POPOVIC: Initiative for establishment of fund for financing of startups to be launched

Serbia has great potential when it comes to innovations and development of startups and has been recognized as one of the most important innovation centers in Europe. This was stated by the minister for innovations and technological development of Serbia, Nenad Popovic, after a meeting with Jean Francois Gauthier, the director of the American organization Startup Genome, where the most important results of a survey of startup ecosystems, carried out by that organization, were presented.

Popovic said that Serbia had been put among the five leading ecosystems in Europe, along with London, Tel Aviv, Barcelona and Helsinki.

He said that Belgrade and Novi Sad had appeared in the survey and that it had been carried out in over a million companies in 154 cities of the world.

He added that faculties in Serbia were the source of the best engineers.

– We need to do everything to have as many young people enroll at technical faculties. We will continue doing everything to have as many young people open startups and to draw young people from the region to Serbia.

The survey carried out by the San Francisco-based organization Startup Genome also shows the advantages and the quality of Serbia in gaming and blockchain industries, Popovic said and added that Serbia had great potential in those fields as well.

The minister said that the suggestions and remarks directed at Serbia pertained to an insufficient number of startups and added that countries like Israel and the USA had up to 10 times as many startups.

He said that Serbian startups attracted investors and added that, in the period of one year, acquisitions of Serbian companies in this sector amounted to more than EUR 100 million.

As he said, this year, eight innovative startup centers will be opened in cities without faculties, whereas another six such centers will open by mid-2020.

– This will provide the young with optimal space and optimal technologies. We will thereby help them develop their products and services and put them on the market – Popovic said.

The minister said that the suggestions that Serbia had gotten from Startup Genome pertained to the need to increase the financing of startups. He added that this would be addressed through the launching of an initiative for the establishment of a fund for the financing of startups.

– The competent ministries will work together on attracting finances to the innovative startup ecosystem in the future – he emphasized.

He announced that the cooperation with the Digital Serbia initiative, whose help is of great importance, would continue.

Jean Francois Gauthier said that the development of infrastructure was very important in this field and that good cooperation between public institutions and private initiatives was crucial too. He emphasized that it was very important for there to be financing in the early phase and that the community should support the launching of startups.

– We will give recommendations so that Serbia could become a leader in the creation of new jobs in this field – Francois Gauthier said.