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www.belgradeventureforum.org Event Report
www.belgradeventureforum.org
Event Report
Belgrade Venture Forum (BgVF) was held on 19th and 20th November in Serbian capital and it gathered more than 400 delegates, speakers, investors, competitors and institutional partners from 14 countries.
BgVF is the biggest startup, venture capital and private equity investment forum and conference in Serbia created to improve access to finance and to raise awareness and build investment readiness for regional entrepreneurs.
Belgrade Venture Forum is a hot spot for networking of startup and other companies from technology fields with active investors interested for SEE region. For investors, BgVF provides investment opportunities and deal flow from Serbia and SEE region. It’s a critical mass event where participants can make deals and partnerships, discuss investment /innovation best practices and policies.
BgVF program has two major streams – business conference and pitching competition. Forum is a networking platform, consisting of dozens of prearranged B2B meetings.
Belgrade Venture Forum’s conference part takes a step further in providing value to delegates and partners by strongly focusing on best practices, business cases, experience sharing, progressive and comprehensive topics and top speakers. Forum also hosts biggest pitching competition in Serbia with participants from SEE countries, thus providing direct business opportunities for pitching companies.
BgVF conference track provided a genuine learning and sharing experience for all participants, while the Pitching Competition provided great business and investment opportunities for opportunity for regional startups and innovators.
General info
Belgrade Venture Forum in figuresParticipants from 14 countries
Pitching companies from 5 countries
Over 400 participants
• 200+ private sector representatives
• 37 registered pitching companies
• 30 investors
• 46 speakers
• 38 sponsors and partners
• 15 ministries, government agencies and institutions
14 keynote addresses
6 panel discusions
60+ direct one on one meetings with investors
Pitching competition
Belgrade Venture Forum hosts one of the biggest regional pitching competitions delivering unique networking, partnering and business making opportunities to companies from Serbia and South East Europe countries. Pitching Competition is a place where carefully selected companies have a chance to present business projects and investment proposals directly to a large group of active investors interested to find deals in this region.
In order to have quality business projects, a call for projects was made and application window was open for 45 days, starting early September. One of the biggest organizational challenges was to motivate quality projects and teams to apply, and that’s why there were more than 20 national and regional entities from public and private sector involved in this activity.
Coordinated effort of organizing team and numerous partners yielded in 133 applications from ICT industry, life sciences and clean tech. Independent expert and investment selection committee assessed the projects based on pre-established criteria, and selected 37 companies to present at Belgrade Venture Forum pitching competition.
Belgrade Venture Forum Pitching Competition at a glance
133 applications for pitching competition / 37 pitching companies
6 pitching sessions
5 ICT sessions / 1 Innovation in LifeScience and CleanTech session
42 investors, industry experts and advisors sitting in investment/expert juries
Partners in promoting Call for pitching companies
inventures.eu
Company applications by industry, investment range and type
Industry Investment Type
Investment Range
< 25.000 eur
25.000 eur - 49.999 eur
50.000 eur - 99.999 eur
100.000 eur - 249.999 eur
500.000 eur - 1 mil eur
1 mil eur - 5 mil eur
> 5 mil eur
250.000 eur - 499.999 eur
ICT
Renewable energies
Pharma/Bio tech /Life science
Seed
Start-up
Early stage
Later stage
Advanced Security Technologies doo
AEDES COOP DOO BEOGRAD
AlfaNum d.o.o.
Applikacije doo
Arcturus d.o.o
ArtMediaGroup
Augeo Consumer Communications
Biofor System
COPRIX media
Digital Technologies d.o.o.
Ebloo
Elastyc-net d.o.o.
Festomat, Inc.
Fliiby
Infora Research Group
Innovative Energy Solutions
ION Solutions
IT TV Production
CarsBook
LiveViewStudio
Make Bulgaria ltd.
MediaWorks d.o.o.
Mobi-Kupon
Morena inzenjering
NumberPicture Ltd.
Plum Mark doo
PRO-BIT PRO.4 d.o.o.
Rezervoar Doo
Satwork d.o.o. Banja Luka
Spinwise
Startup team of Technology Faculty in
Belgrade
Strawberry energy
SunX doo
Telecardio
TestingAgents
TruckTrack
Yanado
ZESIUM mobile d.o.o.
Belgrade Venture Forum – Competitors
* You can click on each company name to visit their website
Business potentialThe company has identified a good market and customer base for their products and/or services, and can clearly demonstrate how they can effectively sell to their customers.
