STARTUP COMMUNITY
SILICON
GARDENS
starting point
COMMUNITY
Silicon Gardens started already back in 2010 when the first wave of startup entrepreneurs, with Boštjan Špetič and Andraž Tori from Zemanta at the helm, started organising informal meetings (in Bikofe and Kiberpipa) to share knowledge and experience. After some of them successfully exited their business, they decided to set up a micro fund to support community also money-wise. In addition, Silicon Gardens also started analysing Slovenian startup ecosystem, publishing data in Dealbook and Infographics.
INVESTMENT FUND
SGF I
- Silicon Gardens Fund I was established in May 2014 and had raised a total of 300,000 EUR from 20 investors. The fund investment period was successfully finished in March 2016 after 265,000 EUR (10k to 40k investments) was invested in 10 Slovenian early-stage startups with a high growth potential to explore international markets, validate their ideas and get ready for further funding. The Fund had its first exit in 2021 (Cleanshelf @14.2x). At the moment five of the starting ten startups are still going strong.
INVESTORS in SGF I FUND (2014-2016)
The Fund’s main investors were entrepreneurs from the region. In addition, some established U.S. investors who believe in the potential of the region joined the fund.
| Andraž Tori | Zemanta d.o.o. (cofounder) |
| Borut Rismal | CHS d.o.o., Založba Pasadena d.o.o. (cofounder) |
| Brad Feld | Foundry Group |
| Darko Butina | BUDS svetovanje d.o.o. |
| Fred Wilson | Union Square Ventures |
| Gregor Rebolj | Sportradar AS, Klika d.o.o. (cofounder) |
| Jerry Colonna | Life/business coach |
| Jugoslav Petković | Yougo.vc (cofounder of mimovrste.si) |
| Paul Vidich | Reverbnation, Betaworks (former Executive at Warner & AOL) |
| Peter Ribarič | HRM d.o.o. (cofounder) |
| Zvone Jagodic | Nepremicnine Novi Forum d.o.o. (cofounder of Najdi.si) |
| Zvone Malnar | MamutFly.com (cofounder of Gora Informacijske rešitve d.o.o.) |
| Darko Dujič | Ceneje.si |
| Damijan Merlak | cofounder of BitStamp, worlds leading bitcoin exchange |
| Andrej Bratko | cofounder of Klika and Director of Mobile Gaming at Sportradar AG |
| Boštjan Špetič | evangelist of regional startup community and a cofounder of Zemanta |
| Lado Črnologar | private investor and a cofounder of Mimovrste d.o.o. |
| Tilen Travnik | COO of D.Labs, a web application development and internet business development company |
| Enetel Solutions d.o.o., Serbia | local privately owned, systems integrator that has started angel investing |