Tricoman Studios emerges as the top ideation-stage startup in Katapult’s 2025 cohort, securing 2nd place overall at the accelerator’s Demo Day event.
Big news for our team: Tricoman Studios clinched 2nd place overall at the Katapult Accelerator’s Demo Day, making us the highest-ranked ideation-stage startup of the entire cohort. This recognition means the world to us – it validates that our vision for Godforged: Origins of Ozgalor is striking a chord with both players and investors. We pitched our narrative-driven RPG alongside a range of innovative startups, and to come away with a top honor is a huge milestone for our young studio.
The Katapult 2025 Demo Day brought together nearly twenty of Serbia’s most promising startups and scale-ups for a high-energy pitch competition. Over a three-month accelerator, these companies (split into “Ideation” and “Scale-up” tracks) received intense mentoring and prepared to showcase their businesses to investors. Katapult, launched by the Innovation Fund of Serbia with support from the government, EU, and World Bank, is designed to help high-potential startups accelerate growth and attract investment. Demo Day is the capstone event – and one of the most interactive startup events in the country, with investors eagerly engaging each team during Q&A.
Tricoman Studios was proud to stand out as one of the few gaming startups in this cohort, amid a field of SaaS, fintech, hardware, and deep-tech businesses. Our pitch told the story of Godforged and our long-term franchise plans, which resonated strongly with the audience. In fact, the Demo Day winners were determined by votes from the in-house audience and online viewers (including members of the Serbian diaspora watching remotely), reflecting broad enthusiasm for each project. When the votes were tallied, Beyond42 – a prop-tech scaleup – earned 1st place, Tricoman Studios took 2nd, and DeepMark (an AI startup) placed 3rd. Congratulations to our fellow founders at Beyond42 and DeepMark! We’re proud to have shared the stage with such amazing teams, and to be the top-ranked ideation startup among them.
The event drew a diverse crowd of investors, mentors, and industry leaders. Dozens of angel investors and VC representatives were in attendance, including members of the Digital Serbia Initiative (DSI) angel network. These investors – spanning both traditional tech and gaming-focused backers – took note of our unique approach to interactive storytelling. The number and quality of questions asked by investors for each startup was unprecedented, a clear signal that they were intrigued and already considering ROI opportunities. For us, it was especially rewarding to see seasoned gaming entrepreneurs and DSI network angels nodding along with our pitch. Their positive feedback reinforced our belief that a story-first, lore-driven game studio can thrive even in an ecosystem dominated by SaaS and hardware startups.
Participating in Katapult has not only provided validation, but also tangible backing for the road ahead. By being part of this accelerator, we have unlocked access to a non-dilutive co-investment grant of up to €280,000 from the Innovation Fund. This means that as we raise our upcoming pre-seed round, Katapult will match our secured private investments with public funds (minus the initial grant we received), effectively doubling our runway – all without taking any equity. We have until March 2026 to utilize this co-investment facility as we finalize our pre-seed fundraising, giving us a substantial boost to hit our growth targets. In other words, when we bring on new investors, Katapult is ready to co-invest one-to-one alongside them to fuel our project’s development.
Looking ahead, we’re charging forward with even more momentum. With Demo Day behind us, our focus now shifts to leveraging the connections and support we’ve gained. We’ll be deep in due diligence and investor discussions in the coming months, aiming to close the pre-seed round that will kickstart full production on Godforged. We’re also doubling down on our community-driven development approach and continuing to refine our vertical slice prototype – armed with the insights from Katapult’s mentors and the fresh perspectives from Demo Day’s feedback.
Finally, for those who want to relive our Demo Day experience: we’ve embedded a video of our full pitch (including the award ceremony) here in this post. Feel free to watch and see firsthand how we presented Tricoman’s vision on the big stage! We’re immensely grateful to the entire Katapult team and our mentors – especially our lead mentor Maria Carolina Romero – for believing in us and pushing us to sharpen our story. This achievement marks the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Onward to the next adventure – the forge is just getting warm.