Some moves aren’t about strategy decks or quarterly returns. They’re about belief.
At the beginning of 2025, we made a long-term commitment to INSAIT—Bulgaria’s world-class institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology. It wasn’t our first. Back in 2022, when the institute was just getting started, our founder, Atanas Simeonov, was among the earliest donors—helping provide the funding needed to build its critical infrastructure.
Now, we’re building on that belief with a new major donation over the next five years—support that will help INSAIT attract and retain top talent, invest in advanced AI computing power, and accelerate its next phase of growth.
We’re not doing this out of routine or obligation. We’re doing it because we see INSAIT as something far greater than a single institution—it represents a bigger bet. One on Bulgaria’s potential to lead, not follow. To be the stage, not just the talent pool.
Because what’s really at stake here isn’t one initiative—it’s everything that can grow around it. Keeping our best minds close. Attracting new ones in. Building the kind of environment where innovation doesn’t just survive—it accelerates.
So, let us tell you what happens when capital meets conviction—and vision gets a real chance to scale.
Read on.
Bulgaria’s Big Dilemma: Talent Without Traction
Speaking of scale—there’s one thing that makes or breaks it: traction. And that’s where Bulgaria’s challenge really starts.
Our country has no shortage of talent. We’ve seen it firsthand—brilliant minds, sharp ideas, world-class technical skill.
But brilliance doesn’t guarantee momentum. Too often, that talent leaves. Or worse, stays—and stalls. Not because it lacks ambition, but because it lacks the environment to thrive.
The result? A slow leak of potential. Ideas that never get built. Researchers who never get the tools. Companies that almost happen, but don’t.
That’s the gap we’re trying to close. Because when a country consistently exports its best and brightest, it’s not just losing talent—it’s losing its future.
Building the Infrastructure for Breakthroughs
So how do we stop that slide? How do we turn talent into traction—and potential into progress?
By giving it more than opportunity. By giving it infrastructure. And not just any infrastructure but the kind that makes staying not just possible, but obvious.
Here, we’re talking about depth—the serious stuff. Research labs. High-performance computing. Academic freedom. Long-term vision. The things that can’t be hacked together overnight or outsourced across borders.
That’s what makes INSAIT different. It’s not another academic silo. It’s a launchpad. A place where research collides with real-world application. Where academia and industry don’t just shake hands—they build together.
Bulgaria has long lacked this kind of foundation. INSAIT fills that gap—not with promises, but with precision. It’s where the next generation of AI talent can train, build, and launch—right here at home.
And that matters. Because startups don’t thrive in a vacuum. They grow in ecosystems that invest in ideas years before they become companies.
INSAIT is that kind of bet—and it’s exactly the kind we’re here to make.
Raising the Bar: Global Standards, Local Roots
A move like this changes more than the institute it supports—it reshapes the context around it.
Because INSAIT truly marks a turning point. More than just being Bulgaria’s shot at serious deep-tech infrastructure, it signals that our country is ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the world’s most influential innovation ecosystems.
Look at ETH Zurich (a public research university). With around 25 startups spun out each year and a magnetic pull for global tech companies, it helped turn Zurich into a European powerhouse for innovation. Or take the Technion in Israel (another public research university), where more than 70% of high-tech founders and execs are alumni—and 80% of Israeli companies listed on NASDAQ have roots there.
These institutions do more than simply educate. They create momentum. They shape industries. They anchor entire ecosystems.
INSAIT has that same potential. Built on an internationally validated model, designed to empower cutting-edge research, and grounded in a country with a deep pool of untapped brilliance.
Because Bulgaria doesn’t need to settle for being a talent exporter. We can—and should—become a destination. A place where world-class research happens. A place where bold ideas are born, scaled, and shared with the world.
Private Capital’s Role: Don’t Just Watch—Build
That kind of ambition, however, can’t rest on public institutions alone—and in Bulgaria, it too often does.
The ecosystems that thrive? They’re the ones where private capital moves early—before the traction, before the certainty, before it’s comfortable.
But too often, investors wait. They sit on the sidelines, looking for safe bets and familiar signals.
The truth is ecosystems aren’t inherited. They’re built. And that takes people willing to move first—to lay the groundwork, not just benefit from it.
That’s how we see our role at Ocean. Not just backing companies, but helping shape the conditions they grow in. Getting involved where it actually matters—at the system level, not just the cap table.
Because when you invest in the environment—not just the output—you don’t just fuel growth. You make it inevitable. Us backing INSAIT represents just that.
This Is Just the Beginning
And look, as ecosystem builders, we know better than most that big change doesn’t announce itself. It builds—through consistency, through conviction, through people who are willing to go first.
Supporting INSAIT is one step. But it reflects something bigger: a belief in what Bulgaria can become when the right ideas meet the right backing.
We believe in long views. In bold moves. In building the kind of future we’ll be proud to have helped shape.
Because the future we want for Bulgaria won’t be imported. It will be invented—by the people who stay, the people who return, and the people who choose to build.
Let’s be those people.