Last year was one of the most successful for the Serbian startup ecosystem, as it managed to attract over 123 million euros in investments, a 600% year-on-year increase. ‘other. This year, the country appears poised to continue its momentum and allow Serbian startups to raise even more capital, according to a recent ecosystem report. watch.
Last year, the most notable investments in the ecosystem were made in the blockchain development platform. Tenderly ($58.6M), people analytics platform Orgnostic ($5 million), computing platform Anari AI ($2M), offensive security testing startup The most delicate ($1.4 million), and Tempus ($27.9 million in token sales).
According to the latest ecosystem report called Startup Scanner 2022carried out within the framework of the “Venture an idea” project, the biggest focal points of the country’s startup ecosystem are in the game and blockchain industries.
However, there are many other verticals in which Serbian startups can excel, Bojana Tomić-Brkušanin, director of the “Venture an idea” project, tells The Recursive.
Emerging Verticals: Biotechnology and Agritech
“I would also like to place particular emphasis on two emerging verticals: biotechnology and agritech. Considering the broader context of the Serbian economy, we recognize these industries as those with the greatest potential. Other actors also recognize this potential, as well as the increase in specialized programs actively supporting and accelerating the country’s development. biotechnology and agritech, confirms this,” explains Tomić-Brkušanin.
Last year, Serbia’s technology sector exceeded $1.7 billion in export earnings, surpassing for the first time agriculture which had traditionally been the main export sector of the Serbian economy. The authorities also managed to adopt the country’s first national strategy for the development of the startup ecosystem from 2021 to 2025, and startups and angel investors were recognized for the first time in national legislation.
“This clearly shows the importance of the startup ecosystem and the technology sector for the Serbian economy. More than half of the 151 startups that participated in the Startup Scanner 2022 study estimate that their business will grow by 50% in 2022. Additionally, those participating in the study plan to employ a total of more than 800 people in 2022,” Tomić-Brkušanin adds.
According to her, this alone shows that the startup ecosystem can be a driver of transformation of the Serbian economy.
Domestic market versus international market
Research also watch that the largest number of Serbian startups sell their products and services on the domestic market (72.8%) and activities outside Serbia’s borders are mainly focused on EU markets (50.3% of 151 startups in the sample), the United States, Southeast Europe, followed by other European countries.
However, development and growth also comes with many challenges. As in the rest of the Western Balkans region, lack of funding and visibility in the international market are among the biggest problems for Serbian startups.
“The biggest challenges for the future development of Serbia’s innovative ecosystem are access to financing and access to talent, both technical and non-technical. Furthermore, in the global context, the biggest obstacle for the local ecosystem is the lack of visibility of the Serbian ecosystem in the international market,” emphasizes Tomić-Brkušanin.
Various initiatives, such as the Digital Serbia Initiative in particular, are working to address these issues. The Startup Scanner 2022 study also noted that many startups reported knowledge gaps related to corporate culture and legal framework for targeting international markets.
“Lack of experience in the global market is often an obstacle to the global expansion of our startups. There are therefore opportunities for improvement in areas such as customer acquisition, product development and business model development, which we strive to overcome by importing external knowledge into the ecosystem. and introduce new programs,” explains Tomić-Brkušanin.
Since the Serbian ecosystem is still in its early stages of growth, there are also other weaknesses that need to be addressed. However, after several years of success, the ecosystem is also looking to maintain this momentum in the coming period.
“As an ecosystem we work hard and progress, weaknesses are corrected and new strengths and opportunities are created in our ecosystem,” concludes Tomić-Brkušanin.