May Newsletter: Authenticity eliminates fear
DRUID, Agremo, Protio and Pop Market joined our cohort in May, and Agrinizer, easySales and MERO are currently raising their financing rounds.
SeedBlink's community is at the heart of the platform's success, and we are grateful to see the founders and investors helping each other. We are a firm believer that if you nurture these relationships, they will surely help you move mountains and drive your growth. Because we want to foster this synergy and engage our tribe, even more, we are excited to tell you about something we are working on.
We will soon launch our NEW online community platform - SeedBlink Circle. Here, you will find curated news, resources relevant to the startup and VC world, live discussions, speeches, and other materials to help you learn more about the world of startup growth.
Stay tuned!
Portfolio updates
DRUID, Agremo, Protio and Pop Market joined our cohort in May, and Agrinizer, easySales and MERO are currently raising their financing rounds.
Dive into the full May edition of Portfolio Companies Updates .
Community voice
Feedback is what moves us further. We have asked our portfolio companies to share their thoughts on raising a round, and we hope you find these insights useful as you move toward fundraising.
“Our decision to finance Kinderpedia through SeedBlink, as part of our 2020 round, was based on much more than getting mere access to capital. We were looking for partners and ambassadors among our potential investors: parents, school managers, or business people with a deep commitment to education and its role in building up tomorrow’s society. When the round was completed, we got more than 50 new members in Kinderpedia family.”
Read all the feedback here .
Is your startup also looking for funding? Look here .
Boost your startup
Startup Funding Stories: How to Raise Capital for your Startup
As exciting as seeking financial support for your startup may be, it also carries certain dangers and is one of the biggest challenges startup founders face. Laurentiu Ghenciu, Chief Business Officer at SeedBlink, speaks with Sinisa Rakovich, Founder & CEO at Hunch and Delia Iliasa, Managing Partner at SanoPass about their capital raising experiences and lessons learned. Watch this video with founders from different verticals and startup stages talking about their experiences with funding.
Black Sea ClimAccelerator 2022
Black Sea ClimAccelerator is an accelerator for climate tech startup that will support some of the most promising startups from Romania and Bulgaria, all in a complex curriculum which consists of workshops on business modeling, marketing, sales, finance management, business consultancy, and investment readiness, one-to-one mentoring sessions, pitching sessions, peer sharing, access to international events and finally, grants of 300K EUR. Apply here until September 15.
领英推荐
EY Entrepreneur of the Year
EY Romania is looking for entrepreneurs who inspire through vision, leadership, and approach to the present challenges in an innovative way, creating a positive impact on communities. By participating in the program, Romanian entrepreneurs can get numerous opportunities to develop and increase visibility both by participating in public events and by connecting to the national and international network of entrepreneurs and leaders from various sectors. Read more here.
Tech news and trends
Fintech and the Future of Finance
The ongoing digitization of financial services and money creates opportunities to build more inclusive and efficient financial services and promote economic development. This digital transformation presents a paradigm shift that has various policy implications. This report explores the implications of fintech and the digital transformation of financial services for market outcomes on one side, and regulation and supervision, on the other, and how these interact. Study it .
Romanian AI startup DRUID attracts $15 million to expand globally
DRUID, the end-to-end platform for building AI-driven conversational business applications, announces that it has raised a fresh round of funding. This new $15 million round will be used to fuel its international expansion, by actively hiring new talents, to support its accelerated growth across Europe and North America. See more here .
Should startups raise salaries in line with rising inflation?
Before concerns over inflation began to swell in Europe, startups were already fighting tooth and nail to secure the best hires. But now, with a recession approaching and living costs continuing to surge, startups are once again figuring out how to adjust compensation to support employees — and ultimately, stay competitive as employers. As it stands, the minimum cost to hire has increased dramatically, and candidates now expect higher offers.
Food for thought
If you're anything like us, you don't learn by sitting back - you want to stay in the action, to stay on top of what’s happening around. Since our last edition in April, we have been busy reading and bookmarking articles that got us thinking more than usual. We hope this helps you too!
A Framework for Navigating Down Markets
Through market uncertainty and downturns, it’s important to remember that markets are cyclical and downturns come with a silver lining. Some of the strongest businesses are forged in the toughest times, and often, those that survive when the market turns are rewarded with increased market share and leaner, more efficient operations. Keep reading .
The state of the Series A: Four experts weigh in on how it’s changed
Series A funding has skyrocketed — the average global Series A round increasing from less than $6m to more than $18m over the past decade. How has Series A changed — and what do founders gearing up for it need to know? Spend some minutes on this article and see the answers of a founder who raised a Series A recently, a founder who raised a Series A in 2016 and two early-stage experts. Get inspired .
Will falling tech valuation kick off an M&A boom?
The world is changing and so is the startup ecosystem. In only 10 minutes, this podcast episode from Equity by Techcrunch covers news from the stock market and the latest startup deals. Listen here .