These Three Companies Will Represent Bulgaria During Start.Up! Germany 2019
Three startups will represent the Bulgarian ecosystem during this year’s edition of the roadshow Start.Up! in Germany. Insurance disrupter Colibra, smart city solutions provider Develiot and cargo optimization platform Frontline Dynamics were selected by the jury to travel to Germany and present their solutions to potential partners and clients. Every year, the German Trade Chamber which conducts the roadshow is scouting for innovation in the areas of mobility, insurance, and smart cities.
During last year’s edition, one of the Bulgarian participants was selected amongst the three most innovative companies.
Who is who
Colibra is a one-year-old venture that was created with the aim to disrupt or rather bring insurance industry back to its roots and make it transparent. The company started with the idea to put insurance on the blockchain. The startup aims to be an insurance company that would have trained but independent claim handlers who are financially incentivized to do their job correctly and not to save their employers’ money. The system would randomly decide who reviews which claim and save the activity on the blockchain so that the whole process is transparent. Local investment fund Eleven liked the idea enough to put €250k into it. Соlіbrа’s first product is а free boarding раѕѕ wаllеt thаt hеlрѕ уоu gеt аn іnѕtаnt & 100% guaranteed соmреnѕаtіоn оf uр tо €100 if a flight іѕ 1+ hоurѕ lаtе, whаtеvеr thе rеаѕоn. 
Develiot originally started as an internal startup withing Telelink on of the biggest Bulgarian system integration players in Bulgaria, but evolved as a separate industrial and smart city IoT brand. The young company has developed an end-to-end air quality monitoring system, that is currently being deployed in Sofia. Earlier this year, during its annual Global Partner of the Year Awards, Microsoft selected a Bulgarian product among the four best IoT solutions of the year.
Frontline Dynamics is one of the latest investments of the Bulgarian VC fund BrightCap Ventures. The company offers first of its kind fully digital, fully connected communication and service enablement platform for all air-cargo logistic participants: airlines, ground handling agents, freight forwarders and trucking companies. Their platform allows seamless, secure and traceable sharing and storage of data, tracking of shipments, transmission of standardized orders, execution of payments and instant communication between all parties involved in the air cargo logistics.
Last year’s success story
In 2018 another four Bulgarian companies went to Germany to present their innovative solutions, exchange know-how with German partners, and of course, look for clients. These were kids spring toys manufacturer Playground Energy, car maintenance platform Avtoikonom, smart city startup Connected Bin, and the ticketing platform Tickey. The founded in 2012 Playground Energy, even came back as one of the top three most innovative companies, selected among 50 participants from 22 countries. Playground Energy designs and manufactures playground equipment that indeed transforms kinetic energy into electricity and makes toys blink, play music, trigger fountains and entertain children.
