On 31 July, Sofia Tech Park hosted the Digital Horizons 2025 Forum, an event dedicated to the digital transformation of Bulgarian businesses. The forum was organized by the Ministry of Innovation and Growth, BSMEPA and Sofia Tech Park, with the support of Breaking Grounds.
"Digital Horizons 2025" brought together small and medium enterprises and the technology sector in a common conversation about success stories, best practices and practical solutions for business digitalization.
The event kicked off with an opening panel on "What technologies do small and medium-sized businesses in Bulgaria need?", which was also attended by Fund of Funds CEO Alexander Nenkov. The panel brought together experts from leading innovation and technology organisations, including representatives from the Department for Innovation and Growth, BSMEPA, AIBEST, BRAIT, Innovation Amp, the Employment Agency and The Recursive.
Alexander Nenkov focused on three key themes related to the digitalisation of small and medium-sized businesses in Bulgaria - the importance of digitalisation for Bulgarian enterprises, the support of the Fund of Funds to date and the opportunities through our Loss Capped Portfolio Guarantee for Digitalisation instrument in the current Programme Period 2021-2027.
The importance of digitalization for Bulgarian enterprises
Nenkov underlined the critical need for digitalization, citing data from the DESI index for 2024, according to which Bulgaria is one of the last in the EU in digital development. Only 28.4% of Bulgarian SMEs have at least a basic level of digital intensity compared to 57.7% on average in the EU. In cloud services the gap is even wider - 14.2% in Bulgaria vs. 38.9% at EU level.
He highlighted digitalisation and cloud services, business management systems (ERP), websites and online stores, CRM systems, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence automation as the main technology needs of SMEs.
What was achieved in 2014-2020
The Fund of Funds has invested €2 billion of public and private resources and supported 3,550 final beneficiaries. Macroeconomic analysis shows an increase in Bulgaria's GDP of 2.8% compared to a scenario without financial instruments.
Nenkov stressed that the supported enterprises have generated 50 thousand jobs and 14.4 billion leva in revenues for 2023. More than 420 of the funded companies operate in high- and medium-high technology sectors, and BGN 300 million have been invested in 327 start-ups, about 50% of them in the IT sector.
Among the successful examples of supported projects in the field of digitalization Nenkov highlighted IRIS AI for artificial intelligence in scientific research, MYX for digital twins, Kikimora for cybersecurity and Bronia for AI platform for acoustic signal processing.
A new tool for digitalisation 2021-2027
Nenkov presented the new portfolio guarantee with loss cap for digitalization with a budget of BGN 93.5 million, which will provide nearly BGN 500 million in loans for SMEs. The instrument focuses on projects for the development and deployment of Industry 4.0 technologies, such as artificial intelligence, industrial IoT, digital twins, robotic automation, blockchain and cloud technologies.
More than 260 enterprises are expected to be supported, with 55% of the resource going to less developed regions. The maximum amount guaranteed is up to BGN 2.4 million for SMEs and up to BGN 4 million for mid-caps companies.
In addition, FMFIB is also working on two funds for equity investments in digitalisation with a total amount of around EUR 94 million.
Within the Digital Horizons 2025, other key topics such as artificial intelligence as an enabler for growth and innovation, cybersecurity for small businesses as well as current measures to support digitalization and innovation for SMEs were presented with the participation of experts from the Directorate General European Competitiveness Funds at the Ministry of Innovation and Growth.
A special expo area provided an opportunity for direct business meetings with representatives of more than 50 leading IT companies and industry organizations who presented their innovative solutions for business. FMFIB also participated with its own booth for direct talks with representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises in Bulgaria who are looking for digitalization opportunities and to tell how our financial instruments can help them in this process.
