“The supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state as the result of overconsumption of trivial or unchallenging online content” - this, ladies and gentlemen, is the meaning of “brain rot” - the Oxford Word of the Year.
Fortunately, the 2024 within the walls of Campus X was nothing similar. We tried to bring you only high-quality content, did a lot for our mental and intellectual states, got together to celebrate the wins of our community members, connected, and, together, marked a year of “many firsts” as our CEO Nikolay Bonev puts it.
Now, let’s see what made it that way.
2024 in the rearview: A better Campus X, huge wins for our community members, and lots of fun
It won’t be far-fetched to say that “together” was definitely among the Campus X words of the year.
With our community, we celebrated St. Valentine’s Day, the arrival of Spring, Baba Marta, and Halloween. We got together for movie nights, drinks, and emotion-filled evenings with European football.
When we got tired of chasing deadlines and hopping from one meeting to another, we gathered on our lovely terrace for relaxing yoga with a view.
Together, we continued our Christmas Charity Market tradition, with everyone adding a spark of their creative self - from homemade goodies to handmade Christmas cards. The proceeds went to various causes, with every company choosing a different initiative to support.
At Campus X, for example, we united behind the noble mission of the arts and crafts boarding school for socially disadvantaged children, "Dimitar Ekimov," in Rusalya (check out the documentary about their amazing work).
And even if you didn’t manage to come to our Christmas Charity Market, you can still donate here: https://rusalya.org/darete
An event-packed year
Over the past 12 months, we have been involved in a myriad of exciting events, either as hosts or as organizers.
The year's highlight was welcoming the Coworking Europe Conference in Sofia in November and putting Bulgaria on the global map of one of the leading coworking conferences. The event had a huge Campus X-shaped mark, with us co-organizers and our member, OfficeRnD, the platinum sponsor. Curious what we talked about? Check out the highlights in our dedicated material.
Throughout the year, our dedicated event space became home to various interesting events - from one of the leading recruitment conferences in Bulgaria to knowledge-packed workshops in the following thematic fields:
Startups: From thematic sessions on scaling up a project and mastering the journey from early stages to beyond funding rounds to IBM’s Sofia Accelerator initiative - 2024 was not shy of invaluable events for new founders;
Education and personal development: From psychomotor games for children and student entrepreneurship to trainings on the significance of reskilling and upskilling, mindset modeling, and goal-setting, there were lots of workshops dedicated to shaping the leaders of tomorrow;
Business and strategic planning: Our members held insightful workshops on creating unique business value that drives your revenue and keeps your company financially stable and competitive in the long run, as well as how to navigate economic uncertainty;
Community: We welcomed dozens of events acknowledging the importance of building a strong community – from the first-ever in-person gathering of Icanpreneur’s community to Telerik Academy celebrating its 15th birthday and more.
Our internal and community-led event series, including the Campus X Leadership Meetings, VertoDigital’s Community Talks, and Eleven Ventures’ various initiatives, delved into everything from helping entrepreneurs find support and mentors to mastering AI for content marketing, lead generation, and outreach.
Feeling that nasty FOMO settling in? The best way to brush it aside is by joining our newsletter to keep track of all the exciting stuff we have prepared for 2025. Spoiler alert - there will be tons of it.
Improving the Campus X facilities
In 2024, the Campus became bigger, better, and greener.
We added another full-service reception to ease our members in handling daily tasks. We also completed a renovation project in one of our buildings, adding two brand-new meeting rooms with video conferencing hardware and four meeting pods for one-on-one meetings.
We also equipped our facilities with the MEAVO Office Phone Booths. Made from over 800 recycled plastic bottles each, these environmentally conscious phone booths align with our commitment to supporting new, sustainable office solutions.
And while having nice indoors is cool, nothing beats the feeling of writing an email or drinking your morning coffee nestled in a lush green area. That is why we enhanced our little outdoor green oasis with several new meeting pods, offering the perfect spot for meetings, work sessions, or relaxing conversations.
