The 3rd edition of the International university startup competition, organized by the University of Split and Student Business Incubator (SPI) in Split, Croatia is now open for application. On behalf of the organisers, we invite participants from Sofia and Bulgaria to apply for the STup!2022 competition.

Split will become the European center of innovation on June 17-18, 2022, where the chosen startups will be presented and will compete for the “Best University Startup 2022” award. The winners will automatically be entered to Wolves Summit 2022.

The main goal of STup!2022 is to provide support to university startups and to give young entrepreneurs the opportunity to present their service or product on the global startup scene. The competition will bring together international startups, entrepreneurs, accelerators, incubators and investors from the region and beyond. Pitch groups are divided into categories:

• ESSC – early-stage startup category with developed MVPs of products or services that also conducted a testing phase among target customers (paid or unpaid).
• RSC – research startup category –  startups engaged in scientific research projects with the aim of commercialization and technology transfer to industry.

The term „University startup“ stands for a startup in early-phase, connected with one of the

University institutions OR with at least one member in student status. Each team must be affiliated with a university (through an incubator, accelerator, as a student, researcher etc.).

The application process is open until 15th of April, 2022.

Participants have to submit their startup presentation along with the application through the event official website: www.stup.efst.hr.  Selected University startups will be notified by email with further guidelines from the organizers.

The Sofia Municipality and Invest Sofia, in partnership with the Communications Regulation Commission and the Digitalization, Innovation and Economic Development department of Sofia Municipality (Innovative Sofia), are organizing the conference “Digital Sofia – The Smart City”. The event will be held on April 12, 2022 at Inter Expo Center – Vitosha Hall.

“Digital Sofia – The Smart City” will gather major stakeholders, policy and decision-makers – Ministries, Mayors, Municipal Administration and Municipal Councilors, Municipal enterprises and regional mayors, NGOs, telecoms,  investors, startups, business, the academic community, banking and fintech sector. The event aims to support innovation and adoption of new technologies in the urban environment by ensuring effective complementarity between the public and private sectors – a focus area set out in the Action Plan for the implementation of the Strategy for Digital Transformation of Sofia adopted by the Sofia Municipal Council and in the Strategy itself.

Four panels are part of the Conference agenda on topics related to responsible and sustainable solutions for intelligent growth. The discussions will feature the perspectives of the city administration, regulators, businesses, and funding institutions.

The team of Invest Sofia is a co-organiser and partner of the “Digital Sofia – The Smart City” Conference. We will join the discussion “Speaks: Municipality” – the first panel in the conference programme. Our Chief Executive Officer Dr. Maria Hristova will join the discussion together with the Chairman of the Sofia Municipal Council Georgi Georgiev, the Chief Architect of Sofia Municipality arch. Zdravko Zdravkov, Ivan Antov – Member of the management board of the Urban Mobility Center Sofia, Municipal Councilor Hristian Petrov and arch. Elitsa Panayotova – Coordinator of project “Sofia Green” for Sofia Municipality. The panel is to be moderated by Gencho Kerezov, Deputy Mayor for “Digitalization, Innovation and Economic Development” of Sofia.

Don’t miss out to meet us at our stand in the exhibition area of ​​the conference. We will be happy to meet partners and colleagues live during the event and talk about topics related to sustainable solutions for the city. The Conference is free to attend but requires registration on https://digitalsofia.bg/.

Official guests of “Digital Sofia – The Smart City” will be Mr. Daniel Lorer – Minister for Innovations and Growth, Mr. Alexander Yolovski – Minister of Electronic Governance, Mr. Dilyan Berkovski – Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr. Stefan Asparuhov – Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, as well as

At an official meeting on April 7, 2022, the Sofia Municipal Privatization and Investment Agency (Invest Sofia) signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the corporate real estate advisory firm Avalant Bulgaria. The Memorandum was signed by Viktor Gusev, Head of Investment Analysis at Invest Sofia and Dimitar Ivanov and Ivan Parmakov, Founding Partners at Avalant Bulgaria.

To expand the opportunities for attracting potential investors, the two parties will join forces to promote, support and facilitate business cooperation between them and their business partners. The joint activities will encourage the proactive exchange of expertise and business contacts. Using both parties’ partner networks established so far, Invest Sofia and Avalant Bulgaria will be able to promote and exchange economic and market data, statistics, and investment policies.

