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Swiss EP

Can Kosovo's diaspora help local startups scale their businesses?

With donor support declining, Kosovo startups lacked the expertise to scale. Swiss EP activated diaspora experts with a structured retreat to boost their potential and shift it from symbolic support to strategic ecosystem leverage.

Over the years of working in Kosovo, we have noticed that local founders are ambitious, resilient, and increasingly product-driven. However, they lack proximity to global markets and first-hand experience in scaling internationally. In 2025, a year defined by reduced institutional support and growing uncertainty, this gap became impossible to ignore.

At the same time, hundreds of thousands of Kosovars with global business and technology experience live and work abroad—many of them willing to give back. The question was not whether the diaspora could help, but how to turn this potential into meaningful, practical support for local startups.

Identifying the gap

During conversations with founders, one challenge surfaced repeatedly: how to scale their businesses? While talent and ambition are present, they often lack exposure to global product strategy, sales, fundraising, and scaling practices. This gap became even more evident as support programs and external expertise became harder to access.

Due to USAID funding withdrawals, general donor reductions, and minimal government support, many startup support organizations paused or stopped their activities. Even if programs aimed at supporting scaling startups were rare, they became completely nonexistent in 2025.

In response, the Swiss Entrepreneurship Program (Swiss EP) Kosovo team started providing direct support to this group of startups. Learning about the connections they have (usually within the diaspora) and their specific needs, we formulated a clear hypothesis: Kosovo's diaspora (when engaged intentionally and through a structured format) could help bridge this gap by bringing global experience closer to local founders.

From brain drain to strategic gain: Kosovo's diaspora

According to the Kosovo Agency of Statistics and the 2024 census, around 600,000 Kosovars live abroad, representing nearly 38% of the country's total population. From an ecosystem perspective, this represents one of Kosovo's largest potential assets.

Many diaspora professionals have built successful careers across Europe and beyond, particularly in technology, innovation, and business development. A significant number of them remain closely connected to Kosovo and motivated to contribute. However, their involvement in the startup ecosystem has often been informal, fragmented, or symbolic, lacking clear pathways for meaningful engagement.

From hypothesis to action: designing the Diaspora Founders Retreat

Building on its experience with Founder Retreats, Swiss EP chose to test a proven, relationship-driven format, but this time with diaspora experts at its core.

Preparations began in the fall of 2025. In October, Swiss EP Kosovo team members Arta Istrefi and Risina Salihu traveled to Zurich to meet with diaspora experts and investors. These meetings served as both recruitment and alignment. The goal was to identify experts who combined global experience with a strong understanding of Kosovo's context and a genuine interest in hands-on engagement.

The groundwork resulted in a carefully curated group of experts and laid the foundation for future diaspora involvement beyond a single event.

The Diaspora Founders Retreat

Finally, the Diaspora Founders Retreat took place on November 21 - 22 at a captivating mountain site outside Podujeve. It brought together four diaspora experts and 13 local tech product founders from Prishtina, Ferizaj, Viti, and Kaçanik.

Designed as an intensive, two-day gathering focused on building relationships, the event emphasized interactions. Without any formal speeches and lectures, founders and experts engaged in direct, practical conversations about real challenges. Over 51 one-on-one mentoring sessions, they discussed a range of topics, including entering new markets, refining product strategy, scaling sales, fundraising, and applying AI strategically and realistically.

The experts represented diverse geographies and professional backgrounds:

  • Kosove Arifaj (Germany), CEO and serial entrepreneur, specializing in go-to-market strategy, strategic management, and global business development
  • Kushtrim Xhakli (Finland), serial entrepreneur focused on sales strategy, fundraising, and international expansion.
  • Anila Hyka Smørgrav (France), corporate executive, startup mentor, and co-chair of Germin, with deep expertise in product strategy.
  • Nur Mehmeti (Switzerland), AI strategy expert and mentor at Innosuisse and MassChallenge Fund.

A mix of expertise enabled founders to gain global perspectives while staying grounded in their current stage of development and local realities. Intense mentor-to-founder connection ensured that each participant received tailored input rather than generic advice—one of the key differentiators of the retreat format.

What the feedback revealed

Overall, founders' feedback was highly positive, particularly regarding the relevance of the discussions and the quality of the connections built.

Fjolla Gashi, founder of Mburoja, shared:

I gained a lot not only from the content and topics discussed, but also from the opportunity to meet amazing people, build valuable contacts, and connect with highly experienced experts. The network I built is one of the biggest takeaways I'm bringing with me.

Beyond satisfaction scores or session counts, a deeper outcome emerged. For many founders, the Retreat created a space for trust, shared identity, and honest reflection—elements that are difficult to achieve in larger, more transactional formats.

The experience was equally valuable for the experts. Mentoring local founders provided insight into the evolving startup landscape in Kosovo and reinforced the importance of structured, long-term diaspora engagement. Reflecting on the event, Anila Hyka Smorgrav shared:

The energy, ideas, and commitment shown during these sessions reflect the growing strength of the startup ecosystem in Kosovo. I was especially impressed by the openness to learn, collaborate, and turn concepts into tangible opportunities.

From symbolic to strategic engagement

The Diaspora Founders Retreat confirmed a key learning: diaspora engagement becomes impactful when it is intentional, structured, and relationship-driven.

Shared cultural context accelerated trust, global experience raised expectations, and personalized formats enabled honest, applicable conversations. Together, these elements transformed diaspora involvement from a symbolic gesture into a strategic tool for ecosystem development.
By designing and facilitating this exchange, the Swiss EP Kosovo team played a deliberate bridging role, connecting local entrepreneurial ambition with global know-how at a moment when such connections were critically needed.

As Swiss EP continues its work in Kosovo, this experience serves as a reference point for how diaspora engagement can help founders think bigger, act sharper, and connect further, moving the ecosystem forward, step by step, even in challenging times.