500 Startups in Georgia - Opportunities for Georgian Startupers
Largest Business Accelerator 500 Startups discussed the matters of offered opportunities in "Business Partner" on the First Channel of Georgia.
Coordinator of services of Georgia's Innovation and Technology Agency, Davit Chechelashvili declared, that collaboration strategy of Georgia with American accelerator company "500 Startups" will be discovering unicorn company.
„500 Startups“ is among the three global industry experts. Entering Georgia is the signal of trust, which can trigger the rest members of trio to become interested in Georgia.
"Free market operates in the world and entering this company to Georgia is the indicator, that this region is relevant. Supposedly, "Textar" and other big accelerators will soon enter Georgia. Their logic lies on - "don't let it get it first". The strategy of "500 Startups" is to invest money in the company at first, "Textar" invests later. Naturally, "Textar" can be the next company.", declared Chechelashvili.
With the collaboration of American venture fund, the strategy of Georgian party is a.k.a creating unicorns.
"We are at starting point yet and we know, which field will be strong in Georgia. At this moment, our first priority is to discover first unicorn, since the examples of Estonia and other countries reveal, that the first unicorn is utterly important. When we will have our first success, it will provoke other's appearances. When they'll gain the experiences, they'll become unicorns. We will invest money in different companies, to get one unicorn at least - this is the strategy. Many small businesses do not have this kind of benefits since they die soon.", stated Davit Chechelashvili.
As Vakho Vakhtangishvili, head of startups development of Bank of Georgia estimated, entering "500 Startups" to Georgia means declaring trust to Georgian talent. As a result of the effort of the company, the country will gain huge knowledge and experience.
"The decision of the company entering Georgia a priori means, that Georgia is ready to accept it. The company sees the talent and ideas of Georgians, which can be regenerated as the product within global scale. As for infrastructure, this is not necessary for the digital economy and their motivation is to adapt Georgia to global ecosystem in such terms, that infrastructural problems would be solved in a simple way. Georgian founder is the part of world business and not part of Georgian business.", declared Vakhtangishvili.
As he defined, this is true, that there is no guarantee, that well-known venture fund will definitely develop unicorn company in Georgia, perhaps as a result of American venture fund work, Georgia will be left with the huge knowledge.
"Here, we do not assume only Georgia, but the whole region. This is necessary, that if teams will come from regional countries to Georgia, they must establish the company and intellectual property, which is the main treasure of the company, and transfer it to the company's balance. This will not only provoke deepening of Georgia's talents, but also will attract available talents in the region.", stated Vakhtangishvili.