At the invitation of the Catalan organization Biocat, the Senior Executive Director of Invest Sofia, PhD Maria Hristova, visited the technical base of the organization in Barcelona and met with representatives of the municipality of the Spanish city. The visit follows an invitation by Dr. Montse Daban Marín, Director of Science Policies and Internationalization at Biocat and aimed to discuss topics of mutual interest, future joint initiatives, including an official delegation in June this year related to mutual life sciences and healthcare projects between Sofia-based companies and organizations from the ecosystem of the northeastern Spanish region. Our hosts introduced us to their activities, and we talked about EU-funded projects for which we could apply as a consortium.
Biocat is a strategic stakeholder and catalyst for building, promoting and projecting the Catalan life sciences and healthcare ecosystem, known as the BioRegion of Catalonia. The organization was created in 2006 at the initiative of the Government of Catalonia and the Barcelona City Council as a public-private foundation whose mission is to identify the needs of the BioRegion and implement a strategy and action plan to maximize the economic and social impact of the life sciences and healthcare innovation ecosystem in Catalonia.
Biocat brings together over 1,500 companies and organizations in Catalonia: administration, companies (biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical technology and services), universities, hospitals, research centers and institutes, science parks and sector support organizations. The cluster strives to position the region as one of the main centers of healthcare innovation in Europe and to connect ecosystem stakeholders with international players for collaborative research, knowledge transfer, internationalization, access to capital, attracting investment, generating synergies and opportunities for growth and scaling.
The meeting with organizations from the BioRegion of Catalonia was part of the B2B networking during MWC 2023 in Barcelona – Europe’s largest and most influential event in the field of connectivity and mobile tech. The exhibition attracted over 88,500 visitors from 202 countries. Over 2,000 start-ups and international leaders were part of the exhibition area, and over 1,000 speakers and top industry leaders participated in the conference program. Over 56% of those who attended came from industries adjacent to the core mobile ecosystem, indicating the growing importance of mobile technology in a wide range of industries. The 4YFN segment of the conference, which is dedicated to startups and entrepreneurs, welcomed almost 800 exhibitors, more than 375 speakers, and over 250 pitching sessions.
For another year, fDi Magazine has chosen the cities and regions worth being shortlisted for the European Cities and Regions of the Future 2023 ranking. Out of a total of 370 surveyed locations in Europe, Sofia ranks as follows:
London and the Ile-de-France region, home to the French capital Paris, hit the leading positions in the “city” and “region” categories respectively in this year’s ninth edition of the prestigious report. According to the analysis by fDi Intelligence, Europe has shown resilience as a global investment destination despite interruptions in the pace of development caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The Old Continent remains the world’s main FDI destination, and the energy transition drives major investment into energy sectors and the transformation of a number of industries.
“European Cities and Regions of the Future 2023” compares the most promising investment destinations across Europe. The indicators of a total of 370 European cities have been assessed, divided into five groups according to the number of population – major, large, mid-sized, small and micro cities, as well as 148 European regions, divided into three groups – large, medium and small regions. Their performance was ranked across five categories: economic potential; business friendliness; connectivity; human capital and lifestyle; cost effectiveness; and FDI strategy. A total of 89 counties and regions applied for the FDI strategy category, with data and analyses being submitted by European investment promotion agencies.You can download the full “European Cities and Regions of the Future 2023” from fDi Intelligence’s website and explore all the winners.
In Sofia, the retail market is returning to pre-pandemic levels, office rents are heavily influenced by inflation, and the high activity of retail and logistics companies leads to almost full utilization of the available space in the segment, with the share of unoccupied production and
logistics space falling below 1% of the total supply. The data are from Cushman&Wakefield Forton’s marketbeat reports for Q4 2022.
Total volume of leased space and completed owner-occupied premises in Sofia amounted to roughly 104,000 sqm, an unprecedented quarterly result. Many occupiers count on built-to-suit projects that are planned and implemented to meet their specific requirements. Active development locations are the state industrial zone to the west and the Sofia ring road area to the east. Projects within the city’s ring road are in great demand for e-commerce operations. Rental prices continue to rise, with prime logistics space in Sofia rented fat €4.75/sq.m for premises over 10,000 sq.m, and small to medium-sized being offered at €5/sq.m compared to 4.6 euros/sq.m in the previous quarter. The price growth is pushed by rising construction prices and operating expenses and is expected to continue. Among the key construction completions in Sofia are the second warehouse and logistics base of the organic food producer Smart Organic and the new Transpress logistics facility.
