The acceleration program Katapult is a technological development and innovation support mechanism intended for startups in the early stages of development and market positioning (Ideation) and startups with proven market traction (Scale-up) that aim to accelerate their growth and secure private external investments.
Mentoring program
Katapult consists of an intensive three-month mentoring program and financial support. The training is organized through mentoring by domestic and international experts, successful startup founders and investors. Depending on the needs, training and mentoring include typical areas of business development such as business model development, go-to-market strategy, business internationalization, defining product-market-fit, sales increase, marketing, investment readiness, pitch preparation and similar.
Financial support
All Katapult beneficiaries have up to 36 million dinars available through:
- At-entry grant from 2.400.000 to 6.000.000 RSD, depending on the stage of development, i.e. acceleration stream upon entry into the mentoring program;
- Co-Investment Grant equal to a qualifying secured private investment of up to 36 million dinars per startup (minus the amount of the At-Entry Grant received). Program beneficiaries can apply for this grant after completing the three-month mentoring program, and up to the end of one year from the official start of the program. This grant can be utilized over a period of 12 months.
Conditions for application:
- The applicant is a registered business entity, not older than six (6) years at the time of submitting the application for Katapult;
- The Applicant is a private sector (at least 80% privately owned), micro or small sized company.
- The Applicant must have a meaningful presence in Serbia, defined as the majority of the team residing in Serbia at time of application, the company being headquartered in Serbia, or similar evidence of strong current ties to Serbia, if accepted by the IF.
- The Applicant must be majority owned (>50%) by the founding team of entrepreneurs.
- Remain under the EUR 1 million lifetime cap of received funding from the IF across all programs and including this one (applies for related/affiliated entities).
- The Applicant or its affiliated entity is not involved in any other IF program at the time of application—whether the involvement concerns a submitted, under evaluation, approved, or ongoing project/contract.
- No founder of the Applicant controls a company with an ongoing IF project or controls multiple companies applying under IF programs.
- Companies that have been awarded funding by the IF and are completing their projects implementation by the end of the year in which the public call is published are eligible to apply, unless such a program creates a direct conflict of interest (e.g.Serbia Ventures programs).
- The Applicant has not applied more than twice with a substantially similar application.
Applications will not be eligible if:
- The Applicant or its affiliated entity is listed on the stock exchange (affiliate entity is defined in Article 62 of the Law on Companies);
- The Applicant or its affiliated entity had revenues over EUR 5,000,000 in any of the prior two years.
Industry/sector: Katapult is open to all innovative companies, with an emphasis on the areas defined in the Smart Specialization Strategy of Serbia.
Required documentation: The complete set of the necessary documentation is available on the Innovation Fund’s website.
Applications: submitted via the Katapult portal.
Public call: Closed
Contact: katapult@inovacionifond.rs
Web page: Katapult program
Financing for Katapult is provided by the Republic of Serbia (Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development), through a 7.7 million euros World Bank loan with implementation support, and the European Union, through a 10 million euros grant. The program is part of the “Serbia Accelerating Innovation and Growth Entrepreneurship Project,” dedicated to strengthening innovative entrepreneurship and scientific research.
Additional funding for the public call of the Katapult Acceleration Program for 2024 has been secured from the budget of the Republic of Serbia, through the Ministry of Science, Technological Development, and Innovation, totaling EUR 3 million.
Funding for the public call of the Katapult Acceleration Program for 2025 has been secured from the budget of the Republic of Serbia, through the Ministry of Science, Technological Development, and Innovation, totaling EUR 3 million.