Congratulations to the winners of the 2022 Innovation Nation Program, the most prestigious and comprehensive entrepreneurship program in Bosnia & Herzegovina.

1st Place (9000 BAM) - Plasthenik - (Faruk Šehić, Eldar Kepić, Zerin Redžepović, Osman Azabagić) - Food is getting more expensive, and healthy food tends to see the biggest increases in cost. Their goal is to make healthy, locally sourced, organic goods to be more plentiful, more accessible, and cheaper than they are now, without hurting the bottom line of our agricultural sector. With their smart greenhouses, they are determined to help automate the cultivation of agricultural goods as much as possible, and eventually significantly slash the need for labor in the sector.

“This program was one of the best experiences for me personally and our entire team. We learned how to think critically and develop ideas, test/validate them and most importantly how to effectively work in a team. These are things that we were never taught at university. With the prize and investment funding we will develop a fully functional product by March/April 2023 and hope to have over 40 of them on the market by the end of 2023. I highly recommend this program to other young people who want to develop and innovative and entrepreneurial mindset”, says Faruk Šehić.

2nd Place (6000 BAM) - MojPetPal (Šejla Halilbegović, Ajša Hadžifejzović, Selin Oksuz, Emina Dedić) - It's the right time to travel, isn't it? But how can I travel if I have no one that can take care of my pets while I’m away? That’s where Moj PetPal comes. Moj PetPal is an application that connects pet owners and pet sitters, making it easier to find a caretaker for your pet. The application also helps find missing pets as well as makes it easier to adopt a pet.

“This award and additional potential investment will enable us to further enhance our developed application. Our confidence has grown immensely during the program. Innovation Nation equipped us with the right tools and skills to be able to develop a business idea. We thrived in a competitive environment but we didn’t see the other participants are competitors, rather friends and people who supported us" says Emina Dedić.

3rd Place (5000 BAM) - Rekboo - (Amer Memovic, Amar Mujkić, Ilhan Neziric, Dino Burić) - In the last 5 seconds 100 people in the world died due to unhealthy meals. In today's fast-paced world driven by hustle culture and ambition, most people don’t have time to prepare healthy meals; therefore, they are forced to rely on fast food as the main option. Rekboo makes eating healthy both easy and fun! Whether you want to go keto or vegan, traditional or more exotic cuisine, at Rekboo we got you covered. You just select your favorite meals, and the ingredients are portioned and delivered straight to your doorstep. The only thing left to do is cook based on our detailed instructions and enjoy the meals skilfully crafted by our chefs.

“One of the best experiences of my early career! The funding we have received will be used to launch our first product version and we hope that next year’s Innovation National final that our team will stand proudly and speak about our product in front of new Innovation Nation participants", says Amer Memovic.

Judges & Investors

At the completion of the 12 week program, participants pitched in front of a judging/investment panel of well known local and international business experts including:

• Milad Hadziabdic, Managing Director - M&A Investment Banking at Citi

• Fuji Avdic, Founder & President at Stryker Logistics

• Edin Skaljic, Founder FabLab Sarajevo

• Drazen Orescanin, Founder, Poslovna Inteligencija

• Andrej Kaurin, CTO & Co-Founder, JSGuru

• Aleksandar Cabrilo, CEO & Co-Founder, HTEC

• Mirza Ustamujic, President of the Management Board, General Manager, Payten

• Kerim Hadzic, Chief Development Officer at Derubis Caravans

• Haris Lizde, Chief Ambassador, BH Futures Foundation

• Edhem Eddie Custovic, Co-Founder, BH Futures Foundation

• Senad Santic, Co-Founder, ZenDev

• Zoran Puljic, Founder & Director, Mozaik Foundation

2022 program overview

Innovation Nation is a one of a kind 12 week educational and transformational entirely free program focused on shaping young entrepreneurs in Bosnia & Herzegovina. The startup pre-accelerator has been running for 7 years in Bosnia & Herzegovina and in 2022 brought together over 50 students and young professionals from different backgrounds (engineers, economists, scientists, artists etc) from 18 cities/towns in Bosnia & Herzegovina. More than 60% of participants were female. Over 50,000 BAM was provided to teams as guaranteed prize money and and a further 80,000 BAM of in kind contributions were made to the 2022 program.