Investment or partnering interestThe company has clearly identified the type of partnership and/or investment that they are looking for.
Team experienceThe company’s team has the necessary skills and experience to grow the business.
Competitive positionThe company can demonstrate a solid competitive advantage through intellectual property (existing or potential trade secret, copyright, trademark, patent, etc.) and/or potential market channels, strong partners, etc.
Product/Technology meritThe products and/or services offered are innovative, technologically advanced, of better quality, or lower price, or otherwise have distinct competitive advantages.
Project profile qualityThe information presented is well defined, clear, concise and attractive for potential investors/partners.
Selection and Evaluation criteria
Strawberry energy makes renewable energy sources more accessible to all people. They are recognized internationally for its work to invent new ways and green technologies to improve lives and protect the environment. They developed the world’s first public solar charger for mobile devices. They innovate and improve products as well as their business model.
LiveView is independent, cross-media creative agency from Belgrade. They are augmented reality content specialists with business idea to develop range of profitable products and services in AR field. From the wildest concept to the finest detail, together with friends and partners from all over the world they create engaging content that makes people feel, discuss and reflect.
Festomat has complete NFC Ticketing solution for control of common areas, VIP or backstage to ensure that each area is fully secure and real-time monitored. With their solution each fixed or mobile reader can validate single ticket faster than the blink of an eye. Their software enables complete control over ticket inventory and prevention of possible ticket misuse.
The Winners of BGVF 2013By assessing the pitches members of investment and expert juries choose a winner of each of 6 Pitching Sessions.
Overall winner
The Winners of BGVF 2013
Mobi kupon is new and innovative electronic coupon service. Mobi Kupon is unique, because it consolidates tools that companies use for attracting new customers and keeping the existing ones. It is a direct marketing system which enables company to present the best offer to its customers, at the right moment at the right place.
Anctu is not just built as a product, but as a movement that will unite great solutions with modern marketers audience. They believe in closing the gap between larger corporations and smaller businesses when it comes to big data and management solutions on social media.
Telecardio makes CardioBip - unique, wireless hand held device for urgent ECG telemonitoring. Key feature is ease of use since patient records his/her own ECG by placing the device on the chest and then transmitting the data via cell phone network to the 24-hour on-call diagnostic center. The unique data collected by CardioBip™ provides sufficient information to allow accurate, immediate reconstruction of a complete 12-lead ECG. The technology has been validated in 4 clinical studies in 149 patients.
ConferenceBelgrade Venture Forum hosts a two day business conference with a difference. Business and professional communities in Serbia and region are always eager to hear a good business cases, best practices and experiences. The main distinction from other business conferences is practical approach, attractiveness of topics and quality of speakers and presenters.
• 14 keynote addresses and 6 panel discussions
• 46 speakers and panelists
Some of the keynote speakers and panelists
Saša RadulovićMinister of Economy, Republic of Serbia
Sinisa Perovic, Evangelist @ Microsoft
Justin Wilcox, Mentor @ Startup Weekend
Vedran Bajer, Industry Manager @ Google
David Schoch, President @ SPEA
Vladimir Prelovac, CEO @ Prelovac Media
Vukašin Stojkov, Co-Founder @ TruckTrack
Voja LalićPartner @ StartLabs
Geoff Butcher, Chairman & CEO @ Blackadder
Rade Rakočević, Investor
Nađa Jokanović, Co-founder & CMO @ Wannabe
Peat Miletić, President @ Finmetrix
Branislava Gajić, CEO @ Infostud
Vojin Šenk, Professor at Faculty of Engineering
Urs Haeusler, CEO @ Dealmarket
Baybars Altuntas, President of Business Angels Association of TurkeyBoard Member of EBAN
Horst Katter,Intel Capital
Vladimir De Frančeski,Director @ Founders Institute
Stefan Lazarevic, State Secretary
Some of the keynote speakers and panelists
Startup trends – what’s hot and what’s not?Explore how new social and technology enablers open new business opportunities.
The Rising Map of the Angel investorsLearning of the 9 steps between entrepreneur and business angel
Lean StartupsLearn what are the best methodologies to develop and grow your startup business.
Corporate VenturingA topic big as the corporate world itself. Find out how big business leverage on ideas and products from small innovative companies, teams and innovators.
