Consulting Support and Infrastructure

Any advice comes in handy. Do you know who to turn to with your entrepreneurial idea? Where to find mentoring and counselling support? Where to find business premises for your startup or scaleup company that, in addition to infrastructure, also offers the company of other similarly innovative entrepreneurs?

In Slovenia, public and private programmes provide support to businesses.

Public Programmes

The main core of public programmes is based on the public network of supportive environments managed by SPIRIT Slovenia, within the framework of the Innovative Environment Entities (SIO) programme, assisting entrepreneurs in the conceptual, start-up and growth phases.

• Concept phase: assistance in proof of concept process in which target audiences validate a business idea and plan its implementation.
• Start-up phase: Supporting the growth and development of start-ups. It focuses on supporting companies in eliminating bariers to business development and growth.
• Phase of growth and internationalization: Support the growth and development of fast-growing scaleup companies. The support is only intended for fast-growing companies with a market-driven business model and high growth potential.

The entities of the innovative environment are technology parks as well as university and business incubators, which create a stimulating environment for the creation and development of innovative companies. It is especially important for those that have greater competitiveness, higher added value and more balanced regional development of entrepreneurship.

Upgrade of the core programmes for the most expansive startup and scaleup companies reflect programmes of the Slovene Enterprise Fund within the Startup Plus Programme   (#StartupPlusProgramme) package, which covers both financing and related content support.

In addition to these programmes, there are other forms of support available free of charge within the framework of public support. These implement the entities of the support environment, corporate networks and public institutions.

Private Programmes

The most prominent representatives of the private support programmes are business accelerators ABC Accelerator and Catapult, which provide consulting and infrastructure support to promising companies as well as financial investments.

Youth entrepreneurship is speeded up through the Ustvarjalnik accelerator programmes.

The association between startups and corporations is becoming an increasing trend, which CorpoHub, PODIM Conference and Future 4.0 assist, while consulting is also provided by Business Angels of Slovenia.