Bulgarian startups and SMEs will have quick and easy access to growth management skills and capital from Germany and all over the world via the new partnership.

Sofia, April 14, 2021 – The Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) became a partner of the Deutsche Börse Venture Network^®. Startups and SMEs from our country will have quick and easy access to growth management skills and capital from Germany and all over the world via the newly established partnership. Deutsche Börse Venture Network is an ecosystem which consists of 460 foreign investors and VCs from 32 countries worldwide. 200 companies are members of this ecosystem and they managed to complete a total of EUR 4.6 Billion in financing rounds since 2015 when the Deutsche Börse Venture Network was founded.

“We are glad that we succeeded to create, together with the Deutsche Börse Venture Network, new horizon for the Bulgarian companies to fuel their development and growth. The BSE will serve for the companies as a bridge to the network through free assessment and consultation to the potential members from our country.”, said Assoc. Prof. Manyu Moravenov, Ph.D., CEO of the BSE.

The Bulgarian companies – candidates to enter the Deutsche Börse Venture Network should fulfill criteria such as: for early stage startups - show not less than EUR 1 Million annual revenue for the last year; cover some specific business KPIs like e.g. high number of daily new users or strong growth of customer base, etc.; have a well-known investor and have a cumulated capital raised above EUR 1 Million; for later stage companies - have not less than EUR 10 Million annual revenue for the last year; show annual growth in terms of 30% annual revenue growth, annual net profit of more than EUR 0.5 Million, well known lead investors and cumulated capital raised above EUR 10 Million. More can be seen at: https://beamuplab.space/en/venture_network

The benefits from being a member of the network will be presented by the BSE for the first time during the today’s third strategic meeting of the companies from beamuplab program – Gravity MeetUp III. The Exchange is a symbolic host of the meeting and will cover all the possibilities that it offers to the startups and SMEs for raising capital to implement their business strategies with accent on the Growth market beam.

In the spotlight also will be the panel with of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in which will be presented the types of financing they provide for startups and SMEs.

Again, the last session is expected with the greatest interest, in which the companies EnduroSat, Businessmap (Kanbanize), SoftUni and Software Group will make their special presentation or the so-called virtual investor pitch, and will receive feedback and recommendations from the managers of leading VCs - Neo Ventures, BlackPeak Capital and LAUNCHub.

The moderator of the meeting is Dimitar Vuchev - a top business journalist with extensive experience in broadcast media. He is an anchor of the Business Diary daily edition of the TV Evropa.

The forum will be attended by representatives of the 20 companies selected for the beamuplab program, its partners and consultants.