The ceremony for the announcement of the Startup Grant Winners, 2026 Edition, was held today, where the winning startups and the incubators/accelerators that will be supported through Grant 2026 were announced, with a doubled fund of 6 million euros for innovative entrepreneurship — an important moment that reflects the development of the Albanian startup ecosystem.
Prime Minister Rama also attended the ceremony, where he emphasized the government’s commitment to supporting innovative entrepreneurship, describing the development of the startup ecosystem as an important investment in the country’s economic and technological future.
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Prime Minister Edi Rama: Greetings to everyone! Today, we are here after a postponement of the announcement of the winners, as a result of the fact that we had a very high number of applications and, on the other hand, we did not feel good that with the amount made available, 3 million euros, we could not manage to respond with the proper support to all those who, according to the evaluation commission, deserved support.
So we postponed this meeting a little in order to reflect, in the normative act of June, a change which, of course, is also the result of the opportunity, because we might not have had this opportunity, but the economy in these months has reacted very positively and, as a result, revenues in the state budget have increased beyond the forecast, which made us commit an extra fund to respond to all applicants who have brought proposals that deserve to have a chance. So, from 3 million, we brought it to 6 million euros.
On the other hand, today we are here with an optimism, I believe, entirely justified by the fact that, in a recent assessment, our startup system has been ranked fourth for the fastest growth at the European level.
Certainly, this faster growth is relative, because we started from a very low base when we undertook this journey, and we undertook this journey, in fact, in 2022, with a more modest figure, only 2 million euros, and we learned together how to move forward with building this ecosystem. Today we are at 6 million.
Our ambition is that by the end of this decade, therefore by 2030, we reach a capacity of 20 million euros for supporting startups. Naturally, this will depend very much on the quality of the applications; it will depend very much on the further dynamic of the expansion of the ecosystem, but what we have recently learned is that we must be ready, I am speaking of the government, to finance up to a volume of 20 million euros.
On the other hand, the minister touched on the issue of funds, I mean the creation of funds. We have taken a step, which is a step taken for the first time by a government in the Republic of Albania, by participating in the financing of Mira Murati’s new project, but we strongly believe that we must do the same with our startups that move into a second phase and need extra support to develop after they are confirmed in the embryonic phase.
And we can do this precisely by starting with the creation of special funds, which we have already foreseen in the legislation, and which can be created through cooperation between the government and other financial sources that come from entrepreneurship, or from other financial institutions, or from partners of our country.
We will start this process, and I believe that next year we will also have this instrument available for those among you who will have successfully passed the embryonic phase and need to be financed further in order to develop the project.
They told me that the boy who appeared in the video at the very beginning is a boy who started precisely from this program, received financing from “Startup Albania,” and today has 50,000 clients in the United States, with an ambitious objective of reaching half a million clients, for what started as an idea, developed as a small nucleus of a startup, and today, in fact, has turned into a successful enterprise. And there are plenty like this in this process, where today we have twice as many winners as last year.
Geographical distribution is certainly also important. We have practically applications from the entire territory, and we have the largest share of applications in Tirana, but at the same time, Shkodra, Durrës, Vlora, and Korça are also among the first five regions. And in Shkodra and Vlora, we have in fact the highest relative growth among all these regions.
I am very pleased with the significant increase in the number of girls and women. It is very meaningful that, in this field as well, women and girls are becoming a dominant force, and I am very glad that we have the capacity to support them.
Just as I am glad that we also have applicants from the Diaspora, and there are 15 startups from the Diaspora financed to date by the “Startup Albania” program. Meanwhile, 38 mentors, the majority of them, are Albanian professionals from the Diaspora.
What is worth mentioning is that, as we speak today, there are 42 products from this program that have been launched on the market and function as enterprises, which have a fantastic perspective.
At the very end, I also have a word about a very ugly phenomenon of recent times, which has also affected a part of the girls and boys who have benefited from the startup program, or which may affect others present here today or not, who will be beneficiaries, and that is their online bullying with all kinds of insults, offenses, accusations, from sources that are unworthy of your attention.
And since in this field, I am number one for the volume of insults, accusations, slanders, fabrications, I want to share with you a very simple experience. Do not go down to the comments. That is how simple it all is! Comments are not representative of what you do, of how you do it, of who you are, and not only in this time, which is a very loaded time because the algorithm has moved into a phase of hysteria, but at any time.
Once, I used to respond to commenters intensively, driven by the idea that they deserve respect and deserve attention and deserve an answer, but I understood that it was wrong, and instead of at least receiving back respect for the fact that I was making the effort to answer them, I was only increasing engagement and increasing the amount of mud that came back to me. So, since then, not only have I no longer responded to them, but I no longer go below the post to see what is being said. Categorically! If you do this, you will understand that the world is the one you see and the one in which you live, and you are the ones you want to be.
Meanwhile, if you do not do this, the psychological impact of bullying in some cases becomes very problematic. So, ignore it completely. You are not sold out because you receive funds from the startup program. The startup program is a program that is financed with the taxes of all citizens from the state budget. Absolutely nothing else is required of you except to develop your ideas as winning applicants. So, you have no reason to take seriously anything other than the reality you perceive and the ideas and work you do.
Ignore the other realities that others create for you! Because Arian told me that some have had problems with bullying. Ignore them! It is that simple. They are done only so that you fall into the trap. Do not think that the whole world reads them. They are written only so that you fall into the trap. Ignore them! And I am not giving you any other advice because it is not my place, which is to always turn the television channels to sports and movies when you have time to watch television, and then life will be even more beautiful, and you will be more focused on work. But that is another topic, more so because I believe that you do not watch television either, and, that would be the best thing.
And we have a problem related to the overloading of the Pyramid for co-working space. So we will have to take measures, and we will take measures so that, sooner rather than later, we also make available other spaces for co-working for all those who are in a phase where they cannot afford to make expenses, which in fact they cannot afford, to rent spaces for their work.
These are the things I wanted to share with you. The best is ahead. The doubling of the funds this year is a trend that we want to maintain, always taking into consideration the quality of the applications. This year, the quality of the applications was very challenging for the fund we had available. If it is the same next year as well, we will increase it again, but next year we will start with 6 million and then, if 2,000 applications come, we will go higher to respond to all the requests.
“Don’t worry, be happy”! Best of luck!
