To support entrepreneurship and business innovation, the French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce is launching, for the third year in a row, a competition for the “Startup Accelerator”, a free mentoring support program for startups founded more than a year ago. The Association of French, Serbian and Local Foreign Companies invites all interested teams and companies to take this opportunity and apply by January 25, 2020.
The French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce has already implemented this program twice, in 2018 when two startups were received through the competition – Super Bake, a social entrepreneurship initiative where pensioners, or grandmothers, prepare homemade cakes, and Between, a system for quick and easy invoicing financing SMEs, as well as in 2017 when user of the program was Car:Go startup, a mobile driver-driven auto-ordering application, as well as PetGuards, an online pet care platform.
Over a year, the founders of these four startups were advised by CEOs of some of the largest companies in Serbia, and received mentoring support in all aspects of business: legal, marketing, financial, etc. With effective promotion, startups have increased their visibility, gained more clients, and expanded the number of associates. Interestingly, “Between” by participating in the Raiffeisen Accelerator last year, it was named the best fintech startup in Serbia, while the founder of Super Bake startup won the Virtus Award for Intergenerational Connectivity. Due to their participation in the Startap accelerator, both Between and SuperBake became members of the chamber, which allowed them to expand their network of contacts in the French business community.
This year, up to three startups or three teams will be selected to advise the directors of the CCIFS Board of Directors over the next year, with the aim of helping them with their expertise, experience, contacts and ideas in business development. The board of directors consists of 11 company directors, including French and Serbs, leading companies such as Schneider Electric, Atos, Suez, Lesaffre, Crédit Agricole, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and others. Selected startups will automatically win free membership in the Chamber for a period of one year.
The competition for “Startap accelerator” is open to all startups founded a year ago with residence in Serbia, as well as teams of up to three persons, of which at most one is a foreign national. The competition is open to projects from all industries, but it is advised that they include digital technologies in some way and, if possible, be oriented towards the global market.
