2021 is behind us. A year in which a strong impulse occurred in the development of the Macedonian startup ecosystem. Despite the health and economic crisis, which is still ongoing. The year in which the first National Startup Summit was organized under the auspices of the Fund for Innovation and Technology Development (FITD) and Startup Macedonia and the National Startup Council was created. A year in which a huge number of events took place again within the framework of the Global Week of Entrepreneurship, and everything strengthened the involvement of banks and large corporations as active stakeholders in the startup scene. Finally, a year is behind us in which we hear more and more about investments in our startup teams with global growth potential, so we all rejoiced at the news about the three Macedonian students who received an investment of half a million dollars for the development of Howitzer, the direct marketing tool for Reddit.

In fact, all developments in the 2021 crisis have only confirmed the rule that "Every crisis is huge possibility" in which, "Instead of hiding from strong winds, entrepreneurs build windmills." New age creates huge chances for global success. This was recognized by a large number of young Macedonian entrepreneurs of the new generation, whose chances of success in the world are significantly increased with the increasingly developed support infrastructure.

When we talk about infrastructure, it is especially worth highlighting the confirmation of the key role played by the accelerator programs implemented by the three accelerators in the country, supported by FITD through the World Bank, for the development of the startup ecosystem. At the same time, as one of the founders of the first and only accelerator outside the capital, I can happily state that 2021 was an extremely successful year for the X Factor Accelerator as well.

In the past year we had a third call for investments where, in competition of more than 50 applicants, 12 startup teams were selected for entry into the pre-accelerator program, which ended with the third Demo Day. Of these, the Investment Approval Committee made a Decision to invest in three startups. With two of them the negotiations were finished by the end of the year, and with the third, the signing of the Agreement is expected to happen soon. With that, we, as an accelerator, created an investment portfolio of 5 (five) startups with a total investment amount of 480,000 euros, with which we fully achieved the goals we set when we started the project on 15.12.2018.

Regarding the activity, we have decided to invest not only in IT solutions, but also in innovative products in all other traditional industries (eg: food, textile, etc.), supporting the development of globally attractive products with added value. So in our portfolio in addition to the first two investments in the startup Matrioshka (https://www.the-matryoshka.com/) For the commercialization of wine ice cream Wice (short for Wine Ice-Cream) and in the innovative real-time 3D mapping software solution (Dynamix Mapper) of the team of Vision Dynamix (https://www.visiondynamix.com/mk/), in 2021 we also announced two new investments in the startup teams of:

1. Brummell (https://ridebrummell.com/) – the company behind the first jacket intended for motorcyclists that will provide maximum safety and protection to the rider, while at the same time elegant appearance and
2. Conceptiva Digital - a Macedonian startup with a vision to revolutionize the approach to learning with the help of the latest technologies. The investment is for the commercialization of the innovative training platform Coach (https://getcoach.app/), which, through a set of interactive games packed into a mobile application, enables training to grow into a continuous process of repetition and improvement instead of a one-time event.

Plans for further growth of the X Factor Accelerator in 2022

Actively following all developments in the domestic and regional startup environment, our ambitions are to maintain and strengthen the acquired position of one of the most active business accelerators in the country, for which we were also nominated for Best Accelerator Program within the Central European Startup Awards for 2021 .At the same time, we will put the greatest focus in the next year on supporting the growth of the existing portfolio of startups in which we have invested. For this purpose, we will use all the partnerships and networks of associates built so far, as well as the vast business experience of the team accumulated over the years. We sincerely believe that by joining forces with startup teams, in 2022 we will make a serious leap in the global expansion and recognition of companies, which will increase their attractiveness and readiness for the next rounds of investments.

We expect the visibility and results of the startups from our portfolio to contribute to further strengthening the accelerator's image among the investment public. Ultimately, we hope that this will bring us to a situation of easier attraction of funds for investments in a new group of startup teams. In that context, talks have already started about a possible strategic partnership with potential business angels, and we plan to initiate meetings with other institutional stakeholders (accelerators, hubs, companies for managing private investment funds, etc.) operating in the region of the Western Balkans. to consider options for possible cooperation. At the same time, considering the achieved project results and the excellent cooperation with FITR and the World Bank in the previous period, we hope to strengthen it through the new call for support of accelerators which is announced for the first half of 2022.

We will try to use the acquired know-how in the past three-year period by completing the offer by launching the first innovation hub in the Vardar planning region. For this purpose, we have been in negotiations for a long time with proven IT professionals from Veles, as well as with other potential partners and supporters in the realization of this idea. We are sure that with its implementation, a new development impulse will occur towards the promotion and support of the innovative entrepreneurial culture in all the municipalities of the region. This will lead to the encouragement of corporate innovations, and will stimulate digitization and innovations in the public sector, which will strengthen the regional economy and increase the chances of retaining young people in the region. 

In fact, all of us in the team sincerely believe that the future lies in startups, innovations and the development of an entrepreneurial culture among the population, from an early age, and the Republic of North Macedonia is well on its way to becoming a startup hub in the region. That the potential of the new generation of young Macedonian entrepreneurs is huge. We are sure that soon we will have more successful startup stories following the example of the Croatian Mate Rimac, which we will all be proud of.

Finally, on behalf of the entire X Factor Accelerator team, I would like to express a huge thanks to the Capital team for their continuous support throughout the entire period from the start of work until today. At the same time, I wish your team, as well as your loyal audience, a happy New Year and Christmas holidays with wishes for health and the fulfillment of all goals in 2022.

Link from Ph.D. Igor Andreev's column in the latest edition of the business magazine Capital - https://kapital.mk/-…/