As the Balkan Venture Forum in Belgrade approaches next week, we have been making final preparations, among the most important of which has been the selection of contestants for the BkVF Pitching Competition. During BkVF in Belgrade, the Pitching Competition will offer the unique opportunity for start-ups and entrepreneurs to present their companies and projects before representatives of over 40 investment funds and the competition will also double as a semi-final for the European Venture Contest in Berlin on December 6 of this year.
During little more than a month in which applications for the competition were being accepted, over 120 companies and entrepreneurs from the region applied, while a final 43 were selected to pitch live at the Balkan Venture Forum on November 22-23. In true start-up community fashion, the organizers of the Forum in Belgrade decided to announce the names of the selected contestants live and in good company at one of Belgrade’s downtown cafes on Tuesday evening. The offline #PitchUp was also joined in real-time by contestants and a live audience on Twitter and Facebook as the organizers announced the contestants.
Before announcing the full list, Miloš Došen of Balkan Unlimited, the head organizer of BkVF in Belgrade stated: “ We aren’t surprised by the number or quality of applicants in such a short time frame. We believed and we still do that this region, in the sense of technology and innovation, has much to offer and we thank all those who applied for helping us prove that. It is interesting to note that, while 2/3 of the applicants are from the IT and ICT industry, there were also many innovative projects from the Life Science and Clean Tech industries as a demonstration that these sectors are being actively developed here. Start-ups and innovative companies are one of the most important factors in attracting and retaining investments in the region, so we believe that presenting the best selected projects before a large number of investors at the Balkan Venture Forum will bring great results and confirm the interest of many investors in doing business in Serbia.” The organizers ended the evening by wishing all the contestants the best of luck.
Selected contestants (ICT):
4Virtus.com (Macedonia)
Bitgear (Serbia)
Brainstorm (Serbia)
Coprix Media (Serbia)
Creative Cells AD (Bulgaria)
Digital Solutions and Technology (Serbia)
Dobosoft (Bosnia & Herz.)
E-GLAS (Croatia)
Elastyc-Net d.o.o. (Serbia)
ElectroLab doo (Serbia)
Eventyard (Bulgaria)
Fliiby LLC (Serbia)
FU Amazing Solutions (Serbia)
G6 Solutions (Macedonia)
Galoocom Services Ltd (Greece)
Gruvlend d.o.o. (Serbia)
Kalatori Ltd. (Bulgaria)
KEIT LTD (Bulgaria)
Lifity (Serbia)
Loylaster (Serbia)
Melt.ee (Slovenia)
MorningBet (Romania)
Once sport (Croatia)
Owl Events (Croatia)
Plum Mark (Serbia)
Rendered Text (Serbia)
Saturized (Serbia)
Tabstep (Croatia)
VetCloud (Serbia)
YuTeam Software (Serbia)
Selected Contestants (Clean Tech):
AEDES COOP DOO BEOGRAD (Serbia)
AQOS Technologies Ltd. (Serbia)
iStreetLight (Serbia)
MIFIMIEnergy doo Niš (Serbia)
Poduhvat Ltd. (Serbia)
TransTex (Serbia)
Selected Contestants (Life Sciences):
Diasens d.o.o. (Serbia)
KreativTeh (Serbia)
Ledissimo (Serbia)
MyCoMedLab (Serbia)
Pharma flora (Serbia)
ŠAJK-ŠAMI DOO (Serbia)
SZTR Termo Farm (Serbia)