- The Bulgarian AI and data analytics startup that specializes in the development and the market commercialization of digital twins, MYX raised a €3.5M from the Swiss strategic investor Connect44 and current investor New Vision 3.
- In the past year, MYX has developed a strong focus on the telecom industry in light of the rising market opportunities in the 5G sector.
- The funding will be used to scale the Bulgarian team and build a stronger market presence in the US, the UK, France, and Germany.
“We currently serve some of the world’s largest tower companies, including the biggest US and EU tower companies, alongside mobile operators. We are also delivering very exciting projects in other industries – power lines, urban infrastructure, oil and gas, mining, renewables, and agriculture. With this round, we are partnering with a new Swiss strategic investor that carries great expertise in the telco space and will help us accelerate our growth as they work in 10 European countries,” Dean Bezlov, Head of Business Development at MYX, highlights forThe Recursive.
MYX is co-founded by two high school friends – Yavor Mihailov and Mihail Georgiev. In March 2021, the digital twins startup attracted its first €350K investment from the Bulgarian early-stage VC New Vision 3 and two private investors. The news follows the expansion of the Bulgarian team over the last year from 6 to 25 members.
“At the time that we met with Connect 44, we were looking for an investment and were faced with two options – to go after VC financing or to get a strategic corporate investor on board. We chose the second route because we realized that Connect 44 can really open new doors for us every step of the way. Right now we are using their entire sales network. Being able to sit at one table with decision-makers from Vodafone, Orange and other telecoms is invaluable. With the strategic help of Connect 44, we are now able to do that,” Bezlov says.
One year of hard work
“In the office, we joke that we release a new feature every 11 days. One year ago we were in the initial stages of developing the platform and the use cases. We were aware of the possibilities that our technology can offer to the market but did not have a well-developed product portfolio. Right now we have around 20 products. Each one of them is built as a use case together with our clients and partners,” Bezlov explains.
Today, MYX serves all three categories of players in the telecom sector. These are mobile operators such as A1, Telenor, and Vodafone, tower companies, and engineering companies that upgrade and maintain telecom infrastructure. The digital twins startup works with large companies such as American Tower in Germany. Their main markets are the UK, France, and Germany. MYX is also currently working to get long-term deals in the US market.
With the latest financial boost, MYX will aim to scale inside the telecom vertical. Later on, the company will build a secondary focus on other sectors with the aim to raise additional funding.
What is the telecom buzz all about?
As Bezlov explains, one of the reasons why MYX is creating a vertical focus in the telecom sector is the universality of the problems in this particular space.”Clients from every country – be it the US, Bulgaria, or the UK care about one thing – whether they can place more antennas on a telecom tower. This is highly necessary now with the 5G rollout because it allows for more efficiency in cost and time,” he continues.
The rollout and deployment of 5G is the hottest opportunity in the telecom market according to Bezlov. The reason is the high cost for mobile operators and their need to think of ways to share locations with each other. In addition to the 5G market dynamics, Bezlov identifies a couple of secondary business opportunities. These are the deployment of private networks by all kinds of large enterprises such as ports and factories, which have realized the need to deploy their own internal networks for improved communication and IoT integrations. In parallel, MYX has seen a use case in the needs of municipalities. The digital twins startup has done a 27-sq.km scan of the Bulgarian coastal city Ruse to help the municipality make an inventory of all the city assets and evaluate which facilities need renovating.
