95% of the start-ups in Bulgaria are located in Sofia

Sofia welcomes globally renowned experts in the design of services and products, innovators and entrepreneurs, at the first Design Thinking Camp Sofia, it hosts at the Laboratory Complex of Sofia Tech Park. One of the places, emerging in recent years as a true home to new technologies. Now is the time for vigorous development of the innovations and digital technologies sector, and these have to be of service to people. Only through education and innovations we will be able to achieve prompt progress. This is what the Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova, said during the opening ceremony of the Design Thinking Camp Sofia in the presence of Eleonora Carnassa – the founder of “Factory 360“ and organizer of the Design Thinking Camp Sofia, Kevin Quint – the moderator of the event, and many young innovators. The event was also attended by the Executive Director of the Sofia Municipal Investments Agency Vladimir Danailov.

The design thinking is the acumen to be always one step ahead, to create opportunities.

According to Mayor Fandakova, Sofia has strong traditions in information technologies and the creative industries. Our city is the nationwide leader in this sector, having enormous potential to take the leading position in the entire region and in Europe and attract well-educated people and the best talents, continued Mayor Fandakova.

95% of all start-ups in Bulgaria are situated in Sofia and the ecosystem is entirely developed based on risk-financing funds, accelerators and incubators, and the developed companies are already investing in R&D centres. The share of the technology-focused start-ups is over 15%, and these are mainly involved in AI and space technologies.

To facilitate the access to financial resources, the Sofia Municipality has been operating for over a year the innovative projects programme – “Accelerator Start-up Sofia“.

Innovations and innovative products, which may make people’s lives easier, are of utmost importance.

Fandakova wished the forum success, a lot of new ideas and strong energy for their implementation.