Possibilities to support pilot projects for sustainable development were presented by corporate leaders and startup investors at the Corporate Venturing in SEE for Sustainable Startups Forum held on Thursday, 26th January in Sofia. Sofiyska Voda, operated by Veolia, and the Recursive innovation platform initiated the event. The forum gathered speakers in the sphere of corporate innovations, risk capital investors and founders of clean-tech companies from Bulgaria, Poland and Germany. 

“The innovative solutions and their support play an important part in the ecological transformation of the economies”, said Mr. Francois Debergh, Country Director of Veolia for Bulgaria; he was one of the keynote speakers at the conference. Veolia Bulgaria has developed a dedicated policy to support innovative and green-tech solutions as a means to strengthen the Bulgarian start-up ecosystem. The interest in that initiative is growing, which adds additional value to the work of Veolia Bulgaria to the benefit of society.   

Lyubomir Filipov, Strategic Partnerships and Regulation Director at Sofiyska Voda, commented at the forum: “The support to the start-ups should not be a one-off event. It is needed a long-term, joint effort among the corporate environment, the risk capital funds and the State.” 

In the focus of the discussions of Corporate Venturing in SEE for Sustainable Startups were the good practices of cooperation among the corporates, the innovative start-ups and risk capital funds. A special panel was dedicated also to presentations of projects in the area of sustainable development, implemented together with corporate innovators.