Bulgaria has over 105 PropTech solutions along all 5 stages of the PropTech lifecycle. Romania reports to have over 100 PropTech companies that originate in the country. Czech Republic announces 50 PropTech startup and scaleup companies, and Slovakia stands out with 117 tech solutions in Construction and Real Estate. Thus, the SEE region contributes with over 370 PropTech solutions (exclusive of Greece where official numbers on PropTech don’t exist).

We daresay that the whole SEE region is represented on the world PropTech map by these 5 countries which are both the first-movers, and the drivers in this geographical area. 

However, it is typical for countries to be highly specialized, and we are curious to know how each of these countries stands out in the PropTech sector.

We have to exclude Greece, though there are some remarkable PropTech solutions there, because there is not any national body to represent and officially to report on PropTech in the country.

Let us first turn our focus to Bulgaria. 

What does make Bulgaria stand out as a PropTech country?

In Feb. 2020 we at PropTech Bulgaria have issued for a second consecutive year BULGARIA: PropTech Mapping Report  which is the only source of official information on the PropTech sector in Bulgaria. This 2nd edition depicts 64 Bulgarian PropTech solutions plus 30 Smart City/Smart Building/Smart Home solutions. It is the right basis for a profiling Bulgaria.

What is our country specialized in?

Certainly there is no one-way answer. However, there are obvious trends.

The diagram fan below displays the stats profile of Bulgaria.

25 % of the Bulgarian PropTech companies produce a ConTech solution. As a point of comparison, speaking Europe, this percentage outdoes 30 %. However, keeping in mind that ConTech solutions are much more difficult to create, our country score is a good one. It is disturbing that there is a complete lack of solutions in the area of Digital Twins, Modular Construction, Material Science, Robot-assisted construction. At the same time, it is much encouraging that we have ourstanding High-definition surveying and geolocation solutions, 16 % of PropTechs work with BIM and AR, and we also have initial 3D-printing and Pre-fabrication solutions. 

75 % have their complete focus set on a real estate technology solution.

37,5 % of the Bulgarian PropTech companies have their solution covering two or more PropTech areas; typically, however, these prove to be Market & Transaction and Manage & Operate, that is, it goes about real estate technology solutions. By contrast, 33,3 % of the European companies come up with a solution in two or three PropTech areas. However, the best part of them cover Invest & Finance and Design & Build, where it is not unusual that they also have an urban aspect. 

56,25 % of the Bulgarian PropTech companies are boot-strapped, i.e. they have made a start and gain foothold by own funds. Speaking of the remainder 43,75 %, it goes more about external bankrolling provided by industry incumbents rather than VC funding. 

The boot-strapped PropTechs’ percentage in other Europan counries is twice as little compared to their figure in Bulgaria – 30 % which is indicative of far more beacons of external bankrolling opportunities to PropTech on the uptake in the other European countries. The flip side of this situation is that in the pandemic period Bulgarian PropTechs were not that stressed for raising external funds since 84.7 % of them had a cash buffer sufficient for up to 3 – 12 months, and 54 % had cash reserves for more than a 6 months’ time.

68,75 % of the Bulgarian PropTech companies opt for playing on the home market, i.e. they run their business nowhere but Bulgaria, but this figure changes much in 2020. Along the same parameter, the European companies score none but 18 %

Bulgarian solutions stand out with their dominant B-2-B focus – 84 % have either a B-2-B focus or both B-2-B and B-2-C. 

How Bulgarian PropTech solutions score along all 35 technologies most wide spread along the PropTech lifecycle, and much more, read further in BULGARIA: PropTech Mapping Report 2020

What comes next to position Bulgaria-as-a-PropTech-Service?

As a natural next step Bulgaria is to be positioned on the international PropTech map. Here comes the 1st international PropTech Conference in the SEE and in Bulgaria which will take place on 4-5 November 2020.

The Conference format is phygital, as most event components are virtual by design.

What is in there for you?

The Conference part will span both on 4-5 November before noon. 25+ world-level speakers will share with you their forecasts for the impact of technologies on Construction and Real Estate (RE); how the UK manages to be a world-wide leader in PropTech; opportunities for international external funding and trends in the aspect; how PropTech and environmental impact are intertwined, and much, much more. Most importantly, there will be a number of ourstanding Bulgarian PropTech companies that will present the state and future of Bulgaria in most of the topic areas. You can meet with them in both the Conference, and the Hot Topic Ateliers.

The Hot Topic Ateliers will be on 4 November in the afternoon. There will be two simultaneous tracks. One focused on how to enter the PropTech market in Austria, Germany, the UK, Romania, Czech, Slovakia, Bulgaria.

The other track zooms in even more on the application of technologies in Construction and RE, incl. of which technologies have or are expected to have the most disruptive effect on the traditional industries. 

Are you curious which Bulgarian companies will share with us their expertise and vision? Check out the Agenda here

International Networking will span across both days. Participants will be able to meet with the best PropTechs in the virtual café. Each of you will be able to join each of the ‘café’ tables. At each ‘café’ table you will be able to meet with one international PropTech company and hear their 3 minutes’ sales pitch. Then in the following 7 minutes you will have the chance to ask your questions, agree on a meeting following the networking hour, get to know all other participants and simply have a lot of fun. Next 10 minutes you will move to another ‘café’ table and so on.   

Innovation Workshops are the cherry of the cake. Don’t miss them! You will have the once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet personally with two world-level trainers in innovation, impact, and construction & real estate. 

These are:

Elvin Box MCIOB MBA, Chair London Construction Excellence will lead ‘System Thinking and Technology as innovation enablers in Construction and Real Estate. See more here.

Peter Guendling is an international trainer in Innovation and Impact with over 22 years’ experience across 70 countries and 10 000 participants in his trainings. He will lead ‘Sustainnovation in PropTech’. See more here

Places at each of the workshops are limited to 30 participants. Live in Sofia. See how to enrol here.

PropTech Hackathon is the right place where corporates such as Property Developers, Real Estate companies and Tech developers can meet with PropTech startups and scaleups. Corporates are entitled to participate with their own real business case that will be solved by PropTech teams. What to be one of this privileged corporates or PropTechs? Contact us @ sylviapavlova@spbusinesslab.com.

Are you curious how to take advantage of all this and become part of the first-movers in SEE?

Register here