A small but growing market, Kosovo is seeking to establish its young IT industry on par with the rest of the Western Balkans.
Although there are still only a small number of national startups, young and ambitious ones such as Appstellara cloud software development and DevOps services company, sets the tone for the rest.
Founded just over two years ago, the startup already has more than 25 employees, and it is also the first company founded in Kosovo to become an AWS partner and also the first company in the Western Balkans to become a service provider Kubernetes certified. What’s even more impressive is that the young startup and its co-founders Mehmetali Shaqiri and Rozafe Llalloshi achieved this without any outside investment and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The company started with two offices in a coworking space at the Kosovo Innovation Center, then rented a small office there, then a larger office, and at the end of the 2-year lease we had to rent 2 offices. because the team had grown so much. Today, 2.5 years later, the team numbers 30 people and we work comfortably in our new(ish) offices in the center of Prishtina,” the company told The Recursive.
Today, Appstellar is growing so quickly that it is already looking for new, larger offices.
“After working together for many years and successfully building multiple development teams and cloud solutions, the technical aspects of the business seemed much easier than the business side. We had to learn a lot of new things, wear many hats for a while, demonstrate the highest level of commitment never before experienced and be very persistent to achieve the desired results,” explains the company.
Isolation and lack of funding among biggest challenges
Projects Appstellar is currently working on include fintech, healthcare technology as well as the automotive industry. Even though it worked for them, access to investment is the biggest problem Kosovo entrepreneurs currently face.
This reason alone has prompted many young IT professionals from the country to move abroad and set up their startups there.
Krenar Roka, co-founder of the American startup Rubik, specializing in proptech technology, is one of them. According to Roka, being a post-conflict and relatively isolated country, the only welcoming ecosystem for Kosovar entrepreneurs in Kosovo has been the cyber economy, mainly due to its open source nature.
“We are just beginning to see the first generation of our technology companies achieve scale, enterprise maturity and deliver products with global reach. As a result, we not only see our companies leveraging venture capital, but also making more exits to international companies,” Roka told The Recursive.
Roka’s Rubik’s Company recently farm a $3.5 million funding round to further develop its ML solutions for real estate agents. However, according to him, unlike Rubik, Kosovo-based technology companies face many more obstacles, not only when it comes to obtaining financing, but much more.
“That being said, there is a lot of friction for small tech companies in Kosovo. These companies struggle to access skilled labor and also incur substantial costs of doing business due to bureaucracy,” Roka tells The Recursive.
At the same time, there are many international startups created by young graduates who have gone to work abroad. Isolation is currently one of the most serious problems for Kosovo, as it is the only country in the Western Balkans that does not benefit from a visa-free regime with the EU.
“Although it is ironic, the fact that we are an isolated country and have managed to penetrate the international market so well that we are exporting is also an accomplishment. 90% of our IT services (in our case it is 100%). The visa issue unfortunately prevented us from participating in international events where we could also further develop our activity and expertise. It’s a shame to see a country with so much potential prevented from traveling freely,” Appstellar told The Recursive.
Develop a thriving IT industry
However, as is the case for Kosovar entrepreneurs who went abroad and created their startups, isolation is not a problem for those who want to start a career in the IT industry, especially more than Kosovo is also one of the countries with the youngest population in Europe.
Education centers such as Creative Hub, founded in North Macedonia, also help provide young people in Kosovo with the skills needed to succeed in the industry. The training hub has been present in the Kosovo market for more than three years and has so far managed to enroll more than 200 students in its IT programs.
“The latest internal research we carried out showed that the ages of people undertaking our programs are 60% (18-22), 35% (23-35) and 15% (35+). The Data Science Academy, where students learn business analytics and machine learning, is the most in demand. 90% of graduates find a job at a potential startup that was funded based on the use of an AI feature,” Creative Hub said. founder Arijana Koskarova narrates The Recursive.
According to her, all these indicators show that Kosovo has the potential to develop a strong IT industry and develop exciting startups.
“Kosovo is a very promising country, with a few startups that have raised several million dollars in funding, like Tive, Gjirafa, Rubik, which open up many job opportunities for students with skills. Investing in software development, data science, human resources, digital marketing, UX UI is definitely an investment that not only pays off but gives the opportunity for a thriving career in the startup world,” Koskarova explains.
Startups like Appstellar also illustrate how successful IT talent in this small country can be if given the right opportunities.
“We’ve already seen some great products in development and some very innovative ideas that we can’t wait to see come to life. Over the past decade that we have been working in the industry, we have met some of the brightest minds with a problem-solving mindset. This place is powered by innovation,” the company concludes.
