From carpooling app to cross-border mobility platform: How EIT Jumpstarter helped BeBeep scale across the Balkans

From a three-person, pre-revenue startup to a growing mobility platform with over 20 000 users and operations across Montenegro and Albania, BeBeep's journey shows how EIT Jumpstarter helps early-stage entrepreneurs turn promising ideas into scalable businesses.

In 2022, Montenegrin startup BeBeep joined EIT Jumpstarter with a minimum viable product (MVP), three founders working part-time, and an ambition to make mobility across the Balkans more connected, accessible and sustainable. The company went on to win second place in the Smart Cities & Mobility category, powered by EIT Urban Mobility, at the EIT Jumpstarter Grand Final, receiving €10 000 in prize funding.

For BeBeep, the biggest impact went beyond the financial support. The recognition provided credibility at a critical stage of the company's development, while the programme's coaching helped the founders sharpen their business model and reposition BeBeep from a carpooling app into a broader multimodal mobility platform.

The €10 000 from EIT Jumpstarter 2022 was meaningful, but what mattered even more was the credibility. Being recognised among 600+ European startups gave us a legitimacy that opened doors: with the Innovation Fund of Montenegro, with transport operators who might otherwise have ignored a three-person startup, and with the Tirana Airport partnership. The coaching also pushed us to sharpen our positioning from a carpooling app into a genuine multimodal mobility platform. That pivot is the reason we are still here and growing.

Ivo Rašović, CEO & Co-founder of BeBeep

From a minimum viable product to a growing mobility business

BeBeep was created to address fragmented transport options between airports, cities and tourist destinations across the Balkans. Through its platform, travellers can book shared shuttle and private transfers, while professional transport operators can offer their services and vehicles through a single digital ecosystem.

Since its EIT Jumpstarter win, BeBeep has grown from a pre-revenue MVP into a business serving thousands of travellers. Today, the company has:

• facilitated 18 000+ rides
• attracted 20 000+ registered users
• built a network of 20+ active transport partners and 35+ vehicles

Its commercial growth has followed the same trajectory. From being pre-revenue in 2022, BeBeep generated €30 000 in 2024 and €96 000 in 2025 across three independent revenue streams. Revenue is projected to exceed €130 000 in 2026.

Turning credibility into new opportunities

The credibility and stronger positioning gained through EIT Jumpstarter helped BeBeep pursue new partnerships and funding opportunities. The company is now the official shuttle provider for Tirana International Airport in Albania and has signed a multi-year institutional contract with Kotor Cable Car, Montenegro's most visited tourist attraction, to build and operate its digital ticketing platform, goshuttle.me.

BeBeep has also acquired a 20% equity stake in BeBay, a water taxi service operating 15 boats along the Montenegrin coast, another step in its evolution from a carpooling solution towards a multimodal mobility business.

That momentum has helped BeBeep secure funding beyond EIT Jumpstarter as well. Since 2021, the company has raised €15 000 from Spark.me, €10 000 from Balkathon, €10 000 from Balkan Green Ideas, and €72 000 through two Innovation Fund of Montenegro grants. BeBeep is now applying for a third Innovation Fund grant and preparing for a seed investment round in 2027.

Four years after entering EIT Jumpstarter as an early-stage startup, BeBeep is now preparing to expand further across the Balkans and into Luxembourg. Its journey from MVP to a growing multimodal mobility business demonstrates the value of combining early-stage funding with coaching, validation and access to the EIT innovation ecosystem.