With a mission to build bridges between emerging innovation ecosystems and key stakeholders in international markets, the global Impact Hub network consists of more than 90 hubs and over 15,000 members, mentors, partners, and investors worldwide. One of the ways through which Impact Hub Belgrade helps startups from its investment-readiness program discover investors is by hosting year-round Demo Days which provide founders from Western Europe with the chance to pitch their ideas in front of a panel of selected investors.
So far Impact Hub Belgrade has organized more than 20 such digital startup expos and has helped around 250 teams from its community connect with over a hundred industry leaders. Examples of startup success stories from the Impact Hub Belgarde’s community are the custom embedded systems provider Atfield Technologies, the software for logically structured collaboration 9m Collab, the all-in-one collaboration platform Living Specifications, and the platform for gaming developers ServerBytes. Participants from the previous Demo Days share that IHB has helped them with business modeling and developing a value proposition as well as with providing them with a safe founders’ space and personalized introductions.
Pitches, Connections, and Investors
The Spring 2021 Demo Days will place a special emphasis on cleantech and will kick off with an online Cleantech workshop which will gather startups developing cleantech solutions, investors, and companies with a background, expertise, and interests in this sector. Startups that develop cleantech technology for increased energy efficiency, sustainable use of resources, and environmental protection will be given the opportunity to test their products by working on real problems that international companies face. Ultimately, the participating teams will have the chance to be accepted to participate in a 2-month Bootcamp for cleantech startups and close their first investment round.
In this season’s Demo Day the 7 most promising startups will pitch in front of around 15 business angels and investors from regional and international VCs and companies. The best cleantech startup will be awarded up to €20K equity-free cash investment, the top 5 startups will receive €5K worth of consulting in investment readiness, while the top 5 gender-diverse startups will be given €5K worth of advisory in leadership. The application process is open until the 10th March and will be followed by a selection of the startups which will be allowed to the online pitches on the 18th March.
