Building the Next Super App From CEE With Atanas Raykov From Rakuten Viber

Our next guest is responsible for the global growth of Rakuten Viber, one of the biggest calling and messaging applications with over a billion users all over the world. 

Atanas Raykov is building on the app’s popularity with a focus on Europe, the US, Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. He works directly with Rakuten’s and Viber’s global executive team to develop strategic partnerships, marketing, and PR initiatives, as well as transform the application into a super app.

Previously Atanas worked for 10 years for the biggest telecom in Bulgaria VIVACOM.

Atanas is also an LP and mentor for the portfolio companies of LAUNCHub Ventures and Eleven Ventures. Part of the mentors’ network of Endeavor Bulgaria. And an angel investor of the CEO Angels Club. 

As a student at a business school, Atanas described his future career in the next 10 years in an essay. Little did he know he will turn this vision into a reality. 

He landed his first job as an intern during the merger between BTC and Vivatel and worked for the launch of their new united brand – Vivacom. 

Atanas worked there for 10 years, changing positions and helping the company become the leader in offering the widest range of telecom solutions in the Bulgarian market.  

How did he do that? 

“There was a lot of serendipity and a lot of deliberate choices from my side. I am patient and consistent and I play a longer-term game to increase the number of opportunities that come to me”, Atanas shares. 

Discover Atanas’s journey through this episode as he talks about his lessons learned from blitz scaling, how to utilize Airbnb to upgrade your network, the successful pitch that persuaded Viber to invest in the CEE region, and Viber’s Next Frontier becoming a super app.

Catch up with previous episodes – Ned Dervenkov from BESCO spills the secret sauce of effective advocacy work on innovation policies.