, director of the Digital Serbia Initiative and director of the Take Up Idea project, points out that Serbian startup companies, in addition to expanding their teams, are mostly focused on increasing sales and raising capital.
The previous year was marked by a large number of activities, investments and other events in the field of startup entrepreneurship, which influenced the development of innovative businesses.
We at the ‘Digital Serbia’ Initiative try to follow such developments and based on them, in cooperation with partner organizations, we create programs that will enable domestic startups to grow and open the door to the global startup scene, said Bjelotomić.
He adds that the results of the Startup Scanner 2023 give us the opportunity to see what point of development our ecosystem has reached and to assess which fields need to be worked on the most so that our innovative businesses can compete in different markets.
Also, he emphasizes, Startup Scanner provides all interested parties with data on how Serbian startups are financed, who their founders are, and what their plans are in the context of hiring new team members and expanding their business.
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