Venture capital, M&A and funding-related news

1. Latvian fintech Lande, which offers a crowdfunding platform for agriculture and agricultural projects, has received a €550K investment to expand in Romania (link).

2. Bravva Angels, the first community of Business Angel investors in Romania dedicated to supporting startups with at least one female founder, announced today that it has launched the platform www.bravva.ro, where startups interested in financing and programs can apply for investments (link).

3. MedLife, the leader of the private medical services market in Romania, announced the purchase of the majority package in the SanoPass digital platform, one of the most active Romanian startups in the healthtech area, which offers medical, wellness and fitness services on a subscription and individual basis (link).

4. Froopt, an online store of organic fruits and vegetables, entered the portfolio of NETOPIA Ventures, an investment fund that is part of the NETOPIA group (link).

5. Cimpress, a technology group listed on the American Nasdaq stock exchange, has invested and taken over a significant stake in the CloudLab AG company, an organization founded in Iași in 2013. Under the umbrella of Cimpress, CloudLab AG will enter a new phase and benefit from better visibility in the software industry, and at the same time accelerate the company’s development on the international market (link).

Meme break – let’s not take ourselves too serious 

 News related to programs and events

6. The fifth edition of Launch Community Evenings will take place in Bucharest on September 20. Launch – the community of startup founders – brings the meeting as a satellite event of the How to Web 2022 Conference, which takes place in Bucharest between September 21-22 (link).

7. The OTP Startup Booster program, in its fifth edition, enters the pilot phase until November 25, 2022. During this period, OTP Group will collaborate with 12 startups that will help develop solutions for a multitude of business needs (link).

8. Tremend, one of the most dynamic software engineering companies in the region, part of Publicis Sapient, organizes the first product strategy competition in Eastern Europe – the Pixel hackathon, which will take place between October 8-9, at the Tremend headquarters in Bucharest (link).

9. After 4 months of training and mentoring, the startups from the Rubik Garage acceleration program organized by Rubik Hub took the stage to pitch to investors, raise funding rounds and present their idea to the general public at the Demo Day (link).

10. Female founders in the deep-tech field can receive funding through a European Union program. Women TechEU can offer a grant of €75K for support in the initial process of innovation and building a company (link).

11. The F&B Business Accelerator is looking for entrepreneurs to innovate the food industry. The 6-week program is based on daily online workshops as well as mentoring sessions with top entrepreneurs and trainers with international experience. Registrations are open until October 9 (link).

12. The BASF Innovation Hub program is accepting applications until September 30. The program is addressed to start-ups and innovative solutions in the fields of: clean energy, smart mobility and sustainable agriculture (link).

 Various news related to startups

13. Bloomcoding, one of the largest online programming schools in Romania and the Republic of Moldova, managed to win the “sTARTUp Day 2022 Pitching Contest” festival in Tartu, Estonia (link). 

14. Softlead, the marketplace that helps companies to digitize, starting from the organizational DNA, together with Filbo, micro lending platform, announced a partnership through which companies have easier access to loans to help them in digitization, such as procurement of IT solutions and services (link).

15. Proptech startup Bright Spaces is expanding into the UK through a new partnership. They started working with Bruntwood Works to present prospective clients with a virtual replica of West Village Leeds and its available spaces (link).

16. Bright Spaces and InteRo Property Development launched InteRoVerse, an integrated 3D digital web platform for showcasing residential projects from the developer’s portfolio (link).

17. Romanian tech startup Directimo announced the opening of an office in Dubai and the appointment of Mike Hapoianu as the company’s CEO for the UAE market (link).

18. Romanian startup Pluria, an aggregator of flexible spaces that facilitate the hybrid way of working, launched operations in Mexico, the Latin American market with the highest growth potential, and announced the first corporate clients in this country (link).

19. BlackCab and DRUID have entered into a partnership to develop an intelligent virtual assistant dedicated to driver communication and recruitment (link).

20. Manuscrito, ONE Learning and Investory are the winners of Innovators for Children 2022. The three startups will receive a total of €20K in funding, mentorship and consultancy in developing their products (link). 

 Other news in the ecosystem

21. ROStartup has launched two key reports: Starting Up Romania and Scaling Up Romania in order to better understand where the Romanian startup ecosystem is now, but also what are the next steps in its evolution (link).

22. Booking Holdings, the largest global provider of online travel and related services, has opened a Center of Excellence in Bucharest. It will support the company’s growth and transformation goals, as well as the vision for the future of the industry (link).

Cheers

from Andrea, Denisa, Adrian, Ela and Mircea (Activize team)