Stöd till Innovation Centre Kosovo

For six years, Incubator Department has launched 18 calls for proposals and 2 cross sectorial calls (Women Edition and FinTech). A total of 700 business ideas were received. The admission committee has invited 240 startups for pitching ideas, out of which 200 were accepted to be part of the ICK’s Incubator, where 65 were women co-founders. The 200 startups consisted of over 1,000 members /employees, where over 300 were women members. In total 170 new registered companies have been established with the direct help of the ICK Incubator. More than 500,000 Euro have been provided to ICK startups in grants and financial support to participate in 160 different B2Bs, Fairs and international events, mentoring from experienced experts, web/cloud support services, such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft BizSpark, Sendgrid etc. Startups have won 30 global awards and have produced and launched over 400 products and services, many aiming for the international market. ICK has delivered training services for tenants in the incubator and delivered marketoriented, high-quality courses, upgrading the skill-sets of the general workforce, public institutions, ICT professionals, freelancers, students and civil society. Total number of internal training courses delivered was 210 to 2,587 trainees, as well as offered 50 paid internships to certified trainees and 100 unpaid internships. The Events Department is a multimedia space, dedicated to hosting different types of events, with the purpose of networking, matchmaking, competing, product launching and learning, in an open, casual and friendly way. Number of internal events organized were 356 (over 450 including events co-organized in partnership with others) attended by more than 40 000 participants. Some of the mayor events organized since 2012, include: six editions of Global Entrepreneurship Week, Techstars Startup Weekend, Startup Europe Week, Digital Girls of the Year, Startup Grind by Google for Startups, NASA Space Apps Challenge, Cyber Defense Week, Startup & Innovation Fair, European Youth Award, Social Impact Award, etc. Until now, a total of over 354 members have shared the ICK Co-Working space, including here a broad range of professionals: freelancers, consultants, guests, international clients, pre-incubation teams, external experts and students. ICK has had over 1,200 media appearances, facilitated over 50 local and international partnerships, and created a community of over 85,000 people.

Innovation Centre Kosovo (ICK) aim is to connect to scientific research and development with the business sector, focusing on creating new job opportunities oriented towards the future, based on knowledge and new technology. It was founded to support entrepreneurship, innovation and commercially based business development, with a focus on information and communication technology. The Centre supports both start-ups and existing companies with the potential for growth. ICK will both create new jobs through the businesses that supports and train young people for job opportunities in the labor market. ICK is a hub for connecting new ideas and technology with human and financial resources to create or expand commercially viable companies that can successfully capitalize on market opportunities, generating sales, trade, local productive capacity and skilled employment. Innovation Centre Kosovo offers incubator services, mentoring, consulting and training to entrepreneurs, freelancers, students, public servants, managers and civil society in business planning, accounting, finance, product/service development, marketing/ sales, human resources, technology development, programming, graphics design, animation, multimedia, cyber security, as well as transfer and matchmaking with local, regional and international businesses. ICK undertakes innovative activities and events and is a launch pad for geeks, techies, scientists, coders, students, entrepreneurs and innovators who are either innovative by nature of their products/services or can demonstrate innovative working practices. The intervention is relevant and well in line with the Results strategy for Sweden’s reform cooperation with Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans and Turkey 2014-2020.