Runa began building an engineering team in Sofia after hiring Zlatko Atanasov as an engineering manager in March 2023. In a company interview published on June 7, Atanasov described himself as the first member of the new Sofia team and said its initial group was nearing completion. [S01]

A second location for engineering work

Atanasov described collaboration between engineers in London and Sofia through asynchronous communication, video calls and shared project tools. At the time of the interview, Runa was still establishing its Bulgarian entity. The account therefore describes an expansion in progress, rather than the completion of every legal or office arrangement. [S01]

For a gift card and payout infrastructure provider, team expansion is relevant because product delivery depends on the people operating the platform. A new location can widen recruitment, but its contribution cannot be measured from an appointment alone. Customers experience the result through the reliability and usability of the service.

Work beyond a gift card catalogue

The interview identifies a digital wallet, merchant experience and partner onboarding among the areas the engineering organisation expected to develop. It also describes an ambition to add another development team in Sofia. These were plans stated in June 2023, not subsequently verified headcount or completed product releases. [S01]

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Work beyond a gift card catalogue

Reported in June 2023

What it establishes

First Sofia engineering manager hired in March

A named starting point for the team

Initial team nearing completion

Recruitment under way

Bulgarian entity being established

Corporate setup still in progress

Additional team envisioned

An expansion plan, not a completed hire count

How to assess an engineering expansion

A company can open recruitment in a new market without immediately changing the service available to customers. The meaningful follow-up is how the additional capacity is used: which product work ships, how operational responsibilities are shared and how service quality is maintained.

The interview provides a dated account of Runa’s early Sofia presence. It does not disclose an investment amount, a final team size or a delivery timetable. Those limits leave the central development intact: the business was extending its engineering organisation beyond London while developing its wider digital-value platform.