New association unites the fintech companies in Bulgaria
The Bulgarian Fintech Sector has own Association, which is quickly spreading its network of partners and members. The Bulgarian Fintech Association aims at providing a common ground for the fintech businesses in Bulgaria and developing the industry.
The Association was founded by prominent professionals in the area, who desire to establish a strong network of fintech companies with shared values. Founding members are Paynetics – an e-money payment institution providing acquiring and issuing services, Penkov, Markov and Partners – one of the largest law companies in Bulgaria and Kaloyan Ratchev of Vangavis, an innovation company with strong expertise in the fintech industry. Chairman of the Association is Mr. Valeri Valtchev – serial entrepreneur and investor, who has devoted the past few years to creating innovative fintech startups able to compete on a global scale. Guergana Stoitchkova is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Association.
In Bulgaria, Fintech has become a very trending word with the emergence of a number of innovative new companies in the areas of payments, financial services, security. According to a Unicredit report, Bulgaria ranks first in the CEE by number of fintech companies. While many fintech companies are striving to provide an alternative to bank services, banks are showing increasing interest in the fintech solutions and are constantly seeking ways to implement financial innovations in their structures. Interest in the field is shown from all sides: from investors, financial institutions, regulators, governmental bodies.
The mission of the Bulgarian Fintech Association is to create a platform bringing together all parties in Bulgaria with interest in Financial Technologies and to provide a common ground for communication, knowledge transfer and exchange of ideas. The Bulgarian Fintech Association aims at becoming the face of the Fintech in Bulgaria and to represent the shared values of its members before regulators, investors, financial institutions, foreign associations, partners and any other party.
Among the Association’s goals are to strengthen Bulgaria’s position as a FinTech center in the region, to incentivize entrepreneurship in the field of financial technologies and digital innovations, to raise the issue of integrating innovative financial technologies into the traditional financial industry and to increase public awareness of this sector and the most notable innovations within it.
The Association will hold a kickoff event in the autumn open to everyone who would like to learn more about its future plans or is interested in becoming a member. In the future agenda is the organization of regular events, issuing of an industry report and representation during fintech events around Europe. The Association has already established a number of partnerships with international organizations and continues working towards enlarging its network. Among the Association’s partners are Emerging Payments Association – an alliance of the top payment companies in Europe, LendIt Fintech – leading Fintech conference held in UK, MENA Fintech Association and others.
Recently, the Board of the Bulgarian Fintech Association was joined by some of the leading fintech companies in Bulgaria: ePay, Paysera, Iuvo and Klear. Together, the companies want to work towards the development of the sector and establishing of a strong fintech community. The Association will soon be joined also by Postbank, as the first bank to become a member, Cash Wave, Reloyalty and Mastercard.
The Bulgarian Fintech Association welcomes applications from any fintech-related business in Bulgaria. There are preferential terms for smaller companies, so that every company – no matter its size, is able to benefit from this network.
For more information, please visit: www.fintechbulgaria.org.
Contact: Guergana Stoitchkova, gergana@fintechbulgaria.org
