Katapult is an acceleration program designed to help startups speed their pace of development. This is done through mentoring, startup building curriculum, seed funding, and peer learning. The goal is to help startups reach key milestones that get them to the next stage – likely a private funding round, though it could be meaningful revenue – more quickly.
The core accelerator is a 3-month program with a residential component in or near Belgrade followed by ongoing capital raising support. Around 20 startups will be selected to participate in each cohort.
All applications are handled through the Katapult portal. To register an account, the Applicant must have a valid Tax Identification Number (PIB). An email address given during the registration will be used for any correspondence with applicants.
Innovation Fund will publish one public call per year for the Katapult accelerator.
Katapult is open to all innovative enterprises, with particular emphasis on the priority domains identified in Serbia’s Smart Specialization Strategy.
Startups from outside of Serbia cannot apply.
Participating companies may be incorporated internationally (Delaware C-Corp, e.g.) as long as they also have a locally registered entity to handle day-to-bay business.
- The Applicant is an active micro or small company registered in Serbia (at least 80% privately owned) as limited liability company (in Serbian d.o.o.), with the majority of the team residing in Serbia (meet conditions for being residents for tax purposes).
- Be at least 1 year and less than 10 years old at the time of submitting the application;
- The Applicant must be majority owned (>50%) by the founding team of entrepreneurs.
For the full eligibility criteria, checkout the Program manual.
We believe the odds of building successful startups are strongly improved when co-founders with complementary and diverse skill sets and experience team together. It is highly preferred that applicants have at least two co-founders.
Katapult accelerator is an intensive program that will require co-founders to be full-time committed to their startups. Investors also tend to only invest in startups with fully committed, full-time founding teams.
We expect participants to be past the concept stage. To fully leverage the support and resources of Katapult, teams need to be able to at least put an initial MVP version of the product with sufficient features in front of early users or customers.
Katapult will have two streams: Ideation and Scale-up.
Pre-revenue startups may qualify for the Ideation stream, though we will look for evidence of demand. Pilots with potential customers are a good start.
To qualify for the Scale-up stream, companies should already be generating revenue.
The “Ideation” stream aims to assist founders in the early stages of product and customer development. These founders are likely looking for support with market validation and getting their first (or second) paying customers. We expect they will be looking to raise initial seed capital from €100.000 – €1 million.
The “Scale-up” stream will work with companies with existing customers focused on accelerating growth. Startups in this stream may have already raised some seed capital and are likely targeting a late Seed/Series A round of financing between €500.000 – €2 million.
The streams will run concurrently during the same cohort; some topics and activities will be done together (sharing ideas and experiences can be super valuable for all involved) while other activities will be specific to each stream. Mentors will be matched where their expertise can best be leveraged.
All applications are initially reviewed for eligibility and those that are eligible are moved to qualitative assessment by reviewers and review by the Selection Committee, which includes experienced investors and successful entrepreneurs. The SC will score applicants against the Katapult evaluation criteria and will invite highly rated startups to pitch and interviews.
Applications will be assessed against five core criteria, including:
- Strength of the team
- Product/technology innovation and uniqueness
- Business model viability & traction
- Market attractiveness
- Capital raising potential
Two types of funding are available: At-Entry and Co-Investment Grants.
At-Entry Grants provide teams with funds to put to work during the acceleration program. For Ideation startups, this is up to €20.000; for Scale-up companies, up to €50.000.
Co-Investment Grants are available to all Katapult startups – but require a private investor to invest to unlock the funding. Co-Investment Grants will match an investor 1-to-1 up to the Katapult grant ceiling of €300.000 (reduced for the amount of At-Entry Grant) across the two grants.
Katapult grant funding is non-dilutive, the IF does not take equity.
All Awardees enrolled in the Katapult accelerator will be considered to apply for Co-Investment Grant funding. These companies may apply for and receive CI Grants after the acceleration program and nine (9) months following completion of their cohort, provided a qualified investment is raised, and no breach of Acceleration Agreement have occurred during the program.
