Improving the business conditions for MSMSE through the international and interregional cooperation   

BELGRADE – March 19, 2017 – Within the project “Developing accelerators to provide better access to innovation finance for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMSE)”, the Development Agency of Serbia (RAS) will launch a pilot acceleration project this spring, which will take five to six months, which aim is to improve the business conditions for MSMSE.

Accelerators are organisations offering a wide variety of services and investment opportunities for business beginners, with the aim to engage start-ups in multi-month programmes, containing mentorship, business space, connection into value chains and most importantly, providing business beginners with the access to the assets and investments in exchange for a share in the ownership of the company.  

That type of support to MSMSE in Serbia is still underdeveloped, and within its project activities the RAS will work on raising the awareness of entrepreneurs about the importance of that type of initiative and service. 

The main objective of the project is to improve the access to innovation finance through improving the conditions of the institutional frame and relevant instruments of public policies, development of practical solutions for acceleration services and implementation of the impact on the relevant strategic frames in partner regions and at the programme level.

In addition to the pilot programmes, there will be also activities on connecting the key institutions having the largest impact on the acceleration programme and generally on the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Serbia, such as financial organisations of business infrastructure, government sector, universities, etc.

In that respect, one of the project objectives is the integration of financial institutions ensuring assets, in the regional innovation ecosystems, as well as the integration of the public sector, because of the increasing attention paid to the financial programmes of the European structures and investment funds.

The primary target group of the project are micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMSE) in need of capital, but with the lack of know-how to gain any. Innovative MSMSEs in all regions, have limited access to capital, particularly in the early development phase, and this is why the project is dealing with the research and examination of the innovative direction of the programme for acceleration, as a new type of programmes for improving the preparedness for investment. A significant target group of the project are the organisations for providing business support, where new and advanced acceleration services will be provided and which envisage the connection with the transnational Danube network.  

The project of “Accelerators” is expected to result in the introduction of the acceleration programme in partner countries, having no or poor experience with the programme such as the case with Serbia, or the improvement of the existing programmes in experienced partners. 

Within the international and intraregional cooperation, the RAS has started with the implementation of the project “Developing accelerators to provide better access to innovation finance for MSMSEs (Accelerator)”, which is a part of the Danube Transnational Programme (DTP), in January 2017. 

According to the international sources, in the USA in 2005, there was only once accelerators, and today there are around 600. Since the acceleration initiatives proved to be significant, creating successful companies through their development projects, they have spread and rooted very quickly in Europe as well.