Bulgaria ranks second in innovation after China among the countries in the upper middle-income group according to the Global Innovation Index 2021 of the World Intellectual Property Organization. In the overall ranking, our country climbs two positions up to 35th place and is among the 10 countries in Europe that are improving their performance this year.
According to the Index, Europe is still the second most innovative region in the world. It hosts 16 European economies that are innovation leaders and part of the Top 25. A total of 10 economies move up the ranks this year, Bulgaria being among them. The other countries are France, Iceland, Austria, Estonia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Lithuania, the Russian Federation, and Belarus.
In the grouping by income, Bulgaria ranks second after China among 34 countries in the group “upper middle-income”, followed by Malaysia. In the same group, our country is among the economies that perform above expectations for level of development.
The Global Innovation Index measures 132 economies in the world and ranks them after an assessment of 81 indicators, divided into 7 categories. Data on ICT access and use, business environment, regulatory environment, market sophistication, education, high-tech manufacturing, software spendings, intellectual property payments, ISO 9001 quality certificates, expenditure on R&D, labor productivity, graduates in science and engineering are taken into account. The index model also tracks indicators identified in the three stages of the innovation journey: Science and innovations investments, Technological progress and Socioeconomic impact.
Tracking Innovation through the COVID-19 Crisis
In spite of the human and economic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments and enterprises in many parts of the world have increased their investments in innovation. Scientific output, expenditures in research and development (R&D), intellectual property filings and venture capital (VC) deals continued to grow in 2021, building on strong pre-crisis peak performance.
The Global Innovation Tracker is a new feature of the Global Innovation Index 2021 that captures key innovation trends. It uses a set of indicators identified in the three stages of the innovation journey: Science and innovations investments, Technological progress and Socioeconomic impact.
The 2021 report estimates that despite the pandemic, governments and companies have increased their investment in innovation. Expenditures on research and development, filing of intellectual property documents, risky investments and scientific production have increased.
The world’s most innovative economy in 2021 is Switzerland followed by Sweden, the United States of America (U.S.), the United Kingdom
The Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency (BSMEPA) together with the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) and the Investment Council at BCCI organized the international conference “Financial Support for SMEs – SIMExpo 2021”, which took place on September 28 and 29 in Sofia. The main goal of the forum was to increase the financial and investment culture among SMEs representatives by providing them with useful information about growth opportunities through various financial and investment instruments.
CEO Dr. Maria Hristova joined the discussion “Sofia – Investment destination. Guidelines for Successful Investment Projects”. During the event, financing institutions, investment and guarantee funds and investors presented their products in support of SMEs.
The second edition of the large-scale conference “Financial Support for SMEs – SIMExpo 2021”, organized by the Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency (BSMEPA) together with the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) and the Investment Council at BCCI brought together funding institutions, investment and guarantee funds and investors to present their products aimed at business expansion and growth of SMEs.
Invest Sofia presented its activities in support of the business in the city during B2B meeting at the Expo Area of the hybrid event. During the conference, opportunities for one-to-one direct meetings with company representatives were provided to present specific financial opportunities following the current needs of enterprises.
Belgian Melexis has started expanding its team in Sofia after building a second chip production factory in the Gorublyane district in Sofia with an investment of EUR 75 million. The new factory covers an area of 15,000 sq.m. It will carry out production, research, and development activities, for which the company recruits the first 80 new employees – engineers, operators, and technicians. Melexis is a global engineering company and a world leader in designing, developing, and delivering solutions in microelectronics. The company entered the Sofia market in 2000 and, by consistent investments over the years, is constantly expanding its production capacity and team in our country.
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FlixMobility, Europe’s largest carrier, wants to bring together a team of 200 people for its expert center in Sofia. It’s the German company’s third similar hub in Europe, following those in Harkov and Nuremberg, with Sofia being chosen among competition from six other locations on the continent. The company will look for experts in information technology and digitalization, marketing, e-commerce, accounting, and more.
