Invest Sofia Is A Partner of Innovation Academy 2022 – The Biggest Competition for Early Student Entrepreneurs

The ninth edition of the Innovation Academy, the biggest competition for student startup ideas, will take place soon. The competition is organised by the innovation agency Innovation Starter. 

Again, Invest Sofia will join the hackathon as an institutional partner of the event together with the Representation of the European Commission in Bulgaria and the European Investment Bank. At the invitation of the organisers, our CEO Dr. Maria Hristova will be a speaker and a member of the jury.

The Innovation Academy is the largest public-private partnership in the country between organizations from the private, academic, public and NGO sectors. The project aims at developing students’ entrepreneurial skills and at funding their early business ideas. The initiative started in 2014 in partnership with 1 university from Sofia. Today, the event is held nationwide, in partnership with 14 Bulgarian universities and training centers. So far, more than 4,300 participants and more than 720 teams have been trained in the project.

Innovation Academy 2022 will be held in 3 main modules:

• mentoring,
• training sessions,
• development of entrepreneurial and innovative skills during the prototyping phase.

The winning team will receive financial funding for their business idea, provided by the European Investment Bank, and an opportunity to visit the European institutions in Brussels provided by the Representation of the European Commission in Bulgaria. Innovation Starter will support the best project with a one-year mentoring and participation in the Innovation Starter Accelerator programme.

We invite all students from Sofia and the country to join the hackathon. Innovation Academy 2022 will be held on June 3-4th at Sofia Tech Park. You can apply online via the website here.