Page 26 - bne Magazine August 2022

26 I Companies & Markets bne August 2022
Summing up what has happened in Serbia in recent years, Nemanja Petrovic, co-founder and business strategy adviser
at startup Traken, says: “the IT sector development caught everyone by surprise. It grew organically – that’s the best thing.”
Bringing people together
Both the DSI and Impact Hub are working to bring people together – whether it’s large tech companies, startups, investors, government officials or all of these – with the aim of growing and developing Serbia’s tech ecosystem.
The DSI works with companies and the government, as well as organisations that support startups such as incubators and academic programmes. “We want to be the house for IT ... we try to be middleman between big players, small players, academia, institutions, startups,” says Bjelotomic.
“You can’t really succeed without everyone being involved,” he stresses.
Nikola Mijailovic, CEO and co-founder of startup Joberty, comments on the recent changes. “Honestly, the last couple
of years has been crucial for the startup ecosystem in Serbia. New accelerators, hubs and VC funds are emerging, and Serbia isn't an exception,” says Mijailovic. He also comments on
the acceleration programmes in Serbia, saying: “Mentoring, investors, lectures, grants and networking are the key benefits and provide tremendous support for the startup ecosystem.”
Impact Hub also seeks to create a community for startups, and bring them into contact with investors and the wider tech community. “We are a window to the world, we try to reach out to entrepreneurs in Belgrade and beyond,” Moslavac says. COVID-19 was a challenge in that respect. However, by taking things online, the hub was able to reach out beyond Serbia to entrepreneurs in other countries in the Western Balkans.
The Serbian government is also increasingly aware of the importance of the growing tech sector, and is engaged in
a dialogue with the industry. This led to, for example, the 2021 law on innovation which introduced for the first time a definition of a startup, as well as a registry of startups.
“There is a dialogue with government ... there is an effort to create a better environment for the whole ICT sector and keep the ecosystem open, making it easier to start up companies,” says Traken’s Petrovic.
Investors consider Serbia
The other component of the startup ecosystem is funding. Serbia is gradually getting more locally focussed investors, a similar trend to that seen elsewhere in Southeast Europe and helped by the European Investment Fund (EIF) that was the cornerstone for a number of venture capital funds in the region. More recently, the government initiated
a €50mn venture fund of funds. Among the regional venture capital investors active in Serbia are South Central Ventures, Bulgaria’s LAUNCHub Ventures and Fil Rouge Capital of Croatia.
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However, Bjelotomi€ argues there is more still to do. “To attract serious VCs and for deal flow to be sturdy and interesting for someone from abroad, our ecosystem needs to develop further, probably go up another 50% before three of four different VCs will be continuously working in this area.”
Both Impact Hub’s Moslavac and representatives of startups like Joberty and Traken believe the country needs more business angels and other pre-seed investors. Mijailovic tells bne IntelliNews: “What I would like to see more in the future
are angel investments. Also, I would like to see more potential investors from the corporate world become motivated to invest in startups, get involved in the ecosystem, learn about them and support them to succeed.”
Blockchain for the energy sector
Traken’s Petrovic makes a similar point. So far Traken has been bootstrapped and secured grants, but it is now looking for seed investment. Its team have participated in several EU
“There is a dialogue with government ... there is an effort to create
a better environment for the whole ICT sector and keep the ecosystem open, making it easier to start up companies”
accelerators. Unlike first time founders, its co-founders have the advantage of already running a blockchain development studio, which gives them access to talent and other resources.
Traken, where the team developed a data tracking, management and exploitation tool for smart electrical grids, is part of Serbia’s growing blockchain segment. Back in 2019, advisory and research organisation Startup Genome report identified Serbia among the top five destinations in the world according to the number of blockchain developers. Serbia and nearby Novi Sad were found to have a particularly promising blockchain ecosystem.
Petrovic has a broad range of industry experience including as a former economy ministry adviser, on smart city projects and a venture capital investor, experience that he now aims to bring to the energy sector.
The Traken team are getting ready to pilot the project with international distribution service operators (DSOs) after an initial pilot with local startup Cargo (the Serbian Uber). “It is a good time for us because integration of renewables was a problem for the systems even before this energy crisis,” says Petrovic. “If you want Europe to move to sustainable, renewable energy, then you have to deal with viable sources of energy that need better tools to manage flexibility.”