The future belongs to the startups, said Fund for Innovation and Technology Development (FITD) managing director, Kosta Petrov on Wednesday while presenting the projected financial support for 2022.
“In 2022, the Fund is to support Macedonian startups providing EUR 3 million through a public call ‘Startup 4,’ whereat EUR 7 million will be available to the startups to commercialize their innovations,” Petrov said. He also announced that the Fund will also launch investments in new categories of startups. “EUR 500,000 will be granted to support deep stream startups. The Fund will support impact startups for the first time securing EUR 500,000 and EUR 1 million will be invested in the commercialization of agricultural technologies,” Petrov said.
“In 2022, we are preparing a new public call for accelerators with a focus on the investment readiness of Macedonian startups. For the first time we will invest in startup hubs, and taking into account our two calls for digital AI assistant and digitalization of the files of the Institute of Macedonian Language, with EUR 750,000 we include Macedonian startups in the digitalization of public institutions,” he added. “EUR 27 million hybrid investment fund will be the biggest support to the Macedonian startups in 2022 and the fund’s investments will range from EUR 100,000 to EUR 1.5 million,” Petrov said, adding that the fund expected to be launched in 2022, will be managed by an internationally selected Fund Management Company, which is registered in accordance with the EU Law on Alternative Investment Funds,” he said.
In 2021, country’s first ever National Startup Council was introduced, the Fund’s first ever Corporate Innovation Program to strengthen the activities of the corporate sector in startup development and investment was created, also the country’s first working group on developing the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence was initiated, whereat students on the latest trends in AI were educated. Strategic partnerships with leading banks to ease the access to finance for Macedonian startups were signed. The Fund started partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), providing US$10,000, US$25,000 & US$100,000 credits for the AWS cloud platform to Macedonian startups, Petrov said.
“The new 70 startup projects supported with a total of EUR 2.6 million in grants, represent the largest financial support for startups and spinoffs in the history of FITD,” Petrov said while presenting the results of the public call ‘Startup 3.’ Petrov added that due to the large number of quality projects, the Investment Approval Committee requested that the initially planned total budget of EUR 2 million be increased by an additional EUR 630,000. The total volume of investments in these projects is EUR 3 million, of which a total of EUR 385,000 are funds that will be invested by the companies themselves, Petrov said, adding that four new sectors – mechanical engineering, creative industries, agriculture, technology industries – dominate in the latest public call.
Source: MIA
