Today, annual research Startup Genome* Report 2020 saw the light of day, including, yet again Belgrade and Novi Sad (two largest cities in Serbia) as startup systems to look out for, estimating their worth to $502 million. The estimated ecosystem value in 2020 had increased over 66%, in spite of COVID-19, and the market is yet expected to boom in the near future.
*Startup Genome is an American advisory and research organization for governments and public-private partnerships committed to accelerating the success of their startup ecosystem. On June 25th, they published The Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2020, which focused on the current global startup economy and impact of COVID-19.
This year’s edition analyzed over 300 startup ecosystems, the largest number taken into consideration so far. For Serbian startup ecosystem this means a much more realistic positioning than last year, when only 54 ecosystems were covered.
This year’s edition of Startup Genome’s* report ranked Serbia 5th in the world according to the number of blockchain developers, and listed Serbian engineering talent in top 5 in the world.
Serbian blockchain company named EY Innovative Entrepreneur of the Year in 2018
Serbian sub-sector strength lies in the blockchain and gaming industry. Startup Genome ranked it as one of the top five countries in the world for blockchain developers. The report mentions the biggest initial coin offerings (ICOs) in Serbia, MobileGo ($56 million) and Origin Trail ($22 million), as well as Blinking, along with MVP workshop that was named 2018 EY Innovative Entrepreneur of the Year.
Two strategic acquisitions by global gaming companies in 2019
The report also highlights expansion of the gaming industry in Serbia, through two strategic acquisitions in 2019. 3Lateral, a leading developer of digital animation was acquired by Epic Games, while gaming studio Eipix became part of Playrix. It also mentioned Nordeus, a Belgrade-based bootstrapped mobile games company, whose game Top Eleven reached over 220 million registered users.
“I believe that our experience in bootstrapping successful startups will prove very useful after the pandemic. In addition, our strong focus on gaming and our ability to create cost efficient solutions to global issues could further improve our future prospects.”
Branko Milutinović
Nordeus Co-Founder and Digital Serbia Initiative Board President
Why should you move your startup to Serbia, according to Startup Genome?
The report ranked Belgrade and Novi Sad in top 100 emerging ecosystems, giving them 8 out of 10 on dimension market research. There were about 300 ecosystems compared, meaning that these two combined Serbian ecosystems are in the top one third of the emerging ecosystems.
Among reasons to move startups to Serbia, the report mentions great tax incentives, COVID-19 policy, and talented workforce, ranking Serbian engineering talent among top 5 in the world.
Read the full Startup Genome Report 2020 here.
