Belgrade, Novi Sad's startup ecosystem value up 66% in 2023

Last year, the growth in Belgrade and Novi Sad's startup ecosystem value outperformed those of regional peers like Lithuania (a 25% rise), Slovenia's Ljubljana (a 36% decline), Prague (a 56% increase), Warsaw (up 21%) and Romania's Bucharest (down 1%), Startup Genome said in a special report on Serbia's two largest cities published earlier in May.

Belgrade and Novi Sad's ecosystem thus ranked as the top one in the Western Balkans region, the 10th best in Central Eastern Europe and took the 48th position on European level, the report said.

According to the survey, the average startup founder's age in Serbia is 35 years, lower than the European and global average of 38 years.

Also, the share of women in a startup founding team in Serbia is 27% versus 28% of global average and 21% of European average.

In Serbia, 64% of the startups develop products with the intention of entering the global market. This is way above the European average of 27% and the global average of 34%.

The survey noted that going forward, Belgrade and Novi Sad's startups should focus on fuel growth (venture capital funding); on entrepreneurship support organisations (ESO) programmes intricately linked with funding solutions; on moving to capitalise on global growth sectors such as cleantech, AgTech, AMR (antimicrobial resistance); on attracting more foreign startups to Belgrade to bolster experience and knowledge; and on continue working on broad stakeholder engagement and community building.

Startup Genome says on its website it is the world-leading innovation ecosystem development organisation, having worked with more than 160 economic and innovation ministries and public/private agencies in over 55 countries.

It will officially present its full 2024 Global Startup Ecosystem Report on June 10 at the London Tech Week.

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