What's inspiring me, my partners, my projects, my clients and the Romanian global business owners. I want to develop the role of «The Ambassador of Romanian Entrepreneurs», so should start to promote regularly the Romanian Founders ;)). Welcome to CV Founders Digest. Let's PRomote Romania better. Let's get straight to the main topics of this week.
The Romanian Founders of the Week
- This is huge and it is not a coincidence: two different firms founded by three Romanians in United Kingdom announced two big transactions on the same day.
- London-based Hackajob, a tech talent recruitment platform, has raised $6.7 million in funding. AXA Venture Partners led the round with participation from Downing Ventures. The Romanian Razvan Creanga is one of the founders and angel investor Dragos Nicolaescu invested also in the firm. Nice!
- Job meta-search engine Adzuna has acquired the U.K. tech startup job board Work In Startups. Launched in 2011 by Diana Ilinca and Alex Borbely, Work In Startups set out to create a way for startups to more easily find tech and creative talent, without having to go through recruiters or use more generic job sites.
Scale-Up of the Week
- Great news from the Romanian IT security software company Bitdefender, that has announced its purchase of Netherlands-based network security company RedSocks. What is cool is the fact that the transaction comes just one month after acquiring its Australian retail partner, eTech SMS.This move, specific to a real scaleup company, is part of Bitdefender’s growth strategy through deals with the purpose to position the Romanian company into the network security market and data analysis.
If you want to meet the founders of the moment in Romania and the future scaleups, you are invited to RisersNet Meetup, organised in Bucharest. #RiserstNet is the community for experienced professionals/employees looking to start-up their own business idea or to become part of a fresh team. Register here.
Start-Up of the Week
- Romanian fintech start-up FintechOS was accepted into the Microsoft accelerator program in London. FintechOS is the first Romanian start-up that joins the Microsoft UK accelerator, after a complex registration and selection process.
Investment & Fundraising
- The company specialized in standardized testing of school performance BRIO Teste Educationale announced that it has attracted a new funding for diversifying the platform products and launching the market by increasing its share capital through the contribution of the Pavel entrepreneurial family. The new investor will be represented by Karina Paval – the daughter of the Romanian entrepreneur Dragos Paval.
Quote of the Day
“These are the representatives of generation Z in Romania, also known as the completely digitalised generation. Extremely ambitious, but with a low level of obedience, those can become successful entrepreneurs.” (Cromwell Evan Global)
Chart of the Day
The amount of funding raised by startups in Europe and the number of deals all slid sharply in the three months ending in September, according to the latest quarterly figures from Dow Jones VentureSource. The 3Q18 Europe Venture Capital report released showed that VC-backed companies in Europe raised $5.22 billion in Q3, down 21 percent from the same period last year. There were 684 fundraising deals, about 9 percent fewer than Q3 2017.
Source: The 3Q18 Europe Venture Capital report
Public Policy that made my week
Reprogramming power: an activist is bringing hacker culture to the state. (link)
Who impressed me this week from the list of managers and entrepreneurs I work with
Bogdan Bocse, co-founder of Visage Cloud, who told me in an one-to-one discussion: “The success of your competitor or your client’s postponement must not make your mind dark, for a dark mind is an ineffective mind.
The Competition
STARTUPPER OF THE YEAR BY TOTAL – [ROMANIA]
Are you a young entrepreneur? Do you have a project you believe in? Is it innovative and does it address a social or community challenge in your country or for your fellow citizens? Register and apply now. You could be the Startupper of the Year!*
*I am the Ambassadeur and Promoter of this nice competition
The Book
Crushing it – Gary Vaynerchuk (published in Romanian by Publica)
