Discover Serbia and its fast growing entrepreneurial ecosystem

If you ever have heard about Serbia, you probably heard about Belgrade, our capital, Novak Djokovic, world champion tennis player, and our great food. What you probably haven`t had a chance to read or hear more is our entrepreneurial ecosystem, which is getting bigger and stronger day by day.

Business Development Center Kragujevac is here for you to help you in getting familiar with Serbia and establishing collaboration with successful Serbian entrepreneurs.

Business Development Center Kragujevac

Let us say first a little bit more about us, Business Development Center Kragujevac (BDCKG). Who we are and what we can offer to you? BDCKG is non-profit, civil society organization, founded in 2010 by the group of dedicated professionals, who strongly believe in multi sector partnerships as a foundation of sustainable local socio-economic development. We are situated in central Serbia, town called Kragujevac, 4^th largest city in our country, University center and center of automotive industry in this part of Europe (Fiat group is running its production in our town, together with tens of other international companies, Fiat suppliers). Before we registered our organization, as of 2007 till 2010 we acted as a project office of the Dutch NGO SPARK, who implemented at that time big four year project in the Balkans titled ``South East European Business Start-Up Network``. Practically as of 2007 we have been actively supporting young people in starting their own businesses, promoting entrepreneurial culture in Serbia and organizing hundreds of business trainings, consultancy and mentoring support. Now days we are strongly dedicated to developing start-up eco system in Kragujevac together with our colleagues from other business support organizations, such as KG Co-working Center, ICT Cluster of Central Serbia, Business Innovation Center Kragujevac, as well as Kragujevac higher education institutions and business sector. Our important knowledge partner is Swiss Entrepreneurship Program, which brings international experts and international knowledge to our community, helping us and our start-ups in finding the right way. We have inspiring and creative partners from other parts of Serbia as well, and can help you in getting to know them and exploring possible models of collaboration. They are in Belgrade: ICT Hub, Science Technology Park, Impact Hub, Startit Center. In Novi Sad it is ICT Cluster of Vojvodina and Business Incubator Novi Sad.

Economy and entrepreneurship overview in Serbia

The economy of Serbia  is a service-based upper middle income economy with the tertiary sector  accounting for two-thirds of total gross domestic product  (GDP) and functions on the principles of the free market . Nominal GDP in 2017 amounted $39.366 billion, which is $5,599 per capita, while the GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP) stood at $106.6022 billion, which is $15,163 per capita. The strongest sectors in the economy are: ICT, energy, automotive industry, machinery, mining and agriculture. Primary industrial exports are: software, automobiles, iron and steel, rubber, clothes, wheat, fruit and vegetables, nonferrous metals, electric appliances, metal products, weapons and ammunition. Trade plays a major role in Serbian economic output.

If you would ask us to describe Serbian entrepreneurship now days, in couple of words, it would be vibrant and exciting. Yes, Serbian entrepreneurship is relatively young. It`s intensive development started around 30 years ago, when the Law on enterprises was adopted by our state. Since then entrepreneurship in Serbia has been growing and transformed in many ways. Today, entrepreneurship in Serbia is modern, knowledge based and competitive at international level. According to last official data published by national Business Register Agency, in 2018 there were 379.752 registered businesses - 131.734 companies and 248.018 entrepreneurs.  99.8% of businesses are micro small and medium enterprises (MSME). Almost 1 million people work in MSME. Top 10 sectors of our MSMEs are: sales, consultancy services related to business and management, construction of buildings, restaurant and catering services, ICT, transportation, engineering and technical counseling, promotion agencies, preparation and serving drinks. Other relevant sectors are: metal industry, textile, design and creative industries, as well as agriculture and food processing industry.

Entrepreneurial and start-up ecosystem in Serbia

Development of entrepreneurship in Serbia was significantly boosted by IT community in Serbia. IT sector experienced progressive development. IT community has been closely collaborating and established ICT Clusters, creative hubs, co-working spaces and other similar structures supporting further development of ICT, hi-tech and creative industry, innovation and start-ups in Serbia. Boot camps, hackathons, meet-ups, pitching events, business acceleration programs have become regular initiatives and popular words in our entrepreneurship community. Today we have several important stakeholders on the Serbian entrepreneurial and start-up eco-system map: investors (South Central Ventures, ICT Hub Venture, Seven and StartLabs), non-profits (SEE ICT, Digital Serbia Initiative, ICT Hub, Impact Hub, Start-it Center), and developer community organizations (JS Belgrade, HeadSpace, DaFED, Google Developer Group Novi Sad, Data Science Serbia, Python Belgrade), institutions (Science Technology Park, business incubators). When it comes to important events there is Belgrade Venture Forum, the largest annual international tech investment event in Southeast Europe. All this probably motivated Google to start working with our startups and establish its excellent startup acceleration program in Serbia - Google Developers Launchpad program, this year.

All in all, if you decide to come to Serbia, which we highly recommend, you will have wonderful chance to explore our entrepreneurial eco system, find your potential business partners and expand your business initiative together with our host entrepreneurs. We can support you in linking and networking with all above mentioned stakeholders who could further help your business to grow.

Serbia outside entrepreneurship 

Finally, and not less important, if you decide to come to Serbia, you will have unique chance to explore our beautiful country, meet interesting, creative and positive people, enjoy our nature, art, culture, food.  We are small country, in South East Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula, with some 7 million people, yet with lot to offer. We have 6 regions, each of them interesting and unique in its beauty of nature, gastronomic specialties, culture, history and events. Just to name some: Exit music festival, one of the largest and most popular in Europe, Djavolja varos – unique art of the nature in the world, amazing Kalemegdan fortress in the very heart of Belgrade – impressive fortification with its roots in Celtic times, Tara mountain with its breathing views of Drina river and Perucac lake, and many more. To add, at the very end, Serbia lies in the very heart of Balkan Peninsula and as such it is close to equally beautiful neighboring countries. Adriatic Sea is close, as well as surrounding amazing mountains. So, do not hesitate and choose Serbia for your exciting entrepreneurship journey within Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Program. You won`t regret it!