Under the signed agreement, the two parties will cooperate in investor inquiries by delivering market analyses, auditing, advisory and brokerage services, recommendations on specific actions and next steps, among others.

The Invest Sofia team would like to thank Avalant Bulgaria for their confidence and readiness for long-term cooperation with us. We believe that the company’s analytical approach, in-depth market knowledge and expertise in the field of corporate real estate, Avalant Bulgaria will be a valuable partner in providing services to investors in Sofia.

The UK-based Amdaris, an IT consulting, software development and digital transformation company, announced the opening of its new office in Sofia. Our city is Amdaris’ sixth location along with the head office in Bristol and the teams in Moldova, Romania, Dubai and Ukraine, where the company started activities last year but decided to reorganise its operations of the employees there due to the war.

“The news supports Amdaris’ pledge to offer employment to any developers, QAs, project managers or other people with relevant skills who have been forced to leave Ukraine”, the official statement of the company says. The Bulgarian capital is defined as one of the emerging IT centers of Eastern Europe with a growing pool of tech talent not only in the city but across the country as well.

Amdaris starts operations in Bulgaria with a plan to form a team of over 50 employees by the end of the year. Open positions for software specialists have already been published on the company’s website.This is the second foreign company operating in Ukraine to open a center in Sofia in the context of choosing a new location in the region since the start of the war. A few weeks ago, the American spacecraft company Launcher, relocated its Ukraine staff to Sofia soon after the invasion. The Bulgarian capital became the home of the new Launcher Europe office after the company opened an office and housed entirely at its own expense its employees and their families from the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

Four projects to receive support in this year’s edition of “Sofia chooses” – Sofia Municipality’s programme for ideas from citizens, civil and professional organizations for projects that improve the urban environment. Voting for the projects ended in the middle of March, and the set budget of BGN 1,000,000 can fund a total of 4 projects that gathered the most votes for implementation. The submitted proposals are related to green mobility, a river promenade and alley near the Lion’s Bridge, reconstruction of park spaces, and public areas. A total of 7105 residents of Sofia took part in the second edition of the Programme by having their say on 34 project proposals on green topics worth up to BGN 1 million and are eligible to become part of Sofia Municipality’s investment programme for 2022. The four most voted projects have a total budget of just over BGN 893,000, and the remaining BGN 106,971 will be set aside by the Municipality as a reserve for implementing the ranked projects.

—

This spring begins the afforestation of a new forest near Sofia. The new area is near the village of Negovan, Novi Iskar. Some 86,000 trees will be planted on an area of ​​137 decares. The aim is to restore the riverside forests lost in the area. The initiative is part of the “New Forest of Sofia” project, by which the Sofia Municipality has been planting new forests in the suburbs for several years already as part of the efforts to improve air quality. The project started with the terrain near Suhodol, which is already afforested with acacias and lindens on an area of ​​225 decares.

—

The first new-generation innovative school in Bulgaria with a focus on natural sciences, digital technologies, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to open its doors in Sofia. It will be situated in the building of the children’s center “Muzeiko”, which will continue to operate as an interactive children’s science center during the weekends and after the school classes on weekdays. Partners in the project are the America for Bulgaria Foundation, which provides the Muzeiko Children’s Center building, and the University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy in Sofia, which provides an additional building allowing more study space along with a teacher training center.

—

The construction of the new section of the metro has started, comprising 3 km from Poduyane to the Levski G district. The construction of the route

Invest Sofia has signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the smart career platform nPloy. The Memorandum was signed by Dr. Maria Hristova, CEO of Invest Sofia, and Konstantin Tsonev, Executive Director of nPloy and one of the founders of the platform.

Under the agreed partnership, the two parties will cooperate in the development of the labor market in Sofia, overcoming the shortage of staff, and helping talents and companies in the context of human resources management.

nPloy is a Sofia-based company with a young team of innovators in human resources and workforce management. Their career platform is a locally developed product that, unlike standard job boards, offers employers the opportunity to find and contact even passive job seekers, start a chat or video interview, and build and develop their employer brand by using various tools integrated into the platform. For job seekers, the platform is completely free and accessible via a mobile app. The product aims to meet all the needs of the increasing trend toward remote hiring. The nPloy database currently has over 450 companies registered and more than 75,000 applicants.

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.

—

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.

—

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