01.06.2022
The national competition for best youth startup 2022, organized by Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” and the Fund of Funds, attracted significant interest. Individually and in teams of candidates from different universities across the country presented inspiring ideas for business and innovation in the field of sustainable agriculture, digitalization, education, culture and cultural heritage, art, sports, circular economy, smart and ecological housing and more.
The competition is held under the auspices of the Ministry of Innovation and Growth and in partnership with UBB, Vitosha Venture Partners, Innovation Capital, Morningside Hill, New Vision 3, Silverline Partners, Endeavor Bulgaria, BCCI (Investment Technology Council), BVCA.
In an environment of strong competition, 23 candidates were admitted to participate in the training day on May 26, 2022. The organizers of the event were Assoc. Prof. Savina Mihailova, lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration and Dochka Vasileva from the Fund of Funds.
In the morning session the participants took part in entrepreneurial games under the guidance of Prof. Tsvetan Davidkov, lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, enriched their knowledge in the field of tax policy with Tanya Pavlova, representative of WIN IFA Bulgaria, and learned about the role of banks in growth from Dr. Kiril Velichkov from UBB.
In the afternoon session training was conducted by:
- Pavel Velkov from Morningside Hill Venture Capital on: “Generating and validating an idea”;
- Alexander Terziiski from New Vision 3 on: “Business Planning”;
- Max Gurwitz from Vitosha Venture Partners on: “Marketing and Sales”;
- Yavor Gochev from Innovation Capital on: “Raising capital and presenting to investors”.
All participants held individual mentoring meetings with fund managers and received valuable advice for business development. At the end of the day, the participants presented their innovative business ideas. The ten best projects were selected to continue to the finals, which will take place on June 7 in the form of Pitching Day.
We are happy to announce the ten best projects:
- Labsi - application for storage of laboratory tests;
- Unboxd - application for second-hand clothing trade;
- Vodoraslo - purification of indoor air with the help of algae;
- Mentor the Young - a program for individual mentoring of young people;
- Twisted Technology - innovative computer services;
- Vertikale - sustainable vertical agriculture;
- Bean Bags for the Planetv (BBP) - production of Barbaroni from refined cigarette filters;
- Immunity smart - a device for smart homes;
- Make it 3D - application for creating 3D models of geospatial information;
- Young inventor - an educational platform that supports students by turning them into innovators of the future.
Congratulations to all selected candidates and success in the final Pitching Day!