Locations
Success stories of participants of the D4STARTUPS project were presented at the premises of the Integra Technology Park in Mostar. The project gave young entrepreneurs from Bosnia and Herzegovina, who came up with innovative conceptual designs for 5 leading companies from Bosnia and Herzegovina, access to mentoring assistance of diaspora experts and thereby enabled them to develop their ideas into competitive IT start-ups.
D4STARTUPS activities take place in the framework of the project ''Diaspora for Development'' (D4D), implemented by the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Government of Switzerland, in partnership with the UNDP B&H and IOM B&H. The whole process will be implemented together with local authorities and private sector and in cooperation with the diaspora. It will ensure 400 new jobs and more than 30 companies and 150 professionals will benefit from the transfer of know-how.
''We believe that the ties with experts from the diaspora of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who are willing to share their experiences, are important for the development of young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The exchange of experiences, transfer of know-how, new technologies and social networking have proved to be the key factor for a successful implementation of the project D4STARTUPS. The total value of D4STARTUPS activities amounts to 200,000 KM,'' said Merima Avdagić, Head of the ''Diaspora for Development'' project.
The best evidence of successful networking with the diaspora and transfer of know-how could be seen today during the final presentation of developed projects, which started with applications in November last year. There were 80 applicants, who participated in basic trainings. The development phase took place in April 2018, when more than 30 young people from the whole country participated in a hackaton and developed software solutions for real problems faced by domestic companies in agriculture, tourism and metal processing industry.
As a result of the activities that were implemented, 5 newly established start-up companies continued working on solutions for industrial challenges faced also by global companies and presented by companies from Bosnia and Herzegovina – Feal d.o.o., Lasta Travel d.o.o., Mljekara Pađeni d.o.o., Nobel Corporation d.o.o. and Zalmo d.o.o.
The top 5 teams participated in the continuation of the project: Digiqal, Meta5, Sighter, Systrax and SpotSoftware, which had been granted seed capital of 13,200 KM respectively.
''This was a unique opportunity for young people to test and present their work in a real environment. In this respect, the support of diaspora mentors was extremely important for us. By establishing our start-up companies, we would like to encourage other young people to start their businesses and thereby achieve their potential here, in our country,'' said Sanjin Omerović, a DIGIQAL team member.
All teams had diaspora mentors at their disposal – top-notch IT experts that have acquired their experience abroad. These mentors were at the disposal of start-ups for any assistance they needed in relation to technical aspects of their work on solutions as well as all issues related to economic and legal aspects, teamwork and customer relations.
''A platform as the one offered in the framework of the D4STARTUPS project is important, since it establishes links between real sector companies and young entrepreneurs, which is a rare opportunity in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Young people wish to work and they do have theoretical knowledge, but they need help in turning it into practical knowledge and facing the challenges that companies deal with in their business operations. Our knowledge and experience that we have acquired abroad can help them in this,'' said Josip Goluža, the mentor of the DIGIQAL team.
Over the coming period, the solutions developed by young IT experts for companies will be perfected and first contracts are expected to be signed. It is therefore absolutely certain that in the future, we will continue following business success stories of young people, who decided to stay in our country, develop their businesses and create successful stories that will change the IT industry, but also the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
You can find a brief presentation of young people and the D4STARTUPS project at:
You can download the D4StartUps brochure: Diaspora for Start-ups here.
