Some venture capital firms and business angels are looking to the new trends that have come up and invest in Romanian tech startups and scaleups. I summarise the most important investments closed by Romanian founders during the pandemic times. Working and interacting every day with investors and founders, I hope next teams will continue to develop new projects in a post-coronavirus world.
Update June 18 2020:
UiPath is looking to raise new capital that could value the New York-based company at more than $10 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Update June 17 2020:
Machinations: 580.000 euro (GapMinder, Seedcamp, Vennrex, RocaX and TechAngels)
Machinations, a scaleup that builds a tool for game designers, raised 580.000 in a financing round lead by GapMinder (Revista Biz). Machinations allows the game designer to architect different scenarios of the outcomes a gamer would have while playing a certain game.
StockBinder: 100.000 euro (business angels, Marian Seitan included)
The Romanian startup StockBinder, the developer of a SaaS platform which facilitates the rapid integration between online stores, suppliers and manufacturers, raised an investment of over 100,000 euros from four Romanian business angels.
Update June 16 2020:
KFactory: 215.000 euro (Sparking Capital, SeedBlink)
KFactory, digital platform focused on performance increasing and productivity optimization for manufacturing companies, raised 215,000 euro funding for the development and the implementation of the business plan in the coming years. The financing is coordinated by Sparking Capital, as Lead Investor, in partnership with the equity crowdfunding platform SeedBlink and private angels.
KFactory target covers manufacturing companies focused on increasing the performance of industrial machinery and operators, all of which resulting in increased profitability. Based on concepts like Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Machine Learning, combined with the IT and Manufacturing experience of its Founders, KFactory managed to increase the performance for its customers by up to 25%, while providing an affordable monthly subscription model (SaaS).
Update June 15 2020:
CODA Intelligence: 800.000 euro (Early Game Ventures, ROCA X, Marius Alexe)
CODA Intelligence, a cybersecurity startup, raised 800,000 euros in a new round from Early Game Ventures, ROCA X and Marius Alexe, as angel investor. The entire amount aims to expand the CODA Footprint product on the US market, a cyber security platform dedicated to SMEs, and its licensing on the US market.
Update June 2 2020:
Jobful: 250.000 (private investors)
Jobful, startup that developed a recruitment platform through gamification, raised a new round of investment of 250,000 euros.
The investment comes from some business angels and one of them is Mirko Knaak, Head of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning at IAV Digital Hub.
Jobful was launched in June 2018 and targets young professionals who are looking to develop their careers as well as companies seeking to make the recruitment process more efficient by providing an initial test of candidates’ skills and an assessment of their interests.
SanoPass: 400.000 euro (Cleverage Venture Capital, Founders Bridge, SeedBlink)
SanoPass, a Romanian start-up that aggregates independent medical service providers to sell preventive medical packages to firms, has raised 400,000 euro just at the beginning of the lockdown for 20% from the company. The financing round is mixed, with venture capital investors (Cleverage Venture Capital and Founders Bridge) and equity crowdfunding (SeedBlink). The transactions valued SanoPass at 2 million euro.
SanoPass is a Romanian startup founded in 2019 which addresses companies and issues preventive medical subscriptions offered by employers as benefits for employees at over 600 independent clinics and medical offices.
Telios: 200,000 dollars (Transylvania Angels Network, Growceanu, TechAngels)
Telios, a telemedicine scaleup, closed an investment round of 200,000 dollars from three of the most important angel networks in Romania Transylvania Angels Network, Growceanu and TechAngels Romania.
Telios services are covering a large and very diverse number of patients, from white-collar managers to blue-collar workers, who all need protection from COVID-19 and healthcare services delivered remotely in order to keep the economy going during the current crisis.
Gumzzz: 200,000 euros (Stelian Bogza + Cristian Petri, business angels)
UPDATE May 19: Gumzzz also raised an investment of 100,000 euros from a medical entrepreneur: Cristian Petri, founder of Oral Design Lab & Clinic.
Romanian startup Gumzzz, that provides patients around the world with options to access dental services and packages from different countries, has closed a first round of financing of 100,000 euros from angel investor Stelian Bogza, co-founder at BenefitOnline.
Behind the Gumzzz solution is a team of 15 people, consisting of programmers, marketers and dentists. The company is run by Vlad Suteu, an entrepreneur from Cluj-Napoca, who returned to Romania after 9 years spent studying and in companies in Great Britain and Denmark.
Humans: 330,000 euros (Early Game Ventures and ROCA X)
The Romanian technology start-up Humans raised a funding of 330,000 euros for the development of an innovative technology capable of generating synthetic (AI-created) media.
The funding attracted by Humans comes from the venture capital investment fund Early Game Ventures, ROCA X, part of Impetum Group, a project for disruptive businesses, as well as from a private investor.
The technology developed by Humans is based on the latest advances in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and consists in manipulating a person’s voice, image and gestures, in order to generate synthetic representations of his identity, also known as digital DNA, synthetic or algorithmically generated media.
MissionCritical: 500.000 euros (Neogen Capital)
The Neogen Capital VC invested 500,000 euros in the RPA technology developed by the startup MissionCritical. Călin Fusu, CEO of Neogen Capital joins the MissionCritical team together with Mario Popescu, Cristian Oftez and George Haber. MissionCritical is developing software robots to provide companies with a faster way to automate processes.
MissionCritical robots work for local and international companies and the company is valued at over 5 million euros after this round of funding.
Code of Talent: 450.000 euros (ROCA X and Seedblink)
The microlearning platform Code of Talent raised 450,000 euros for a stake of 12% from the company. ROCA X lead the financing round with 250,000 euros, and the rest of the financing was raised through the equity crowdfunding platform Seedblink.
This transaction valued Code of Talent at 3.5 million euros.
Code of Talent is a platform that helps participants learning through gamification, social learning and facilitator feedback.
