Europe excels at innovation, but funding is the biggest challenge Europe is facing. Coordination between public and private funding will be key to success. These are just a few of the findings from this year's investment conference Next Round, which took place for the second year in a row as part of the Startup Plus Program of the Slovenian Enterprise Fund, this time due to the situation with the corona crisis entirely online.

Next Round, organized by ABC Accelerator, Business Angels of Slovenia, Ljubljana University Incubator, and Technology Park Ljubljana, is not only the conference itself but also a program connecting startups with the most active regional investors.

As many as 130 startups made new contacts in 870 one-on-one meetings with the 91 most active regional investors to create new investment opportunities. The event confirmed that the Slovenian startup ecosystem is considered to be mature and, above all, to be extremely well supported, even though there is a lack of investment capacity in the later stages of investments.

Key takeaways from the Next Round Investment Conference are:

• Investment must continue, and so must innovation.

• It is necessary to invest in innovative projects.

• Private sources of funding must be combined with public ones.

• Slovenia would need a new fund of funds for seed investment.

• Financial resources are not enough, networking activities need to be added.

• Integration is key to success.

• In the current situation, we need to react quickly.

• Investors need to be helped first so that they can help companies.

• Adequate support in difficult times is even more crucial than in good times.

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Content support for recipients of P2, SK75 or SI-SK financial products under the "de minimis" scheme is co-financed from the Slovene Enterprise Fund and the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund. This is implemented on the basis of the Content Support for Funds Recipients (SMEs) Programme in the 2018-2023 period, under the Operational Programme for the Implementation of the European Cohesion Policy 2014-2020.

Mitja Sagaj

Head of PR and Communications Start:up Slovenia & PODIM Conference

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