🚀 From our side

Join us at the Romanian HealthTech Startups 2023 Overview Meetup! Reserve your seat here!

This event will shine light on the trends, 80+ healthtech startups and their achievements and the development of the ecosystem in the foreseeable future! See you there!

Venture capital, M&A and funding-related news

1. GlobalLogic, a software engineering services company, announced the acquisition of Fortech, a software development outsourcing provider from Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The acquisition of Fortech will strengthen GlobalLogic’s European footprint, enabling it to better serve clients in the region with its end-to-end digital product engineering services (link).

2. Aggranda, a Romanian startup specializing in business process automation, has acquired RPA Box, another Romanian startup that offers robotic process automation (RPA) solutions. The acquisition aims to strengthen Aggranda’s portfolio of solutions and expand its customer base (link).

3. The Ukrainian fintech company Finmap has raised €1M in a seed funding round led by SMOK Ventures and is looking to expand its services to Romania. The funds will be used to improve the company’s platform, which provides consumers with personalized financial product recommendations based on their needs and financial situation (link). 

4. Instant Factoring, a Romanian fintech startup that offers invoice financing services, has raised €600K in a funding round to support its international expansion plans. The investment was led by MicroEurope, and will be used to help Instant Factoring expand into new markets (link).

5. Romanian Zitamine Nutrition is seeking an investment of €350K to expand its business in Bulgaria and the region. The startup produces and sells a range of nutritional supplements designed to help improve overall health and address specific health concerns (link).

Meme break

 News related to programs and events

6. INNO, the department responsible for innovation and investment attraction of the Northwest Regional Development Agency, is launching the first accelerator in Romania dedicated exclusively to start-ups in the fields of health and life sciences, LevelUP Health & Life Sciences Accelerator. The program aims to support early-stage startups in the healthcare sector by providing mentorship, networking opportunities, and funding (link). 

7. Andrei Pitiș has launched a new program called The Bucharest Hackathon, which will bring together between 11-12 March 100 programmers to work on developing new products or services. The event aims to provide participants with access to mentors, networking opportunities, and the chance to win prizes (link).

8. RubikEDU, a program by RubikHub, aims to support early-stage startup founders in developing and validating their business ideas, and it offers access to various resources, such as mentorship, training sessions, networking opportunities, and co-working spaces. The program is open to startups from various fields, including fintech, healthtech, and edtech. They can apply until 20 March (link).

 Various news related to startups

9. Buy4Baby, an e-commerce platform that specializes in baby and child products, has rebranded as Empria.ro after a successful year of business. The company achieved a turnover of over €500K in 2022 and expects to exceed €1M in 2023 (link).

10. Xtrainer, a Romanian start-up that offers a digital platform for sports coaching and training, has been accepted into the NewChip accelerator program in the United States. The company’s platform connects sports coaches and athletes, enabling them to create personalized training programs and track progress (link). 

11. Perpetoo, a Romanian peer-to-peer car rental service, has expanded its operations to 12 cities across the country. The platform enables car owners to rent out their vehicles to people in their area who are in need of transportation, with the goal of providing a more affordable and flexible alternative to traditional car rental services (link). 

12. Druid, a Romanian conversational AI platform, has announced a partnership with ROBOYO, a global leader in professional services automation. The partnership aims to provide users with hyper-automation capabilities through the integration of Druid’s conversational AI technology and ROBOYO’s full-cycle automation solution (link).

 Other news in the ecosystem

13. Start-up.ro has started producing the first-ever documentary about Romanian startups. The documentary is set to showcase the Romanian startup ecosystem, including interviews with startup founders, investors, and other key players (link). 

14. Romanian gaming company Firebyte Games has partnered with the US-based NFT platform Magic Eden to create and distribute NFTs for its games (link).

Cheers

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