Central & Eastern Europe has become perceived as the hottest startup hub in Europe, attracting both local and global investors resulting in a tremendous increase of venture capital firms, launching new startup accelerators and offering general availability of early-stage funding.
Accordingly, Romania is not an exception from a number of other countries reviewed in our series (e.g. Czech Republic, Latvia, or Slovakia). As a startup hub and entrepreneurial place of residence this country has moved forward significantly, especially after the appearance of the country’s first Unicorn - an RPA leader Uipath. Expectedly, the country lures more and more venture capital firms into its borders.
So without further ado, let’s find out about Top VC funds from Romania investing in early-stage startups!
Gapminder VC
Geography: Romania and wider CEE
Preferred industries: IT Software and Services
Investment ticket: up to €1.5M
Company stage: from pre-Seed to Series A
Gapminder VC is a Romanian venture capital firm focused on early-stage bets into local and regional technology startups in IT Software and Service-related sectors. Apart from investing up to €1.5M, the team of experienced entrepreneurs is also willing to provide any advice and support in management for the portfolio companies. Among the fund’s portfolio startups you can find well-recognized companies like Druid AI, Frisbo, and Appseed.
Early Game Ventures
Geography: Romania
Preferred industries: B2C and B2B Technology, Hardware & Electronics as well as other IP-driven businesses
Investment ticket: €50k - €4.5M
Company stage: from pre-Seed to Series A
Early Game Ventures is a Bucharest-based early stage VC fund with a focus on companies with the potential for building the infrastructure for new industries in the emerging economies. From the founder’s perspective, the Early Game VC can offer a full suite of support that a growing team may potentially need such as providing introductions for later-stage investments and opportunities for international expansion - in the words of the team itself: “All of what you need—none of what you don’t”. Their portfolio consists of more than 20 startups and includes, among others: Vatis Tech, Roboself, as well as Meshine.
RocaX
Geography: Romania, Europe and Israel
Preferred industries: Industry-agnostic
Investment ticket: €50k - €0.5M
Company stage: Early stage
RocaX with its headquarters located in the capital of Romania is a fund that aspires to invest at least 40% of its capital in the local startups at the earliest of their stages - from idea to MVP and prototype. As an early-stage investor, RocaX pays strong attention to the impactful ideas supported by strong and bold team that would ensure their execution. The group has already built a portfolio of many interesting startups where, among others, are: Coda Intelligence, First Airborne, and Medicai.
Gecad Ventures
Geography: CEE
Preferred industries: Cybersecurity, Fintech, AI/ML, AR & VR, and IoT
Investment ticket: €1M - €7M
Company stage: Seed to Series A
The Bucharest-based Gecad Ventures is a VC fund focused on early-stage investments in Central and Eastern Europe. When it comes to the company's industry focus, it is open to many opportunities stemming from Cybersecurity, Fintech, AI AR/VR and IoT sectors. As an experienced fund, Gecad Ventures has 20 years of experience and many examples of its portfolio companies’ successful exits to corporations like Microsoft, Fitbit and Naspers. Fund’s portfolio consists of over 25 startups among which we can find globally recognised names such as Fintech OS, Vector, and Yieldigo.
Catalyst Romania
Geography: Romania and Eastern Europe
Preferred industries: Technology & Internet, Media & Communications
Investment ticket: €1M-7M
Company stage: Early stage
Catalyst Romania is a VC fund that has a track record of supporting the local startup ecosystem starting from 2012 when its first fund was announced and up to today, where the firm maintains its clear and straightforward focus on Romania and its most promising businesses. The group has already built a portfolio of many interesting startups where, among others, are: Omniconvert, Simartis as well as Smartbill.
Smart Impact Capital
Geography: CEE
Preferred industries: Startups with social and environmental impact
Investment ticket: €10k-€100k
Company stage: Early Stage
Smart Impact Capital is another Romanian VC firm focused on investing in regional founders with ideas for social and environmental impact. The Smart Impact Capital team prefers to invest in startups as early as possible and aims to help grow its prospective portfolio companies by providing tailored support and expertise. Some, though not all of their success stories include: VoxiKids, Sanopass and Ringhel.
Clever Capital
Geography: Romania
Preferred industries: Blockchain and Fintech
Investment ticket: Undisclosed
Company stage: Early Stage
Clever Capital is a VC firm with a focus on early-stage Romanian startups. The team usually looks for early-stage companies across the fintech and blockchain industries. As a rule of thumb, the investment team expects its prospective portfolio startups to fulfill the three following criteria: Dedication, Determination and Drive towards the projects they build. Some of their investments include Plant an App, SafePal, and Panther Protocol.
Sparking Capital
Geography: Romania
Preferred industries: Industry-agnostic with a sweet spot on consumer internet, marketing-tech, supply chain-tech, fin-tech, property-tech, and circular economy
Investment ticket: up to €300k
Company stage: Pre-seed and Seed
Sparking Capital is yet another Bucharest-based fund focused on promising Romanian companies with the potential to become national champions or scale up internationally. As a committed early-stage investor, it offers mentoring sessions, a wide network of experts, support in expansion as well as follow-up investments. Among a select group of their portfolio startups, you can find Hyperhuman, Symphopay and Vatis Tech.
Cleverage VC
Geography: Romania and CEE
Preferred industries: Healthcare
Investment ticket: €50k-€200k
Company stage: Early stage
Our next VC - Cleverage VC is a Romanian fund exclusively dedicated to Healthcare sector, whose investments have a significant footprint in Romania as well as broader CEE. As a dedicated and sharply focused fund, it provides its portfolio companies with both knowledge and capital necessary for growth and product development. Among their investments, you can find Oncochain, Medinav, and SanoPass.
Simple Capital
Geography: Romania and Eastern Europe
Preferred industries: Sector-agnostic
Investment ticket: Undisclosed
Company stage: Seed and Pre-Seed
Last but not least, Simple Capital is a Romania-based VC fund led by an experienced entrepreneur and angel investor - Andrei Pitis. Simple Capital is a firm, dedicated to funding and support of Romanian founders globally and locally in their attempts at creating superior, IP-backed products. The portfolio of companies the fund has invested in include: Deepstash, Uniapply and Pentest-Tools.
eMAG Ventures
Geography: CEE
Preferred industries: B2C and B2B2C startups
Investment ticket: Undisclosed
Company stage: Early Growth
Last but not least, the recently launched eMAG Ventures acting as an investment vehicle of Romania’s e-commerce giant eMAG is a fund, dedicated to leveraging and sharing of its experience in scaling the emerging CEE-based B2B and B2B2C startups. As a result, the firm aspires not only to be the financial engine behind its portfolio but also a long-term partner in all areas of the company's growth and development.
Apart from VC funds in Romania, one might also consider an option of crowdfunding on the locally-found SeedBlink where you can get exposed to a more diverse set of funding opportunities in case your business requires such.
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