We spent years inside the software outsourcing industry. We saw how it was structured — to keep clients dependent, not to build their capability. IGA was built to fix that.
In 2021, we set out to connect IT product companies in Western Europe with engineering talent from the Western Balkans. The region was underrepresented. The talent was exceptional. The demand was real.
But the more engagements we built, the more clearly we saw the same structural failure repeating itself. Clients were renting teams they would never own. Vendors were optimising for their own contracts. Engineers were working hard for someone else's balance sheet. The conflict of interest was not accidental — it was the business model.
So we asked a different question: what would this look like if the incentive was ownership, not dependency?
In 2025 we rebranded from International Growth Agency to IGA Consulting — not because the service changed, but because the model did. Build-Operate-Transfer became the architecture of everything we do. The goal is not to be your vendor. The goal is to hand you a team and disappear.
Launched in Skopje, North Macedonia. Core focus: connecting Western European IT product companies with senior engineering talent from the Western Balkans. First clients onboarded within the year.
Operations extended into Kosovo and Albania. Engineering partnerships established across the region. The talent network deepened — and the pattern became clear. Clients needed permanence, not another vendor relationship.
We formalised what we had already believed: the only good outcome is one where the client ends up with a team they own outright. Every element of the service — pricing, contracts, operations — was rebuilt around that principle.
A new name for a sharper focus. The service is the same. The conviction is clearer. Build-Operate-Transfer — with full cost transparency and transfer terms locked on day one. Same team. New architecture.
Every model on the market optimises for something other than your ownership. The vendor's incentive is to keep you dependent. The agency's incentive is to keep placing. The freelance platform's incentive is to keep billing hours. None of them are built to hand you something permanent. That conflict of interest gets worse over time — and it is not a flaw in the execution. It is the design.
Traditional outsourcing vendors optimise for their recurring contract. If you try to bring engineers in-house, you lose the team. The incentive to prevent that is structural — built into every renewal conversation.
An engineer executing a ticket behaves differently from one who owns the product. Ownership is not a culture programme — it is a structural outcome of who the engineer works for and how long they plan to stay.
IGA's model succeeds when we transfer the team and leave. That is not a feature — it is the entire architecture. The incentive is alignment, not dependency. Our contract is built to end on your terms.
The rise of AI coding tools has changed what a senior engineer can deliver. Studies show a 2× to 5× productivity gap between AI-augmented and non-augmented developers on the same task. That multiplier is real — but it only compounds in the right conditions.
An engineer who is leaving in six months has no incentive to master your codebase with AI. An engineer who is building a career inside your product — who knows the architecture, the customers, the history — uses every tool at their disposal. And they stay to see it pay off.
AI does not make outsourcing better. It makes owned teams exponentially more capable. The compounding effect of low attrition, full context, and AI augmentation is not marginal. It is structural. That is why we build teams to transfer, not to rent.
AI coding tools deliver 55% faster task completion (peer-reviewed, Microsoft Research) and up to 5× speed gains on targeted task types. That multiplier requires engineers who know the codebase deeply and plan to stay.
Western Balkans teams average under 5% annual attrition — 3× lower than Indian outsourcing hubs. Every year of retention is institutional knowledge that accelerates delivery. AI tools amplify that, not replace it.
Engineers who own the product catch bugs before they ship, make architecture decisions without waiting for a meeting, and use AI tools against problems they actually understand. You can't buy that culture. You build it — by building the team to last.
After transfer, the team is an owned asset. Not a vendor contract that expires. Combined with AI-driven productivity gains, every month post-transfer the margin picture improves. That is what outsourcing can never offer.
Every engagement is designed to end with you owning the team outright. Transfer is not optional — it is the point. The contract says so on day one.
Salaries, operational overhead, and management fee are listed separately from day one. No hidden margins. No costs bundled into one rate. Contractual, not a verbal promise.
No renegotiation at month 11. No surprise costs when it is time to take ownership. The exit clause is not a feature — it is the entire architecture of how we build.
Engineers we place are equipped and expected to use AI tools across the stack. Because the teams we build are built to stay, those tools compound — not rotate out every two years.
North Macedonia is home. Kosovo, Albania, Serbia, and Bulgaria are where the pipeline runs deep — 280,000+ engineers across a single timezone, one hour from London.
IGA's home base since 2021. Tight talent pool, long-term relationships, and a market where engineers are known quantities — not profiles on a platform. Skopje is where every engagement starts and where the operational infrastructure lives.
Young, export-oriented, fast-growing. 13,000+ ICT professionals. Ranked 7th in Emerging Europe's IT Competitiveness Talent Index.
23,000+ ICT professionals. 80% at mid or senior level. Among the lowest turnover rates in the region at 12.3%.
The region's largest tech hub. 115,000+ ICT professionals. Belgrade hosts Microsoft Azure, SAP, Oracle, IBM, and Cisco engineering centres.
EU member, Schengen 2025. 108,000+ ICT professionals. 10% flat corporate tax — lowest in the EU. The compliance story for clients who need it.
Dedicated engineers from the Western Balkans. Full cost transparency. Complete ownership at month 12. Book an intro call and we will scope your team in 30 minutes.