HTP spoke about the development of the youth startup movement in Belarus

The nature of the world economy is changing: from resource to intellectual. Nothing is more valuable than creativity and initiative, multiplied by entrepreneurial competence. Belarus is creating conditions, infrastructure and an ecosystem in which young people can develop and create. The High Technologies Park spoke about the development of the startup ecosystem and support for youth entrepreneurship.

Dmitry Mikulko and Anna Ryabova. Recently, Minsk hosted the Space Day forum for Belarusian startups – those who build their commercial projects based on an innovative idea and are aimed at rapid growth and scaling. According to Anna Ryabova, Head of the HTP Supervisory Board Secretariat, the forum was the result of the activities of the youth entrepreneurial community, StartUp Space, which appeared six years ago at BSU. HTP is its permanent infrastructure partner. By the way, recently the community acquired the status of a public association.

- An important event took place at the Space Day forum - the presentation of HTP grants to the winners of two open public competitions. These are 30 students of Belarusian universities who have already managed to create creative products, as well as three teachers, for their significant contribution to the development of domestic IT education, said Anna Ryabova. The forum also featured the Space Media media platform, which will combine opportunities for startups in our country in the digital space and become a single information point for finding partners and investments. The republican acceleration program on innovative entrepreneurship Space University, which will be held on the basis of 12 universities of the country, was announced. Applications for free participation are open until September 27. We want at least 1,000 people to join these programs, who would then issue about 100 startup projects of early stages. The final will be the January forum, where we will present the best solutions, shared Anna Ryabova. Not all the guys will become entrepreneurs, but they are ambitious and creative people who will come to various sectors of the economy of our country.

The speaker noted the motivating effect of the video address to the forum participants of our fellow countryman Denis Yarats. He is a graduate of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Informatics of BSU, co-founder of the fastest growing technology business in the world – AI search engine Perplexity AI. The company is now valued at $18 billion. In his speech, he stressed that today young people in Belarus have a lot of opportunities - you can launch projects right during your studies, a community has been formed, competitions, programs and profile forums are held. It is very important that there are food companies in the country that are gaining global positions and bringing back investments – both financial and image. About the conditions necessary for the effective cultivation of such companies, said the head of the HTP startup center Dmitry Mikulko:

- This is, first of all, infrastructure. Belarus has a well-developed ecosystem for established companies: the legal regime of the High Technologies Park, the Great Stone Industrial Park, and technoparks. But it is necessary to develop infrastructure for projects of initial stages, which is now being implemented on the basis of partner universities and the HTP startup center. The second necessary direction is venture investments, because startups need resources to scale as they develop. HTP conducted two streams of the Venture Academy – training in investing in risky projects. As a result, the graduates formed the Venture Investors Club, which has already held the first deals. The next step is to create legal conditions for the emergence of venture funds in the country, which will attract private capital, including foreign ones. This will lead to the necessary synergy and development of our startup ecosystem.

Financial results are a natural and important part of any business, but often not the only motivation for starting a startup. At the heart of many projects is the desire to create a strong product, solve a specific problem, or change the way we approach something. Serious success stories have never been about making money in the first place. The goal model is to make a cool product and be proud of it. If that happens, then monetization will come. Successful startups are the number of attempts multiplied by the luck factor.