Why this exists
$4.31B of ICT exports and no platform telling the story with Belgrade as the protagonist. We're starting one.
A scene with numbers but no narrative
Serbia's ICT exports reached roughly $4.31B in 2024, up around a fifth year on year, with something in the order of 115,000 people working in the sector. Those numbers get quoted in every ministry deck. They almost never get explained.
The coverage that exists is either institutional, regional or promotional. Digital Serbia Initiative is doing institutional work. Startit and ICT Hub convene. The Recursive covers Belgrade as one city among many across Central and Eastern Europe. All of it is useful. None of it is a home.
Belgrade.Tech is the attempt at a home: a weekly briefing, a living index of who is actually here, and short unscripted conversations with the people building. Editorial first, commercial later, and never the other way around.
The rule we are giving ourselves: critical friend, not cheerleader. We will celebrate wins without inflating them and name the problems without enjoying it.
The talent conversation has flipped
Two years ago the worry was brain drain. Now it is the cost of senior engineers relative to what local product companies can pay. Both are true at once.
Relocated teams changed the market
The influx of engineering teams that moved into Belgrade since 2022 reshaped salaries, office demand and the after-hours scene. Their long-term retention is an open question.
Gaming remains the quiet giant
Serbia's games industry employs thousands across dozens of studios and rarely appears in startup coverage. That is a reporting failure, and we intend to fix it.
The people we are writing for
The CTO in Novi Beograd deciding whether to hire five more engineers, and the partner in Berlin reading on a flight deciding whether Serbia is a market or a footnote. If both find this useful, we did the job.
- ·The Index opens with a manually curated first hundred entries. Companies, funds, spaces and communities.
- ·Signal Series starts with short founder conversations filmed where people actually work.
- ·If your company belongs in The Index and is not there yet, send it to us.
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