Romanian Startup Ecosystem Radar (06-12 February 2023)

🚀 Interesting fact for this week

We all have thought about the future of driving as being automated during this excitement about self-driving cars that we saw a few years back. Meanwhile we realized that there is a long way to go until then.

But another perspective is offered by a German startup, Vay – teledriving (someone else will drive the car to you from a distance – this being already on public streets in Hamburg).

So, until we have self-driving cars going mainstream, teledriving might be a relatively short-term(?) future!

Venture capital, M&A and funding-related news

1. Woof Diet, a startup that uses technology as well as veterinary knowledge to provide dog owners with customized diets to save them from medical problems, is looking for €‎150K pre-seed investment (link).

2. Mozaik Investments enters Untold’s shareholding through a minority package, to provide growth capital for the development of regional and international projects (link).

3. Safetech Innovations, a Romanian cyber security company listed on the AeRO market since January 2021, has transferred to the Regulated Market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (link).

Meme break

News related to programs and events

4. Innovation Small Call is a project from EIT Urban Mobility, dedicated to startups and SMEs which have an idea or a product/service in the following areas: Energy, Logistics, Future Digital. Deadline for the applications: 25 March (link).

5. Rubik Hub has launched the call for Rubik Garage, an equity-free accelerator for MVP-stage & early-stage startups from the CEE Region. Applications are open until 5 March (link).

6. The NO.MAD Talks events will return online in 2023, and on February 16 the first event will take place with the theme “How we promote ourselves online“. The event will address an important topic for all those who use online promotion channels for their businesses: how we choose communication channels better according to what the algorithm favors and what the audience wants (link).

7. The Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca has launched the first business incubator for students, called “UBB Student i-Lab”. The program represents a functional entrepreneurial structure, intended for UBB students who explore new ideas, with transfer potential in the business environment. Its purpose is to create physical and virtual spaces where students are provided with comprehensive support, connection to resources and entrepreneurial expertise, in an interdisciplinary academic community, to transform an idea into action (link).

Various news related to startups

8. Edtech company Ascendia, announced the acceptance of LIVRESQ in the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub to accelerate the integration of OpenAI artificial intelligence technologies in the core functionalities of the educational editor (link).

9. VerziBox, a home delivery service for fresh fruits and vegetables, will open a store in Ploiești in February, the second of the network, and another one by the end of spring (link).

Other news in the ecosystem

10. Women in Tech Global announced, during an event organized in Bucharest, the opening of a new division of the non-governmental organization in Romania (link).

11. TINIA Group, a company in the field of Green Energy, with the support of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, launches an AI and blockchain-based solution that decentralizes the distribution of solar energy, ensuring lower bills by reducing energy consumption (link).

12. The Swedish group Zordix is buying the Romanian game studio Fun Labs, through a newly created company, Maximum Entertainment (link).