Aging – the next big marketPopulation all across the developed world is aging rapidly, thus creating huge market opportunities for new ventures
European Regions Best PracticesMeet representatives from some of the most develop and unique European regions – Flanders (Belgium) and Basque country (Spain)
Business cases and investment presentationsHear almost 10 presentations from business people who closed some of the best deals in a region and learn directly from investors what are their investment preferences and experiences
Keynote addresses and presentations
Panels at Belgrade Venture Forum 2013
Academic institutions and spin-off companiesTechnology transfers and better integration of academia and industry brings great results in fostering high tech entrepreneurship.
Experiences from startups who received investmentsStartups and more experienced companies which managed to find investors and to raise capital will share their experiences and present lectures learned
Intelligent products for healthcareTechnology advancement brings longevity and enables millions to reach for full personal potentials and inclusion.
Women in startups – what can we learn from great examples?Exploring experience and business cases of successful business ladies.
Creating the right start-up teamHaving a great team is the backbone of starting and growing the business, in acquiring investments and building partnerships.
Opportunities and challenges of cross border investment in the SEE regionWhat are the trends and future developments in cross border investments in light of increasing regional integration
Testimonials
Award and recognition that we received at Belgrade Venture Forum is very special and important for us, especially because it comes from investment and expert jury. It is great to have such a confirmation of our business idea and valuable feedback from top industry experts and investors. All that provided new energy to push further.
I am glad that such initiative exists, because it is crucial to establish support instruments, more favorable investment climate and fully fledged startup ecosystem. With their efforts, organizers of BgVF are contributing to these goals and empowering of entrepreneurial scene in the region.
Miloš Milisavljević, CEO @ Strawberry Energy – Overall Winner of BgVF
Ivan Mojsilović, Founder and CEO of Yanado – pitching competitor
Baybars Altuntas, President of Business Angels Association of Turkey Board Member of EBAN
BgVF was a great event for our company. We were able to approach several investors and few months later we finalized the deal with accelerator fund Eleven. We are still negotiating with few other investors for the next round of investments. Happy to attend the event in 2014!
I participated on many forums like this, but first time I witnessed that over 300 participants with the opening speech from Minister of Economy and with participation of Ambassadors. I observed very dynamic situation in Belgrade, which is a great competitive advantage. Venture forums in Balkan countries are very important to foster entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Testimonials
We had 10 meetings with investors at Belgrade Venture Forum. We realized how investors think, what they want and ask. The answers to these questions are crucial for founders in order to create sustainable and profitable business model.
Exciting, extraordinary useful and priceless experience. Experience which made us think differently.
Belgrade Venture Forum is on the right track to become one of the most influential startup and venture capital events in SEE region. Important perk of BgVF is well developed system of putting together startups and investors, which is so important! Smooth matching between them accelerates financing efforts for best projects.
You’re going to meet amazing people just by coming to conferences like this, you’re going to meet investors and other entrepreneurs, you didn’t even know they exist, who are doing other amazing things and who are incredibly creative. You will expand circle of friends who are like-minded and wants to do things that you want to do.
Bogdan Žigić, Co-Founder of Biofor System – pitching competitor
Vladimir Puškaš, Ex-CEO of Festomat – One of Winning startups
Vladimir De Frančeski, Founders Institute
Press Clipping
[Zimo] - Five reasons why every startup should visit Belgrade Venture Forum
[Inventures] - Belgrade Venture Forum to foster entrepreneurship
[Blic] - Global IT giants on big investment forum in Belgrade
[Telegraf] - Google, Microsoft and Intel are coming to Belgrade Venture Forum
[B92] - Serbia to allocate 35 M euro for startups
[Startit] - Applications for Belgrade Venture Forum are open – Intel Capital and EBRD are coming
[Netokracija] - Belgrade Venture Forum: Apply for Pitching Competition
[Personalmag] - Over 30 investors at Belgrade Venture Forum
[Inventures] - Strawberry energy wins at Belgrade Venture Forum
[Danas] - Serbia to invest 4 Bn RSD in innovative businesses
[Politika] - Largest investment forum on Balkans commenced
Mission
Our mission is to foster innovation and competitiveness of regional companies with high growth potential, through capacity building and by fostering access to finance.
Vision
We strive towards making SEE region a new European center of innovative and fast growing entrepreneurial companies.
www.seven.rs
Sponsors and Organizing Partners:
Granicarska 11 | Belgrade | Serbia
+381 11 3448 135 | +381 63 680 460
www.seven.rs
