Serbia’s technology industry reached a new export milestone in 2025, with ICT-service exports rising to €4.55 billion, about ten times their 2012 level. The sector now includes more than 4,000 companies and approximately 115,000 workers, making technology one of the country’s principal economic engines.
The expansion has largely demonstrated Serbia’s ability to deliver technology services to international customers. A significant share of industry revenue, however, continues to come from engineering services provided for foreign clients. That model generates employment, foreign-exchange earnings and technical expertise, while intellectual property, customer relationships and much of the resulting company value can remain outside Serbia.
Technology exports have expanded rapidly
Serbia has established capabilities across gaming, enterprise software, blockchain, agricultural technology and health technology. Its cloud-computing indicator improved substantially between 2018 and 2025, while employment among ICT specialists also increased, according to the European Innovation Scoreboard. The development has created a substantial technology-services base, but moving from contract engineering to internationally owned products requires additional capabilities.
Product management, international sales, long-term growth financing and the ability to keep strategic headquarters in Serbia after institutional investment are among the factors affecting whether technology companies can retain more of the value they create. A Serbian company can develop its technology in Novi Sad while incorporating abroad and selling through London or Delaware. In such a structure, the country’s technical workforce remains part of the business, while ownership of intellectual property and accumulated corporate value can move elsewhere.
AI creates opportunities in specialised applications
Artificial intelligence could change the economics of technology-product development by lowering the cost of creating software while increasing the importance of specialised data, sector expertise and rapid execution. Serbia is not positioned to compete by developing the world’s largest general-purpose AI model. The identified opportunities instead include specialised applications such as energy optimisation, industrial maintenance, Serbian-language services, cybersecurity, gaming, medical administration and agricultural forecasting.
These areas combine software capabilities with existing sector-specific knowledge and could allow Serbian technology companies to develop products for defined international markets. The country’s technology base therefore provides an existing platform for AI-related development without requiring the industry to compete directly in the most capital-intensive segment of artificial intelligence.
Technology development is spreading beyond Belgrade
The geographic distribution of Serbia’s technology workforce is also becoming more significant.
Niš, Kragujevac, Čačak and Novi Sad have universities, lower operating costs and increasingly established technology communities. Their principal constraint is identified as access to capital and international customers rather than the availability of technical talent.
This creates a potential basis for technology companies to develop outside Belgrade while maintaining access to Serbia’s wider engineering workforce and university system. For startups, however, the transition from technical development to international commercialisation remains dependent on experienced product managers, international sales organisations and financing capable of supporting growth over longer periods.
Retaining intellectual property remains a key challenge
The expansion of ICT exports does not by itself determine how much economic value remains in Serbia. Service exports can generate substantial employment and foreign-currency earnings while leaving intellectual property ownership and customer relationships with foreign companies. Product-based businesses can retain more value domestically if their technology, strategic management and ownership remain anchored in Serbia.
The funding structure of startups is therefore significant. When Serbian-developed companies incorporate abroad or move headquarters after receiving institutional investment, a portion of the economic value created by domestic talent can become associated with foreign corporate structures. The development of a generation of globally operating companies with Serbian-based intellectual property, strategic management and ownership gains would represent a different stage of development from continued expansion of technology-service exports.
