Georgia, ranked in top 6 in Ease of Doing Business worldwide, has transformed into a leading business friendly location through successful reforms. Boasting a strategic location, free trade agreements with 2.3 Billion markets, and low business costs, Georgia offers free industrial and free virtual trade zones for additional tax exemption. Through liberal visa terms and open-door policy, including investments rights protection – the country is positioned as a regional hub, a gateway connecting Europe to Asia.
The local talent pool is another attraction of Georgia to the investors: a high-skilled and relatively cheap labor force makes the country competitive in the global market.
Infrastructure for Innovation is rapidly growing throughout the country. State Tech Parks and Innovation Centers are operating on a one-stop-shop principle, providing access to creator-space, co-working space and training facilities, they also provide incubation/acceleration opportunities to promising high-growth innovative startups. Co-working spaces are spread around the city, encouraging networking and a bohemian lifestyle.
WorkfromGeorgia is a campaign that reached global digital nomads, the platform is giving digital nomads the opportunity to benefit from co-working spaces not only in the capital but in the regions as well, providing additional technical assistance and network.
In terms of innovation and startup financing, the Georgian government is providing the pre-seed and seed stage financing for startups, covering the risks and enhancing their skills for further investment opportunities. Through the World Bank support program and competitive selection process which is done by international experts from Silicon Valley and elsewhere, the Government has already more than 200 globally scalable startups with high-growth potential in the following industries: fintech, greentech, medtech, tourismtech, AI, VR, etc.
Stack – one of the Startup Matching Grants Program winners represents an example of a local Georgian business with immense global opportunities.
Stack – the first Georgian web-browser with alternative features and functions
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Stack is an internet launchpad for all of your web applications, enables to work in multiple web-apps simultaneously, within a well-organized environment.
Stack – the first Georgian web-browser was launched in November 2018 offering an alternative way of working with multiple applications at the same time.
Stack was created for those who use 5 or more applications daily (e-mails, messengers, social media etc.). Stack can fit several applications in one window giving the list of open applications on the side panel giving preference to frequently used ones.
The project was initiated by four professionals: David Gavasheli – a serial entrepreneur running several successful businesses; Dachi Gubadze – who holds a PHD in Economics from Maastricht University; Zviad Sichinava – a professional web-developer with more than 8 years of international experience; and George Laliashvili – Innovation Business (startup) incubation specialist.
In February 2019, the project was selected among 136 startups competing to receive a 100 000 GEL grant offered by Startup Matching Grants Program – an opportunity given by the Georgian Government to young innovators and technology startups.
Stack was also selected from 1500 participants to present as one of the 40 best startups at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin. Nominated among 5 finalists of Austrian-American Startup Accelerator 360Lab contest, Stack was selected to participate in a 3-stage accelerator program and received an investment of 1 000 000 Euros to be invested gradually.
As Stack’s initiators state, in terms of data protection, the project fully meets GDPR requirements. The program keeps information on each open application locally, on the user’s computer without retrieving data except for information needed for analytics. Stack is developed on Chromium’s base giving it more security similarly to Google Chrome.