Post on 24-Mar-2022
December 2020
Romanian TechStartups Ecosystem
Romanian Startups Ecosystem 2020
Florin Vasilică
EY Romania Strategy and Transactions Leader EY CESA Capital & Debt Advisory Leader
2
Turning crisis into opportunity can result in fundamental, long-term growth
Previous crisis proved to be a catalyst for growth
Covid-19 has emerged as a game-changer for Digital Transformation. Business leaders arenow focused on leveraging technology and digital. Most of the companies experienceddifficulties with online connectivity and communicating with their customers and suppliers, in
addition to infrastructure issues. Some businesses have been forced to temporarilyshutdown or to substantially reduce the activity, along with their workforce.
Surprisingly, the last Global Financial Crisis proved to be a fertile period for successful startups and unicorns. It was a boom time for software infrastructure, development tools and social applications. Nutanix, MongoDB, GitHub, and Cloudera were all founded during this period, while others such as Square, Slack, Dropbox and Glassdoor have tried to revolutionize how work is done. All of the above companies are now valuated at more than $30Bn. Uber and Airbnb were founded between 2007 and 2008, while Yahoo veterans Jan Koum and Brian Acton created encrypted messaging WhatsApp in 2009 as a way for people
around the world to message each other quickly. Aggregate data on funding for US software companies founded after 2003 , receiving more than $100mn in investments, is positioning 2009 as a landmark year in terms of financing (source: Mattermark Data). Mostly because this is the year when Uber was founded, but still 80% of the funding went in other companies that started their business in 2009 and saw the crisis as a catalyst for their growth.
Global Market trend in favor of growth rounds
Will you define the new normal or watch it unfold?
The start of global lockdowns in March, raised sentiments that the downturn is coming, impacting the venture funding and IPO markets. A correction has happened, but not as negatively as expected. The changes in consumer behavior generated by social distancing, transformed the way we work, dine, learn, travel, consume entertainment and exercise. During the first three quarters of 2020, we have witnessed a significant increase in investments vs 2019 in: health-care, gaming, online payments and education. The same trend when comparing to 2019 has also been seen in e-commerce and shopping, manufacturing, agriculture and apparel sectors.
Even if the deals plunged vs. last year, the dealmaking goes on, in favor of well-establishedplayers. Crunchbase data shows seed funding in the third quarter was down 32 percent year over year, while the entire total early-stage funding, in the third quarter, was down 18 percent year over year. Late-stage funding has increased in the third quarter of 2020, up 24 percent year over year.
The IPO market is now on track to surpass last year by deal count and proceeds. Having a strong backlog of unicorns, the market registered a 50% increase of filings for IPO vs. last year, mainly on the US market.
Business leaders cannot ignore investments in technology and digital solutions, while the crisis should be a catalyst for addressing the shifts of cultural and societal behaviors. Now is the right time for the Romanian ecosystem, to accelerate entrepreneurship and innovation and to approach new business models. Waiting is not a solution anymore.
Funding
Despite economic downturn, investments in the local tech startups ecosystem continue to be strong and focused on scaling-up the well-established players
Romanian Startups ecosystem 20204
Business Name Amount Date
Sources: Dealroom, Crunchbase, Press Releases
Romanian Startups ecosystem 20205
Business Name Amount Date
Sources: Dealroom, Crunchbase, Press Releases
Romanian Startups ecosystem 20206
* Last Round reported late December 2019
Business Name Amount Date
Sources: Dealroom, Crunchbase, Press Releases
In 2020, the local ecosystem attracted more local capital than previous years,determined by an increased count of seed rounds
Romanian Startups ecosystem 20207
* Last Round reported late December 2019 Sources: Dealroom, Crunchbase, Press Releases
Investors Round Date Start-up
Alkeon Capital, Accel, Dragoneer, Coatue Management, IVP, Sequoia Capital, Madrona Venture Group, Tencent, Tiger Global Management, Wellington Partners and T. Rowe Price and Associates.
