⌛ Innovation Sandbox of Sofia Municipality ⌛

🚀 What?

With BESCO's support, the Sofia Municipal Council increased the funding for an innovation "sandbox" from BGN 200,000 to BGN 500,000 in the 2024 budget. The sandbox is a controlled environment where companies can safely experiment and test new products, services or business models in real conditions before their full deployment and scaling. The goal is to improve the quality of public services and life in Sofia, and to turn the capital into a testing ground for technological solutions developed by local companies. The idea of the pilot projects in brief is:

• Generating data for management decisions and policies
• Testing and scaling innovative technological solutions
• Improving quality of life through smart city solutions

🙋 For whom?

You can win funding of up to BGN 50,000 for your project and turn the municipality into your key client. This will help you to:

• Participate directly in improving the urban environment with your own solutions in education, ecology, transport, entrepreneurship and other areas for the benefit of society
• Validate your technologies in real conditions and facilitate attracting additional financing from investors
• Expand the reach of your solutions to other Bulgarian and European cities
• Receive additional funding if your solution has a strong social impact for the benefit of Sofia residents

The focus in selection is on effective and quickly implementable solutions with low financial risk. The methodology for evaluating candidates has been developed in collaboration with Deloitte and the European Investment Bank. It includes:

• 50 qualitative indicators in 4 categories: Formal, Fit, Finance and Feasibility
• Assesses relevance, feasibility and financial sustainability
• Allows early identification of necessary corrections and improvements

📨 How to apply?

Send your project to ivan.goychev@sofia.bg and dobrinka.blagova@sofia.bg.