The BeVine team is the big winner in the ChallengeYou pre-accelerator programme – an initiative of JA Bulgaria and its subsidiary company The Edge: R&BD, in partnership with UBB. The team offers a combined software-hardware solution for reducing grapevine disease occurrence. The solution is already at a testing stage, while the first clients are owners of small vineyards and a winery in South Bulgaria.

„I like it very much that the winner-team combines a sector, which is traditional for this country, such as agricultural entrepreneurship and wine production, with new technologies. I am convinced this is a step in the future. JA and our subsidiary company The Edge will gladly support the team in their next steps“ – Milena Stoycheva, Executive Director of JA Bulgaria and The Edge: R&BD, said.

A total of 12 teams participated at the final and fought for the big prize, ensured by JA Bulgaria, its subsidiary company The Edge: R&BD and in partnership with UBB, namely a 6-month mentorship, work space and support for the team with the aim to commercialize their idea.

„I gladly supported BeVine in the development of their innovative solution, which is definitely useful for the wine-production sector they have targeted. Their application may evolve further on the wider agricultural market, even on a global scale and is fully aligned with the direction of development of the so-called precision agriculture. They have a solid database at their disposal with potential clients, as well as the technologies to support them and enable their success. And last but not least – I also loved their business model. It is capable of generating sustainable income within a relatively short period of time, because, let us admit it, entrepreneurs should also generate profits from their ideas, since nobody seeks innovations for the sake of the innovations themselves“, Christof De Mil, Executive Director Finance of UBB and Innovation Leader of KBC Group in Bulgaria commented.

The ChallengeYou pre-accelerator programme was launched this year as its first edition continued over eight weeks – from March until May, during which participants visited series of workshops and trainings, combining theory with practice – a course for designer way of thinking, series of mentoring afternoons, a demo day and a final competition. The programme was attended by Bulgarian students from various specialties and universities, who worked on elaborating ideas in the following lines: fintech, artificial intelligence, IoT, virtual reality, health care, pure energy and agro innovations.