Only have 1 minute? Here are 3 takeaways:
• Techcelerator launched a mapping of the Romanian and Eastern European emerging AI landscape, highlighting 250+ startups.
• The report presents an ecosystem in its early seed stage, where key AI applications can be found across healthcare, financial and insurance, and agriculture, among others.
• It also identifies key challenges faced by regional startups, including difficulties in finding talent and attracting funding.
An insatiable demand for AI solutions, driven by higher demand for data-enabled decisions-making and automation-powered efficiencies in a post-pandemic world, is making its way into Eastern Europe’s emerging innovation landscape.
The Techcelerator AI Map Annual Report – 2023 edition is a testament to the strengthening of the AI technology landscape in the region, while identifying key challenges that, if handled, can unleash faster and international growth for local startups.
The early stage technology startups accelerator has been actively supporting the AI/ML startups ecosystem in Romania and SEE since 2020, when they launched an Advancing AI program in partnership with Google for Startups to help high-tech startups to become investment ready and scale.
Trends in the Romanian AI startup ecosystem
According to the Techcelerator report, more than half of the 250+ startups mapped were created after 2020, following the opportunities opened by a digital transition of our economy and social lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The AI map in Romania is getting healthier, and we see this especially through the Romanian AI Alliance, where we managed to link solid partnerships with all 5 big urban hubs of startups & tech: RO AI Alliance Bucharest, RO AI Alliance Cluj, Iași AI, RO AI Alliance Timișoara and Inteligența Artificială în acțiune from Chișinău – Republic of Moldova in less than 30 days,” says Andrei Petreanu, CEO at brain-waves.ai.
Certain sectors and technologies have garnered particular attention from Eastern European entrepreneurs.
“The demand for AI solutions is growing in the following sectors: healthcare, financial and insurance, agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, retail and sustainability, due to the increasing necessity for data-driven decision-making, predictive analytics, and automation, maintaining also a steady fundraising pace,” comments Cristian Dascalu, Managing Partner at Techcelerator, for The Recursive.
The ecosystem is mostly in its early development, with more than half of respondents mentioned that they are in the seed stage, followed by a third which are in the pre-seed stage. Less than a third are in either late seed or bridge stage.
Going further, startups are targeting international expansion, growing the team, and launching new products and services. To fuel these goals, many are looking to attract new investments in the next two years, with almost fifty percent aiming to raise over one million euros during this period. This is an improvement from expectations in 2022, when only 1 out of 10 startup founders targeted 1 million euros rounds.
Despite the momentum, Romanian and Eastern European founders are facing challenges that slow down their progress, including:
- Not finding the right people for the positions they are looking for
- Not attracting the financing they need
- Not securing the cashflow necessary to operate
- Difficulties in expanding internationally
- Bureaucracy hurdles
Yet, “talent pools are growing, with more individuals gaining expertise in AI and related technologies, which in turn will spur further innovation. Moreover, Eastern Europe’s proximity to other European Union markets provides opportunities for startups to scale, especially in the B2B segments. In particular, AI startups that can provide solutions addressing critical challenges such as climate change, healthcare, and cybersecurity may find plentiful opportunities in the current context of Eastern Europe and Romania,” Cristian Dascalu believes.
A good sign is that the government is beginning to actively support the development of the local AI ecosystem. The Ministry of Innovation initiated the Romanian Committee for Artificial Intelligence, an initiative that will support the development of new entities relevant to the field, such as the Scientific and Ethical Council in Artificial Intelligence and the Coalition for AI, a consultative initiative aimed to integrate the perspectives of the private and innovation sectors into the development of public policies regarding AI in Romania and support decision makers.
The Techcelerator analysis was partly based on a survey of startup ecosystem players in Eastern Europe, where 80% of respondents came from Romania. Startups can already participate in their next edition by completing this submission form.
10 Romanian AI startups
In the report, Techcelerator highlights 10 promising Romanian AI startups.
Postis
Founders: Mircea Stan
Startup stage: Bridge
Vertical: LogTech
Total funding: > 1 million EUR
Income forecast for 2023: > 1 million EUR
About: The Postis Platform uses machine learning algorithms and process automation to collect customer orders from all sales channels and push them to the Cloud straight from eCommerce platforms, warehouse management systems or ERP’s.
