Building since 2006

Iliya Hristov

Software engineer & founder

I build the unglamorous infrastructure that products stand on — distributed backends, event-driven platforms, self-hosted Kubernetes — and I turn it into companies. Today most of that energy goes into Graceful OS: software that makes batteries last longer.

Get in touchSee the ventures
years in software
18+years in software
companies founded
3companies founded
patent application
1patent application

01 /

Eighteen years, one direction

From a first Pascal program to founding companies.

I started in 2006, on Pascal and Delphi 7. Eighteen years later the tools have changed beyond recognition, but the job has not: understand the domain, model it honestly, and build something that keeps running when nobody is watching.

The path went from writing code someone else specified, to owning the technical direction as CTO, to founding companies where the architecture and the business are the same decision. I have shipped systems on the JVM for most of that time — REST and event-driven services, multi-tenant Kafka, self-hosted Kubernetes — alongside the mobile and web clients that sit on top of them.

What I am building towards is narrower and more ambitious than a consultancy: energy software. Batteries degrade in ways that are physical, measurable and — with the right orchestration — partly avoidable. Graceful OS exists to close that gap, and the patent application is the first marker on that road.

  1. 2006

    First code

    Pascal · Delphi 7

    Self-taught start — procedural code, desktop apps, and the habit of reading other people’s source to learn.

  2. 2008

    Software Developer

    Stratos Soft Ltd · Sofia

    Six and a half years of production development — the apprenticeship that turned curiosity into a craft.

  3. 2014

    Software Engineer

    InterSoftPro Ltd · Sofia

    One year and four months of hands-on engineering in a product team, on the JVM.

  4. 2016

    Chief Technical Officer

    InterSoftPro Ltd · Sofia, Bulgaria / London, United Kingdom

    Five years and five months owning architecture, delivery and the engineering team — the first time the technical direction was mine to set.

  5. 2021

    Chief Technology Officer

    Happy Company Ltd · Bulgaria & United Kingdom

    Technology leadership for an AI-native software studio, and the platform work behind its products.

  6. 2022

    Founder & Lead Engineer

    Car File Ltd · United Kingdom

    Founded CarFile — a DVLA-integrated vehicle management platform for UK drivers and fleet operators. Live on the App Store, Google Play and the web.

  7. Now

    Founder

    Graceful OS Ltd · United Kingdom

    Battery lifetime orchestration software, with a UK patent application filed (GB2618025.7).

Based in the EU · Companies registered in the United Kingdom

02 /

Ventures

Three companies founded — and the platforms built alongside other teams.

Founded

Companies I started and own.

Deep tech · EnergyGB2618025.7

Graceful OS Ltd

Founder·United Kingdom

Battery lifetime orchestration software — scheduling how cells are charged and worked so they degrade slower. UK patent application GB2618025.7.

gracefulos.com

Built with / for others

Platforms designed and built for teams that are not mine.

03 /

What I actually build

The stack behind the ventures — hands-on, not advisory.

  • Backend & distributed systems

    Java and Spring Boot as the working language of the last decade. REST and event-driven services, multi-tenant Apache Kafka with per-service consumer isolation, circuit breakers and rate limiting on third-party integrations.

    • Java 21
    • Spring Boot
    • Apache Kafka
    • REST APIs
    • PostgreSQL

  • Kubernetes & DevOps

    Self-hosted clusters rather than managed comfort — because owning the platform is what makes the economics work. GitOps from commit to cluster, with the pipeline treated as production code.

    • Kubernetes
    • MicroK8s
    • ArgoCD
    • GitLab CI/CD
    • GitOps

  • Web & mobile clients

    React on the web and React Native on iOS and Android — shipped to the App Store and Google Play, wired to the same backend contracts I design on the other side.

    • React
    • React Native
    • TypeScript
    • Astro

  • Battery modelling & simulation

    Physics-based cell modelling with PyBaMM as the analytical core of Graceful OS — turning degradation behaviour into orchestration decisions software can actually make.

    • PyBaMM
    • Python
    • Degradation modelling
    • Simulation

  • AI & machine learning

    LLM-backed features and autonomous agents built into real products, not demos — and the retrieval, tooling and guardrails that decide whether they hold up in production.

    • LLM applications
    • Spring AI
    • Agents
    • RAG

  • Identity & access management

    Identity governance and access management across enterprise environments — certified on the Saviynt platform, and the perspective it gives on securing everything else I build.

    • Saviynt SCIP
    • IGA
    • Auth0
    • OAuth 2.0

04 /

Let’s talk

Direct, no form in between.

Iliya Hristov

Software engineer & founder · Companies registered in the United Kingdom

I am always interested in conversations with engineering leaders working on distributed systems, energy software or mobility platforms — and in people who want to build something durable rather than merely fundable.

Emailihristov@gracefulos.comLinkedIn/in/iliya-hristov