Page 37 - RBI FIntech Atlas 2018

37
Spotlight Serbia
Saint Sava Temple in Belgrade, Serbia
There is a growing startup ecosystem in Serbia and the country is home to a large number of startups in both
the B2C and B2B segments. Annual export growth in
the ICT sector exceeds 20% and the government is committed to supporting this growth and encouraging further development through a range of measures in areas from infrastructure to education. Local subsidiaries of global companies are on the lookout for innovation opportunities in the country, as exempli ed by the global telecom operator Telenor, that chose to pilot its mobile banking app in Serbia.
Serbia has a network of VC funds, accelerators and incubators that provide funding and support to ntech startups. Examples include Razlivaliste, StartLabs and the Novi Sad Business Incubator. Serbia’s largest economics and business faculty Technical Faculties Belgrade L.L.C. has also established its own incubator called Business Technology Incubator, whose objective is to directly support technological innovations developed by members of the university.
A number of highly successful global ntech startups have been founded by Serbians. TradeCore’s key product is Broker IQ, a leading innovative cloud-based solution that helps both startup and established brokers to operate and grow their brokerage. Broker IQ bene tted from a €2.4M investment in 2018. Penta provides fast and easy business banking services, which are used by more than 4,000 clients in Germany. More recently founded companies such as Cube Team and TruckTrack focus their activities on the SME and corporate banking space and involve little equity funding.
In addition to these, several global ntech companies have research and development centres in Serbia. These include NCR, a global leader in developing transformational transaction technologies, FIS, an international provider of nancial services technology and outsourcing services, and eFront, a software solutions provider dedicated to the alternative investment industry.
Country data
Population (M) 7.0
GDP total (€ Bn) 44 GDP per capita (€, at PPP) 11,300 GDP growth (%) 4.0
Of cial currency RSD
Source: Eurostat, IMF, European Commission, RBI/Raiffeisen RESEARCH Data for 2018, estimates
Total bank assets (€ Bn) 30 Total bank assets / GDP (%) 81
Account ownership (% of population) 71
Debit card ownership (% of population) 60
Internet usage (% of population) 70
Usage of internet to pay bills (% of population) 12
Send/received digital payments (% of population) 66
Latest available data as of 2017/2018
Source: ECB, national sources, World Bank, RBI/Raiffeisen RESEARCH