Our Mission & Vision

Our mission is to bridge the innovation gap in Central and Eastern Europe by helping science-driven startups in the ICT sector transform their academic projects into successful commercial ventures. With the support of a global network of mentors, investors, and industry experts, we’re here to fast-track your growth and empower the next generation of innovators.

The DDAccelerator is part of the CapTTict project, a collaborative initiative powered by 16 partners across 9 countries, funded by the EU’s Interreg Danube program.

More information about the CapTTict project can be found on project website.

Board of Experts

Jana Belovičová

(Chair of the Board)
Head of Public FUnding and Legal @ G-Force

Vojtěch Kadlec

CBO @ UNICO

Anja Barešič

Research Associate @ Ruđer Bošković Institute

Andrei Kelemen

CEO @ Cluj IT

Mentors

Marián Gazdik

  • Co-founder & CEO of pre-seed climate tech VC G-Force
  • 10+ years mentoring and investing
  • Scaled StartupGrind.com into 125 countries
  • Founder of CE tech founders think tank Braintrust
  • Co-founder of early stage VC IPM Growth
  • Named in New Europe 100 by Financial Times & Google

Louis Warner

  • Partner at G-Force
  • Part of the early team at lastminute.com ($1.1B IPO)
  • Former COO & Accelerator Director at Founders Factory, London-based venture studio
  • 100+ investments, scaling startups globally

Vojtěch Nosek

  • Co-founder and CEO of UNICO
  • Expert in IP management and tech transfer
  • PhD in quantitative geography
  • Collaborates with the World Bank on international projects

Vojtěch Kadlec

  • Co-founder & CBO at UNICO
  • Innovation and tech startup expert
  • Extensive experience in technology licensing and commercialization
  • Former analyst and consultant at BermanGroup

Florin Paun

  • Innovation Manager at Cluj IT Cluster
  • Entrepreneur & Founder, Business Angel, Mentor, Director of Innovation, Lecturer in innovation methodologies
  • Specialties: Technology Transfer, Business Development, Disruptive Innovation, R&D, Management.

Snežana Kirin

  • Principal Research Fellow, Innovation Centre of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Belgrade
  • Undergraduate studies: Mathematics, PhD: Engineering and Industrial Management 
  • Expert in Risk Management, Quality Management, Innovation Capacity Assessment and Business Internationalization

Nina Stelzl

  • Expert at the Deggendorf Institute of Technology
  • Sustainability and public policy expert
  • Specialized in international cooperation and innovation strategy

Vedran Šimunović

  • CEO at INTERA Technology Park
  • 8+ years mentoring startups and SMEs
  • Expert in digitalization, innovation, and EU-funded projects

Goran Dodig

  • CFO at INTERA Technology Park
  • 10+ years in financial and project management
  • Expertise in labor law and scaling fast-growing companies

Pavel Kordík

  • Co-founder & CEO at Recombee, AI-driven recommender systems
  • Co-founded UNICO, prg.ai and ai.detem (AI education)
  • Assistant professor at Czech Technical University
  • Leads AI projects with Škoda Auto

Irma Dedić

  • PhD at Dzemal Bijedic University of Mostar, Faculty of Economics
  • Skilled in Strategic Planning, Leadership, Startup business planning, and Project Management

Our Leading Partner: G-Force

G-Force is a powerhouse in venture capital, with a focus on scaling early-stage climate tech companies. Backed by Founders Factory, a renowned London-based venture studio and accelerator, G-Force brings:

Project Partners

The DDAccelerator is run by the CapTTict consortium, combining the expertise and skills of 16 project partners and 8 associated partners from 9 Danube Region countries. The team combines expertise, experience and networks from across venture capital, higher education and technology transfer institutions, business and innovation support ecosystems, and clusters.

We aim to bring the best of our transnational, cross-sector, and deep ICT know-how to each participating startup, and are confident our expert mentors, and networks, can support all your unique challenges. We support startups to enhance their performance, increase their market-readiness, and increase their growth potential on a global scale to contribute to the Danube Region and the EU's technological and economic success.