Sarajevo is the rising tech and innovation capital of the Bosnia and Hezegovina, a multicultural city pairing one of Southeast Europe’s deepest engineering talent pools with a fast-growing startup ecosystem in AI, software, fintech and digital health. It offers EU-aligned R&D, competitive costs, and a gateway to regional and diaspora markets.
- €310M+ in annual ICT service exports from Sarajevo’s tech cluster (2025), predominantly serving German, Austrian and Swiss clients
- 10% flat corporate income tax (and 10% flat personal income tax; 17% VAT) among the lowest rates in Europe trading economics
- 58 IT companies in the Sarajevo-based BIT Alliance, employing around 80% of BiH’s IT workforce
- ~2,800+ ICT employees in BIT Alliance member firms alone; thousands more across non-member firms, services exporters, and freelance engineers
- €80M+ in annual export revenue generated by BIT Alliance members
- Average IT salary 40–60% below EU average, with English-fluent engineering teams
- #1 startup ecosystem in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the country’s fastest-rising, climbing 32 places in the global index in 2025 (StartupBlink)
- #52 in Eastern Europe, up 3 places year-on-year (StartupBlink 2025)
- Top 5% of business schools worldwide, the School of Economics and Business Sarajevo, the only EFMD- and AACSB-accredited business faculty in Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Host of the Western Balkans’ leading summits – the Business Angel Summit, the region’s biggest angel and early-stage investor event, and Kiss the Future, its leading AI and emerging technologies summit
- Launch city of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s first domestic venture capital fund – Cloud Health EuroVentures (2025)
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Amra Hašimbegović is an entrepreneur, investment strategist, and ecosystem builder with extensive experience in business development, investment promotion, and international cooperation. She currently serves as Head of Investments and European Funds at the Cantonal Agency for Attracting Investments and Privatization (KAIP) in Sarajevo, where she leads initiatives focused on attracting foreign direct investment, strengthening international partnerships, and positioning Sarajevo Canton as a competitive regional hub for innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainable economic growth.
Through her work at KAIP, Amra has been actively involved in building strategic partnerships with international institutions, embassies, investment agencies, and European innovation ecosystems. She has played a key role in connecting Sarajevo with initiatives such as ViennaUP and Scale Cities, supporting startups, innovation-driven companies, and cross-border collaboration opportunities between Bosnia and Herzegovina and leading European business hubs.
Before joining the public sector, Amra built her career as an entrepreneur and business consultant, founding and leading projects focused on market research, business networking, and entrepreneurship development. She is also recognized for launching and developing Business Café in Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the region’s most recognized entrepreneurial networking platforms that connected founders, executives, and aspiring entrepreneurs through events, mentorship, and knowledge exchange.
Her professional focus includes investment attraction, startup ecosystem development, European funds, economic diplomacy, business strategy, and institutional cooperation. As a public speaker and advocate for entrepreneurship and innovation, she is particularly passionate about strengthening the international visibility of Sarajevo and creating long-term opportunities for startups, investors, and emerging industries across Southeast Europe.
Kantonalna agencija za privlačenje investicija i privatizaciju – KAIP
Sarajevo is the rising tech and innovation capital of the Western Balkans, blending a deeply multicultural heritage, often called “the Jerusalem of Europe,” where a mosque, Catholic cathedral, Orthodox church and synagogue stand within a few hundred metres of one another, with one of the fastest-growing startup ecosystems in Southeast Europe. The capital city stands out as Bosnia and Herzegovina’s primary hub for software engineering, AI research, fintech, and digital health, hosting the country’s most established IT companies, research institutes, digital innovation hubs and startups. Set in a valley ringed by the Dinaric Alps, with Olympic ski resorts 30 minutes from the centre and a legacy as host of the 1984 Winter Games, Sarajevo offers an exceptional quality of life at one of the most affordable cost bases of any European capital. With a metropolitan population of around 555,000 and one of the youngest workforces in the region, it combines world-class engineering talent and EU-aligned R&D infrastructure with a gateway position between the EU, CEFTA markets, and the diaspora networks of 2.5 million Bosnians abroad.
