The 2022 National Best Youth Start-Up Competition, organised by Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski and the Fund of Funds, was met with a lot of interest. Individual and team applicants from universities from across the country presented inspiring business and innovation ideas in the areas of sustainable agriculture, digitalisation, education, culture and cultural heritage, arts, sports, circular economy, smart and eco-friendly housing, etc.

The competition is held under the auspices of the Ministry of Innovation and Growth, in partnership with the UBB, Vitosha Venture Partners, Innovation Capital, Morningside Hill,  New Vision 3, Silverline Partners,  Endeavor Bulgaria,  the Investment Council of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, BVCA and Sofia Tech.

In a highly competitive environment, 23 applicants were selected to continue and take part in the Training Day, which was held on 26 May 2022. The event was organised by Associate Professor Savina Mihailova from the  School of Economics and Dochka Vassileva from the Fund of Funds.

During the morning session, the contestants took part in entrepreneurship games, under the guidance of Prof. Tsvetan Davidkov from the  School of Economics, expanded their knowledge of tax policy with Ms.Tanya Pavlova, representative of WIN IFA, Bulgaria, and learned about the role of banks in the growth process from Dr. Kiril Velichkov from the UBB.

The afternoon training session was delivered by Morningside Hill Venture Capital and explored the topic of how to generate and validate an idea, followed by a business planning class with Alexander Terziyski from New Vision 3, Max Gurwitz from Vitosha Venture Partners on marketing and sales, and Yavor Gochev from Innovation Capital, who spoke about raising capital and pitching.

All participants had individual tutorials with fund managers as their mentors and received valuable advice on how to grow a business. At the end of the day, the participants presented their innovative business ideas to a jury of fund managers. The top ten projects were selected and will compete at the finals, ie. the Pitching Day, on 7 June.

We are glad to name the ten best projects: 

• Labsi: an application for storing lab tests;
• Unboxd: an application for retailing second-hand clothing;
• Vodoraslo: indoor air purification using seaweed;
• Mentor the Young: a one-on-one mentoring programme for young people;
• Twisted Technology: innovative computer equipment services;
• Vertikale: sustainable vertical agriculture;
• Bean Bags for the Planet (BBP): manufacture of bean bags from purified cigarette filters;
• Immunity Smart, a smart-housing device;
• Make it 3D: an application for 3D-modelling of geospatial data;
• Young Inventor: an educational platform supporting pupils to become future innovators.         

Congratulations to all successful contestants and good luck with the Pitching Day finals!