The project Start:up Slovenia is an independent open platform of the Slovenian start-up ecosystem that supports innovative entrepreneurship in Slovenia.

It is the liaison, coordinator and promoter of the stakeholder network of the Slovenian start-up ecosystem in Slovenia and abroad, ie start-ups, investors, supportive environments, entrepreneurial experts, as well as enthusiasts, both individuals and organizations, who are changing Slovenia for the better with their activities in the start-up ecosystem. Passionate, dedicated and focused, they inform, promote, inspire, connect, collaborate and change, thus paving the way for entrepreneurship in the fabric of Slovenian society.

Project “Start:up of the year”

The core part of the programme Start:up Slovenia is the project “Start:up of the year”. It aims to identify the best Slovenian innovative start-ups in the earliest development phase, professionally support and promote them to the general public. The Start:up of the year competition was organized for the first time in 2008. To this day nearly 1000 start-ups have participated in this competition. From the very beginning, the winning start-up at the competition has been given the title Slovenian Start:up of the year. The award, that symbolizes a crystal statue, is handed to the winning team at a ceremony during the Podim start-up conference.

Pre-selection procedure

At the initiative of the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology, in 2011 the Start: up Slovenia competition was combined with the P2 start-up incentive from the Slovene Enterprise Fund. In this way, by participating in the Start:up Slovenia pre-selection procedure the enterprises were able to obtain additional points for the tender. You can find more information on the pre-selection procedure here.

Promotion of start-up enterprises

The web portal www.startup.si represents the most visited web portal for the target group of start-ups and scale-up enterprises. An important part of the web portal is the catalogue of all ecosystem stakeholders, together with key news, events and other information in one place. Individual start-up enterprises are also promoted on the web portal and its social channels.

Special offer for enterprises in the portfolio of the Fund

Enterprises from the portfolio of the Slovene Enterprise Fund are enabled to:

• participation in the pre-selection procedure,
• entry in the catalogue on the web portal www.startup.si,
• support for entry into the start-up register,
• the possibility of participating in the Start: up of the year competition
• promotion of start-ups at home and abroad,
• co-creation of the Slovenian start-up ecosystem.

Specialized promotion and pre-selection provider

• Venture factory