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Sofia-based Smart Organic is acquiring a German competitive brand for superfoods and bars, using the brand’s sales positions and market share on the German market, but manufacturing the products in the factory in Sofia. The investment will be financed with public funds raised through the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, with debt finance and equity. The company was founded in 2009, focusing entirely on healthy and tasty foods at affordable prices. The factory in the capital covers an area of 6,000 sq. m., divided into three production halls. Today, the company’s products are available in over 60 countries worldwide in Europe, Asia, and America. Starting this fall, the company is building a new part, where plant products, an alternative to animal products, will be tested.
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Sofia-based startup Dronamics won the Etihad Cargo-sponsored Innovation Award – Product at the Air Cargo News Awards 2021, presented in London on 16 September. The competition in air freight has been compared to the one at the Oscars and the award is being presented for the 37th consecutive year. Another 13 companies were honored at this year’s ceremony after a direct vote by representatives of supply chains and experts in the field. The Sofia-based cargo delivery drone company recently announced the first of several strategic partnerships aimed at international expansion in delivering shipments with Black Swan drones. The association is with
The Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency (BSMEPA) and the British-Bulgarian Business Association (BBBA) organize the participation of Bulgarian small and medium enterprises in the ICT sector in a Trade Mission with the involvement in business events in Manchester and Leeds, United Kingdom.
We invite companies in Sofia to apply for participation and join the mission on behalf of both organizations. The two cities are the most significant business centers in the UK after London and offer solid opportunities for growth, and BSMEPA covers the travel costs (including domestic transfers) and accommodation of the Bulgarian companies participating in the delegation.
The trade mission will be held between 21-26 November 2021 (dates may vary depending on potential travel restrictions), with the deadline for submitting documents for participation being 24 September.
Eligible to apply are companies with developments in the field of fintech, cybersecurity, digital healthcare, digital transformation of industrial processes; electronics, mechatronics, and mechanical engineering; automation and robotics; innovative industrial technologies, the main economic activity of which falls into one of the groups defined in the National Strategy for Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion 2014-2020 (NSSMEP).
The trade mission program is developed in partnership with the Bulgarian Embassy in the United Kingdom, the chambers of commerce, and investment units of the cities of Manchester and Leeds. It envisages bilateral meetings of Bulgarian companies with representatives of business circles from Manchester and Leeds, meetings at the Innovation Center in Manchester, visit of Media City – the most significant business association in the Manchester area, and others.
Visit BSMEPA’s website for complete instructions on the organization, the program, and the necessary documents for inclusion in the delegation: https://www.b2bconnect.bg/bg/events/view/33
Over the past months, several international companies established business operations or expanded their current operations in Sofia. The city offers indisputable advantages that attract investor interest, and the decisions for additional investments show their long-term development plans in our country.
Sofia is the largest economic center in Bulgaria, producing 40% of the county’s GDP and 1/3 of the country’s exports. Over 50% of the population has higher education and a high level of foreign language proficiency. Compared to other destinations in Europe, Sofia offers low prices for renting high-end offices, low hourly labor costs, has a well-developed transport system both in the city and connecting other economic centers in the country, while Sofia Airport offers 1-3 hour flights to the biggest European capitals and cities. Sofia has also established an image of a regional ICT center with large units of global companies that have chosen the city as a place to develop key operations, often using it as a starting point to reach markets in Europe and Asia.
The following are some of the companies that have chosen Sofia to establish and expand their activities in areas such as logistics, business process management, blockchain, automotive software, industrial production, consulting services, and more.
DocuWare, the world’s leading company in business process management software solutions, has opened a technology consulting and customer service center in Sofia for the markets in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company is planning a gradual expansion in the coming years with experts in areas such as cloud technologies, Java and .NET programmers, B2B customer service, and more.
The American fintech GreenBox POS also started operating in Sofia acquiring the Bulgarian card payment services company Transact Europe EAD for EUR 30 million. GreenBox uses its blockchain technology for secure payments and is about to secure market share in Europe through a deal for the Sofia-based company. Transact Europe is licensed as a financial institution, regulated by the EU, is a member of Visa, Mastercard, and the Chinese UnionPay, and is part of the SEPA euro payments program. All this provides it with a network for payments. Access to the European Economic Area will significantly expand the American company’s business in Europe, GreenBox POS stated in its official release.
