Sofia and Bulgaria – a rising star in the Fintech world

28 September, 2021

The International Forum Global FinTech Festival will be held for the second year in a row between September 28 and 30, 2021. The theme of this year’s edition is “Empowering the Global Digital Economy.” It will aim to provide an in-depth understanding of the latest business, policy, investment and technology developments in financial technology (FinTech) worldwide.

The event will held online and is expected to be attended by over 250 speakers and 35,000 participants from around the world, including representatives of government and fintech organizations, academies, banks, business, the entrepreneurial ecosystem and others. All joining from countries such as Great Britain, Japan, Australia, Turkey, Switzerland, Taiwan, India, Lithuania, Bulgaria and many others.

The team of Digitalization, Innovation and Economic Development (Innovative Sofia) will take part in two panel discussions within the event, where they will present Sofia and Bulgaria as an innovative, digital and business destination.

On September 29 from 14:25 will be held the panel discussion “Sofia & Bulgaria as a fintech destination in Central and Eastern Europe”, where the moderator will be the Deputy Mayor of “Digitalization, Innovation and Economic Development” Gencho Kerezov. The other participants in the discussion are:

  • Georgi Penev – Director at Bulgarian Fintech Organization;
  • Ivan VasilevVice Chairman of BESCO, The Bulgarian Startup Association;
  • Plamen Tsekov – Chairman at ScaleFocus, Board Member at AIBEST (Association for Innovation, Business Excellence, Services and Technology);
  • Blagovest Kirilov – Member of Parliamentary Committee on Digitalization, E-governance and Information Technology, National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria;
  • Deyan Radev, PhD – Assistant Professor of FinTech and Banking at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski.

On September 30 from 10:30 the second panel discussion will take place, in which Deputy Mayor Gencho Kerezov will be a panelist. The topic is “Growth drivers of the future – Fintech Hubs”. Together with international speakers, they will exchange ideas and views on how we can achieve global synergy in the world of the fintech industry. The other participants in the discussion are:

  • Shan LuoManaging Director at FinTechSpace;
  • Ali HassanSenior Representative of Dubai International Financial Centre Authority;
  • Aastha GroverSr. AVP and Head of Startup India Hub & Invest India.

The full program of the three-day forum can be found here.

During the event Innovative Sofia will have a separate virtual stand, where we will present Sofia and Bulgaria as an innovative fintech destination and we will tell both about our already implemented projects and about our future initiatives. Representatives of the global ecosystem will have the opportunity to get acquainted with the progress of the Sofia Municipality and Innovative Sofia, the achieved results and our vision for the digital transformation and innovative urban development.

You will find more about the event and what to expect here.

The overall idea of ​​the forum is to provide a platform for the exchange of views, different practices and insights of industry professionals. The organizers of the Global FinTech Festival 2021 are the Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the National Payments Corporation of India and Invest IndiaAnd to be part of the event, you can register here.