SER | Innovative Opportunities Ahead

??Upcoming Events & Opportunities

???? If you are interested in the healthtech domain, don't miss out on the first Morning Health Talks event of the year organized by FreshBlood on May 25. Reserve your seat here.?

??? If you are passionate about urban mobility and innovation, apply to the Smart City & Urban Mobility Hackathon to collaborate on sustainable urban development solutions. The two-day event will take place between 24-25 May in Cluj-Napoca. Reserve your spot here.

?? If you're passionate about food and sustainability, consider applying to Climathon Cluj, an event organized by Spherik Accelerator in partnership with Clujul Sustenabil. It aims to unite individuals and teams interested in tackling food waste, fostering innovative ideas and solutions for the community. The event will take place between June 15-16 in Cluj-Napoca. You can apply here.

?? If you are interested in showcasing your startup and gain visibility through an expo/stand at Techsylvania conference (26-27 June, Cluj-Napoca), apply to Startup Alley here.

?? Venture capital, M&A and fundraising-related news

1. 比特梵德 announced the launch of Bitdefender Voyager Ventures, a new investment program dedicated to funding and developing the next generation of startups in cybersecurity, data analytics, automation and artificial intelligence (link).

2. Investment fund Early Game Ventures announces its first exit of the year. PDQ, an international software asset management company, has acquired CODA Intelligence , a company specialized in cybersecurity solutions (link).

3. Genezio , a startup launched in 2023 to create tools to help developers automate app creation, raised a $2M pre-seed round led by GapMinder VC . The investment was made together with Underline Ventures and a group of angel investors (link).

4. The software companies Vertical Digital and Sons of Coding, based in Oradea and Timi?oara, have been acquired for an amount of €1.3M by Eleco, a software provider from the UK (link).

5. FilmChain , the startup in the international film industry, founded by two Romanians, has completed an investment of €2.8M led by Holt InterXion, with the support of ROCA X , DeBa Ventures , TechAngels Romania and HearstLab (link).

6. Idea Morph , a startup that develops an online brainstorming platform, got a €300K grant from Innovation Norway (link).

7. ELEC, the Romanian electric ride sharing platform, has attracted investment funds of over €1M to become an electromobility ecosystem. The startup received an investment worth €500K from an individual investor and managed to consolidate a strategic partnership with Ecomotive worth €500K (link).?

8. Wealth management UK-based fintech Avenir has raised a $500K pre-seed round to provide businesses with software that scores businesses based on their sustainability.The startup was co-founded by Romanian Stefan Rotarus (link).

9 . TOKERO Crypto Exchange , has announced the successful closing of its first private funding round of $1.4M for the development of their own utility token, the TOKERO LevelUP Token (link).

???News related to programs and events

10. start-up.ro announces the launch of the first edition of the Tigers Summit event (May 28), which wants to show the image of Romanian innovation behind the statistics (link).?

11. Start-Up Nation, one of the most popular programs through which the Romanian government aimed to encourage small entrepreneurs in our country, is preparing to return this year after a break (link).

12. At the end of March, the Ethereum community and the Ethereum ecosystem organized ETH Bucharest, an event that was a mix between hackathon and conference, with the aim of facilitating blockchain technologies and Web3 innovation (link).

13. ING Bank Romania and Visa, in partnership with Impact Hub Bucharest , launched the She's Next program, through which they aim to support the development of female entrepreneurship in Romania. Entries can be submitted until May 25 (link).

14. UNCHAIN Fintech Festival, the global financial services and innovation festival, announces the launch of its highly anticipated Fintech Startups Tournament. Early-stage startups can apply until May 31 (link).

15. How to Web conference, the most important technology and startup event in Eastern Europe, announces the 2024 edition, which will bring together specialists with international experience, facilitating networking opportunities on a global level. The conference will take place between October 2-3 (link).

16. In April, the Institute of Excellence in Entrepreneurship (idEA) organized the closing event of the #10 anniversary cohort of Venture Accel (link).

17. The Bucharest Stock Exchange is launching a new edition of the program dedicated to the promotion of Romanian entrepreneurial companies, which, starting this year, will be called BVB Arena. The program was previously called Made in Romania (link).

18. TechVillage will take place between September 6-8 in Butuceni, Moldova. The event aims to help startups from the Republic of Moldova, Romania and Ukraine to raise a round of funding (link).

?? Happy Easter!

???Various?news related to startups

19. The Romanian technology startup, Telerenta , which operates an electronic equipment rental platform, is expanding its product range, adding new categories to its portfolio, such as photo - video, household appliances, new models of TVs and audio equipment (link).

20. NecSys, an IT company from Romania, has created Leelo, a business assistant which is offered to entrepreneurs for free for one year (link).

21. Raiffeisen Bank Romania and iFactor have concluded a strategic partnership through which, for factoring requests, the bank uses iFactor Pure Analytics, an innovative credit evaluation tool to make a faster and more detailed analysis of SMEs (link).

22. MYBENEFITS announces the signing of a partnership with 7card, a company active in the corporate wellbeing sector. The partnership offers employees the opportunity to purchase directly through the MyBenefits platform, a complete well-being package (link).

23. Salt Bank was officially launched on the market, this being the first 100% Romanian neobank, a 100% digital experience, adapted to the contemporary needs of users (link).

24. The Bonapp application, through which Romanians can buy at a discount food that is nearing its expiration date, is expanding to Bra?ov (link).

25. .lumen was included in the first cohort of the EIC Scaling Club, a select club of deep tech champions, through which the European Union wants to stimulate the development of new European "unicorns" (link).

26. VAUNT , the sales management platform dedicated to the residential sector, introduces a new module, Client Portal. Through it, buyer clients have access to real-time data about the market value of their properties (link).

???Cheers and see you next time with a fresh report!

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