In order to strengthen the startup community in Serbia, the Innovation Fund of Serbia has launched a new Katapult acceleration program, which will provide mentoring and financial support to companies through intensive training and networking with investors. Katapult wants to help innovative growth-oriented companies position themselves in the global market, as well as to improve their business development capacities by which they will increase the possibility of attracting private investment.
SGA is actively cooperating with the Innovation Fund, with the aim of bringing this acceleration program closer to gaming startups and teams in Serbia, which need funding in the ideation or scaling phase. Mentors from the SGA community will provide support to gaming teams that eventually enter the acceleration program. You can see the names of some of the many mentors who will work with startups who will go through the selection process on the Katatpult accelerator website.
Eligible applicants for the Catapult program are micro and small enterprises not older than six years at the time of application in majority (minimum 80%) privately owned, with revenues of less than € 8 million in one of the previous two years. Funds for the implementation of the Catapult program in the total amount of seven million euros by 2024, are provided on the basis of a loan agreement between the Republic of Serbia and the World Bank. Additional technical assistance in the implementation of the program is provided by the World Bank, and is financed by the European Union.
Competitions will be announced twice a year, and the participation of women entrepreneurs in the Catapult program is especially encouraged. The first deadline for applications is on December 6th at 3 p.m!
In order to help our members prepare to apply for this accelerator program, SGA is organizing a special workshop for its members to meet the final application deadline for a few weeks!
The idea is to present the entire program to them first hand, which will be done by Mladjan Stojanović, a representative of the Innovation Fund with rich international experience in research work and support for innovation processes. After that, Dane Atanasković, advisor for innovation and early Financing of startups, will present the application process and go through the tender documentation, with notes and advice for our members on how to formulate and structure their application, as well as an analysis of what is legally necessary – administrative aspects and accompanying documentation.
As many game dev teams (which are also members of SGA) have been successful in the previous competitions of the Innovation Fund, we decided to invite a few of them to share their direct experiences when it comes to applying, cooperation with the Innovation Fund and itself realization and financing of projects. On this occasion, we will be joined by representatives of Yboga Studio, COFA Games and Mad Mage Games. After an informal conversation with them about their individual experiences, participants will be able to ask them anything that interests them and is related to the process of applying for this type of (public) funds.