In a major milestone not just for Bulgaria, but for Europe’s tech scene at large, Shelly Group — the IoT innovator behind the well-known line of smart building solutions — has reached a market valuation of over $1B.

At almost €50 per share, publicly traded under the ticker SLYG on both the Frankfurt (Xetra) and Bulgarian Stock Exchange, Shelly becomes a rare breed: a hardware-first, European-born tech scaleup that made it to unicorn territory without relying on endless venture capital rounds.

From SMS ringtones to smart relays in 20 years: Shelly Group turned a €2M Bulgarian IPO into a €1B European IoT success by pivoting early, keeping its tech hacker-friendly and financing growth through the public markets.

“This isn’t just a win for Bulgaria — it’s a testament to how visionary leadership, cutting-edge tech, and strategic financing can create a global success story,” wrote Viktor Manev, Founding Partner at IMPETUS Capital, one of Shelly’s early investors, in a LinkedIn post celebrating the news.

How a side-project became a €1B IoT champion

1) 2003-2010: Telecom roots

• • Teracomm Ltd is set up in Sofia in 2003 by serial entrepreneur Dimitar Dimitrov to build value-added mobile services—think ringtones, premium SMS billing and enterprise notifications.
  • As the portfolio grows, Dimitrov folds the units into holding company Allterco AD (2010), giving him a listed-company structure for future spin-outs.

2) 2013-2015: First IoT experiments

• • An internal skunk-works team hacks together “She”, a DIY Wi-Fi relay that can flip a household light from a phone—basic, but it plants the Shelly seed. Seeing traction, Allterco creates Allterco Robotics in 2015 and rolls out the kid-tracker MyKi Watch, rapidly selling 10 000 units.
  • That same year Bulgarian growth fund Impetus Capital takes a minority stake (per investor disclosure the user shared), giving the hardware team fresh runway.

3) 2016: IPO money for R&D

• • Allterco lists on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange at BGN 1.45 a share, raising ~BGN 2.2 m to bankroll its new IoT roadmap—rare for a hardware start-up at the time.

4) 2017-2019: The Shelly 1 moment & a clean pivot

• • In Aug 2018 the tiny, open-API Shelly 1 relay hits maker forums and YouTube, winning over tinkerers who wanted local control instead of cloud lock-in.
  • Orders explode; meanwhile the legacy telecom units feel off-strategy, so Allterco sells five MVAS subsidiaries to Norway’s Link Mobility for €7.9 m and goes all-in on IoT (July 2019).

5) 2020-2022: Scale-out & dual listing

• • Shelly opens a US office in 2020 and passes 120 export markets, signalling true global ambition.
  • A second listing on Frankfurt’s Prime Standard follows in Nov 2021 at €14.50, giving the company wider analyst coverage and deeper liquidity.

6) 2023 – Today: Re-brand, Gen4 and unicorn status

• • Shareholders vote to rename the whole group Shelly Group (June 2023) to match the hero product line.
  • Conversion to a European Company (SE) and continued capacity outsourcing keep the balance sheet light.
  • Gen4 devices announced at CES 2025 add multi-protocol (Matter, Zigbee, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) radios, cementing Shelly’s “works-with-anything” USP.
  • Riding a 6 000 % share-price run since the 2016 IPO, the Frankfurt quote crossed €49 on 4 June 2025, tipping the public-market valuation over US $1B.

Scaling for the Future

Riding a wave of demand for energy-saving and automation solutions, Shelly is now ramping up production in a big way. The company recently announced that it will almost double its monthly manufacturing capacity from 800,000 to 1.5 million units by late 2025 — and hit 2 million units per month in 2026. All without needing to raise capital: the expansion is being funded by Shelly’s Chinese contract manufacturing partner.

“Doubling our production capacity in less than two years is much more than an operational achievement – it’s a clear commitment to our ambition to reach the next level of growth,” said Co-CEO Wolfgang Kirsch, a former MediaMarktSaturn executive who shares leadership with founder and technologist Dimitar Dimitrov.

What’s next? Shelly is already broadening its portfolio with Gen4 smart relays, smart plugs, embedded OEM solutions, and even smart locks after acquiring Dutch startup LOQED in 2024. A SaaS layer has also been added to its Shelly Smart Control platform, now with over 200,000 paying users.