Innovation Starter Accelerator
Innovation Starter Accelerator is a Sofia-based pre-seed accelerator that backs early-stage Bulgarian startups. It is not a water fund: its tracked water exposure is two early bets, leak-detection startup SatGeo and rice-husk filtration maker Glanris. Founded in 2014, it rates Occasional on (don't) Waste Water's water-commitment scale as of 2026.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Innovation Starter Accelerator grew out of Innovation Starter, the agency Leona Aslanova founded in Sofia in 2014 as Bulgaria's first dedicated innovation shop, running forums and corporate academies before it ever wrote a cheque. The accelerator is the investing end of that machine: a pre-seed program that takes very early Bulgarian founders, trains them, and backs the best with small equity and quasi-equity cheques. This is a generalist of the local economy, not a water specialist.
Innovation Starter Accelerator spreads its bets across the sectors a small economy needs to modernise, from healthcare and education to eldercare, logistics, food and eco-innovation. Water sits inside that last bucket rather than standing as a thesis. The two water names (don't) Waste Water tracks are SatGeo, which points satellite imagery and AI at buried pipes to find leaks, and Glanris, which turns rice husks into carbon-negative filtration media. Both are early-stage bets, and the most recent dates to 2021.
What makes Innovation Starter Accelerator more than a training program is the fund plumbed underneath it. Its capital is deployed through a Fund of Funds-backed vehicle managed with Innovation Capital, the team's investment arm, whose first fund put roughly twenty million euros to work across nearly two hundred Bulgarian startups. As of 2025 that arm, as Innovation Capital II, was selected for a fresh Bulgarian Fund of Funds mandate of about thirty-six million euros, a deliberate shift toward fewer, larger cheques deployed through the end of the decade.
Innovation Starter Accelerator is worth watching less for its water record, which is two cheques and a polite line in a broad portfolio, than for where it sits. If a Bulgarian water startup is going to get its first institutional euro, this is one of the few doors it can knock on, with a state-backed fund standing behind the program. That pipeline position, not the back catalogue, is the thing to track.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 2 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Innovation Starter Accelerator invest in?
- Innovation Starter Accelerator is a generalist pre-seed program, not a water fund. It backs early-stage Bulgarian startups across healthcare, education, eldercare, logistics, food and eco-innovation. Within that, water appears only through two tracked bets: leak-detection startup SatGeo and rice-husk filtration maker Glanris.
- Who runs Innovation Starter Accelerator?
- Innovation Starter Accelerator is led by Leona Aslanova, who founded the parent agency Innovation Starter in Sofia in 2014 and serves as its chief executive. The wider team includes executive director Anna-Marie Vilamovska, chief operating officer Tsvetan Tsolov, and junior investment manager Samuel Frances.
- Where is Innovation Starter Accelerator based?
- Innovation Starter Accelerator is based in Sofia, Bulgaria, where it runs a pre-seed acceleration and financing program for local founders. Founded in 2014 as part of the Innovation Starter agency, it focuses on high-priority sectors of the Bulgarian economy, from healthcare and education to eco-innovation.
- What water companies has Innovation Starter Accelerator backed?
- Innovation Starter Accelerator has backed two water companies tracked by (don't) Waste Water. SatGeo uses satellite imagery and AI to detect hidden leaks in water networks. Glanris manufactures carbon-negative filtration media from rice husks for industrial and municipal water treatment. Both were early-stage bets, the most recent dated to 2021.
- Is Innovation Starter Accelerator the same as Innovation Capital or Innovation Accelerator Bulgaria?
- Innovation Starter Accelerator is the pre-seed program run by the Innovation Starter agency. Its capital is deployed through a Fund of Funds-backed vehicle managed with Innovation Capital, the team's fund arm. The names overlap because they are one operation: the accelerator sources founders, Innovation Capital invests.