In Q4 2022, the rise in revenues and recovery in shopping centers footfall and revenue to pre-crisis levels continued. The segment was marked by the extremely rapid development of the retail parks. Again, there is an increase in rental prices, as in the shopping centers in Sofia they remain stable at 35 euros/sq.m, while in high street shops and retail parks prices report a 5% increase, reflecting the inflation and the associated increase in landlord costs.
According to Forton, the share of vacant office space continues to be high. The deals are formed mostly from renewals and relocations and have minimal net effect for the market. Space optimization remains the leading trend, since many companies still use their offices at partial capacity, due to the hybrid work model. The level of completed objects is low and no major new constructions are moving forward in the segment. According to the consulting company, the office completions in 2022 were reduced to 55,514 sqm over the year, since a
lot of projects were withdrawn in time and this will give more time for the available office space to be absorbed.
The Sofia-based manufacturer and provider of IoT and smart home solutions Allterco announced the acquisition of 60% of the Slovenian IoT company GOAP. The price of the transaction for this 1st stage of the deal amounts to EUR 2 million. The remaining 40% are subject to an Option Agreement that was signed.
With the deal, Allterco aims to expand its home automation product portfolio for end customers and enterprises. Among the company’s products are Shelly smart relays for remote control of lights, electrical appliances, sensors and home energy consumption monitoring, as well as the child GPS-GSM watch MyKi and MyKi Auto and MyKi Spot smart truckers created to track automobiles, cargo, and pets.
To further accelerate its growth, Allterco has selected Dublin, Ireland, as the base for its latest R&D hub.
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The software company Luxoft to open a tech hub in Sofia, where a new team of 200 developers will work on the company’s joint project with Mercedes-Benz Group. The new department will develop in-vehicle infotainment systems (IVI) for autonomous vehicles. These are installed in the latest Mercedes A-class models. The office will also be responsible for software testing and validation activities.
Luxoft started operations in Sofia in 2014. The office is responsible for the development of solutions for the fintech sector and the automotive industry.
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The Sofia-based health-tech startup FindMeCure received new funding from angel investors and its previous investor – the international fund TechStars. The amount of the deal remains undisclosed, but the company announced its intention to invest in strengthening its position in the US market and expanding its team of experts in sales, marketing and software engineering.
The company develops two clinical research platforms – FindMeCure, which helps patients access and apply for clinical trials, and TrialHub, a B2B clinical trial planning software. Both platforms are on a mission to bring research closer to patients and bring innovative treatments to market faster, avoiding the delays that clinical trials typically cause. The startup’s long-term vision is to become a B2B2C platform that enables better decisions in life sciences while helping patients around the world gain faster access to appropriate treatment.
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Electric vehicle charging infrastructure management leader Ampeco has raised $16 million in venture capital in a Series A investment round led by BMW i Ventures. The company to invest the funds to strengthen its market position in North America and enlarge its engineering
Sofia’s economy is doing well amid global crises and uncertainty in recent years with GDP growth of 7%, mainly influenced by leading sectors such as services, energy and ICT. This was said in an interview with Bulgarian National Radio by the Executive director of Invest Sofia, PhD Maria Hristova.
The city’s gross domestic product is over 51 billion, and the IT and outsourcing sectors continue to develop most dynamically. The hubs of multinational companies that manage processes all over the world operate from Sofia. This is a stable prerequisite for the rapid development in these sectors, Maria Hristova commented.
She emphasized that Sofia concentrated an increasingly large share of the exported goods and services – BGN 42 billion out of a total of BGN 103 billion for the country. The city generates half of the foreign investments in the country – 14.7 out of 28.2 billion euros. Not only digital services drive investments, but also foreign industrial leaders with high-tech production facilities. This positively affects the labor market in the city. Salaries already exceed BGN 2,000, and BGN 4,000 in the IT sector – a trend that attracts talent and young people. The labor market is expected to be favorably influenced by the newly adopted law on the “Blue Card of the European Union”. For ten years now, unemployment in Sofia has maintained enviably low levels. Thus, according to a number of indicators, Sofia keeps its leading position not only in Bulgaria but also in the region.
