The multi-award winning accelerator, which was co-founded by BTC, celebrated its already fifth anniversary in 2020, and the startups working under it obtained no less than 4.8 million euros of investments throughout the year. In addition to the considerable amount of funds raised, many startups can also pride themselves on successful business performance and other awards. In 2021, the ABC Accelerator is once again committing to assist mature Slovenian and international startups who want to accelerate their growth, cooperate in finding solutions to contemporary challenges and help shape our future.

ABC Accelerator’s biggest success in 2020 was the adoption of technology developed by App Ray, an Austrian second generation startup. Their technological solutions were bought by Guardsquare, a leading international enterprise in mobile app safety and security.

The largest amount of funds in the past year was acquired by the Italian startup Soplaya, which manages an online food market. With the help of the ABC Accelerator, the startup obtained as many as 3.5 million euros in funding. The Slovenian startup Chess Universe, which developed an innovative chess game, obtained 600,000 euros of funds from BTC and international venture capital investors. The Slovenian startups Froc, which developed an innovative high chair for toddlers and kids, and Vision Anchor, which developed a safe anchoring system for vessels, attracted investments amounting to 100,000 euros each. The website 3minuteJob, dedicated to quick employment searches, obtained 50,000 euros intended for new market expansion. Additionally, a foreign investor invested 500,000 euros in a Slovenian company working on work process optimization with a view to business and product development.

Despite the many challenges faced by companies in 2020, there were other successful Slovenian startups, such as Cafelier and their innovative coffee machine cleaning device, which won the gold award of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, and the startups Flexkeeping and Beeping, which continue to expand their services and user base on the Slovenian and international markets.

Mag. Damjan Kralj, the CEO of BTC: “At BTC, we are very proud of the achievements of ABC Accelerator and the startups working with it. We established the accelerator in 2015 together with our partners to provide Slovenia with a more progressive business environment and help innovative business ideas find international investors, which would enable them to enter the global market. We’re excited that we have been able to reach these goals and that we are contributing to the success of business ideas that address current challenges while also creating a unique network that surpasses international borders and draws connections between business and academia, small enterprises and multinational companies, as well as different industries and generations.”

“At ABC Accelerator, we are proud of these achievements. In 2020, we helped accelerate as many as 25 startups. We got further confirmation that we are doing a good job by Vestbee, one of the biggest startup matching platforms, which named us accelerator of the month,” said Grega Potokar, CEO of ABC Accelerator.

Their goal in 2021 is to keep helping mature Slovenian and international startups. In addition to providing assistance with finding investors, they have partnered with diverse companies and corporations to prepare special challenges for startups which address current business issues and may shape our future. Grega Potokar also pointed out: “We have noticed that challenges are appearing mostly in shopping supported by modern technology, be it online or in physical shops, while the future of online banking and micrologistics is also changing.”

Startups that want to accelerate their growth or help find solutions to contemporary challenges can apply at: https://abc-accelerator.com/apply/.