At an official ceremony, the French-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI France-Bulgarie) announced the Innovation Awards 2022 winners. Award plaques were handed out in four categories: “Investment”, “Businessman”, “Businesswoman” and “Corporate Social Responsibility”. One finalist from each category entered the jury voting for the special award.

Here are the winners awarded for their dynamism, innovative approach, achievements and their corporate social and environmental responsibility:

• Innovation in Investment – the Sofia-based P2P lending platform Klear.
• Businessman – Ivan Georgiev and Evgeni Borisov, founders at Pontica Solutions – BPO and ITO company offering consulting and recruitment services, multilingual teams, as well as software development and maintenance.
• Business Lady – Jane Dimitrova for the foodObox app, which limits waste and food wastage.
• Corporate Social Responsibility – the electric car sharing company Spark.
• The special jury award was presented to the Sofia business space Launchee – a place and virtual platform for digital and live events, training, workshops, and collaboration.

The Innovation Awards by the French-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry aim to promote the most innovative projects developed in Bulgaria, and this year, for the first time, the competition was open to external companies, non-members of the Chamber. Companies from all sectors could apply, registered in Bulgaria for at least 18 months, with at least 5 employees.

The event took place on March 29 at the Grand Hotel Millennium Sofia. At the invitation of the French-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Chief Executive Officer of Invest Sofia Dr. Maria Hristova attended the ceremony. CCI France-Bulgarie members, business representatives, and institutional partners also joined the event.

Among the official guests of the Innovation Awards 2022 were H.E. Mrs. Florence Robin, Ambassador of the Republic of France to Bulgaria, the Minister of Innovation and Growth Daniel Lorer, the Minister of Education and Science Nikolay Denkov and the Minister of Labor and Social Policy Georgi Gokov.

Etem Gestamp announced an investment of over 60 million euros for the expansion of the production facilities, cutting edge technology and a fully automated internal logistic solution to its production unit in Sofia. The project will create over 130 new jobs for skilled personnel over the next 2 years. The start of series production is scheduled for early 2023. Invest Sofia is to issue a Green Card for administrative services to the company. 

In Sofia, Etem Gestamp manufactures aluminum elements and profiles for the automotive industry and supplies products for major brands such as BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Audi, Porsche, VW and Daimler. The production unit of the Greek-Spanish group is situated in Iliyantsi Industrial Zone and started operating in 2019 as an investment of the joint company between Etem Bulgaria, part of the Greek Viohalco, and the Spanish Gestamp. The plant manufactures various profiles and parts for chassis, doors, safety and accident management systems, battery components and fasteners for electric vehicles and exports products to Europe, China and Mexico. Here, Etem Gestamp also has an R&D center that supports the company’s customers during the implementation of various product design projects.

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Festo Production, the Bulgarian company of the German leader in the production of magnetic sensors Festo, also announced a new investment at its plant in Sofia. The company will invest BGN 20 million in expanding its base and will increase the number of its employees by 30%. Thus, the unit in our country will become the second largest center after the one in the company’s headquarters in Germany. In Sofia, Festo also has its own R&D center, which works with the German development department on joint production projects. Festo’s plant in Sofia manufactures over 1,300 types of products and is a world leader in the production of various types of sensors and accessories, as well as connector cables.

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The London-based technology company Kin + Carta acquires the Bulgarian software developer Melon Group, the two companies announced in an official statement. The price of the deal is worth 17.7 million pounds (21.3 million euros) and may reach 23.5 million pounds (28.2 million euros) in the coming years.

Melon Group is a fast-growing software engineering company based in Sofia and with offices in North Macedonia and Kosovo. Its team consists of 300 web, mobile and data specialists. Melon Group’s portfolio includes medtech, fintech, banking, and human resources tech

At an official ceremony, the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA) presented the Business to the Rules awards for 2021. The annual competition aims to promote the best actions that fight against the informal economy and highlight leading institutions and individuals whose initiatives demonstrate an active position and contribute to reducing the gray practices.

At the invitation of BICA, Dr. Maria Hristova, CEO at Invest Sofia, attended the award ceremony. Representatives of the executive and legislative institutions, businesses-, non-governmental organizations, and social partners of the Association also joined the event.

The ceremony took place on March 21 at an official event at Sofia Hotel Balkan. Statuettes were awarded in three categories: Normative act or administrative practice that leads to a curtailment of the gray economy and improvement of the business environment, Person or organization that contributed to limit and prevent the informal economy through an active position, and Journalist or media, who have contributed to change public attitudes towards intolerance to the informal economy. The 2021 winners in the respective categories are:

• Council of Ministers’ Decision № 739/2021 on the approval of the program for compensation of end non-domestic electricity customers;
• Employment Agency, in its capacity as a leading partner for Bulgaria in the European Labour Authority’s campaign Rights for all seasons;
• Veselin Dremdzhiev and his TV show The day with Veselin Dremdzhiev on TV1 and TV +.

