Romanian Startup Ecosystem Radar: Summer News Report (July – September 15)

🌟 Welcome back to the Romanian Startup Ecosystem Radar! 🚀

After a refreshing summer break, we’re excited to dive right back into the heart of Romania’s thriving startup scene. Over the past few months, the ecosystem has been quite active, and we’ve been diligently curating the most important news and events that unfolded from July through September 15.

As autumn approaches, we’re gearing up for an exhilarating season filled with exciting events, valuable networking opportunities, and countless stories of innovation. The Romanian startup landscape is more vibrant than ever, and we can’t wait to share the latest updates with you.

📢Fresh Event Alert

💡Join in for an enlightening one-hour webinar hosted by the Hubvantage community with support from EIT Health, where you can delve into the world of private funding and healthtech innovation.

Venture capital, M&A and funding-related news

1. Databricks, an AI and data analytics startup with two Romanian founders in its team (Ion Stoica & Matei Zaharia), raised a series I investment worth over $500M led by T. Rowe Price (link).

2. Romanian AI startup Druid announced it has raised $30M in a series B round of funding led by TQ Ventures (link).

3. Bunnyshell, the Romanian Enterprise SaaS startup revolutionizing software production for teams, has announced a funding round to secure €4M in total investment. Co-investors have committed €3.5M towards this round, and the remaining €300K was available for private investors to participate through SeedBlink (link).

4. DecoShift, a startup that helps real estate developers and furnishing showrooms present their projects in an interactive way, is looking for €300K of funding (link).

5. Spotlight, the startup program & competition of How to Web Conference 2023 (October 4-5), has announced a record investment prize of €780K from leading investors (link).

6. ⁠Tractable, a London-based AI startup that uses computer vision to assess the condition of cars and homes, has announced a $65M series E investment led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The company is cofounded by the Romanian Răzvan Ranca (link).

7. Outdid, an end-to-end private ID verification solution leveraging zero knowledge proofs announced the closing of its $2.5M seed round led by Jump Crypto. The startup is cofounded by Ana Maria Pricop (link).

8. Artificial intelligence code cleanup startup Grit has raised $7M in a seed round led by Founders Fund and Abstract Ventures. The company is cofounded by the Romanian Cosmin Rădoi (link).

9. The Swiss group Fracht Group has taken over the operations of the Romanian online freight transport platform YLOAD (link).

10. Romanian global cybersecurity firm Bitdefender has completed the acquisition of Horangi Cyber Security, a Singapore-based SaaS cyber security company (link).

Meme break

News related to programs and events

11. ABC Incubator has launched the ABC Accelerator, a new initiative designed to support startups in taking their businesses to the next level (link).

12. Between September 22-24, the second edition of the consolid8 Festival will be held in Brasov.

13. StepFWD is looking for startups to join their 7-month accelerator. Registration is open until October 8th (link).

14. Between October 18th and 19th in Brasov, Future Banking will organize a new edition of the Future Banking Summit, the event devoted to the financial and banking industry in Romania (link).

15. The second edition of the Romanian Agri Trade Summit has been announced. It will take place in Bucharest on February 22, 2024 (link).

16. The Institute of Excellence in Entrepreneurship (IdEA) has opened registrations for cohort #9 at Commons Accel startup accelerator (link).

17. Rubik Hub has completed the fifth edition of the Rubik Garage accelerator where 24 startups took part (link).

18. The Innovators for Children accelerator has selected 11 startups for the fifth edition of its program (link).

19. Social Innovation Solutions organized the final of the sixth edition of the Future Makers incubator (link).

20. LevelUP Health & Life Sciences Accelerator program, the first accelerator for health and life sciences startups in Romania, held its Demo Day event on 18th of September, marking the end of the program (link).

Various news related to startups

21. Rastel.io has won the EIT Urban Mobility RAPTOR Challenge and will be implementing a pilot project in Slovakia (link).

22. Epic Visits, the online booking platform, concluded a partnership with Hotel2Business in order to offer an effective technological solution that will accelerate the digitization process in Romanian tourism (link).

23. High-Tech Systems & Software, a company specialized in providing software services for the medical industry, launched telemedica, a Software as a Service platform of virtual clinic type, following an investment over €500K (link).

24. 24pay and SanoPass FIT by MedLife concluded a partnership, offering 24pay users access to more than 350 fitness centers in the SanoPass network (link).

25. Footprints AI, a Romanian company that operates one of the most advanced media retail platforms in the world, opened its first office in the US, in Silicon Valley (link). They have also been accepted to TechChill Milano – Startup Pitch Battle competition (link).

26. Finqware announced the integration of Microsoft Azure Active Directory, the user authentication and authorization system in MS Windows, in the FinqTreasury platform (link).

27. Humans.ai has signed a strategic partnership with the emirate of Ras al Khaimah and will provide blockchain technology for artificial intelligence companies in the emirate (link).

28. The Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) has issued an authorization for the startup Stock.estate through which it can offer crowdlending services for real estate projects (link).

29. Fagura, a fintech platform, announced that they have received regulatory approval from the Financial Supervisory Authority in Romania (link).

30. Bobnet, the Romanian startup of hardware and software solutions for the automation of the retail industry, financed by NCH Capital, launches a partnership with important retail operators, for the development of innovative automated retail chains with global, European or regional coverage (link).

31. Code for Romania, a civic technology organization, is expanding their non-profit operations internationally, under a new name, Commit Global (link).