Continue reading “Idea Challenge by EIT Digital – win up to 40K euro prize!”

“When you look at Bulgaria since 2012 in terms of politics and economy – I really think Eleven and LAUNCHub are the single best thing that happened to the country in those tumultuous past few years. They gave so many young people the motivation to come to Bulgaria and build new and exciting technologies here. People with world-class education and amazing upward mobility, people who could work in New York, London, Tokyo, Berlin, they chose Sofia. And even if you look at us – I mean, we’re building a freaking airplane in Bulgaria – an airplane that will be a true world’s first, and Eleven helped make it happen. If that doesn’t give young people hope, I don’t know what will.”

This is how the Rangelov brother’s, Dronamics, winner of Pioneers Festival 2015, speak about Eleven, the biggest Bulgarian business accelerator. I was curious what is behind that comment. Eleven excels all the CEE startup accelerators in terms of activity (36 startups per year!), and also compete successfully with Western European programs. According to Fundacity’s European accelerator report of 2014, Eleven finishes in top ten among main investors. An exemplar of how to build something valuable out of the JEREMIE initiative of the European Investment Fund (EIF). What is behind their success? I asked Daniel Tomov, founder of Eleven about their secret recipe.

Continue reading “The Eleven interview – What is Sofia’s secret?”

Here are the good news: you don’t have to go to the Silicon Valley to get funded. Not even London or Berlin. There is plenty of capital to be found in the CEE. You just have to know where to look.

And the bad news: if you know where to look, and still can’t get funding that means your current idea/startup is just not good enough. And if you can’t raise funds in the CEE, the odds are very high you won’t in Berlin or London either. It is better to fail fast and move on to something new.

// Republication of Credo Venture’s, the most succesful czech VC’s blogpost by Andrey Kiska.

Continue reading “Tips and tricks on fundraising in CEE Region by Credo Ventures”

Dronamics has won the Pioneers Festival Challenge 2015 – one of the biggest startup competitions in Europe! The team is part of Eleven’s 7th cohort and only two weeks ago they won another major competition –betapitch | Sofia. Are the Rangelov brothers (the two founders) following in the footsteps of the Wright brothers revolutionizing the Unmanned Aircraft Systems? Let’s see what they think. (Republication from 11.me)

Continue reading “Another Bulgarian success on Pioneers Festival Vienna – Dronamics”

High Tech Startbahn and SEMI seek Europe’s 60 best start-ups and high-growth companies for strategic partnering. If interested read on and apply till 31 May.

Continue reading “Hightech Venture Days aka fast track to German investors”

Oradian, developer of core technology platforms for microfinance institutions, announced yesterday the closing of its seed round at an undisclosed amount. The firm secured the funding from new investors, both angels and VC firms, including Credo Ventures, Playfair Capital, Day One Capital, Esther Dyson, Moaffak Ahmed and Pule Taukobong (Africa Angels Network) ! Continue reading “Pioneers Festival 2014 winner Oradian secures seed round to reinvent core systems for microfinance”

General Electrics (GE) the industrial giant has set the goal to be the forerunner of Internet of Things (IoT) and smart city, and therefore catch the wave of open innovation and involve more startups in their business. I asked Zoltan Koltai, EMEA Technology Director at GE Lighting, also board member at Lighting Europe how he sees the role of GE in IoT.

What is Internet of Things for GE? Continue reading “GE to take the lead in IoT sector – Interview with GE EMEA Technology Director”

We wrote about the Slovenian startup accelerator model in winter. Now, here is your turn to inhale the entrepreneurial spirit of  the pioneer in the region in Maribor. Get your last minute ticket to PODIM Conference!

Continue reading “Maribor turns Merrybor! – PODIM Conference 2015”

The Pioneers Budapest event is approaching… IoT Startups, it’s high time for you to apply! If you are selected for pitching at the Budapest event, you have the chance to win a free ticket to the famous Pioneers Festival in Vienna in May, get shortlisted to the Pioneers Festival Startup Challenge Top 50 and receive coaching from their official coaches + a LogMeIn team professional coaching.

The competition will be tough. Look at one of the candidates, Liber8 Technology, who is willing to take the challenge. Réka Kovács, business development responsible told us about their innovative #NObutton#NOcord#NOcharge wireless display technology. Continue reading “Liber8 Technology signing up for the tough Pioneers competition – learn their story”