Brightive, formally known as EHS Consulting is a project management/business analysis consulting company. In the beginning, EHS provided PMO (project management office) and BA (business analysis) services in the healthcare sector in the UK. Afterwards the company applied its knowledge and “know-how” in government, financial and utility sectors. Realising that its capabilities are moving beyond these industries, the company has re-branded to further strengthen its market positioning. Since the establishment of its Bulgarian operations in 2013, the company has doubled in size every year and plans to employ over 120 people in 2020. It uses its Sofia-based professional services center to handle its most complex projects. Some of their clients include Alcatel – Lucent and the National Health Service in the UK.

Martyn Smith, Founder & Managing Director and Gordon Forsyth, Founder & Director at Brightive tell us what makes Sofia a place to launch and develop a successful business.

Please tell us briefly about your investments in Sofia? What does your company do in Bulgaria and outside?

As mentioned previously, Brightive is a management consulting company, with an emphasis on project management, business analysis and change management. The company uses a mixed-shore model for service delivery. Differentiating from other management consulting companies, Brightive has decided to introduce the “SMART” delivery model, which optimises client costs significantly and allows the efficient utilization of our consultants. Either being on-site (where the client is) or based in our professional services center in Sofia.

The company is not your typical foreign investor. We do not spend vast sums of money on production facilities and use Sofia as a base of operations due to cheaper costs. Rather, we have realized the potential of the talented workforce that resides in the city and have decided to build on that capacity by training and certifying our employees in various project management and business analysis standards to provide qualified and uncompromising service. Our clients are located throughout Europe and therefore we leverage Sofia’s excellent flight connections as our consultants travel up to 75% of the time.

What motivated you to invest in Sofia?

In 2012, we attended a seminar regarding investing in Bulgaria. The seminar was set up in the UK and organized by the Invest Bulgaria Agency. After making the necessary due diligence and consultations, we chose Sofia as our professional services center destination. Being a dynamic city, Sofia boasts an incredible working culture along

Sofia-based Rosey’s mark, a company active in the development of Bulgarian rose gourmet products, is ranked among the 10 winners of the European Accelerator KATANA, funded by the European Commission under Horizon 2020. The ranking will bring a financial support of EUR 100 000 to the company to boost the competitiveness of the business.

This is the first external investment for Rosey’s mark. In order to receive funding from KATANA, the candidates were required to receive a sufficient number of votes from other peers in the sector, as well as a positive assessment and support for the idea by a broad audience. In the application process, the company competed with more than 700 candidates from all over Europe in the first stage, in which participants vote for the best products and ideas based on peer-to-peer evaluation. The Bulgarian team received enough votes from other sector players and reached the selection of 100 to continue to the second stage of selection by participating in a crowdfunding campaign. Thus Rosey’s mark raised the amount of EUR 54 000 backed up by 70 supporters. In order to meet the conditions at this stage of the application, Rosey’s mark attracted another two Bulgarian companies based in Sofia to the campaign – Blue Birds, a creative food style agency, photo and video content, and Media Basket, a digital agency.

After the two application stages that brought to the team recognition and support for their ideas and products, both from other agri-food businesses in Europe and consumers, Rosey’s mark was ranked in the Top 10 of the Accelerator and got the opportunity to use funding in the amount of EUR 100 000.

Rosey’s mark plans for the grant, to be used by the end of 2018, are in several directions: new products development; distribution network development, including export; deeper research of the applications of roses in food and marketing.

More about KATANA

KATANA is a European business accelerator focused on the agrifood sector and financed by the European Commission under Horizon 2020. The project is a rare opportunity to support projects of small and medium-sized enterprise at an early stage of development outside the IT sphere. You can learn more about the other finalists for funding under the program here.

More about Rosey’s mark

Created in 2012, the company develops the

Appzio is a Finnish-Bulgarian tech startup that is working on a revolutionary technology for building mobile applications. The company is incorporated in Sofia since 2015 and to this day has gained 600 000 EUR of investment. Currently, Appzio has an established technology and a steady revenue flow. The company is actively looking to scale their business and further expand globally.

Timo Railo, co-founder of Appzio, tells us what makes Sofia a place to launch and develop a successful business.

Please tell us briefly about your investments in Sofia? What does your company do in Bulgaria and outside?

In Bulgaria and outside of Bulgaria Appzio helps other businesses solve problems with custom mobile solutions. Our platform allows us to create native apps easier by cutting significantly the time to build them. ‘Native’ means that they are specifically created for the device’s operating system and have access to all of its functionalities. The apps built with our technology are also tailored to meet the specific needs of each company, regardless of its size.

What motivated you to invest in Sofia?

Sofia is quickly catching up on the more mature ecosystems. The general spirit and forward-looking attitude of people and startup companies is a great motivator. Sofia has some of the best tech talents in Europe at the moment and in general is a great place to live. An additional bonus is the funding that comes from the European Union for local accelerators, funds and startups that further helps to cultivate the ecosystem.

Are there other local and foreign companies here doing business in your sector?

Yes, there are some companies in our sector working with mobile apps. Since there’s a lot of development talent in Sofia, there are multiple development studios. Yet we’re different because our main focus is our unique technology which we aim to prove is the best tool for mobile app development not just locally, but on a global scale.

What are the advantages of investing in Sofia?