“We continue to focus our efforts towards improving the interaction between business and the city administration. We deliver services that represent a “fast track” for administrative assistance not only to big investors in the city but also for startup companies,” Maria Hristova said. She added that tourism in the city has recovered and is at higher levels than in 2019, which proves that Sofia is doing well not only in terms of the business environment but also in terms of the quality of the urban environment, leisure, sport, and entertainment.
To find out more about the economy of Sofia and what trends will affect life in the city follow the link and listen to the interview on BNR here.
The economy of Sofia remains the biggest regional economy in the country with 42.8% of Bulgaria’s GDP or over 51 billion. This is five times more than the economy of the second-largest region in our country, Plovdiv, and seven times more than
the economy of Varna region, shows our latest report titled “Sofia: Economic and Investment Profile 2022”, prepared by the Institute for Market Economics. The document is now available for download from our site here.
According to the analysis, the city’s economy is quickly overcoming the effects of the pandemic and is keeping the trend of population influx and attracting talent and workforce from the rest of the country providing much better opportunities for education and career development. The gross domestic product per capita reaches BGN 38.9 thousand, which is more than 2.2 times higher than the average for the country. Between 2017-2020, the gross domestic product per capita in Sofia recorded a growth of nearly 26% compared to a growth of 19% for the country.
Sofia gets ahead of all other economic centers in Bulgaria dominating the sector of Services, whose gross added value is over BGN 38 billion or over 86% of the added value in the city’s economy. The gross added value in the Industry sector reaches over BGN 6 billion and brings the remaining nearly 14% of the added value to the economy. Thus, the capital contributes to ¼ of the added value of Industry and more than ½ of the added value of Services in Bulgaria.
The economic profile of Sofia is strongly influenced by the dynamic development of the wide periphery of the Capital. Many industrial enterprises and logistics sites are located on the territory of neighboring and/or nearby municipalities. The added value of Industry in Sofia (region) reaches nearly BGN 2 billion, which is mainly formed by the operations of mining and processing enterprises in Sredna Gora and enterprises in industrial zones such as Bozhurishte, Kostinbrod, etc. The strong industry in the periphery of Sofia, as well as the daily labor migration to the Capital, support the thesis that the economy of Sofia should be considered as an investment destination that covers a wider territory than that of the Sofia Municipality itself.
More highlights
By this summer, 29 new trams will be successively delivered in Sofia. The renewal of the fleet is funded under Operational Program Environment. The new trains are supplied by a Polish company and have low-floor, air conditioning, boarding platforms, places for mothers with strollers and disabled people, and video surveillance. Four new fast-charging electric buses will also be delivered. Thus Sofia Municipality finalizes the renovation of the city’s trolleybus park by removing all old Ikarus vehicles.
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About 11,000 tons of compost were produced in 2022 at the Sofia Municipality’s green waste treatment plant. The Han Bogrov center receives green waste from the parks and the Christmas trees after the New Year holidays. The managing team of the facility explains that the natural waste decomposition process takes 10 years, while the controlled biological decomposition takes 2-3 months, and the compost is a highly soil-enriching product. The Sofia Municipality continues its initiative to provide for free 10 kg. high-quality compost. Citizens can take compost from the Khan Bogrov installation by providing paid waste collection tax certificate.
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Sofia ranks third among 29 European cities for the number of 4* and 5* luxury and spa hotels per 1 million tourists in a survey of the international property rental platform OVO Network. Thus, our city ranks right after Barcelona and Zurich. Sofia scores fifth for the number of 5-star hotels, and in the general ranking, it is in 12th position. Europe’s best luxury destinations Ranking considers the number of 5-star hotels, Michelin-star restaurants, top-rated spas, ‘luxury’ search trends (number of keyword searches for ‘luxury’ followed by the name of the city), and how safe the city is, to reveal the best European cities for a high-end getaway. Results are per 1,000,000 tourists.
