On October 16, Sofia hosted the second edition of the international conference Innovate, Invest, Inspire, organized by AmCham Bulgaria and Boyanov&Co. The forum brought together over 200 participants from institutions, the investment and business community to discuss how innovation and capital shape the future of the economy in the region.
Ivan Ivanov, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Fund of Funds, participated in the panel "Institutional Investors: Capital at Scale" alongside representatives of international financial institutions.
In his speech, he emphasized that the Fund of Funds has already invested over €150 million in public and private capital in five equity and quasi-equity funds, which have supported 327 Bulgarian companies—including leading examples such as MYX (digital twin technology) and Alcatraz (AI-based solution for autonomous access control). He recalled that 3 out of every 5 start-ups financed by venture capital funds in Bulgaria in recent years have received support through funds managed by the FMFIB. The data covers the period 2019-2023 and is from a study by BVCA and PwC.
Ivan Ivanov also emphasized the key challenge facing the ecosystem—the difficulty of attracting capital from institutional investors (pension funds, insurance companies, etc.), which slows down the scaling of companies. He cited a conclusion from a recent study, according to which only pension funds in Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Poland are not allowed to invest in venture capital. This is a prerequisite for regulatory change to allow such institutions to participate in venture capital investments, following the example of other EU countries.
"In the coming years, the Fund of Funds will mobilize over €1 billion in public resources to support innovation, digitization, and regional development from programs co-financed by the European Union. The next step is to attract more private capital to make the Bulgarian ecosystem even more competitive at the European level," Ivan Ivanov emphasized.
During the discussion, he also presented the new financial instruments that the Fund of Funds will implement. The Chairman of the Fund's Supervisory Board announced that approximately €350 million in public resources will be allocated to equity instruments, with the creation of eight new funds anticipated to support companies across various sectors and stages of development – from start-ups to scaling enterprises.
Among the fund managers already selected are Vitosha Ventures and Bayena Ventures, which will make their first investments by the end of 2025, as well as Innovation Capital, which will manage the Enterprise Innovation Fund.
Additionally, a fund manager will be selected for the Education Program, which targets start-ups founded by students and PhD candidates. The procedures for selecting fund managers for the Technology Transfer Fund and the Digitization Fund will also start soon.
During the discussion panel, Ivan Ivanov cited some other interesting data. According to a fiCompass assessment, the capital financing gap in Bulgaria amounts to €1.3 billion, and around 5,600 viable Bulgarian companies are experiencing difficulties in accessing equity financing. In addition, based on data from the European Central Bank's 2024 "Access to Finance for Enterprises" (SAFE) survey, 11% of Bulgarian companies are high-growth (compared to an EU average of 9%), i.e., they have achieved over 20% annual turnover growth over the last three years.
Based on this data, strong demand for investment capital in the market is expected, Ivanov commented. Mobilising capital through the Fund of Funds and other institutions is expected to play a key role in continuing to position Bulgaria as a strong regional start-up ecosystem.
