DGKV has advised Fund Manager of Financial Instruments in Bulgaria EAD on the structuring and launching of a EUR 100 million public procurement procedure to select financial intermediaries for equity and quasi-equity investments in Bulgarian seed and start-up companies.
According to DGKV, "this is the first instrument under Operational Programme Innovations and Competitiveness 2014-2020 and the Seed/Acceleration and Start-Up Fund and aims to relocate financial resources through funds (Seed/Acceleration Fund I, Seed/Acceleration Fund II, and Start-Up Fund) to support and enhance the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Bulgaria. The purpose of the public procurement procedure is to select fund managers for the three funds which shall be required to complement the funding resources available. It is expected that the investments shall reach the target companies by the middle of next year. The investment period shall be five years, with a total time horizon of 10 years for the three funds, with an option to extend their life for another two one-year periods."
DGKV was chosen to assist the Fund Manager of Financial Instruments in Bulgaria EAD1 (which it refers to as the "Fund of Funds") in a selection procedure that took place in early 2017. According to the fir, "our work on the project included preparation of an operational agreement (public procurement contracts) for implementation of the Seed/Acceleration and Start-Up Fund and preparation of legal opinion on the drafts of public procurement documents prepared by the Fund of Funds for conducting a procedure for the selection of financial intermediaries for the implementation of financial instruments financed by Operational Programme Innovations and Competitiveness 2014-2020. DGKV shall further assist the Fund of Funds on the selection of financial intermediaries for implementation of financial instruments financed by the Operational Programmes Innovation and Competitiveness, Regions for Growth and Environment 2014-2020. The team has already accrued significant experience after being instructed by the European Investment Bank to handle the negotiations over the operational agreement with the financial intermediaries initiative as well as on the structuring of relationship between the management authorities of Republic of Bulgaria and the newly set up Funds of Funds entrusted with the management of all EU financial instruments resources to be made available to Republic Bulgaria during the 2014-2020 programming period."
DGKV’s team on the project is led by Partner Georgi Tzvetkov and includes Senior Associates Gergana Monovska and Anton Krustev and Associates Lora Aleksandrova and Tsvetelina Bayraktarova.