The British Knight Frank, the leading consulting company in business and luxury residential properties, has also entered the Bulgarian market. The representative
At the invitation of the French-Bulgarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce (CCIFB) Invest Sofia took part in a two-day event on the occasion of the start of the new business season. The meetings took place on September 14-15, at Grand Hotel Sofia, in the presence of members and partners of the Chamber.
New perspectives, future projects and important topics related to the French-Bulgarian bilateral business relations have been discussed at the event. CCIFB presented its new members, as well as expectations on the business environment in the country by the end of this year and in 2021.
French companies in Bulgaria want to expand their presence in the country. The French business is interested in investments in infrastructure, industry and services. The President of the French-Bulgarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce Stephane Delahaye reminded that two new French companies established their presence in Bulgaria – Meridiem investment fund, a 49% participant in the Sof Connect consortium, selected as a 35 + 15 concessionaire at Sofia Airport and the French company BIC that officially launched its global account, HR and software service center in Sofia. Bulgaria should keep its talents and bring Bulgarians abroad back in the country so that French businesses can rely on skilled experts here, Stephane Delahaye also said in his welcome speech.
We would like to thank CCIFB for the opportunity to participate in the meetings.
Sofia is now among the Top 10 most attractive destinations in Europe for work and vacation (workation) according to the “The Best Cities for a Workation” ranking by the German search engine for vacation rentals Holidu. Our city ranks 7th among 66 locations. The portal has also made a global ranking where Sofia also hits a list of top workation destinations and ranks 16th among 147 cities in the world.
To compile the index, Holidu looked at the profiles of more than 150 cities surveyed for another ranking – the “100 best cities in the world” of the Canadian-American consulting company Resonance Consultancy, as well as data from other credible popular sources for tourist destinations, coworking spaces around the world, best places for digital nomads, etc.
The cities were evaluated according to a total of 10 criteria, divided into two categories: working conditions and vacation conditions. The opportunities that the locations offer in terms of internet speed (factor with the greatest weight for the final ranking), number of co-working spaces, price for coffee, average price of 2 beers in a bar, dinner outside, taxi per km and accommodation, number of sunshine hours per year, tourists attractions and things to do, number of photos on Instagram with the name of the city under a hashtag, etc.
According to the index for Europe, Sofia receives 30 points for average WiFi speed (for comparison, Valencia, Paris, Salzburg have the same number of points), the number of co-working spaces is 53 (with data from nomadlist.com and coworker.com), the city offers 598 things-to-do (with data from the world’s largest travel platform Tripadvisor), and the photos with the hashtag Sofia on Instagram are 4,197,864. According to Holidu, the three top locations in Europe are Lisbon, Barcelona and Budapest. In the global ranking, where Sofia ranks 16th, the leaders are Bangkok, New Delhi and Lisbon.
Holidu is a search engine for holiday rentals that allows its users to find the perfect accommodation and book for the lowest price. Its algorithm compares millions of accommodations from more than 1,500 providers and applies image recognition technology to detect and list the lowest price for a location. Holidu compiles the “The Best Cities for a Workation” ranking to offer new ideas on how to work remotely while really exploring new destinations without having to drain annual leave.
Sofia is included in the second edition of “Technology Cities of the Future 2021” ranking by fDi Magazine and TNW and climbs up one position higher than the pilot edition from June last year. The Bulgarian capital now ranks 19th in the overall ranking and ahead of cities such as Cambridge, Tallinn, Copenhagen.
The capital is also improving its position in the following categories:
- “Cost Effectiveness”, where it climbs up two places up to 5th place
- It is also hits the Top 10 for “FDI Performance” – a category in which last year the capital was not present
In addition, Sofia retains the 17th position for “FDI Strategy”.
For this year’s edition of the ranking, data was collected and analysed for 76 locations across 31 European countries under five categories: Cost Effectiveness, Economic Potential, FDI Performance, Innovation and Attractiveness, and Startup Environment. The ranking for “DFI Strategy” occupies a separate part in the report of fDi Magazine and TNW.
“Technology cities of the future” marks the achievements of those European cities with the best environment for startups and technology and innovation investment.
Despite the economic challenges the world has been facing during the past year, London, Paris and Dublin retain their top position as Europe’s best tech cities. Other major technology centers such as Berlin, Madrid and Stockholm are making a big leap, several positions ahead of the previous survey, according to the Report.
