Foundcenter Belgrade announces their first pitch challenge, CATCH 2016, taking place on September 27, 28, and 29 in Belgrade. This is an investor-organized pitch targeting startups from Southeast Europe that will compete for an investment worth up to €1 million. Attractive ideas with disruptive innovation in the market segments of IT, health, natural resources and agriculture, mobility, business products and services, art and design will be in the main focus of this challenge.
The applications for CATCH 2016 pitch competition were opened on April 25 and will be rolling until July 1. Regional startups with a potential to scale on an international level are all eligible to apply. Applicants will go through a pre-selection round, which will be finalized on September 1. In the pre-selection stage, startups will be evaluated on their written submissions, whereas in the final pitch competition the board of the fund will be looking for the best fit for each of the following categories: product/concept, team, and market potential.
The Foundcenter Investment Fund is relatively new to the Balkan region. It originates from Berlin, but is also present in Los Angeles and, only since April 2016, in Belgrade as well. The overall fund for the three locations amounts to €100 million. Being the first VC fund based in Serbia, Foundcenter Belgrade is looking to strengthen the SEE startup ecosystem with their investment activities and thus bring about the global scaling of the regional startups. As they announce, the fund also aims to impact the future business environment.
Foundcenter Belgrade claims to take into further consideration all compelling ideas presented by the participants, regardless of their success in winning the CATCH 2016 challenge. All submitted teams will enter a pool of potential candidates for future investments and their achievements will be tracked in the upcoming 12 months. Foundcenter Belgrade will then invest in the ones that will meet certain criteria over time.
