The Balkan Venture Forum was held for its second time last week. On the 22 and 23 of November, Belgrade gathered more than 40 investors with a 3 billion euro investment portfolio, high officials from the countries in the region and hundreds of entrepreneurs. Their main goal for this forum was to show readiness for providing institutional and financial support for the new wave of entrepreneurship.
We realize that the startup ecosystem on the Balkans is still in its romantic phase and thus lacks some experience. But, on the other hand, if we rephrase one of the postulates of romanticism, the Balkan startup scene has very little to do with norms, dictating what it should consist of. It has all the freedom to find different manifestations, distinguishing the region from any other hub for innovation and development in the world.
Part of the betahaus | sofia team was in Belgrade not only for networking, but also for blogging. In order to show how the participants in the forum feel about the Balkan startup scene, we decided to ask some of them to forecast the progress of the ecosystem.
See the short interviews and our photo impressions bellow:
photo gallery: