HOW IS SWEDEN BOOSTING THE ALBANIAN STARTUPS?

BY RUDINA HOXHA

Ms. Jorina Kadare, Project Coordinator on Innovation, “EU for Innovation”, sits with TRAILBLAZING MAGAZINE to talk about the Challenge Fund which represents a tangible financial contribution of Sweden to Albanian startups mostly in the fields of tourism, agriculture, manufacturing and many others.

“As Albania lacks business angels who support the fledgling startups, Sweden is playing a key role in supporting them financially” Kadare told Trailblazing Magazine.

The project kicked off at the end of 2018 and a total of 19 finalists are successfully continuing the projects for which they were selected by the Challenge Fund. Once the projects are selected, the finalists enter into a deal with the Challenge Fund on using the amount of money within a one year term.

ABOUT EU FOR INNOVATION

EU for Innovation is a project which entails two major objectives. First, to boost all the stakeholders involved in startups in Albania starting from the highest level – the State Minister for the Protection of Entrepreneurship (the central level) to the local universities which, in many European cities, have their own laboratories where the students study. This way, the laboratories prepare the students for the private sector. This is where innovation often stems from: From the demand of the private sector for a new service or product which does not exist for the time being. The new ideas need to be supported. Over the last five years, many business accelerators in Tirana have opened their doors for the startups, helping them to prepare business plans and train them for the market. To materialize the business idea, financial support is needed too. In Albania, it is difficult to get a loan for supporting your business idea. That’s where Sweden shows up providing financial access. Through a competition, called Challenge Fund, the competing innovative ideas get assessed and get wings.

TWO WORDS ON CHALLENGE FUND

The Challenge Fund does not finance the usual way of doing business, meaning does not finance the opening of a pharmacy or a café. On the contrary, it finances ideas resulting in novelties in the manufacturing of a product, creation of a service or a work process/ production line within a factory, company or a mill. This is very particular because there are no other funds to boost such innovative groups financially. Albania lacks business angels who support the fledgling startups. The project kicked off at the end of 2018 and a total of 19 finalists are successfully continuing the projects for which they were selected by the Challenge Fund. Once the projects are selected, the finalists enter into deals with the Challenge Fund to use the amount of money within a one year term. Mostly the finalists of Challenge Fund have come up with ideas related to agriculture and tourism. It is important to highlight that Challenge Fund has not been focused only in Tirana but even in other cities of Albania where people face difficulties in their day to day life. It is exactly that daily difficulty that you may find as an individual or as a businessman in your company which spurs innovation ideas. That’s why Challenge Fund took a tour as much comprehensive as possible all over Albania in order to get as many ideas as possible, not only from Tirana but from all over the country. As soon as you leave Tirana and you go towards the other cities, the ideas get differently colored involving the fields of tourism, services, manufacturing and new ways of producing “Made in Albania” articles etc.

In this context, let’s go through some of the success stories Challenge Fund has supported:

Nëna Farmë (Farm Mother) start up in the area of Lukova , close to Saranda (South of Albania) - The applicant from this area Miltiadh Prifti, who won the Challenge

Fund, decided that the hundreds of hectares with centurial olive trees in this area, left in oblivion for a long time, be restored and maintained. If left alone, they would be destroyed completely. The man, who was living between his hometown and Canada, was wise enough; he established contacts with Canada to export the extra virgin olive oil, produced from the well-restored olive trees of the area. This premium olive oil is sold at a considerable price outside Albania. Through this project, he addressed many important fields: besides his innovative ideas to save the area where he lives, he managed to secure olive

oil of international standards with the aim of exporting it to Canada. Above all he restored hundreds of olive trees left at the mercy of Lord. Unfortunately when he was about to proceed with the export of olive oil, the borders and other transport ways were blocked for some time due to COVID-19. But he acted fast and managed to sign agreements with the main supermarkets in Albania including several Supermarkets until a second moment when the foreign trade becomes easier.

Another innovative idea comes from Saranda – it is called the Mussels Tour

Soraldo Nebo had been a fisherman for a long time. He had seen a boom of tourists coming from Corfu to Saranda from April to October. Seeing them doing not much in Saranda but eating and bathing under the sun, he thought to give a twist to his own business: from simply getting the mussels and selling them to the restaurants to taking the tourists with his own boats early in the morning and give them the chance to catch the mussels and then to get into a bay where a family had opened a restaurant. Here the tourists would have the chance to cook the mussels themselves and then would sit at the veranda of the restaurant by the sea and eat them with the greatest pleasure. All this experience, which would take almost half of the day, was an unforgettable journey, an added value to the local tourism in Saranda city.

The other success story is that

of Blerta Feka, an Albanian doctor emigrated in Germany since 10 years ago. She decided to come to Albania to help her father who was involved in a land ownership dispute with a neighbor. In this village around Tirana, where the land was considered only for constructions, Blerta saw the opportunity to plant saffron. As this plant was sporadically planted in the country, her intention was to make it organically certified in Albania. She encouraged three, four other families around to join her and create a saffron farm, so they could export it. Blerta has now entered into negotiations for exporting the saffron to high end restaurant in Europe, including Stockholm. Challenge Fund found her idea to embrace farming as a way to soothe the conflict as much innovative as special. In addition, choosing saffron among other herbs or plants was considered very innovative, too. In terms of financing virtual platforms, Challenge Fund has boosted the platform of Albi Saraci who connects the teachers, the parents and the students. Everything relating to teaching process, absences, communication, activities and events at school, the remarks of the teachers towards the students go through this platform. In Albania, there are not proper platforms. In the private schools in Tirana, there are platforms that keep the teachers and the parents in contact with each other. This virtual platform has attracted

much international attention as Albi, who runs this project, has participated in a series of forums and fairs in the region and in Europe. Interest has been shown towards this platform by many regional investors such as from Macedonia or Montenegro who are interested to integrate this platform in their own educational systems.

Another distinguished case is that of Rinaldo Gjolaj from a village in Shkodra. The boy left his village to complete his school abroad and came back later. His family had always raised bees in a traditional way. But he returned home with the idea to increase the number of the bees and the quantity and quality of the honey through applying a new technology from China. This technology aimed to help in terms of the beehive design, temperature measurement, bees’ movement and the bees’ food. All these info is registered through a platform that is applied in the beehive and the complete information comes to your mobile. Wherever you are, you have all the information about your bees in your mobile. His story is a distinguished one as many of his peers intend to leave their own country, he returned instead and applied a new technology seeking to improve innovation.

The other success story comes from a father and a son from Pogradec. They found an original way to fight the worm that kills the pine woods in this city. They came up with the idea of some agricultural drones which throws the organic medicine from above, thus covering the crown of the trees. This spray does not harm other fauna and flora around. This idea was found as very innovative by the Challenge Fund as they managed to spray the pines from above, where the machines or carts could not reach.

In addition, Challenge Fund has supported even two universities and two organizations one of which is Go2 Albania in Shkodra which supports the startups in the area mostly in tourism and agriculture fields.

From the Universities, I can mention The Metropolitan University in Tirana which we have helped in the creation of a laboratory for smart cities. This way, the new engineers will have a space with all the proper technology and equipment to produce and test new products appropriate for smart cities. We intend to offer know how as well without which no startups can take wings.

Why Sweden offers all this help for the Albanian startups? Because Sweden is one of the 4 top innovative countries in the world and the first in Europe. It has a very dynamic economy based on startups and on a very flexible and innovative educational system.