Forty-five new teams, selected at the second public call of the Raising Starts pre-seed program, will start with their first workshops within the first phase of the second Raising Starts cycle on 28th February!
Startups fought for their spot in the program in a fierce competition among 115 registered teams, and before them, there is a month of exciting, intensive work and knowledge sharing within lectures and workshops which will give them the necessary direction and focus for further, rapid innovation development. Startups will work with experts with years of experience, local and international mentors with significant references in the field of building up businesses and startup development.
We congratulate all teams!
At the end of Phase 1, the teams that fulfill the criteria given beforehand will present their ideas on the Demo Day to the professional jury, and those who show the greatest potential for commercializing their idea and conquering the global market, will be granted the ability to participate in Phase 2 where, alongside additional training, they will get their mentors (one-on-one sessions with the business and the technology mentor), as well as financial support (up to 15.000 CHF).
Raising Starts is the first program in Serbia that provides both professional and financial support for the rapid development of innovations at the same time to startups in the earliest development phases.
The program was created through the “Technopark Serbia 2 – encouraging exports through the development of technology parks” project, through which the Government of Switzerland supports further development of innovations and technological entrepreneurship, and is being conducted by the Science Technology Park Belgrade in partnership with the Science and Technology Park Niš and the Science Technology Park Čačak.
The Science and Technology Park Niš (STP Niš) and the Niš Cluster of Advanced Technologies (NiCat cluster) signed the agreement for mutual cooperation today with the goal of improving cooperation and joint work on developing the innovation ecosystem.
STP Niš was founded in 2020 for the purpose of providing infrastructural support and professional services to subjects of innovation work (companies, scientific research and innovation organizations), attracting innovative (domestic and foreign) technology development companies, and creating conditions for founding a larger number of startup and spin-off companies and their development. Today, over 40 innovative companies are intensively developing their projects in this dynamic environment.
For 10 years since its founding, the NiCat cluster has been working on increasing the value and scope of cluster members’ traffic on the domestic and foreign market, strengthening capacities of companies for technological development and innovations, and the development of new technology products and promoting the city of Niš as a good location for business in the field of advanced technologies.
Being what they are, both of these organizations who gathered over 100 companies through mutual cooperation and in the interest of strengthening cooperation among their members can achieve the best results in defined fields, such as joint work on the branding of Niš and lobbying for the protection of the tech scene in Niš, mutual promotions, joint participation in development projects, education with a focus on technological entrepreneurship, activities related to the establishment of cooperation among member companies, etc.
During the past few years, the innovation ecosystem has advanced quite a lot – significan startup projects were mapped, conditions for the development of technological entrepreneurship have been somewhat lightened, and different types of financing are available for domestic innovators depending on the development phase. The shortcomings and challenges that need to be worked on have been recognized, and what is necessary is the continuous strengthening of startup ideas and capacities, as well as research activities by mature companies.
Recipients of “Sveti Car Konstantin i Carica Jelena”, the city’s official accolade for the most successful companies doing business in our city, received the accolades today at the City Hall.
Some of the STP Niš members are some of the recipients of this accolade awarded by the City of Niš. The startup company Car Sync is the recipient of the “Sveti Car Konstantin i Carica Jelena” award in the category “novice in business” for 2020, whereas the Johnson Electric company, a virtual member of STP Niš, received the award in the “largest exporter” category.
The awards were handed to them by the Mayor of Niš Dragana Sotirovski and the Director of the Local Economic Development Office Dušan Radivojević, who were both members of the Board deciding on the awards.
The NTP Niš Roadshow adventure we started last week, wishing to present our activities and results achieved during the first year of operations, has come to an end.
We visited Zaječar, Vranje, Pirot, and Kruševac, and talked with you about innovations, your ideas, and the current Raising Starts program.
We enjoyed socializing with young creative people of Eastern and Southern Serbia, and we hope that getting to know STP Niš gave you courage to work on your ideas and that one of the very participants will become a future innovator!
We thank our partners – Business Incubator Kruševac, Business Incubator Center Vranje, POMAK Coworking, RARIS Zaječar, the City of Pirot, and the Zip Center, for the exceptional organization and hospitality.
During the weekend, ten exceptional teams worked dilligently for 24 hours on developing the idea of using advanced technologies for prototyping new options for a better life for the citizens, by inventing solutions for the urban pocket.
The presentation of all teams’ solutions showed that the mostly young hackathon participants are motivated, armed with knowledge from different areas, and above all, creative. Their suggested solutions can be applied to all urban pockets, not only in the City of Niš, but also outside of it, and the support for their solutions and work that is further provided by the City of Niš and the Science and Technology Park Niš is a safe guarentee for universal gain.
The winner of the “Advanced Technologies in the Service of Ecology” Hackathon is the 𝐳.𝐝𝐬𝐠𝐧 team!
The team that took first place will have support in building a prototype provided by the City of Niš and the main city planner with their team for the part of preparing the urban planning technical documentation, that is, the conceptual design. The city will aim for the rewarded concept to be realized during 2022, with the possibility of replicating it in other urban pockets in the city.
The second place was won by the Green Inovations team, while the third place was shared by BoraECOCO and the Kojot team.
We also congratulate other teams who took part in the hackathon with dilligence and dedication!
The hackathon was conducted by the Science and Technology Park Niš in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, the City of Niš, and the Local Economic Development Office, all within the “Future Cities of Southeast Europe” project conducted under the auspices of the EIT Climate-KIC organization.
