In early 2021, the CEO of Telekom, Vladimir Lucic, announced that the company was to launch a corporate venture capital fund meant for investments in high-tech startups. Half a year has gone by since then, and, in an interview for Netokracija, the director of the newly founded fund called
TS Ventures, Davor Sakac, reveals the details about the operations of the first corporate fund dedicated to high-risk investments in Serbia.
– The first corporate venture capital fund in this part of Europe formally started working at the moment when we enabled startups to send us their ideas at the official web page tsv.fund. The fund was founded by
Telekom Srbija, modeled after large European and world companies, and its operations will be carried out entirely independently with a professional management – Sakac says.
According to him, TS Ventures was formed under the influence of the practice of the most successful VC funds in the world, which entails a professional management consisting of a team of experts from various countries and areas.
– The decisions on investments will be made by a commission, which, in addition to the internal team, consists of external independent members with a proven global experience in investing in various startups.
The initial idea, he says, is for Telekom Srbija to invest EUR 25 million in the next five years, but the possibility of additional investments, by Telekom and other companies, is not excluded either.
– One of the priorities of the fund will definitely be to connect with other investment funds, both in the region and beyond, where, through the mutual exchange of experiences, knowledge and ideas, we will try to contribute to the development of the startup community in our country together and raise this industry to a higher level, making it one of the most profitable ones in the future – he points out.
In this phase, everyone interested can send their ideas through a private application form at the web page
tsv.fund, where the next step is to select the most interesting ideas according to the estimates of experts and to invite teams for the process of promotion and interviewing.
– We do not exclude the possibility of organizing special events which will gather all interested teams in a single place – Sakac says.