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Get in the Ring

Sofia, Bulgaria – BVCA took part in the regional finals of Get in the Ring with three of its board members participating as jury members.

The East European final of the entrepreneurship competition Get in the Ring was held at Inter Expo Centre Sofia on 14th January 2016. This year’s jury included two BVCA board members as well as the Chairman of the board, Mr Evgeny Angelov.

Get in the Ring confronts entrepreneurs by recreating an improvised idea battle. They present their start up ideas on a boxing ring in front of a jury of investors. The goal of the competition is to have the most innovative and most promising startup ideas reach the global finals. The competition is basically a networking platform meeting entrepreneurs and investors, allowing startup companies to explore new markets as well.

As in previous years, the 2015 edition of the regional GITR finals became widely popular, hosting over 400 guests among whom local and regional entrepreneurs and investors. Six countries were represented in the competition – those were Bulgaria, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, and Hungary. After a tight battle, the Bulgarian startup ‘Claim Compass’ won the light weight-class and the Romanian ‘Symme 3D’ won the middle weight-class. Thus, both companies won their ticket to the global finals in Columbia, where they are to compete for international investment in their ventures.

The jury of this year’s GITR had the difficult task of selecting the most promising startups in the different weight-classes. Apart from tickets for the global finals, the winners got presents from DHL and Creo – a Bulgarian startup developing creative office spaces.