Romanian Startup Ecosystem Radar (September 16 – October 15)

🚀How to Web 2023

Once more, our team had an incredible time celebrating innovation and fostering connections at How to Web 2023!

🌟 We soaked up invaluable insights from global experts and were captivated by the thrilling Spotlight competition, making it a truly enriching experience for learning and collaboration.

🤝 The networking opportunities were exceptional, as we engaged with a dynamic and insightful community of tech enthusiasts and innovators.

💸 Venture capital, M&A and funding-related news

1. Bucharest-based Device-on-Demand service INKI.tech has secured a seed investment round led by Helvetia Venture Fund (link). 

2. Foodtech startup Unison Goodies has raised €133K in a pre-seed investment round led by Mavers Ventures. The company plans to close the pre-seed round at €225K, seeking further capital on SeedBlink (link).

3. Romanian-founded Dexory (Adrian Negoita, Andrei Danescu, and Oana Andreea Jinga) announced another investment milestone with Schenker Ventures, following their $19M Series A funding round in July (link).

4. Healthtech startup Zitamine Nutrition has closed a new funding round worth €350K. The round was led by V7 Capital, cleverage.vc, Mavers Ventures, and others (link).

5. Footprints AI, an omnichannel retail media startup, received an investment of €250K from Look AI Ventures at the TechChill Milano 2023 Fifty Founders Battle event (link).

6. SeedBlink, the financing and equity management platform for European tech start-ups, launches “Community Stars” – an initiative dedicated to early-stage startups (link).

7. Romanian healthtech startup MEDIJobs aims to raise €650K, with €200K targeted on SeedBlink, and has already secured €450K, backed by institutional investors, including Morgan Stanley, for global expansion (link).

8. Instant.ro, a Romanian platform based on AI that mediates sales of second-hand cars, closed the first round of financing and attracted a seed investment of €300K from several investors (link).

9. Nooka Space, the startup aimed at enhancing labor market flexibility, has named serial entrepreneur Irina Leca as its CEO, and the company has secured a €2M investment round to support the ongoing global expansion (link).

10. Romanian tech startup theCoRD.ai, providing the world’s first AI team coaching solution, initiates its first pre-seed investment round, seeking €300K in funding (link).

11. Creatopy, the AI-driven creative automation platform, has raised a $10M Series A from 3VC and Point Nine (link).

12. More than 40 Eastern European tech startups joined the How to Web conference’s Spotlight program, and the conference awarded the grand investment prize of over €880K to Serbia’s Collabwriting (link).
13. RoFintech won, in a consortium with 7 other entities from the field of European technological innovation, a non-refundable grant worth €1M for the implementation of the pan-European project FINE – Fintech Innovation Network Ecosystem (link).

😅 Meme break

🗞️ News related to programs and events

14. Growceanu is organizing between October 27-28 (Timișoara) “Invest in Moonicorns – The Art of Angel Investment”, an event that aims to become the most important meeting place for business angel investors in CEE (link).

15. Google announced the lists of startups accepted in two of its acceleration programs, Google for Startups Growth Academy: AI for Health and AI First. Two Romanian startups, Rayscape and Zaya AI, have secured a place among the selected participants (link).

16. idEA, together with Shopoteque, have launched ShopStart Accel, an accelerator for businesses that want to launch an online shop. Registrations are open until the end of October (link).

17. Orange Romania welcomes six new startups into its Orange Fab acceleration program, chosen in response to the 5G project call earlier this year (link).

18. Rubik Hub, in partnership with Fortech Investments, Google for Startups, WIT Angels Club, and AmCham Romania, has introduced the “Rubik Garage – Scale to USA” acceleration program, tailored for entrepreneurs aiming to grow in the US market, with applications accepted until November 1 (link).

19. SeedBlink introduces Open Day Bucharest, a series of events providing entrepreneurs with the opportunity to have one-on-one meetings with the company’s investment team to explore financing and equity management (link).

20. Startarium PitchDay‘s fifth edition is now open for registrations, operating under a new identity: “Romanians are entrepreneurs.” This competition, initiated by Impact Hub Bucharest and ING Bank and supported by Pluxee, showcases the entrepreneurial spirit of Romanians (link).

21. In the beginning of October, the Urban Mobility Innovation Day event brought together forward-thinking startups, fostering collaboration and innovation in the face of urban mobility challenges (link). 

22. Edtech Romania‘s inaugural meetup, a How To Web satellite event, recently delivered an hour of networking and insightful conversations. This event provided a platform for edtech enthusiasts to connect, share their thoughts, gain insights and discover collaboration opportunities (link).

23. Bright Labs Incubator recently organized its Demo Day and unveiled the winner of this cohort: ROCCO, an innovative platform that transforms your smartphone into a restaurant ordering kiosk (link).

24. Here are a few conferences to keep in mind for the upcoming period:

🚀 Various news related to startups

25. The Romanian tech startup theCoRD.ai has launched the world’s first AI team coaching solution exclusively designed for distributed teams (link).

26. Romanian startup Flip.ro, specializing in refurbishing and reselling phones and tablets, is now available in the Greek market (link).

27. Adrian Dragomir, founder of Termene.ro, launches a new platform and investment fund, StartAI.ro, dedicated to artificial intelligence (link).

28. Edtech startup Youni has launched an educational hub in Craiova, catering to high school students aspiring to study abroad (link).

28. Artful Living debuts the first on-demand domestic services application featuring 5-star standards, effectively introducing premium hospitality services to residential spaces (link).

29. Romanian tech startup Telerenta injects a €500K investment into the expansion of its RentBox vending machine network, created in collaboration with BobNet Group (link).

30. Chambr, the Romanian startup offering a unique game-based e-learning platform to boost sales teams’ contract-closing skills, has been accepted into Techstars Silicon Valley accelerator program (link).

Cheers

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

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