To receive the funds, startups must secure an investment from an eligible investor such as a venture capital fund or angel investors. Once you have a term sheet, you can apply.
For more information on qualifying investments and investor eligibility, checkout the Program manual.
Katapult grants are designed to be flexible and to allow startups to deploy funds to meet business development and growth needs. Eligible expenses include:
- Team/salary costs (gross amounts incl. income taxes and benefits).
- Product development services, including developing and testing technology, R&D, etc.
- Business development services, such as market research, partnership/supplier development, costs of expert consultants, sales, marketing etc.
- Other services for the purpose of company growth and development.
- Goods.
- Overheads such as rent, tech/app/data subscriptions, etc.
For a full list of eligible and ineligible expenses, checkout the Program manual.
Provided you are still at the early stage (Pre-Series A, e.g.) and want to raise additional capital, definitely!
All applicants will be notified regarding the status of their applications during the review process.
The ethics assessment is based on the Applicant’s completed self-assessment questionnaire and, where deemed necessary, additional documentation, interviews or site visits. An ethics expert will review Applications that may raise ethical concerns and assess any associated risks. Where relevant ethical risks are identified, the ethics expert may recommend appropriate mitigation measures, eligibility conditions, or specific monitoring and reporting requirements to be incorporated into the implementation and oversight of the related Application. Applications presenting ethical risks that cannot be adequately mitigated will be ineligible for support.
This depends on your stage and what is in front of you as founders. The program will help you identify the core drivers of your business proposition, what needs to be validated, and the key performance indicators (KPIs) you need to improve to get your company to the next stage.
We expect a hybrid model with some in-person activities in or around Belgrade as well as remote instruction and mentoring. We do not offer office or co-working space at this time.
The Program does not provide business premises for participants.
We’ve put together an awesome, diverse pool of mentors. A group of “lead” mentors who will work closely with startup founders and are matched with teams based on their technical, functional, and industry experience.
You will also be able to tap into a broad pool of mentors from a variety of areas such as product design, marketing, sales, operations, and fundraising with experience as startup founders, key employees in high growth startups, corporate executives, investors, etc.
Some mentors will be based locally with strong knowledge of Serbian and regional markets, while others will be international with global perspectives.
One of the main Katapult objectives is to attract early stage risk investors, including angel investors and venture capitalists, to consider investing in Serbian startups. We are actively promoting Katapult to local and international investors and through networking and events such as Demo Days will work with startup founders to find potential investment partners.
That said, entrepreneurs will also need to do the legwork to identify potential investors – Katapult will provide you with the tools and know-how to be effective.
Participating startups and their founding teams remain part of the Katapult community. Katapult will continue to support startups that are actively raising funding with mentoring and networking opportunities.
No. We see too many ideas and we expect applicants will be at too early a stage to warrant doing so. It is unlikely that any investor would sign an NDA at the pre-seed or seed stage.
Yes. But keep in mind that the maximum amount of Innovation Fund financing that a company may receive across all programs is € 1.000.000,00.
In addition, Companies that have been awarded funding by the Fund and are completing the implementation of their projects by the end of the year in which the public call for the Katapult Acceleration Program is published are eligible to apply, unless participation in such a program would create a direct conflict of interest (e.g. general partners in a venture capital fund financed by the Fund under any of the Serbia Ventures programes may not be part of a company that also receives a Katapult grant).
If your application includes the use of artificial intelligence (AI), it will undergo a risk assessment in accordance with the AI Risk Assessment Framework and the Katapult Program manual. Expert in AI will evaluate the associated risks and provide recommendations.
No. Applicants that do not use artificial intelligence in their operations or solutions are not subject to the AI risk assessment process.
A team of specialized experts engaged by the Fund reviews all shortlisted applications. They cover the areas of environmental protection, social responsibility, and artificial intelligence, and assess whether each application complies with the relevant standards and frameworks.