The awards were presented by Vasil Velev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of BICA, the Minister of Innovation and Growth Daniel Lorer, and Georgi Gokov – Minister of Labor and Social Policy.

The nominations for the awards were made through a broad public consultation among the members of the Association of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria, all social partners, members of the Public Council for Restriction and Prevention of the Informal Economy, which includes representatives of many state institutions and the media. The winners were announced by secret ballot by an expert jury composed of over 100 prominent personalities: prominent economists, public figures, media representatives, members of the National and Control Council of BICA, the Public Council for Restriction and Prevention of the Informal Economy, and the undeclared employment, and others.

The nominations for the awards were made through a broad public consultation among the members of the Association of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria, all social partners, members of the Public Council for Restriction and Prevention of the Informal Economy, which includes representatives

The German programme Entrepreneurship Explorer Ruhr 2022 is now open for applications until April 11. The programme is free of charge, with a duration of one week in May and is aimed at international students, early career researchers (PhD students, postdocs), solo founders or teams, early-stage start-ups working in different high tech areas (esp. cyber security, material, robotics, AI, chemistry). Entrepreneurship Explorer Ruhr 2022 will enable participants to test and implement innovative business ideas in the Ruhr area, Germany, explore the local ecosystem – one of the most vibrant startup communities in high-tech industries in Europe, and receive mentoring support for successful development of team, product and business model, as well as look for clients and investors from the region. Details about the programme can be found here.

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PULSATE, the new PAN-European Network under the Horizon 2020 designed to boost the adoption of Laser-based Advanced and Additive Manufacturing, is looking for small and medium-sized enterprises that are interested in introducing laser-based advanced technologies and additive manufacturing technologies. Businesses have the opportunity to receive funding of up to 25,000 euros and 3 months of mentoring for performance evaluation. The application deadline is March 31. The call is aimed at companies that are looking for radical changes towards flexible production and highly digitalized production environments from areas such as aerospace, automotive, medical devices, industrial machinery, customised electronics, textiles & clothing. More information can be found here.

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The second call of the SHOP4CF consortium is now open and looking for use cases that solve real challenges in the production environment and improve the safety and well-being of people at work. SHOP4CF (Smart Human Oriented Platform for Connected Factories) is funded by the EU under the Horizon 2020 Programme and aims to create an infrastructure for the deployment of human-centric industrial applications. Under the project, 20 partner organizations are developing a comprehensive software platform containing a wide range of components that cover a wide range of industry requirements in the context of modern, flexible and data-rich manufacturing. With its second open call, the project is looking for new contributors (integrators, manufacturing companies, developers) who solve problems related to the automation of monotonous, labor-intensive work and / or increase human productivity and safety with a focus on workplace well-being. The proposed use-cases should have a clear positive impact on several components listed here.

The call also aims to expand the

ZAYA.app developed by the Sofia-based GR Consulting Ltd was recognized as a Microsoft #BuildFor2030 Hackathon Hero. ZAYA was included in a list of 15 projects from around the world, for their excellent entries and solution potential and impact. With its #BuildFor2030 initiative, Microsoft aims to promote environmentally and life-changing solutions and services that meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – a set of 17 areas focused on creating a more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient world by 2030. ZAYA is a virtual library of instructions for using household appliances and applies artificial intelligence, voice assistant, and other technologies to facilitate the maintenance of household appliances throughout their life cycle. Among the 15 “heroes” in Microsoft #BuildFor2030 Hackathon are companies from the United States, India, Australia and Canada, and from Europe – Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

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Bulgaria’s largest producer and distributor of organic food Smart Organic has increased its sales by 30% over the past year. The company is building a new warehouse and production site in Knyazhevo and plans to build yet another plant. Thus, the company will increase its production capacity and introduce new products in order to meet the growing demand for its products in key markets. The company’s team currently consists of 280 people and continues to grow. At the end of 2021, Smart Organic attracted nearly BGN 6 million from the SME beam growth programme on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange and acquired a distributor in the Netherlands. This year the company plans acquisition in Germany. For its success on the German market, Smart Organic received the “German Economy Award” in the SME category by the German-Bulgarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Details can be found in the interview here.

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With a new 12 million euro investment, the Danish furniture and home goods chain JYSK will expand its base in the Bozhurishte Industrial Zone. The company’s logistics center near Sofia started operations in 2019 and currently supplies not only in Bulgaria but also in Greece, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Serbia, as well as in franchise stores in Azerbaijan, Albania, Kosovo, Moldova and Northern Macedonia. The facility impresses with its two towers, in which operations are fully automated. The newly built facility will be located on a new 14,170 square meters and will add 33 new ramps for loading and unloading. With the investment, JYSK is expanding its capacity to serve