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Starting from April, direct flights from Sofia to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia will be launched. The country is a strategic partner for Bulgaria in the Middle East. The flights will be operated by “Bulgaria Air”. The direct line was agreed upon during the official meetings between the Ministry of Innovation and Growth (MIG) and the Saudi Ministry of Economy. It aims to facilitate business cooperation between the two countries in the field of information and communication technology, automotive industry, logistics, etc. According to MIG data, bilateral trade in 2021 increased by more than 30% compared to 2020 and amounted to USD 313.2 million.
At an official ceremony in Sofia, the German-Bulgarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce presented its annual German Economy Awards which highlights companies with a significant contribution to the development of Bulgarian-German economic relations for the previous year.
According to the data presented during the event, trade between Sofia and Berlin reached a record of 11 billion euros in 2022. Despite the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, Germany remains the main trade partner of our country with exported goods and services for 6,195 billion euros and imports for 4,932 billion euros. The Chamber believes that both countries should encourage projects and investments in areas such as energy, decarbonization, and sustainability.
AHK Bulgarien hands out statuettes in four categories – “Large Enterprise”, “Small and Medium Enterprise”, “Social Responsibility” and “Startup Company”. Among the evaluation criteria are: investments in Bulgaria, the number of created new jobs, increase in trade with Germany (import or export), initiatives towards increasing the qualifications of employees, environment and climate action projects, social impact, innovations, energy-saving and environmentally friendly technologies, etc.
We are glad that again Sofia-based companies have been awarded. Bosch Bulgaria received recognition for their activities in the “Large enterprise” category, Dronamics for “Small and medium-sized enterprise”, again Bosch Bulgaria in the “Social responsibility” category, and Varna’s Kinetik Automotive was awarded for a start-up company.
At the invitation of the Chamber, our CEO Dr. Maria Hristova joined the ceremony. Among the official guests were also the Minister of Innovation and Growth Stefan Savov, the ambassadors in both countries – H.E. Irene Plank and HE Elena Shekerletova, as well as representatives of AHK member companies.
On January 26, the hybrid event “Corporate Venturing in SEE for Sustainable Startups” was held in Sofia. The forum was initiated by Sofiyska voda, operated by Veolia, and The Recursive. At the invitation of the organizers, Maria Hristova the CEO of Invest Sofia and Kristin Dermendzhiev, Senior Expert at the Investment Analysis department of Invest Sofia, and our CEO Dr. Maria Hristova attended the event together with corporate innovation leaders, startup investors, and founders of startup companies that develop solutions for clever resource and waste management, clean environment, and climate change.
The event aimed to show what is the value of incubating cleantech, greentech, and sustainability-related technologies in a corporate context. Sofiyska voda, part of Veolia, presented best practices of regional cooperation between corporate innovators and venture capital investment funds. The panel discussions also highlighted opportunities for growth by connecting sustainable startups with relevant stakeholders and investment funds in South East Europe and beyond.
In addition to the discussion panels “How corporates work with startups” and “Financing opportunities for startups”, part of the event was a pitching session for startup clean and sustainable resource management solutions and successful collaboration with corporate innovation leaders. Two of the projects presented during the session are smart solutions developed by Sofia-based companies – Gridmetrics and SatGeo.
Gridmetrics offers a solution that optimizes industrial processes through digital twins and machine learning models to optimize and reduce energy consumption. The startup partners with Sofiyska voda for the optimization of the operation of pump stations according to the supply demand in periods of high and low consumption. As a result of the dynamic and automated control of the pumps’ activity, the project reports a nearly 30% average reduction in electricity consumption and 36% electricity savings in low-demand hours, when the pumps operate in a slower mode without disrupting the water supply needs.
SatGeo develops a technology based on satellite imagery that helps in the early detection and prevention of accidents on the water supply network.. In 2021, the project raised funding from a joint acceleration programme led by the innovation agency Innovation Starter and the French Veolia, owner of Sofiyska voda. The solution has been integrated into the company’s activities that ensure the water supply in Sofia. Over 50 accidents have been prevented, and hard-to-locate leaks have been detected, some of which are causing a water loss of 20 liters per second. On an annual basis, SatGeo’s
Six Sofia-based tech startup companies hit the 23rd annual edition of Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 Central Europe 2022 ranking.
