In the light of bringing CEE entrepreneurs together, it is safe to say that Sofia has recently been busy hosting a number of startup events ranging from Startup Weekend Sofia, 3Challenge and Investors Day, with betapitch | sofia still to come. Before that, however, it’s time for the Balkan Venture Forum (BkVF) to take place, and provide startups exclusively from Southeast Europe (SEE) with a platform to meet, network, and pitch. The deadline for submitting applications is 22 April.
BkVF is an investment and innovation platform, whose two-day event taking place on 21-22 May will enable more than 30 select companies from the region to go through the familiar drill of pitching in front of a panel of experts. They will each get eight minutes to present, followed by another seven minutes for questions from the investors. BkVF is not an exclusive event for the chosen SEE startups, but welcomes all entrepreneurs interested in expanding their network of contacts. The expected number of participants is between 600 and 700, according to the BkVF team, with some 40-50 investors onboard, too.
“Our goal is to introduce the Bulgarian and Balkan community to the success stories of the startup scene, and to draw the attention to the idea of starting your own business as a possible solution to the growing unemployment and poverty,” Alexandеr Alexandrov, responsible for promoting the Forum, told inventures.eu.
The winning startups will receive benefits from mentoring at the Venture Academy to one-on-one meetings with investors, and an opportunity to pitch directly to the LAUNCHub and Eleven accelerator’s panels.
Find out more about the application process here.
