Imagine reading a book. How exciting it gets with every new chapter! That is how we at The Recursive feel about every new week of 2022 in the SEE ecosystem.
See our list of 6 notable startup news you shouldn’t miss – from recent investments to acquisitions, accelerators, and awards.
#1 Romanian marketplace for second hand phones Flip expands to Bulgaria
- Flip.ro, the circular economy marketplace, backed by eMAG Ventures, announced its expansion to Bulgaria.
- The company appointed Ivaylo Netsov as Country Manager. Previously Ivaylo led food delivery foodpanda and then Glovo operations in Sofia.
- Flip.ro was founded by George Moroianu, Alin Luca, and Alex Burghelia in 2019. It helps customers sell their old phones and aids other users acquire vetted products safely.
“I think it was about time to have a product that makes so much sense and it’s so easy to use and at the same time secure. No more “do you accept barter” or “will you give me XXX discount” or even buying a replica or broken phone without realizing it. You buy verified, serviced and renewed smart phones at prices up to -50% from the original price”, Netsov, the Country Manager of Flip.bg said on Linkedin.
#2 Kin + Carta Completes Acquisition of Melon and Frakton
- The British public company Kin+Carta announced the completion of its acquisition of the Bulgarian software company Melon and its subsidiary in Kosovo Frakton. The move is part of Kin + Carta’s expansion to Southeast Europe.
- It also reinforces Kin + Carta Greece as the company looks to build a new European delivery hub.
- Melon’s work spans from web to mobile, backed by UX/UI, QA, Big Data and DevOps teams. The company has offices in Sofia and Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria and one in Skopje, North Macedonia.
- Frakton is a Kosovo-based company, developing web and mobile software solutions. In October 2021, Melon acquired 51% of Frakton, as a strategic investment.
#3 Techcelerator launched the Investment Readiness Program #2 with a prize of a total of 500K euros, dedicated to Romanian tech startups that want to attract seed investments
- The second edition of the Investment Readiness Program aims to prepare technology startups to attract seed investors and raise successive investment rounds of up to 1 million euros.
- The accelerator is run by Techcelerator, Romania’s most active accelerator for technology startups, in collaboration with its investment partners and the SeedBlink platform.
- Startups must demonstrate that they have a marketable product, users, and previous investment experience, аs well as being able to scale internationally.
- The Investment Readiness Program will take place from June 6 to June 27, 2022. . The deadline for registration is May 31st, 2022.
#4 Romanian startups VBoard and Zevo Tech joined thе accelerator program of Orange Romania
- Orange Fab, the one year acceleration and collaboration program for startup of the telecom company Orange Romania announced partnerships with edtech startup VBoard and AI startup Zevo Tech.
- This means that the startups’ solutions will be integrated into the Orange Business Services portfolio. So far, the two early-stage companies have benefitted from technical and business mentoring to successfully implement their pilot projects.
- VBoard is a virtual classroom startup based in Timisoara. It provides easier access to education by eliminating the distance between teachers and students. The startup was launched during the pandemic free of charge. But at the end of the lockdown, the company switched to a subscription-based model.
- ZevoTech is a speech analytics start-up that helps you transcribe automatically customer calls, interviews, meetings or dictate notes and emails. The company provides products and services to a variety of industries – healthcare, telecom, media and corporate. Zevo serves the Romanian language market, but its language-independent technology is adaptable to any other language or dialect.
#5 Bulgarian cleantech startup AMPECO won the Sustainability Award in Automotive 2022 for its mobility business model
- The Sustainability Awards for the Automotive Industry are organized by the ATZ/MTZ media groups and the international consulting company Arthur D. Little (ADL). The criteria is based on the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
- The expert panel chose AMPECO for its user-friendly business-to-enterprise EV Charging Platform as the winner in business model mobility innovations.
- AMPECO is a Bulgaria-based white-label EV charging management software. It was launched in 2018 and built by entrepreneurs with experience in software development. The startup’s establishment in the market led to the employment of the cloud-based platform in over 80 companies on six continents.
#6 Bulgarian-founded B2B carbon accounting platform SaaS Plan A was named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum for 2022
- The World Economic Forum announced Plan A, a Berlin-based SaaS startup for automated carbon accounting, decarbonisation and ESG management, as a Technology Pioneer.
- The World Economic Forum is an international non-profit organization for public and private cooperation that unites communities of leaders around global challenges.
“The Forum recognises each year tech companies as Technology Pioneers and incorporates them into its initiatives, activities and events, where they bring cutting-edge insights to world-critical discussions (…) Really excited for our software for decarbonisation and ESG improvement to be recognised! No Plan B”
“The Forum recognises each year tech companies as Technology Pioneers and incorporates them into its initiatives, activities and events, where they bring cutting-edge insights to world-critical discussions (…) Really excited for our software for decarbonisation and ESG improvement to be recognised! No Plan B”
said Lubomila Jordanova, Co-Founder & CEO of Plan A.
