Bulgarian FinTech businesses have secured around $6 million in funding this year.
In actuality, while the country’s FinTech industry is still in its infancy, its economic impact grows with each passing year.
Investment in Bulgarian FinTech companies has climbed from BGN 1.3 million to about BGN 11 million ($5.9 million) in the previous five years, according to an annual report prepared by FinTech Bulgaria, a nonprofit group comprising of the country’s largest FinTech enterprises.
FinTech startups in Bulgaria have received one-fifth of all venture capital (VC) investments in the country as of 2021, with an average annual growth rate of 188%.
Furthermore, the $100 million Series B extension received by Fintech startup Payhawk in March of this year to become Bulgaria’s first unicorn is not included. The financial management platform for enterprises, which was founded in 2018, has now outgrown its Sofia location and is now located in London.
Hristo Borisov, the company’s co-founder and CEO, noted in an interview that the company’s success was linked to a growing need for FinTech solutions for corporate expenditure control, which he described as a “huge trend.”
He claims that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are driving demand, and that “here is where we see significantly greater pain areas demanding solutions like Payhawk,” he says.
Payhawk is not the only Bulgarian FinTech company targeting the business-to-business (B2B) sector. In fact, FinTech Bulgaria discovered that 71% of firms in the field operated in the B2B arena, indicating a potential opportunity for more consumer-oriented enterprises.
Given its relative infancy, Bulgaria’s FinTech industry offers lots of possibilities for expansion. The research identified 156 FinTechs, 82% of which were SMBs, indicating a nascent yet potential sector.
Fortunately for Bulgaria’s burgeoning FinTech ecosystem, many of the groundwork for success has already been built.
