The Bulgarian Fintech Association (BFA) and the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at Sofia University, supported by Paysafe, organize the Fintech Hackathon “From Zero To Fintech”. The hackathon is the logical next step of the Master’s degree program in Finance, Investments and Fintech at Sofia University. It will be held in English on March 19 – 27 and will provide the participants with a series of workshops, conducted by some of the most prominent specialists in the field of marketing, sales, and investments in Fintech solutions in Bulgaria and Europe. Investors will shed light on financing and access to venture capital. The event will be fully in English and is open to anyone interested in the field of digital finance. The participants in the hackathon will get a chance to solve real-life Fintech cases, propose and develop new Fintech solutions, and test their ideas with ‘dummy data’ via Iris Solutions’ PSD 2 HUB.

All Fintech ideas created and developed during the Fintech hackathon will be evaluated and the best will be awarded prizes which will enable them to go faster to market. During the evaluation process on the last day of the event - 27th March, we will have a 3-hour conference in which speakers will be physically present in a studio, from which we will live stream. The topics of the conference will be the future of Fintech with discussions of COVID-19 and its impact on digital financial services provided around the EU. “From Zero To Fintech” initiative has been widely supported by academic institutions and organizations among which the Technical University – Sofia, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics at Sofia University, Telerik Academy, SoftUni as well as by several IT communities such as Data Science Society Bulgaria and Coding Girls – Bulgaria.

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From Zero To Fintech is a 100% virtual event that will take place on March 19 – 27. The start will be given on March 19, when representatives from both the public and private sector will have the chance to discuss how their organizations work towards fostering the development of digital finance solutions. Among the participants in this session are: The Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Bulgaria, the European Commission, Sofia University, and others.

The educational part of the hackathon will take place on Saturday, March 19, when through a series of 7 workshops, the participants will meet one of the most prominent professionals in the sphere of Fintech. The audience will be introduced to topics such as creating a Fintech pitch deck, marketing, and pitching Fintech solutions before investors. In addition, a specialist in Fintech sales will reveal the specifics of selling a Fintech product or a service and an attorney at law will shed light on the Fintech regulations in Bulgaria and Europe. Financial Supervision Commission of Bulgaria will present their Innovation Hub for the non-banking financial sector and how it works in Bulgaria. Last but not least, proven specialists in digital technologies will share the latest trends in technologies such as blockchain, cloud computing, and other state-of-the-art technologies in Fintech.

Once all participants are being provided with the needed knowledge and tools for the development of Fintech business ideas, they will have 6 days, from 20^th to 25^th of March, to work on their projects. Gathered in teams according to their interests, the participants will have the opportunity to be guided by mentors – specialists in the field of the teams’ projects. In 20-minute virtual sessions, depending on the availability of both the teams and the mentors during the week, the teams will be able to develop in full their ideas. Saturday, March 26^th, is the day when each team will have to submit 3-minute pitching videos by applying all knowledge and skills acquired during the event. The pitching videos will be later reviewed and evaluated by a competent jury comprised of professionals from the public and private sector in Bulgaria, the Middle East, and the Silicon Valley.

On Sunday, March 27^th, during the evaluation session, the organizers have prepared a Fintech conference live streamed from a physical studio. The topics of the event will be the latest trends in Fintech and the implications of Brexit, Covid-19 and the War in Ukraine on the sector in the EU. Among the panelists will be representatives of the partners of the event Mastercard, Paysafe, etc. The Fintech hackathon will end on March 27^th with an award ceremony for the best 3 Fintech ideas. The winners will receive prizes in the form of services that will help them bring their ideas to life and bring them to market.

More information about the event could be found at www.fromzerotofintech.com