We also opened a new terrace with a breathtaking view of Vitosha Mountain, where you can work, relax, or enjoy a time well spent with colleagues and furry friends.
We also fully renovated our plaza to bring our community members a much-improved outdoor space to meet, chat, laugh, and enjoy their time together.
Aside from being a great place to work, collaborate, and relax, our outdoor spaces also became a stage for the Dronamics exhibition. Hundreds of visitors got to see the “Black Swan” and learn about its journey - from a prototype to getting licensed to fly in the EU as a remotely piloted cargo drone.
For the bike lovers in the Campus X family, we built a dedicated Bike Zone equipped with all the necessary tools to ensure our bikes' safe and comfortable storage. More importantly, it will stimulate a greener and healthier commute.
Talking about bikes, our outdoor spaces also became a stage for the tests of the innovative electric bikes of the E-Drive startup.
Our members continued to rock the world
In 2024, the Campus X family got bigger. We welcomed more than 40 new members, making our community even more vibrant.
We told ourselves this shouldn’t take too long, but can you blame us - our members are so amazing there is nothing we can do about it. So, let’s just go through a couple of their achievements.
The high-flyers at Dronamics continued to soar to new altitudes, receiving funding from the European Innovation Council. The team also became part of the select group of companies behind the EU Future Mobility Taskforce - a strategic initiative to advise the EU's leadership in global transport innovation. Onwards and upwards, team!
The go-getters at Office RnD were voted #5 on G2’s list of the “Top 50 Office Products” and grabbed second place in the “Space Management” category. The company also struck key partnerships with industry leaders like NCG, isofy, and technologywithin to further enhance the already great customer experience its products are renowned for.
In 2024, Digital Lights continued to shine (sorry, we couldn’t miss the pun). First, the company stole the spotlight at the Forbes Bulgaria Business Awards, winning several accolades. Its remarkable journey was again recognized globally, resulting in a strategic merger with Bianor Holding and Prime Holding. Fueled by a €50 million M&A deal, the three companies formed Wiser Technology, and we can’t wait for the next chapter of their inspiring story.
Cloud Office’s year was nothing short of remarkable. The company won the 2024 Google Cloud Expansion Partner of the Year Award for EMEA and hosted Bulgaria's first-ever Google Cloud Day. Through its collaboration with JumpCloud, it introduced yet another global leader to the Bulgarian tech scene. To wrap up the year, Cloud Office secured a €2 million investment from Eleven Ventures. As home to both, you made us all proud!
TrialHub struck strategic partnerships with acromion and Biomaps and won the prestigious award for a Feasibility/Start-Up/Enrollment solution addressing a real clinical research market gap in an innovative and scalable way. Get inspired by Maya Zlatanova’s spectacular pitch at The Innovation Network Gathering 2024: TrialHub - Study Feasibility Award @ Whale Tank
Tokwise’s year was electric (we really can’t help it). The company made the list of startups to watch in 2024 of Sifted, the leading media brand for the European startup community. Alongside Cupfee, another inspiring member of ours, it made the ranks of the top 10 Bulgarian companies to watch in 2024 of the Tech.eu platform.
VertoDigital entering the Jasper Solutions Partner Program as one of the top 20 licensed agencies in the EMEA region and partnership with LinkedIn, Telerik Academy’s 2nd place for HR Strategy of the Year, Infopulse’s recognition in the Top 100 Publisher ranking by ComponentSource - the list goes on and on. However, we will stop here - in the end, we have an even better 2025 to prepare for!
Toward an even better 2025 at Campus X
We are humans - we all have some New Year resolutions in our closets, waiting for their time to come. But as a team, we can say that 2024 was a blast, and we can’t wait to make the next one even better - by pushing boundaries, breaking limits, and turning bold visions into reality.
We are determined to make 2025 about scaling new heights, empowering more innovators, and expanding our vibrant community. Together with our members, we will celebrate every small win, every big breakthrough, and every milestone that shapes the future we are collectively marching toward. Oh, and we will have lots of fun.
Aren’t you excited?
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