The companies are:
– Gtmhub (14th place) and Eurotrust Technologies (34th place) are part of the overall ranking of the Top 50 fastest growing techs in Central Europe.
– Among the companies that show great potential but are too young to meet criterion for the main Fast 50 category is the first Bulgarian unicorn Payhawk. The fintech ranks second in the Companies to Watch list with a growth rate of 6,629%. In the previous edition, Payhawk was named Investment Star 2021 – the category that recognizes companies that do not meet the main Fast 50 criteria but have received the greatest total investment.
– Dronamics, Nasekomo and Humans in the Loop are among the Impact Stars list – the ranking’s special classification of entities that successfully link great products/services with a positive impact on society, business, innovativeness, environment, and diversity.
Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Central Europe ranks the 50 fastest growing public or private technology entities in the region based on the revenue growth over the four years 2018 to 2021). Companies must have base-year operating revenues of 50 000€ in 2018, 2019, 2020 and a current year operating revenue (2021) of at least 100 000€. Startups self-nominate, by providing financial performance data which is then cross-checked by the authors of the report.
In the general Top50 ranking for the region, leaders are Poland and the Czech Republic, with the largest number of companies included in the list – 17 and 13, respectively. The average rate of growth among the 50 featured companies this year is 2,351%, surpassing the previous edition’s record of 2,278% growth. Find out more from Technology Fast 50 Central Europe 2021 here.
About the Sofia-based companies in Technology Fast 50 Central Europe 2022
Quantive is headquartered in Sofia and has teams in Denver, London, Berlin and Paris. The company’s SaaS product is based on automatic collection of data within a company and real-time measurement of performance indicators related to specific goals. Last year, the company received yet another investment – USD 120 million from foreign investors.
Dronamics is a cargo drone manufacturer. A few months ago, the company received new investment – a grant of 2.5 million euros from the European Innovation Council (EIC) to the European Commission. Dronamics is the world’s first cargo drone airline
For a fourth consecutive year, the Bulgarian Fintech Association (BFA) published its Annual Fintech Report which highlights the achievements of the digital finance industry in Bulgaria and Southeastern Europe. Once again, the Report was created in partnership with Innovative Sofia, the digitalization and innovation unit of the Sofia Municipality, and more than 15 private and public key stakeholders.
The FinTech Mapping is a visual representation of the FinTech industry in Bulgaria. BFA’s data encompasses more than 95% of the industry in the country and all interested in the development of the sector parties, including the Entrepreneurial ecosystem, Regulators, FinTech supporting companies, and institutional players, among which Invest Sofia is also listed as a supporting the Bulgarian fintech sector organization.
Four of the Top 5 best performers by total revenue in this year’s Report are companies with main operating offices in Sofia. These are Datecs, Paysafe, Easy Payment Services, and Experian. myPOS, also part of the Top 5, has a main operating office in Bulgaria based in Varna and another one – in Sofia. In 2021, their revenue accounts for around 48% of the total annual revenue of the Bulgarian Fintech sector.
More highlights from the Report
The petascale supercomputer in Sofia Tech Park provides a new service, the so-called High Performance Compute-as-a-service. The cloud service is aimed at small and medium-sized businesses and companies that need computing power and data analysis for their developments at an affordable price by paying only for the resource used without an annual license or subscription. The resource of Discoverer is available for use by businesses from Bulgaria and abroad. Sofia Tech Park also works in cooperation with the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) on a joint voucher scheme that aims to assure better access for Bulgarian enterprises to the service. Scientific teams and businesses from Bulgaria, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Spain, Belgium, France, etc. are already using the computing power of the supercomputer in Sofia for activities such as modeling and simulating processes for scientific research and for creating and testing products and services.
The Petascale Supercomputer Bulgaria Consortium also provides access to the Ezmeral platform for data analysis. A project by the Sofia Municipality is currently under development. It aims at resolving urban environmental challenges. A similar project has already been implemented with the city administration of Istanbul.
Petascale Supercomputer Bulgaria Consortium and Sofia Tech Park are awaiting the results of a project application for graphics accelerators under the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) program. The funds will enable further upgrades to Discoverer’s capabilities and its use in AI-related developments.