As said there’s plenty of development talent here. There are a lot of investment opportunities as well. And the general economic environment has been stable and predictable over the years.

What sort of difficulties have you faced so far?

Difficulties like any startup — getting the product-market-fit right, finding good people and making sure that the revenue grows fast enough. In terms of operating

The creators of Delishu, Nikolai Todorov, Stilyana Todorova and Maria Dimitrova, launched their activities in 2013 by creating their own unique recipe for a revolutionary probiotic “cheese” made of cashew, called Delishu. The product was successfully accepted in restaurants and shops in Sofia. In 2016 the team won a place in the Rinker’s Challenge training program for young entrepreneurs. During the training period, they created a business plan and chose a plant to produce the product in larger quantities by renting production facilities. Last year the team won a prize worth BGN 20 000 with their business plan, which will be used to form the current packaging and branding of the product.

Thus, five years after the creation of the recipe the company has industrial production and distribution in all major cities of the country. The team aims to have its own production plant for its unique product, to develop new recipes for a larger portfolio, and to enter new markets. Delishu is prepared with a plant-based starter with live probiotic bacteria (with already filed patent application), raw cashew, non-hydrogenated bio coconut oil and Himalayan salt. In addition to its undeniable taste and health benefits, the product is suitable for lactose and gluten intolerant people as well.

Nikolay Todorov, co-founder and CEO of Delishu, tells us what makes Sofia a place to launch and develop a successful business.

Please tell us briefly about your investments in Sofia? What does your company do in Bulgaria and abroad?

Our investment amounts to some BGN 100 000 so far and is used for the production and development of our innovative product Delishu – a probiotic delicacy of sour cashew.

What motivated you to invest in Sofia?

I was born in Sofia. I grew up here and have decided to develop professionally here. I love the unique vibe of the city.

What are the advantages of investing in Sofia?

Delishu is a unique product at a global level as it uses our natural resources by benefiting from the lactic acid bacteria Lactobacillus Bulgaricus that are good for the stomach. This is only possible here, so our choice was brought to local production in Sofia, Bulgaria. Like any major city, Sofia offers a well-developed demand and supply market, which is a great advantage for a niche product like Delishu. In addition, Sofia is also known as a place of modern open-minded people and

Industry: multinational beverage corporation, and manufacturer, retailer, and marketer of nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups

In Sofia since: 2013

Employees: 2 100

Investment: 550 million euro

since the establishment of the company in Sofia

The Coca-Cola Company officially opened its new regional Intelligent Technology Development Center in Sofia with an investment of 1,374 million leva. The Bulgaria Center is now the 2nd largest IT center of the company in the world, the biggest one is situated in Atlanta, Florida, US. The new center will deliver top-in-class services for the company’s global operations. The focus areas of the center will include enterprise software solutions, data analytics, cyber security, e-trade, AI solutions, mobile applications, machine learning, robotics, infrastructure and information security. The Sofia support center will offer business solutions to the global market with a focus on Europe, the Middle East region and Africa (EMEA). It will start with 130 highly qualified specialists.

The opening ceremony was attended by Mr. Ivaylo Moskovski, Minister of Transport and ICT, Mr. Lachezar Borissov, Deputy Minister of Economy, Mrs. Yordanka Fandakova, Mayor of Sofia, H.E. Eric Rubin, U.S. Ambassador in Bulgaria, Mr. Barry Simpson, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of The Coca-Cola Company, Mr. Vladimir Danailov, CEO of Sofia Investment Agency, and Mr. Zheko Petrov, Head of the IT Development Center.

Coca-Cola in Bulgaria

Bulgaria was the first communist country to produce Coca-Cola – the soft drink has been manufactured here since 1965. The Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, one of the largest bottlers for the Coca-Cola Company, opened in 1992. Coca‑Cola Enterprises entered Bulgaria in 2013 by opening a financial center serving all Coca‑Cola Enterprises in Europe. The investment during the years of Coca-Cola’s presence on the local market is close to 550 million euro. Currently, the company employs some 2100 people. Coca-Cola HBC produces over 320 million liters annually in its factory near Sofia.

Industry: BPO and ITO provider, delivering high-quality services for global customers in over 35+ languages

In Sofia since: 2012

Employees: 2 600+ (in Sofia and Plovdiv)

Investment: over 150 million euro since the establishment of the company in Sofia

ТЕLUЅ Іntеrnаtіоnаl Еurоре – the country’s largest BPO and ITO employer, announced its plans to recruit 2,000 new employees by 2020 at its hubs in Sofia and Plovdiv. Thus, the company, which currently employs more than 2,600 employees in the country, will increase its staff to nearly 5,000. The company’s management announced its growth plans at the official opening of the new head office of TELUS International Europe in the newly-built City Tower office building at Macedonia Square in Sofia.

TELUS International occupies 6 floors of the building, with a total capacity of 2,300 people. Currently, the company employs 1,500 people there. TELUS is the largest tenant in the new 23-storey business center built in accordance with the latest standards of sustainable construction. That is why the building will soon change its name from City Tower to TELUS Tower. The company will also retain its other office in Sofia, located in Infinity Tower, next to Bulgaria Mall, where another 1 200 employees will continue to work.

In Bulgaria, Telus hires new employees every month, including foreign citizens from Europe, North America and other countries, as its divisions work with inquiries and customers from around the world.