The full document “Technology Cities of the Future 2021” is available here.
The ongoing Women TechEU is a brand new initiative of the European Union offering funding and mentoring to female founders of tech start-ups. The scheme aims to offer first-class mentoring to female-led start-ups in the earliest and riskiest stage of their development, providing them with an individual grant of EUR 75 000 and coaching by the EIC Business Acceleration Services (BAS), under the new “Women Leadership Programme”.
Up to 50 tech companies will be funded under the first Women TechEU pilot call. Female founders of deep tech start-ups who hold a top management position (CEO, CTO or equivalent) in the company can apply until 10 November 2021. The company must be registered and established in an EU Member State or Associated Country for at least six months at the time of the submission. Submissions are open on the initiative’s website.
Women TechEU is part of a series of measures to boost female innovators and female entrepreneurship. Across Europe only 15% of innovative start-ups are founded or co-founded by women and raise less venture capital. Around 5% of venture capital goes to mixed teams and only 2% to all-female teams.
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With the support of the Embassy of Japan in Bulgaria, the Japan-Bulgaria Business Association (JBBA) has already been established and operates in Bulgaria to promote and support bilateral business relations between the countries. Japanese companies have a strong presence in Bulgaria in industries such as automotive, information technology, pharmaceuticals, food, tobacco products and more. According to official data, in 2020 trade with Japan amounted to USD 225.2 million, an increase in both imports and exports.
The priority of the organization is to provide information on the investment climate and the legislative framework, practical support in establishing Japanese companies in our country, and promoting bilateral trade and cooperation to establish business partnerships. More information about the Association and the support it directs to business is available on the JBBA website.
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Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce invites companies to participate in virtual bilateral meetings in the framework of Smart Manufacturing Matchmaking 2021, organized by SPIN – an Italian consortium and partner of EEN. The event will take place between 17 – 19 November and is suitable for companies in the field of smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0. It will focus on Agriculture 4.0, artificial intelligence and machine learning for industrial applications, virtual,
Data are from the first in Bulgaria report on the HealthTech sector, issued by PrEXCELerator Bulgaria
Sofia-based companies have developed over 70% of all HealthTech solutions, according to data from BULGARIA: HealthTech Mapping Report 2021 – the first report in Bulgaria on the technology sector for medicine and healthcare. The analysis has been carried out by PrEXCELerator Bulgaria, and all the data have been collected and analyzed for two years in collaboration with Bulgarian companies and experts in the field.
The results from the Report have been calculated based on 74 Bulgarian HealthTech solutions (find more information on the scope of this technological area below). This is the number of tech solutions identified by PrEXCELerator Bulgaria as of 01.04.2021, representing 70% of the currently known ones (16.08.2021). Because of the extremely high percentage, the Report’s authors consider all conclusions as valid for the whole segment.
The document considers as a priority the technological solutions in medicine and healthcare, and, where explicitly indicated, it views the respective companies as legal units. This shows that a company has more than one tech solution in the field.
What characterizes the sector is that a significant part of digital solutions is developed by a single core of companies. Thus, more than half, namely 56% of all Bulgarian HealthTech solutions have been developed by only 13 companies from all in the ecosystem. There is seriality in the generation of solutions and the creation of outstanding corporate portfolios. This is an exceptional specificity for the sector and is not observed in the other technological sectors, annually surveyed by PrEXCELerator Bulgaria such as PropTech (including ConTech), Tourism Tech (including Travel Tech, Hospitality Tech), EduTech, Impact companies (businesses contributing to 17 UN SDGs), commented the experts from PrEXCELerator Bulgaria.
Key conclusions of BULGARIA: HealthTech Mapping Report 2021
Viewing technology companies from the perspective of the towns where they originated and operate, the results in the Figure below show that:
– Sofia is the principal city where 74.3% of all Bulgarian HealthTech solutions are created and operate;
– 16.2% of these solutions were created and operate in Stara Zagora, Kazanlak, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Ruse, and Pleven.
– there is no publicly available information about the place of establishment and functioning of 9.5% of the studied solutions
Digital solutions, built simultaneously with software and hardware, comprise only 15% of all Bulgarian HealthTech solutions. The combination of software and hardware