Plans for 2023:
- to expand internationally
- to attract a new round of investments
- to attract new customers
Humans
Founders: Sabin Dima
Startup stage: Bridge
Vertical: Web 3.0
Total funding: > 1 million EUR
Income forecast for 2023: > 1 million EUR
About: Humans is building an all-in-one platform for AI-based creation and governance, bringing together an ecosystem of stakeholders around the use of AI to create at scale, with the help of blockchain technology.
Plans for 2023:
- to expand internationally
- to attract a new round of investments
- to launch new services and products
RepsMate
Founders: Alin Rosca
Startup stage: Early seed
Vertical: Enterprise SaaS
Total funding: 500.000 – 1 million EUR
Income forecast for 2023: > 1 million EUR
About: Using deep learning and big data, RepsMate automatically evaluates customer interactions and is able to identify and track all areas where the agent needs to improve and its progress.
Plans for 2023:
- to expand internationally
- to attract a new round of investments
- to launch new services and products
- to expand the team
- to attract new customers
Fagura
Founders: Tudor Darie, Cristian Pasa
Startup stage: Early seed
Vertical: Fintech – InsurTech
Total funding: 500,000 – 1 million EUR
Income forecast for 2023: 50.000 – 100.000 EUR
About: Fagura’s scoring system helps teams by automating a very long process of fact checking and at the same time offers clients the answer within a couple of seconds.
Plans for 2023:
- to expand internationally
- to attract a new round of investments
- to launch new services and products
- to expand the team
- to attract new customers
Hyperhuman
Founders: Bogdan Predusca
Startup stage: Late seed
Vertical: Enterprise SaaS, eHealth
Total funding: 500.000 – 1 million EUR
Income forecast for 2023: < 50.000 EUR
About: Hyperhuman uses AI to transform fitness and exercise videos into fully labeled smart video blocks that can be reused to produce completely new full-length video workouts in minutes.
Plans for 2023: to expand internationally
Tailent
Founders: Mario Popescu
Startup stage: Early seed
Vertical: Enterprise SaaS
Total funding: 500.000 – 1 million EUR
Income forecast for 2023: 100.000 – 250.000 EUR
About: Tailent is an affordable and approachable RPA technology provider, automating operations in the financial department on top of the ERP.
Plans for 2023:
- to expand internationally
- to attract a new round of investments
- to attract new customers
Profluo
Founders: Bogdan Nafornita, Cosmin Merisescu
Startup stage: Early seed
Vertical: Enterprise SaaS
Total funding: 250.000 – 1 million EUR
Income forecast for 2023: 100.000 – 250.000 EUR
About: Profluo uses a variety of ML algorithms to properly read and validate accounting documents and to learn layouts after just one document sample, as well as to predict accounting entries for inventories, services, and controlling dimensions.
Plans for 2023:
- to expand internationally
- to attract a new round of investments
- to launch new services and products
- to expand the team
Aqurate
Founders: Vlad Marincas
Startup stage: Early seed
Vertical: Enterprise SaaS
Total funding: 250.000 – 500.000 EUR
Income forecast for 2023: 100.000 – 250.000 EUR
About: Aqurate is an AI-powered SaaS platform that helps eCommerce companies use their data to grow their online shops.
Plans for 2023:
- to expand internationally
- to expand the team
- to attract new customers
iFactor
Founders: Cosmin Curticapean, Sebastian Prescan, Manuel Costescu, Mihai Grosu
Startup stage: Early seed
Vertical: Fintech – InsurTech
Total funding: 500.000 – 1 million EUR
Income forecast for 2023: ~1 million EUR
About: iFactor is specialized in credit intelligence solutions, accelerating the achievements of bank analysts, from sales to underwriting and monitoring, using advanced AI technology and proprietary modeling to improve credit risk assessment.
Plans for 2023:
- to expand internationally
- to attract a new round of investments
- to launch new services and products
Synaptiq
Founders: Dragos Duse, Mihai Cata, Roxana Sabau
Startup stage: Early seed
Vertical: eHealth
Total funding: 250.000 – 500.000 EUR
Income forecast for 2023: <50.000 EUR
About: Using ML algorithms, their software automates one the most tedious and time-consuming procedures of radiotherapy – organs-at-risk contouring.
Plans for 2023:
- to attract a new round of investments
- to expand the team
- to attract new customers
