How BalkanBase builds the registry.

Startups are sourced through founder submissions, ecosystem partners, public startup programmes, accelerator cohorts, company registers, media coverage, public founder profiles and structured desk research.

Sourcing is an ongoing and iterative process. New startups are added continuously as they are identified.

Profiles are reviewed against available public sources, founder submissions, ecosystem partner input or other credible references before publication. The goal is to avoid duplicate, inactive or clearly unreliable listings while keeping the registry practical and up to date.

Profiles that cannot be adequately verified are held back from publication until sufficient information becomes available.

Inclusion in the registry is free and cannot be purchased. Classification and publication decisions are not influenced by commercial relationships.

Each startup is classified by country, stage, primary vertical, business model and technologies using a consistent taxonomy. These fields are required so the directory can be searched, filtered and compared in a reliable way.

This taxonomy is fixed and centrally maintained, which keeps search, filtering and comparison reliable across the directory.

Only a defined subset of these fields is shown publicly. See our Data & Privacy page for details on what is public and what remains internal.

Profiles are reviewed and updated on a rolling basis. Founders and ecosystem partners can suggest corrections through our Suggest an edit form, and the BalkanBase team may work with experienced consultants, ecosystem builders, analysts and sector specialists to improve classification, context and data quality.