site.btaHalf of Participants in The Best Youth Startup in Bulgaria 2025 Competition Have Social and Environmental Ideas

The official awarding ceremony of the winners in the national competition "The Best Youth Startup in Bulgaria 2025" is to be held on Wednesday at the Aula of the Rectorate of Sofia University.

The fourth edition of the event under the motto "Together We Turn Ideas into Reality" is organized by Sofia University in collaboration with the Fund of Funds.

Half of the participants in the competition have social and environmental ideas, according to engineer Dotchka Vassileva, head of Project Information and Financing Division at the Fund of Funds. 

Since the first edition in 2022 more than 400 participants from 50 Bulgarian universities and schools, including students from the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, USA, etc. took part in the trainings organized by the initiative. Dozens of the projects have been supported by mentorship, or potential partners have gotten in contact with them, eight of the projects attracted partnership investment funds.

Vassileva said that interest in the competition is growing every year. In the first year there were 35 participants, in the second – 60, in the third – 160. This year there were 260 teams with around 400 youth between 18 and 29 competing.

She said that the competition is becoming more popular, and the main benefits are not the financial rewards, but the possibilities for partnership and development.

“We have 55 partnerships with public organizations, universities, funds, among them the European Commission, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the Bulgarian Stock Exchange,” Vassileva said.

This year, for the first time, the competition included three categories, she added.

The first category Business Stars is aimed at young people with small regional businesses, something that can be developed only in a certain region.

The second category, Future Unicorns, is focused on technological and innovative startups that can get financing from investment funds.

The third category, SDG Dragons, is for social and environmental entrepreneurs – sustainable development, ecological cities, innovative ideas.