According to the third Start-up Survey 2016 carried out by KPMG Slovakia in the autumn of 2015, Slovak start-up firms can expect new investments worth more than €30 million in the next year. The survey showed that around 77 percent of investors have increased their investments in the past year, while four out of ten respondents stated that they have already invested more than €1 million in Slovak start-up companies. Start-up entrepreneurs predominantly (71 percent) use their own savings to finance their companies. Despite the positive attitude of investors, less than half of all Slovak start-up projects received funding last year. Among the main priorities for investment this year are sales growth (84 percent) and product development (75 percent).
More than half of all start-ups generate profits. Meanwhile, more than three quarters of all start-ups have at least one employee apart from the founder. The average size of a start-up team is five employees. The number of staff increased in 56 percent of start-ups, while 90 percent of them plan to hire more over the next year. The survey also revealed that about three quarters of start-up entrepreneurs are younger than 35. Approximately 37 percent of start-up founders have an education in management or economics, and a quarter are educated in information-communications technologies.
