Irina Achim
This series is dedicated to finding out the recommendations of investors, VC funds and angels about the Romanian startups. Which are the ones to watch?
Growceanu is a business angels platform where members invest in high-tech startups, in a framework organized by experienced members. The business angels platform had an increase of over 150% in investments made in 2022, compared to the previous year. The platform currently has 144 members, up over 300% compared to 2021.
Growceanu is especially aimed at investors who have an investment budget of 40,000-250,000 EUR, over 2-3 years, and who want to build a portfolio of at least 8-10 startups.
Adrian Erimescu from Growceanu who told us about the most promising startups and mentioned that the hot fields in 2023 are AI, Climate Tech and Green Tech.
"ChatGPT showed us how an AI can naturally integrate into our lives, improving countless processes. I think AIs (especially generative AIs) will augment human capability in absolutely all areas, and this is fertile ground for innovation, so we'll see a lot of startups here.
Another growing trend is Climate Tech / Green Tech. Here we see an urgent problem that most people (and especially the younger generations) have become aware of. Microsoft has already increased investment in OpenAI and launched in Bing. The inevitable transition to green energy requires innovation at the level of energy production, but also of the infrastructure (hardware and software), the elimination of emissions."
MediNav
MedTech, AI, SaaS, B2B, B2G — Seed
"Relevant problem — doctors waste time and money with transcription; a large market; a good team that has proven that they can build an acclaimed product and a large sales pipeline (3M)"
To date, the startup has attracted €350,000 from Cleverage VC, Overkill VC and angel investors. The funds obtained will be used for product development, but also for sales and marketing.
What does MediNav do?
Using artificial intelligence, MediNav streamlines the time doctors spend writing reports and patient assessment sheets. Through the AI solution, the doctor dictates the results of the assessments, and MediNav extracts the relevant data and enters them structured into the report.
Even if it is an ultrasound or consultation with several separate fields, MediNav extracts and separates the information and notes it where it should appear. At the end, the doctor checks, corrects and saves the results before sending them to the medical system of the hospital or clinic, so the MediNav digital assistant learns from mistakes and gets better.
Rayscape
MedTech, AI, SaaS, B2B — Series A
”Relevant issue — few radiologists, high risk of error; AI gives+30% time to radiologists and improve their accuracy; a large market; a good team that has proven they can execute on both product and sales; CE mark; good traction - 50K MRR in multiple countries, fast scaling.”
"We started the XVision journey in 2018 with a specific goal: to generate a positive impact in the world. Since then, we have strived to make the healthcare system smarter with the help of technology, specifically by providing accurate tools for analyzing medical images. Currently, to strengthen our position in the market, we decided to come up with a new brand identity, meaning a new name, tagline and visual identity. We became Rayscape and our motto is «Don't miss a thing. See everything», says Ștefan Iarca, CEO of Rayscape.
What does Rayscape do?
Rayscape products, which use artificial intelligence for image analysis, are currently used by 100 public and private institutions in Romania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia. Among the clients are important companies from the private sector such as the Regina Maria Private Health Network and the Medlife Medical System, but also from the public sphere Spartanska Institute, Kopernik Hospital Lodz from Poland or Semmelweis University from Hungary.
The company keeps in its portfolio the two existing products dedicated to the analysis of chest X-rays and the analysis of lung CTs and also plans to develop new products dedicated to oncological imaging.
Bright Spaces
PropTech, SaaS, B2B — Series A
”Relevant issue — sales departments of office building owners inefficiently manage owner-agent-tenant information flow; BS develops a platform that digitizes the entire process, including 3D showcasing and thus reduces sales times and increases conversion rates; a large market; a good team, execute extremely well and have built a consistent sales pipeline; good traction - 50K MRR in multiple countries.”
Bright Spaces is a Romanian proptech startup that in two years after its launch had a sustained but also accelerated development. Since its establishment in 2019, Bright Spaces has raised two rounds of investment, pre-seed and seed, from both local and foreign investment funds and angel investors, and launched several customized digital leasing platforms for its customers from Romania and Great Britain. This year it aims to attract customers from the MENA (Middle East & North Africa) region, after successfully opening its UK subsidiary in 2022.
The company's current portfolio includes developers in Romania, Great Britain and Hungary, for whom Bright Spaces has mapped over 700,000 square meters of office and residential space. Bright Spaces clients include Skanska, One United Properties, Impact Hub, Moorland Property Solutions.
What does Bright Spaces do?
Bright Spaces is the company that offers a marketing and leasing solution based on 3D digital twins for real estate.
The solutions offered by the startup are aimed at future tenants of office space, who can view and interact digitally with a space, in 3D, and discover the main technological specifications of the building, points of interest, or ask for an offer or plan a tour live.
Aqurate AI
MarTech / Ecommerce, SaaS, B2B — Seed
”Relevant issue — small and medium-sized online stores can’t fight the giants on the marketing front, having much less resources. Aqurate has built a product that democratizes their access to tools so far accessible only to the big ones: advanced analytics + recommendation engine; a large market; a good team, well-educated, with both big data/AI and sales & marketing skills, who first demonstrated in consulting; good traction - 12K MRR, consistent sales pipeline.”
Aqurate is an AI-powered SaaS platform that helps eCommerce companies use their data to increase sales. The startup was founded in 2019 by Vlad Marincaş, Tudor Goicea, Lisardo Erman and Raul Mazilu. The platform has, until now, attracted funding in the amount of approximately 500,000 EUR.
The company is valued at four million EUR and has among its active clients Imobiliare.ro, LifeBox, Lensa, HSNF, Silio, Cupio, NeaKaisa, Dasha, BabyNeeds.
What does Aqurate do?
Aqurate offers three modules - an analytics module for viewing performance indicators, a personalized product recommendation module and a behavioral customer segmentation solution. The platform uses artificial intelligence to understand customer data and behavior in an online store.
Basically, Aqurate uses algorithms developed by them to analyze user interactions with the store and to recommend similar products that help increase the conversion rate, but also increase the average value.
Quarks Interactive
"The quantum future is still quite a distant notion, but Quarks Interactive is doing an excellent job of educating people about quantum and quantum technology; the startup did onboarding with VCs from Europe and Asia; a long-term view of what it means to educate the quantum future and the scaling of the implementation of quantum algorithms in what quantum computer science means.”
Quarks Interactive is a startup that developed Quantum Odyssey, the first game where you can learn the concepts of quantum computers. They're also working with big IT firms like IBM to create software to work with these truly futuristic computers.
The startup had investments of 40,000 EUR from angel investors, in a simultaneous deal, the lead role being played by Ciprian Man from Growceanu.
The founders, researchers at Durham University, have so far accessed government funds, both from Romania and the UK, winning the Smart-Up Diaspora grant worth 40,000 EUR offered by the Romanian Government and the Citizen Science grant of 20,000 pounds from the British government.
What does Quarks Interactive do?
The product developed by Quarks Interactive is the first no-code product that can describe every possible logic of a quantum computer. But it's not just a game, even though it seems like it at first. By understanding the visuals in Quantum Odyssey users can use them to communicate quantum algorithms to such computers.
Gaming is the first phase of development, a way to increase accessibility to technology. The second stage will be a focus on artificial intelligence used to build quantum algorithms.
