GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) is the primary development agency of the German government, delivering sustainable solutions in international cooperation. In partnership with Solveo, GIZ launched the 21st Lab of Tomorrow to tackle one of the most critical regional bottlenecks: cross-border eCommerce.
Running from August 2023 to May 2024, this program aimed to co-create business-driven solutions that would make cross-border deliveries across the Western Balkans faster, cheaper, more reliable, and environmentally friendlier.
The initiative brought together key players from both the private and public sectors across Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina—including e-commerce firms, logistics providers, customs officers, postal services, IT firms, and regulators.
Cross-border delivery in the Western Balkans remains fragmented, expensive, and inefficient. Businesses often struggle with high costs, unpredictable timelines, and outdated systems that create friction in everything from customs clearance to local payment support. The result? A missed opportunity to unlock regional trade and digital growth.
The core challenge was deceptively simple: How might we make cross-border deliveries in the Western Balkans faster, cheaper, more reliable, and eco-friendly? But solving this meant engaging with deeply rooted systemic issues, complex stakeholder interests, and a lack of regional collaboration.
Solveo was responsible for the full implementation of the project across its three core phases—Understand, Ideate, and Incubate—and served as GIZ’s operational and innovation partner throughout the nine-month program.
We started by defining the implementation framework for all three phases, including a detailed operational plan outlining timelines, KPIs, and milestones. Together with GIZ, we aligned on a multi-stakeholder structure that would include representatives from customs, postal services, logistics firms, eCommerce businesses, and tech startups.
To align expectations and ensure shared understanding, we facilitated early bilateral meetings with local country teams, built semantic frameworks for challenge framing using Miro boards, and consolidated inputs into a unified challenge narrative.
To ground the challenge in real-world insights, we ran a deep research sprint. This included:
The insights were synthesized into an Insights Report and accompanying Briefing Note, which reframed the challenge into four actionable sub-challenges. These were later validated in a virtual Challenge Framing Workshop, where we worked with stakeholders to finalize hypotheses and map potential solution areas.
We kicked off a regional outreach campaign targeting over 100 companies across the Western Balkans and the EU. From this pool, 22 top applicants were selected and matched into four multidisciplinary venture teams, each aligned to one of the defined sub-challenges.
In December 2023, we hosted the in-person Ideation Sprint —a four-day workshop designed and facilitated by Solveo, structured around the Design Thinking process. This included:
Each team developed a business concept with a clear value proposition, business model, and early-stage prototype. Two of the teams were selected for incubation based on idea quality, team readiness, and potential impact: Flexiba and BalkanHop.
In early 2024, we transitioned Flexiba and BalkanHop into customized incubation tracks.
We began with Needs Assessments for both teams and designed coaching plans tailored to their maturity and goals. Throughout the incubation, Solveo conducted biweekly coaching sessions, supplemented by asynchronous support via email, Slack, and WhatsApp.
In-person sessions followed, including a 2-day workshop in Skopje for Flexiba and a 1-day workshop in Sofia for BalkanHop, timed to coincide with a major regional eCommerce summit. Our support included:
In May 2024, the program culminated with a pitch event integrated into Solveo’s Innovate X Festival. We designed the entire investor-facing experience, from outreach and coordination to deck feedback and logistics.
Attendees included Purpose Tech, SEEU Tech Park, ICT Hub, and other early-stage investors from the region. The pitch event featured live presentations and 1:1 investor feedback sessions, offering the teams critical input and exposure. Investor meetings and follow-up calls have continued since.
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