July 2020 UiPath
Gradient Ventures, GapMinder Venture Partners January 2020 TypingDNA
GapMinder Venture Partners, Roca X February 2020 Beez
Early Game Ventures December 2019 Druid*
Early Game Ventures, Roca X, Marius Alexe June 2020 CODA Intelligence
Early Game Ventures, Angel Investors January 2020 Tokinomo
Next Capital March 2020 Docbook
Founders, SeedBlink May 2020 SeedBlink
Neogen Capital April 2020 MissionCritical
SeedBlink, Cleverage Venture Capital, Founders Bridge
March 2020 SanoPass
SeedBlink, Roca X April 2020 Code of Talent
Early Game Ventures, Roca X May 2020 Humans
SeedBlink, GapMinder Venture Partners March 2020 Ialoc
Angel Investors, IAV Digital Labs June 2020 Jobful
GapMinder Venture Partners, V7 Capital June 2020 Flip
Sparking Capital, SeedBlink February 2020 EcoTree
Sparking Capital, SeedBlink June 2020 KFactory
Founders April 2020 Fenix.eco
Romanian Startups ecosystem 20208
Investors Round Date Start-up
Transilvania Angels Network, Growceanu, Simple Capital, Angel Investors
May 2020 Telios
SeedBlink, Angel Investors May 2020 Quarks interactive
SeedBlink March 2020 Amsimcel
GapMinder Venture Partners, SeedBlink September 2020 CyScale
Roca X January 2020 yeParking
Angel Investors June 2020 StressLess
Turn/River February 2020 CoCoSys
Early Game Ventures, Roca X January 2020 Miluu
Angel Investors June 2020 StockBinder
Angel Investors Pre-May 2020 Gumzzz
GapMinder Venture Partners August 2020 Innoship
GapMinder Venture Partners, SeedBlink August 2020 SecurifAI
SeedBlink, Others, Angel Investors July 2020 Ringhel
Roca X, SeedBlink, Angel Investors June 2020 Kinderpedia
Early Game Ventures, Sparking Capital July 2020 Instant Spaces
Holde Agri Invest SA August 2020 AgroCity
Early Game Ventures, Sparking Capital July 2020 Questo
SeedBlink, Others October 2020 Brio
GapMinder Venture Partners, SeedBlink October 2020 Apiary Book
SeedBlink, Cleverage VC October 2020 Oncochain
Sources: Dealroom, Crunchbase, Press Releases
Romanian Startups ecosystem 20209
Investors Round Date Start-up
Neogen Capital June 2020 Avocado.red
Lunar Ventures, Techstart Ventures, ID4 Ventures, 7percent Ventures, Charles Songhurst, Andreas Wiese
July 2020 Neurolabs
GapMinder Venture Partners, Angel Investors
September 2020 Cartloop
Simple Capital October 2020 yummdiet
GapMinder Venture Partners, DayOne Capital, SeedBlink
October 2020 Soleadify
Roca X May 2020 xVision
SeedBlink October 2020 Cassa
GapMinder Venture Partners, SeedBlink September 2020 Voxi Kids
SeedBlink November 2020 Comarket
SeedBlink October 2020 Mocapp
SeedBlink September 2020 R-Create
Seedcamp, GapMinder June 2020 Machinations
GapMinder Venture Partners, Connect Venture, Cultivate Capital
December 2020 Deepstash
GapMinder Venture Partners December 2020 MeetGeek
IT Fortech November 2020 Inventory
Radu Gogoasa, Alexandru Boghiu November 2020 The Mavers
GapMinder Venture Partners December 2020 MediNav
GapMinder Venture Partners December 2020 RepsMate
SeedBlink, Founders November 2020 Crickle
GapMinder Venture Partners, TechAngels, Simple Capital, Transilvania Angels Network
December 2020 Cartloop
Sources: Dealroom, Crunchbase, Press Releases
Ecosystem
Romanian Startups ecosystem 202011
Dashboard 2020December 2020 - Based on publicly available information
$1.3bn24%
All time
total investments
in the ecosystem
On its way to the IPO, UiPath closed its Series E investment round, raising $225 million at a post-money valuation of $10.2 billion. With a total of $1.2bn raised in 3 years, UiPath accounts for more than 93% of all time Romanian startups fundraising.
Total funding plunged by 60% in 2020, due the lack of Series A+ rounds, revealing no intermediary growth rounds between UiPath and the rest of the ecosystem.
€225mTotal Funding
2020 60%
Growth generated by increased interest from crowdfunding, business angels and local funds, in seed, follow-on seed rounds and new startups.
€552kAverage
Funding per Round
2020
-% w/o UiPath
Transactions over 75k
Average funding per round is similar with the last year, in a context of increased count of seed rounds.
Data : 4th December 2020
53Rounds 2020 27%
Transactions over 75k
Dashboard 2020
Romanian Startups ecosystem 202012
UiPath still accounts in 2020 for 86% of local ecosystem total funding
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
UiPath
Others
Rounds
Total investments and rounds
Source: Dealroom, Crunchbase, Press Releases
Date: 4th of December 2020
Romanian Startups ecosystem 202013
The ecosystem is aligning with global trends in terms of Covid-19 emergingsectors for investments: Health, Security and Education
Driven by the pandemic context, the local market has aligned to the global trends and, for the first time, there have been more rounds in the area of Covid-19 emerging sectors: Health, Education, Security, eCommerce and Games.
Top performing sectors by number of rounds
Without UiPath and TypingDNA, the local ecosystem still provides a foundry for innovative startups in Enterprise Software and Security sectors, representing 38% of the total amount invested in seed rounds.
Sources: Dealroom, Crunchbase, Press Releases
Enterprise Software
Heath
Education
Security
Fintech
HumanResources
eCommerce
Romanian Startups ecosystem 202014
After its Match freeze, the investments are back on a positive trend
0
1.000
2.000
3.000
4.000
5.000
6.000
7.000
8.000
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Rounds/Month vs Amount/Month (w/o UiPath)
Rounds per Month Amount Per Month
Sources: Dealroom, Crunchbase, Press ReleasesData: 4th of December 2020
€80-100m(w/o UiPath)
Valuation of startups that raised funds in 2020
Total valuation
Sources: Dealroom, Crunchbase, Press ReleasesData: 4th of December 2020
*Crowdfunding
Romanian Startups ecosystem 202015
SeedBlink is the largest equity crowdfunding platform in Southeast Europe with 24 closed and ongoing equity crowdfunding rounds in 2020
€7.8mTotal amount
raised throughcrowdfunding
2020
24Rounds2020
Transactions over 75k
46%
Roundscrowdfunded
from total
rounds
0
2
4
6
8
10
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Ecosystem Seedblink
Crowdfunding vs ecosystem
Number of Rounds
Sources: Dealroom, Crunchbase, Press Releases
Data: 4th of December 2020
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