Sarajevo’s success is built on its ability to turn one of Southeast Europe’s deepest pools of engineering talent into globally competitive companies and, increasingly, into homegrown products and intellectual property. Global firms have made the city a core engineering base: HTEC Group acquired Sarajevo-founded Mistral Technologies in 2022, making it the largest technology company in Bosnia and Herzegovina with close to 600 experts in the country, while Authority Partners runs one of its largest delivery centres here. Alongside them, homegrown companies such as Bloomteq, ZIRA, Ministry of Programming, and Klika deliver for clients across Europe and North America.
Sarajevo has already produced the country’s defining digital success stories, Pik.ba, which by 2015 had become Bosnia and Herzegovina’s number-one online marketplace before being acquired by the global OLX network, and MojPosao.ba, the country’s leading employment platform. A new generation now proves that world-class delivery and original products are no longer separate paths: Privee, E387 and OREA Bazaar rank among Sarajevo’s top startups, spanning Media Tech, EV charging, and Marketplace.
That momentum reached a turning point in 2025, when Bosnia and Herzegovina launched its first-ever venture capital fund, Cloud Health EuroVentures, at Slush’D Sarajevo, beginning to build the capital infrastructure needed to keep ambitious founders at home. Sarajevo is also the region’s investment crossroads: the Business Angel Summit, run annually by Sarajevo-based Foundation 787, is the Western Balkans’ leading angel and early-stage investor event, gathering over 150 regional and European investors.
That pipeline increasingly runs from the lab to the market. Research institutes lead the way: the Blum Institute, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s first dedicated artificial intelligence research institute, and Verlab move AI, robotics and biomedical breakthroughs toward commercial products through dedicated technology transfer, creating the conditions for the rapid transformation of ideas into products, processes and services. University incubators reinforce the same path, IBU’s Burch Startup Incubator, the first student business incubator in the country, operating since 2015, and the School of Economics and Business’s GrowUp Business & Innovation Hub turning students into founders.
Public and EU support has grown alongside private capital: the Federal Government, together with a consortium, brought the accelerator Techstars to Sarajevo in 2025; at the cantonal level, Sarajevo Canton backs young founders with startup grants and incubation through its public Centre for Advanced Technologies (CNT); and through the EU’s Digital Europe Programme the country now hosts its European Digital Innovation Hub, FusionX, which operates a HubX centre in Sarajevo and offers the four core EDIH services, Test Before Invest, skills and training, access to finance, and ecosystem development alongside company- and university-led hubs such as the Sarajevo-based Digital Storm HUB and SSST’s LabHUB.
The Kiss the Future AI Summit organised by Blum Institute and powered by Bloomteq, held under the patronage of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, positions the city as the region’s leading AI platform, while the BIT Alliance IT Manifesto aligns universities, industry, and government around a shared growth agenda.
Finally, Sarajevo is committed to drawing on all of its talent. IT Girls, a joint initiative of UNDP, UNICEF and UN Women launched in 2015 with the support of Sweden, has trained girls in coding and robotics across the country in partnership with companies such as Authority Partners, Mistral Technologies and Microsoft. Alongside corporate programmes like Bloomteq’s Women in ICT campaign, the city’s greatest inclusion asset is its diaspora: 2.5 million Bosnians abroad form a powerful bridge of talent, capital, and know-how, a bridge a growing number are now crossing back to build at home.
“The Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina ecosystem has strong foundations in talent, ideas, and entrepreneurial energy, but it still requires stronger international connectivity, access to capital, and deeper integration into European innovation networks. The real potential lies in positioning Sarajevo as an active participant in European startup ecosystems rather than a passive observer through partnerships, knowledge exchange, and sustained institutional cooperation.”
Amra Hašimbegović, Head of Investments and European Funds at the Cantonal Agency for Attracting Investments and Privatization (KAIP)
“When we set out to build Bosnia and Herzegovina’s first dedicated AI research institute, the real question was whether the talent and the partners would be here. They were. From Sarajevo we now coordinate Horizon Europe consortia alongside institutes like DFKI and JSI, and through technology transfer we turn that research into products that reach the market, the proof that world-class AI research, and the value it creates, doesn’t have to happen somewhere else.”
Alema Pelešić, Research Partnerships Manager, Blum Institute
“Building Accessify here proved you can launch a mission-driven product, real-time accessibility for events, venues and routes from Sarajevo and be taken seriously. The community is what makes the difference: mentors, fellow founders, and investors all within reach, so even an early-stage team never feels like it’s building alone.”
