The American organization “Startup Giant” announced today a new edition of its regular annual report, which estimates that the startup market of Belgrade and Novi Sad is worth about 502 million dollars, with the data that Serbia is among the top five countries in the world in terms of developing blockchain technology.
The inclusion of Serbia in this, as it was pointed out, the most relevant annual research on startups in the world, was initiated by the “Digital Serbia” Initiative and the cabinet of the Minister of Innovation and Technological Development of Serbia, Nenad Popovic.
Almost 300 startup “ecosystems” around the world participated in this year’s research, which makes it the most comprehensive so far, Popovic said in a statement.
It was pointed out that the new research gives a much more realistic picture of where the entrepreneurial scene of Serbia is in the world, because it had a far greater coverage compared to last year, when 54 ecosystems were observed.
The report is available to the public, and it analyzes the “ecosystem” of Belgrade and Novi Sad, the only one in the Western Balkans region, for the second time.
The report points out this year as well that there is significant room for improving the index of investment activities, because Serbia, according to the level of investment in startups, is still valued with the lowest grade.
“In the last four years, the state has invested nearly 100 million euros in the construction of innovation infrastructure and mechanisms to support startup companies. We have built four state-of-the-art science and technology parks in which science and economy work together to develop cutting-edge innovations for the global market startup centers in the regions of Serbia, and by the end of the year there will be four more,” Popovic said.
According to him, the state recognizes the problem of lack of investment in startups, which is why it brought significant tax incentives for investing in startup companies in the previous period.
“We will continue to work on the development of mechanisms that stimulate rich companies and individuals from Serbia, who have so far mainly invested in the real estate market, to invest more in Serbian startups,” the minister pointed out.
He added that, in cooperation with “Startup giant”, they are working on the development of new financing programs, and one of them is the National Fund for co-financing innovations.
“That fund will be an additional incentive for representatives of venture capital from all over the world and investors to invest in Serbian startup companies,” Popovic said.
The authors of the report recognize the growth in the domain of the domestic video game industry through two major acquisitions – Novi Sad studios 3Lateral and Eipix became part of the global gaming leaders, Epic Games and Playrix, respectively, in the previous year.
Serbia is still among the top five countries in terms of the number of “blockchain developers” in the world, and for the second year in a row, the report singles out “blockchain” and video games as domestic sub-sectors with the greatest potential.
“The mission of the ‘Digital Serbia’ Initiative is to help establish domestic economic growth that will be globally competitive. This certainly means that the Serbian startup scene is recognized in the world, and the inclusion of Serbia in such a prestigious report undoubtedly helps us in that,” said the director of the Digital Serbia Initiative, Nebojsa Djurdjevic.
When, as he added, a country appears in the “Startup giant” research, the chances of being noticed by foreign investors and organizations increase.
“Apart from being important for shaping the image of Serbia in the world, this research is also important because it allows us to at the same time see how our ecosystem is positioned in relation to other startup ecosystems in the world and map strengths that we can use as levers. as well as the gaps that we need to bridge for further growth of our ecosystem and progress in the field of technological entrepreneurship,” said Djurdjevic.
The report also deals with the effects of the corona virus pandemic on startups, where one of the main findings is that four out of ten of them do not have the funds to operate for more than three months.
The statement also reminds that the recently published research of the “Digital Serbia” Initiative, dedicated to the implications of the pandemic on the digital economy, showed that as many as two thirds of domestic startups recorded a drop in sales of more than 60 percent, Beta reports.
