Serbia Nears First Tech Unicorn as Telekom Backs 30 Startups
TS Ventures has invested in 28 domestic startups, with two more deals in the final stage, and Telekom says Serbia could produce its first company worth over 1 billion euros within a few years.
- TS Ventures, Telekom's investment arm, has backed 28 domestic startups, with two more deals in the final stage.
- The goal is Serbia's first company valued at over 1 billion euros, a so-called unicorn.
- Telekom estimates that threshold could be crossed within a few years.
- The fund's message: money is the fuel, but users and revenue are the engine.
The portfolio of TS Ventures, the investment arm of Telekom Srbija, has reached 28 startups, with two more transactions in the final stage of negotiation. That pushes the number of companies the fund has entered close to 30, and Telekom says the domestic ecosystem is moving into a more mature phase in which a first Serbian unicorn is being discussed seriously.
The term unicorn denotes a privately held technology company whose estimated value exceeds a billion, in the standard definition a billion dollars, while in this case the figure cited is 1 billion euros (about 1.16 billion USD at the current rate). Serbia has so far had no such company headquartered in the country, so a first unicorn would mark a turning point for a sector that has grown in recent years without a large capital cushion.
Why is the unicorn talk happening now?
The answer lies in two trends that coincide. The first is that Telekom, through TS Ventures, keeps investing at a moment when many regional funds have slowed down. The second is that the ecosystem itself has matured: the number of teams that have gone through several funding rounds is rising, and some companies are already approaching valuations measured in the hundreds of millions.
Nikola Sakac of TS Ventures argues that Serbia has a resource that is hard to buy with money. “We have good engineering DNA that is competitive at the global level,” he said, adding that he believes the country can produce its first unicorn within the next few years. He set no exact date, a shift from earlier, more optimistic announcements that were tied to specific deadlines.
The structure of the investments says more than any single statement. A portfolio of 28 companies, plus two on the way, means the fund is working in a dispersed manner, counting on a small number of companies to deliver most of the return. That is the standard logic of venture capital: most bets do not pay off, while one or two hits cover the entire portfolio and create a unicorn.
Who gains, and what stays open
If the projection holds, the biggest winners are the founders and early employees of the company that first crosses the threshold, but also Telekom itself as an investor holding a stake in the ownership structure. The state gains too, since a unicorn usually pulls in new funds, higher salaries in the sector, and foreign investment into the next wave of teams.
Sakac reduced the difference between promise and result to a single sentence. “The focus is on clients, users, and revenue. We investors like to say money is the gasoline, but the engine is the users,” he said. In other words, a valuation is not a goal in itself but a consequence of revenue and a user base that cannot be faked before the next round.
The open question is whether this is a genuine turn toward a technology-driven economy or an optimistic announcement in a year when Belgrade is gearing up for the large Expo event. The figure of 28 investments is concrete, 1 billion euros is still a projection, and the gap between the two will be filled by company revenue, not press releases.
Is a fund’s 28 bets a solid enough base to deliver Serbia’s first unicorn within a few years, or is 1 billion euros still a claim that has yet to be confirmed by the numbers?
