🌿From our side

🦁 Special thanks

start-up.ro have launched the documentary “Roaring Tigers of Europe” about the evolution of the Romanian startup ecosystem – a journey of challenges and growth (link). Congratulations to the team and a big thank you!

Venture capital, M&A and funding-related news

1. Bright Spaces, the Romanian born technology company for the real estate industry, has launched a fundraising campaign on SeedBlink, to reach its goal of ~€2M in a new round. €1.85M have already been raised from VC funds that have supported the startup in the past, but also from new partners (link).

2. Czech startup KARDI AI, which aims to prevent heart health and optimize patient treatment through long-term ECG monitoring and early detection of possible cardiac arrhythmias using artificial intelligence, has raised a further €1.5M. Among the investors that supported the startup in this round was Romanian venture capital firm Cleverage VC, specialized in medtech investments (link).

3. BCR announces the launch of BCR Seed Starter, a fully owned subsidiary, the first corporate venture capital company incorporated by a bank in Romania, aimed at investing in technology startups from January 2024 onwards (link).

4. Siena, a US-based startup launched by Romanian founders (Andrei Negrau and Lisa Popovici) that developed an autonomous AI customer service platform designed for e-commerce, raised $4.7M from a group of investors (link).

5. Underline Ventures has finalized the closing of their first fund at $20M. The fund’s focus remains the same – backing at the earliest stages Eastern European founders building high-growth startups with global ambitions (link).

6. Ogre AI, a data science-focused startup specializing in providing solutions for the energy sector based on machine learning and artificial intelligence, has closed a €625K funding round with Soulmates Ventures (link).

Meme break

 News related to programs and events

7. Rubik Hub has launched a new cohort, the sixth in number, in the Rubik Garage – Scale to USA accelerator program. 21 startups were selected (link).

8. Atomico has published its annual report analyzing the tech ecosystem in Europe. According to the collected data, the recession in the tech industry continues, fueled by inflation, rising interest rates and the geopolitical context (link).

9. The Romanian Farmers’ Club launched the third series of the “Entrepreneur in Agriculture 4.0” management training program. It aims to increase the performance and competitiveness of Romanian farmers by transforming their own business into a sustainable business model (link).

10. Startups and scaleups participating in the InnovX-BCR accelerator had the Demo Day and the best ones were awarded. Caut Curier won first place in the Startups category (link).

11. 12 startups have pitched their ideas in front of investors at the Demo Day of the 9th cohort of Commons Accel (link).

12. 8 startups pitched at the Investors’ Day event from Techcelerator in Bucharest (link).

13. The FRIEND CCI project, an initiative to support innovation and collaboration in the creative-cultural sector, announces the opening of the second funding call for SMEs in Romania (link).

14. Start-up.ro have launched the documentary “Roaring Tigers of Europe” about the evolution of the Romanian startup ecosystem – a journey of challenges and growth (link).

15. Applications are now open for ReaktorX, a business acceleration program open to startups from any industry in Central and Eastern Europe (link). 

 Various news related to startups

16. House of Vladila, a Romanian wallpaper manufacturer has won the Românii sunt antreprenori competition within the Startarium Pitch Day in the Running Ops category. The Climate Change Company, a startup that turns recycled plastic and glass into asphalt, won the startup category (link).

17. Tech Cuisine Smart Home, one of the most important players on the smart home market in Romania, announces the expansion of its operations in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia (link).

18. The Romanian startup Hilio, a telemedicine platform that offers psycho-emotional health and well-being services, is expanding on the Moldovan market through a partnership with the digital telecommunications company Moldcell (link).

19. Veridion, a Romanian startup active in the procurement technology sector, was included in ProcureTech‘s list of the top 100 global procurement technology companies for 2023 (link).

20. Two Romanian healthtech startups have been awarded at the EIT Health InnoStars Grand Final in Milan. Frontier Management Consulting, clinically validated software for the early diagnosis of cancer, won the second prize in the Attract to Invest competition. And MoodZ, a smart watch application that monitors mental health, won the InnoStars Community Award (link).

21. Two Romanian AI-focused startups – The CoRD.ai and Footprints AI –  pitched at AI Bootcamp 2023 in London (link).

22. Legal document operating system startup Goodlegal  has announced that it is shutting down as of December 2023, a year after it was founded and received an investment (link).

23. Blue, the Romanian brand, part of the most extensive mobility network in Romania, Autonom, officially entered in November the ride hailing market in Bucharest (link).

24. Kinderpedia, the school management and communication solution, reached the finals of the Web Summit Pitch competition, has been recognized as the public’s favorite and got the PITCH Award (link).

25. Stailer, the startup that mediates the relationship between beauty salons and customers, is adding a new service through which customers can identify available salons at the time they want to make a reservation (link).

26. Peelhy, a startup that develops an idea of decontamination of fresh fruits and vegetables with edible peel through an antimicrobial bio-sticker that dissolves by washing, won the regional phase of the BASF Innovation Hub competition for a sustainable future (link).

27. Unison, Romanian producer of vegan products, won first place in the Empowering Women in Agrifood accelerator (link). 

28. The Romanian startup .Lumen, creator of glasses for the visually impaired, won the Altice Portugal Innovation Award for Inclusion, along with €20K (link). 

29. KFactory has been accepted into the UK government’s Global Entrepreneur Program, which allows easier access to the UK market (link).
30. Omnicredit, the first Romanian fintech platform for microfinancing, scoring and factoring, has received prestigious recognition as the top loan solution at the SME Banking Club (link).

Cheers

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