UK/Romania Business, in collaboration with CMS, Endeavor Romania and How to Web, has published “Technology Report: Understanding and Advancing Opportunities in the UK/Romania.”
The report, launched yesterday at the Palace of Westminster in London, provides insight into the UK-Romania technology relationship and sets out ways to further strengthen it.
David Webster, founder and managing partner of the UK/Romania business, said:
“The UK is a natural destination for Romanian startups to scale and UK venture capital is a key factor in driving this internationalization. By strengthening the connections between our two ecosystems and building a UK/Romania Tech Hub, we can contribute to the success of Romania’s many high-potential tech companies and help UK investors, companies and startups discover new opportunities in Romania.”
This document is the first in a series of sector studies, providing an in-depth analysis of the Romanian technology ecosystem and also examining the constraints shaping the environment. Interviews with Romanian startup founders, venture capitalists and organizations from the information technology ecosystem reveal the real situation of Romanian technology startups, the barriers to further growth and the opportunities for stakeholders.
13 UK-based venture capital firms invest in 15 Romanian startups
For Romanian startups, raising funding from local venture capitalists and angel investors is just the first step. Once traction is proven and operations are stable, the possibilities are endless. According to the aforementioned report, 13 UK-based venture capital firms have written checks for Romanian founders. The list includes Dawn Capital (FlowX), Atomico (Digitail), Pilabs (BrightSpaces), Molten (FintechOS), Notion (Cyscale), Connect Ventures (Deepstash), Hoxton Ventures, Smedvig Capital (DRUID), Stride VC (Sessions), MMC Ventures (Ogre AI), Accel (UiPath), Hiro (Machinations), and Seedcamp (Brainient, Cyscale, Machinations, Traderion, Ubervu, UiPath), the most prolific investor in Romania.
To grow and expand outside of your home country, gaining investors from your target country can work wonders for your business, says Andreea Pleşea, co-founder of DRUID. Currently, DRUID serves 250 companies in the US and UK across a range of industries, including healthcare, banking, retail and higher education.
“We started raising funds initially from angel investors, then we got our first VC investment, Early Game, and then GapMinder, also a Romanian VC. These were in the first two years. Then in 2022 we made an important round of investment of 10 million euros, led by two VCs, one Karma Ventures, an Estonian fund, and the other Hoxton Ventures, a US-based fund with an office in the UK. Hoxton helped us take a step towards our US expansion and accelerate the process. So in 2023 we closed a new round led by TQ Ventures, with the backing of Endeavor Network and Smedvig Capital.”
19 Romanian startups enter the UK
In the minds of all the founders, the goal once they launch their business is international growth. Some go to the US first, while others stop in the UK for market size, funding opportunities and operational advantages. According to Mihai Stratan, founder of Ogre AI, one of the startups on the list, the UK is “the most competitive electricity market and the most advanced in terms of digitalization. For Ogre AI, the UK is the toughest problem to tackle, so it’s an easy one to tackle.”
Other startups mentioned in the report are Aggero, Bright Spaces, Cord AI, CyberSwarm, Cyscale, Digitail, DruidAI, Fagura, FintechOS, Footprints AI, iFactor, inki, Kfactory, Nordensa, Prime Dash, Smart Fintech, Questo and Tinia.
56 UK-based startups with at least one Romanian founder
There are currently over one million Romanians living in the UK, many of whom have studied and worked here, and they use the experience and networks they have built up here to start their own companies, often collaborating with other Romanian co-founders or partners of different nationalities.
Of the 56 startups tracked in the report, 14 have an all-Romanian co-founding team, while the rest have at least one Romanian founder.
Together, these startups have raised around €300 million and created more than 600 jobs.
