United Bulgarian Bank issued the following announcement on May 27.

Team BeVine is the big winner of JA Bulgaria's pre-acceleration program ChallengeYou, and it's subsidiary The Edge: R & BD, in partnership with UBB. The team offers a combination of software and hardware solutions to reduce the disease on the vine. The decision is already in the test stage and the first customers are owners of small vineyards and a winery in southern Bulgaria.

"I very much like that the winning team combines a traditional Bulgarian sector such as agro-entrepreneurship and wine-making with new technologies. I am convinced that this is the future. JA and our subsidiary The Edge will be glad to support the team in the next steps, "said Milena Stoycheva, JA Bulgaria's executive director and The Edge: R & BD.

Twelve teams participated in the final, which fought for the grand prize provided by JA Bulgaria, it's subsidiary The Edge: R & BD and in partnership with UBB, namely 6-month mentoring, workspace and helping the team to commercialize their idea.

"I was happy to support BeVine in developing their innovative solution, which is undoubtedly beneficial to the wine sector they are targeting. Their application can be extended to the wider agricultural market, even at an international level, and is ideally suited to the development of the so- precision farming. They have a solid database of potential customers and have the technologies that give them the chance to succeed. Last but not least, I liked their business model. It is capable of generating sustainable revenues in a relatively short period of time, because, let's face it, entrepreneurs must also make gains from their idea because no one is looking for innovation for the innovations themselves, " said Christoph De Mill, Finance "of UBB and innovation leader of KBC Group in Bulgaria.

The ChallengeYou Pre-Acceleration Program was launched this year, with its first edition lasting eight weeks, from March to May, during which participants attended a number of workshops and training that combine theory with practice, a course on design thinking, a series of mentoring afternoons, a demo day and final race. The program was attended by Bulgarian students from different specialties and universities, who worked on ideas in the following areas: finteh, artificial intelligence, IoT, virtual reality, healthcare, clean energy, agro innovations.

Original source can be found here.