At the midpoint of 2024 compared to the previous half-year review, the innovation ecosystem in Romania has shown significant momentum, with substantial investments, coming from both, local and international investors. The total amount raised by the top 10 players amounts to 67.7M with +€6M more than H1 2023.
This diverse group spans various verticals including fintech, healthcare AI, developer tools, collaboration platforms, and sports tech, reflecting the dynamic and multifaceted nature of the tech landscape in Romania. These funding rounds indicate strong investor confidence and set the stage for continued growth and development in the region’s technology sector.
In this article, we will deep dive into some of the biggest funding rounds that influenced the Romanian business landscape, spanning various sectors, including fintech, SaaS, sports cryptocurrency, and health. If we are missing something, let us know at [email protected].
Below you can read about the 10 biggest funding rounds in Romania in H1 2024
1. FintechOS
Latest round: €55.2M
Stage: Series B+
Total funding: €144.4M
Investors: Cipio Partners, Molten Ventures, Earlybird Venture Capital, Black Rock, OTB Ventures and GapMinder Venture Partners
Founders: Teodor Blidarus and Sergiu Negut
Vertical: Fintech
About: FintechOS is an innovation acceleration software platform that enables fast, plug-and-play, comprehensive digital transformation for companies that offer financial services.
2. Sessions Technologies
Latest round: €3M
Stage: Seed
Total funding: €7.5M
Investors: Earlybird Venture Capital, LAUNCHub Ventures, UiPath, Stride.VC, SeedBlink, Radu Negulescu and Isometric Ventures
Founder: Radu Negulescu
Vertical: Collaboration Platform
About: Sessions is an all-in-one platform designed to streamline customer-facing sessions, offering immersive experiences for webinars, workshops, and demos.
3. FilmChain
Latest round: €2.8M
Stage: Early VC
Total funding: €3.5M
Investors: TechAngels Romania, HearstLab, ROCA X, The Holt Xchange and DeBa Ventures
Founders: Maria Tanjala and Irina Albita
Vertical: Fintech
About: ‘crewfunding’ platform that empowers filmmakers to connect with crews that invest in projects they believe in.
4. Genezio
Latest round: €1.8M
Stage: Pre-Seed
Total funding: €1.8M
Investors: GapMinder Venture Partners, Underline Ventures
Founders: Andrei Pitis, Iulian Vlad, Paula Cionca, and Bogdan Ripa
Vertical: Developer Tools / Technology and Information
About: Genezio is a type-safe serverless platform for modern full-stack developers. With multiple environments, databases, auth, etc, Genezio offers everything you need to start, deploy, test, and scale an app. Genezio optimizes the cloud deployment to create the densest execution and save power, memory, and cost.
5. Nordensa
Latest round: €1.65M
Stage: Seed
Total funding: €1.8M
Investors: Growceanu, Transylvania Angels Network, Emiliano Marcondes, Lasse Vibe, and Mads Davidsen
Founder: Adrian Docea
Vertical: Sports Tech
About: Nordensa uses algorithms to find talented young football players worldwide and bring them to Europe for trials. Football fans worldwide sponsor their dream to play European football and get rewarded if the player gets transferred.
6. TOKERO
Latest round: €1.29M
Stage: Seed
Total funding: Undisclosed
Investors: undisclosed
Founder: Marius Morra
Vertical: Cryptocurrency
About: Tokero Crypto Exchange is a cryptocurrency-accessible platform. Creating an account on the platform takes less than 10 minutes, ensuring customers can quickly engage with the market.
7. Rayscape (xVision)
Latest round: €460K
Stage: Seed
Total funding: €1.93M
Investors: Fortech Investments
Founders: Stefan Iarca, Bogdan Bercan, Tenescu Andrei and Cristian Avramescu
Vertical: MedTech
About: Rayscape is a comprehensive digital assistant for radiologists. Products developed under the Rayscape umbrella use artificial intelligence algorithms to assist radiologists in analyzing medical images such as chest X-rays or lung CT scans.
8. Invisum AI
Latest round: €500K
Stage: Seed
Total funding: €500K
Investors: Leryon Holdings
Founder: Bogdan Ochiana
Vertical: SaaS, security
About: Invisum is an AI tool for facial/object recognition in intelligence and business.
9. Curiera
Latest round: €500K
Stage: Seed
Total funding: €500K
Investors: SeedBlink, Romeo Iacob
Founder: Silvia Duță
Vertical: Logistics & Delivery
About: Curiera is providing tailored solutions based on package needs.
10. Vestinda
Latest round: €446K
Stage: Seed
Total funding: €832K
Investors: SeedBlink
Founders: Alin Breabăn, Adi Breabăn and Diana Drăjneanu
Vertical: FinTech
About: Vestinda is an AI-driven trading automation platform that allows traders and investors to connect all accounts from multiple exchanges, track their portfolios in a unified dashboard, and build algorithms in a no-code environment to automate portfolios in only a few minutes.
Below you may find other notable deals:
Aysa
Latest round: €165K
Stage: Seed
Total funding: €165K
Investors: Innovator Spark
Founder: Marius Dosinescu
Vertical: SaaS
About: Aysa is a SaaS company that helps businesses reduce the cost of SEO by automating processes and eliminating time-consuming tasks. It will also help increase sales by boosting organic traffic on the website.
Remote Butler
Latest round: €50K
Stage: Seed
Total funding: €50K
Investors: 6 investors (Mihai Tarta and Luke McNeice)
Founder: Ciprian Costea
Vertical: HoReCa
About: Butler helps restaurants deliver a humanized dining experience by connecting them with online waiters for optimal recommendations. Beyond matchmaking, they provide hospitality training and remote opportunities for middle-aged professionals and disabled persons.
The Romanian tech sector also saw three notable M&A announcements:
February
One of the largest companies in textile management, MEWA Textil-Service, acquired the Esenca App founded by Cosmin Gabriel Ciocirlan and Eduard Cojocea. Esenca is an AI body measurement solution that uses state-of-the-art technology to give your customers instant sizing recommendations and provide you with insights into their needs.
April
CODA Intelligence was acquired by PDQ an international software asset management company. This marks the first 2024 exit of Early Game Ventures.
May
The third M&A is marked by Pluria, a B2B SaaS solution connecting distributed teams with nearby workspaces, and acquired Bili, a menu ordering and payment solution.
Besides the Early Games Venture exit mentioned above, the Romanian VCs landscape had recorded the second successful exit by Catalyst by selling off its remaining shares in SmartBill, a Romanian provider of cloud-based invoicing, inventory, and accounting services for SMEs, to the Norwegian Group Visma.
Also, in terms of found growth, the first half year was very generous, GapMinder Ventures, the VC fund manager, investing in tech companies from Romania, Moldova, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, and Bulgaria, launched GapMinder Fund II, an investment vehicle with a target of €80M. The fund became active on February 14th after its first closing.
The second announcement from the Romanian VCs came in May when Romanian Early Game Ventures launched its second investment fund, with a total value of €60M.
If you want to look 1 year behind, here you can read the Top 10 Biggest Funding Rounds in Romania in H1 2023.
