When Iliya Valchanov and his four business partners decided to scale their startup Team-GPT exponentially, they began seeking external funding to fuel its growth. The five had worked on projects together for years but had never required outside capital before.
They started reaching out to friends and successful entrepreneurs who had raised funds, and one recurring piece of advice was for Iliya to grow a beard before meeting potential investors. "They told me I'd have a better chance of getting more money if I looked older," he shared in a podcast episode announcing their funding round. The 30-year-old entrepreneur grew a beard and traveled to Silicon Valley for a few months, meeting with more than 85 venture capital firms to try to convince them that the Bulgarian team's AI integration technology deserved a spot on the global market.
Three months, one beard, and countless investor meetings later, the Team-GPT crew not only secured a deal but raised 4.5 million dollars-the largest recorded seed funding round for a Bulgarian company. Eighteen months after its launch, Team-GPT is now valued at 17.5 million dollars. With a combined 25% stake in the company, investors include U.S.-based True Ventures, U.K.-based Pact VC, and around 30 angel investors.
Valchanov and his partners have clear plans for the use of the funding, which they aim to utilize over the next 18 months for team expansion and service development. "We currently have 26 people, including 7 external contractors working for us. We aim to grow to a team of 30 within the next 12 to 18 months," he explains. Their primary goal is to drive rapid growth by building a high-performing team, delivering consistent product updates, and staying ahead of their competitors.
The experiment that sparked a business
When OpenAI launched ChatGPT at the end of 2022, Valchanov's team-then working on another project-began experimenting with different models to test their performance. Their CTO, Ilko Kacharov, founded the domain Team-GPT for 10 dollars so they decided to validate the idea. While on honeymoon in San Francisco with his wife and business partner, Maria Valchanova, he combined leisure with research to explore market opportunities. "I looked around and thought, these people aren't extraordinary-it's just that we lack the mindset that we, too, can create something great," he reflects.
Team-GPT's software integrates AI tools like ChatGPT into a single platform for companies, eliminating the need for multiple subscriptions. By the end of 2023, they had attracted more than 30,000 subscribers from companies like EY, Charles Schwab, Columbia University, and Yale.
Securing US money
Valchanov's previous ventures were bootstrapped, funded initially with personal savings and later sustained by revenue. His family supported him with his first business, and they contributed again when he and his partners invested 300,000 dollars to validate Team-GPT's potential. However, to scale from 5 to 25 team members, they realized venture capital was essential. Valchanov sought advice from Bogomil Balkansky, a partner at a leading U.S. VC firm, asking critical questions about raising funds.
Team-GPT's approach follows the textbook formula for startup success: meeting numerous stakeholders, presenting a clear vision, and building networks in key markets like Silicon Valley and London. Their recent 4.5 million dollar funding round will be used to drive fast growth. "The funds will last for a year-and-a-half, enabling us to scale quickly," Valchanov says.
Today, Team-GPT's platform offers access to multiple AI services (such as ChatGPT and Claude), an intuitive interface for easy adoption, AI usage training, workshops, and hackathons. They are currently developing assistants to automate workflows tailored to client needs. "We aim for our software to be the first thing users open in the morning-a centralized AI assistant for workflows, pages, and data," says the team.
The company's success is evident not only in its growing user base, which now includes nearly 50,000 people, but in its financial performance. Operating through both Bulgarian and U.K. entities, Team-GPT is currently generating 250,000 dollars in recurring revenue, with a growth rate of 50% year-over-year. The new investment is expected to accelerate this trajectory further.
When Iliya Valchanov and his four business partners decided to scale their startup Team-GPT exponentially, they began seeking external funding to fuel its growth. The five had worked on projects together for years but had never required outside capital before.
They started reaching out to friends and successful entrepreneurs who had raised funds, and one recurring piece of advice was for Iliya to grow a beard before meeting potential investors. "They told me I'd have a better chance of getting more money if I looked older," he shared in a podcast episode announcing their funding round. The 30-year-old entrepreneur grew a beard and traveled to Silicon Valley for a few months, meeting with more than 85 venture capital firms to try to convince them that the Bulgarian team's AI integration technology deserved a spot on the global market.
