Our country is the second most attractive location in Southeast Europe for foreign startup companies setting up overseas offices, shows data from Dealroom.co – the Amsterdam-based global provider of data and intelligence on startups and tech ecosystems. The agency’s annual report ‘Startups & Venture Capital in South Eastern Europe 2022’ explores the state of VC investments in the region and was presented during an event organized by the Bulgarian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA).
According to the study, Bulgaria ranks third in density of startup companies (right after Romania and Greece). It is the absolute leader in number of locally-based funds – 18 in total. Our country is considered one of the leading investment hubs in SEE as local funds make investments not only in local companies but also in promising startups in Romania, Greece, Serbia, Croatia, etc.
The analysis features a number of Sofia-based companies of Bulgarian founders, as well as the names of foreign companies that have chosen Sofia to set up their overseas offices. Among them are the first Bulgarian unicorn Payhawk, Gtmhub, Dronamics, Spark, Nexo, Hyperscience, The Recursive, Software Group, Alcatraz AI, Nuvei, Paysafe, Hopper and many more.
The report also notes that VC investment in startups across the eleven SEE countries now exceeds $1.3 billion (as of Q3 2022). This is an all-time record and more than the previous three years combined. For Bulgaria, new funds raised in Bulgaria reached $251 million over the past 18 months, more than any previous period since 2012.
More data on our country and the SEE region is available in the full report ‘Startups & Venture Capital in South Eastern Europe 2022’ by Dealroom. You can download it from the BVCA website here: https://bvca.bg/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SEE-Report-2022.pdf
