Sofia Successes Stories
The German company MULTIVAC, a leading supplier of integrated packaging solutions, is expanding its production base in the Bozhurishte Economic Zone near Sofia. A factory building with pre-assembly areas and a Shared Services facility, will be built on an area of about 5000 sq.m. The investment amounts to around 5 million euros and completion is planned for autumn 2022.
MULTIVAC’s production site near Sofia started operations in 2018 and its capacity is now fully utilised. The new investment aims to increase the company’s production capacity in Bulgaria. In addition to the site in Bulgaria, MULTIVAC has twelve additional production sites in Germany, Austria, Spain, Brazil, China, Japan and the United States, as well as over 80 subsidiaries worldwide.
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The Sofia-based startup Boleron has been accepted for participation in the NEXT FinTech program of the Romanian accelerator for tech startups Techcelerator. The two-month programme provides the companies with sales, marketing and investment opportunities. Boleron is a digital insurance software platform specifically designed for purchasing and managing insurance products via mobile phone. The Sofia-based company is among the ten startups admitted to the accelerator, along with companies from Romania, Greece, the United Kingdom and Armenia.
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Another Sofia-based company, the e-commerce platform CloudCart, raised 750 thousand euros investment from Elevator Ventures and New Vision 3 (NV3). The resource will help the company expand its business in CEE markets. The investment round was led by Elevator Ventures, the venture capital division of Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), with the participation of the existing investor in the company – NV3. Last year, the company reported significant growth – over 9,000 registered online stores and over 3.5 million orders placed through the platform.
The CloudCart platform does not require technical or design expertise from the e-shop owners and offers a free plan for startup retailers until a certain minimum revenue from their sales is reached. At the end of last year, the Sofia startup was once again listed in the Deloitte CEE Technology Fast 50 ranking and awarded in the Impact Stars category for successful products and services with positive impact on society, business, and environment.
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Next cohort of 17 companies receives investment for growth from the Vitosha Venture Partners fund. A total of 15 out of them are Sofia-based startups with products and services in areas such as B2B trade, education, food, sportswear, entertainment, pet care, proptech, solar energy, e-bikes components, etc. The companies are supported with investments ranging between BGN 50,000 and BGN 100,000, and five of the startups will be included in the new edition of the Vitosha ACCELERATE accelerator programme. The total value of investments in the new companies amounts to BGN 6.98 million, including BGN 6.77 million in public resources provided by the Fund of Funds under the Operational Programme for Innovation and Competitiveness. The remaining resource is additional attracted private capital from Vitosha Venture Partners.