Ena Kapetanović, Founder, Accessify
Where to start: Invest in Sarajevo — the digital platform of the Cantonal Agency for Attracting Investment and Privatization (KAIP), backed by the Ministry of Economy and the Government of Sarajevo Canton — is the single first point of contact for investors and entrepreneurs, offering guidance on company setup, administrative procedures, online business registration, and cantonal incentives.
investinsarajevo.ba · +387 33 560 030 · info@kaip.ba
The essentials: An LLC needs BAM 1,000 (~€500) in founding capital and around BAM 1,360 for fees, registration and stamp, completed through the Municipal Court registry; online business registration is available. A flat 10% corporate and personal income tax applies among the lowest rates in the world.
Coming from outside the EU? Most nationalities enter visa-free for 90 days. Bosnia and Herzegovina has no dedicated digital nomad visa; founders typically register a business, then apply for a temporary residence permit (up to 12 months, renewable) through the Service for Foreigners’ Affair.
Sarajevo combines one of Southeast Europe’s deepest pools of engineering talent, English-fluent, young, and trained across public and private universities with a 2.5-million global diaspora.
- Reduced employer contributions (FBiH reform, July 2025): Employer social-contribution rates in the Federation of BiH — covering Sarajevo were cut from 10.5% to 5%, the largest single reduction in years, sharply lowering the cost of hiring and making the city one of the region’s most competitive places to scale engineering teams.
- Tax-free salary supplement up to BAM 300 (~€150) / month: A 2025 Government of FBiH regulation lets employers pay workers up to BAM 300 per month tax-free as additional financial support — raising take-home pay without raising gross payroll, and a useful retention tool.
- Flat 10% personal income tax + zero dividend tax: Among the lowest combined rates in Europe, with no tax on dividends — especially attractive for founders and employees on equity plans.
- Hiring incentive for entry-level talent (effective February 2025): Employers receive a refund of social security contributions for employees whose earnings were below BAM 1,000 as of November 2024, introduced after the minimum-wage increase to support employment levels.
- Talent pipeline programmes: IT Girls (UNDP / UNICEF / UN Women) builds a continuous pipeline of women in tech in partnership with companies; the Swiss Entrepreneurship Program and the BIT Alliance run education-industry and upskilling initiatives companies can plug into directly.
- Service for Foreigners’ Affairs (SPS) —-Bosnia and Herzegovina’s authority for residence and work permits, including the temporary-residence-permit route most international hires use. Paired with Invest in Sarajevo / KAIP as the first point of contact for companies relocating teams to the Sarajevo Canton.
- Service providers — work with Sarajevo-based HR, payroll and recruitment solutions such as MojPosao.ba (Kolektiv d.o.o., headquartered in Sarajevo) and a growing network of tech-specialist recruitment firms and global employer-of-record platforms operating locally.
CLOUD HEALTH EUROVENTURES LAUNCHES BOSNIA’S FIRST DOMESTIC VC FUND In October 2025
Cloud Health EuroVentures (CHEV) launched at Sarajevo Slush’d as the first domestic venture capital fund in BiH, with a $10M target focused on digital health, life sciences, and AI startups across Southeast Europe. The launch marks a structural turning point for the Sarajevo ecosystem — moving the country from a remittance- and outsourcing-led economy toward an investment- and innovation-led one.
KISS THE FUTURE AI SUMMIT 2026: SARAJEVO BECOMES THE WESTERN BALKANS AI CAPITAL
Organised by Blum Institute with support from Bloomteq and under the patronage of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Kiss the Future AI Summit returns to Sarajevo in October 2026 with21,500+ attendees across four specialised stages — Main, Engineering, Manufacturing & Energy, and Finance/Legal/Compliance. The 2026 edition consolidates Sarajevo’s position as a regional AI hub, bringing together global speakers from OpenAI, Microsoft, Mistral, Intel, Cursor, Supabase, and Allianz alongside leading academic researchers and EU policymakers.
### BUSINESS ANGEL SUMMIT SARAJEVO CONNECTS STARTUPS AND INVESTORS
The Business Angel Summit Sarajevo brought together founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders from across Southeast Europe to strengthen regional startup financing and cross-border collaboration. Through investor networking, startup showcases, and public-private partnerships, the summit reinforced Sarajevo’s role as an emerging hub for innovation and early-stage investment in the Western Balkans.