After three months of training, mentoring and hard work the Innovation Labs 2.0 graduates from Bucharest and Cluj are ready to take the stage, where they will try to convince the audience with their final pitch in search of angel investors, users or just admirers. On the 19th of May our startups will get their first Demo Day experience and put their knowledge and training to the test in front of over 200 people, which include their peers, influencers from the industry, and potential partners.

The startups met with over 50 mentors, during the 8 workshop sessions, 10 tech talks with leaders from the IT industry and one high profile pitching event, the Boost Day. They learned from some, argued with others, but in the end their understanding of the market and the product grew and with it their businesses as well.

The event will take place at the Howard Johnson Grand Plaza on 19 of May 2014, and each of the teams will have 4 minutes to convince the jury:
– Julien Ducarroz (Chief Commercial Officer Orange Romania),
– Oana Viciu (Senior Marketing Manager Microsoft Romania),
– Calin Fusu (CEO Neogen),
– Cristian Udrescu (Business Advisor Trend Consult Group),
– Alexandru Lapusan (Founder Zitec),
– Cristian Olarasu (Founder Early),
– Raluca Georgescu (Co-Organizer GPeC),
– Teo Ceausu (CEO IXIA)
– and Vladimir Oane (Co-Founder UberVU)

The awards are for: Best Pitch, Best Product and Best Business.

The teams that will pitch for the Demo Day are:
1. MyPlace
2. PillBuzz
3. Engineers4Cluj
4. Plexis
5. CookPal
6. OpenMind
7. eHonk
8. Wabbit
9. MusicMaster
10. PackSender
11. Xetten
12. Joblink
13. LifeBox
14. Nivalis
15. Agrobid
16. Uprise
17. Exhale
18. SpotTune
19. TrafficVoice

Check out Innovation Labs website for more information about this event.

In short, the Romanian startup Style Jukebox (profiled also here on Romanian Startups) is now part of LAUNCHub portfolio.Congratulations to the team!

Style Jukebox is a cross-platform, mobile and desktop app, for music storage and streaming solution that automatically synchronizes music and playlists and offers the easiest way to play music, both online or offline.

The LAUNCHub Seed Fund (Bulgaria) announced today, 5/7/2014, six new investments finalized late in April 2014, thus welcoming these six new companies on board. The latest investment decision followed the dedicated selection run launched earlier in February 2014.

With the new six teams on board, LAUNCHub’s investments now span the European map across Southeastern Europe. The portfolio has now increased to 41 companies in 7 countries in Europe – Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia, Greece, Slovenia and Ukraine. Throughout its two years in operations the LAUNCHub Seed Fund has invested over 3 million Euros in the digital tech sector in the SEE region. In the same time, the Fund has attracted more than 3 million Euro of co-investment funds for its portfolio companies, seeing through two Series A rounds and participating in joint rounds some ranging up to 400K Euro.

The newcomers on board include Bulgarian teams AdTapsy, Clusterize, CM2W and Zeduki, Slovenian Enolyse and Romanian Style Jukebox. With the latest investments finalized, over 120 founders have now become members of the LAUNCHub family with opportunities for collaborating together in reaching new dimensions in business and technology.

And there is yet more hot news coming from LAUNCHub. The 9 million Euro Seed Fund is partnering with Digitalk and Mini Seedcamp for an incredible digital marathon in the end of May in Sofia.

Mini Seedcamp Sofia will take place on May 29, 2014 and is an excellent opportunity for startups to network and get immediate valuable feedback from leading experts. The best three teams will get the unique chance to pitch on the mainstage at DigitalK.
Mini Seedcamp Sofia will be organized for a second consecutive year as part of the strategic partnership between LAUNCHub and Seedcamp, Europe’s leading micro-seed investor and mentoring programme. Please apply via AngelList or f6s before May 14, 2014 (apply here).

LAUNCHub is also one of the main organizers of the DigitalK Conference, a leading two-day technology event in SEE. The digital-tech event is coming up on May 29 and 30 in Sofia, Bulgaria and this year will bring together 900+ startup founders, investors, entrepreneurs, business leaders, featuring a distinguished guestlist of keynote speakers, brought to you with the special contribution of LAUNCHub.

And last, but not least, LAUNCHub is up for new applications and a new dedicated selection run is scheduled to open on May 12, 2014. Check the LAUNCHub website and social media channels.

RomanianStartups.com is partners with LAUNCHub (Bulgaria), which is a seed fund supporting the most promising entrepreneurs and digital startups in Southern and Eastern Europe..

The European Commission is looking for Europe’s best startups in this year’s Tech All Stars competition. The lucky winners will have exclusive access to Europe’s most prestigious startup events and will pitch to the likes of Sir Richard Branson, Chad Hurley and Niklas Zennström.

European Commission Vice President @NeelieKroesEU said “Part of businesses success is making the right connections and the European Commission can help open doors. Finalists will get connected to EU funding sources, successful entrepreneurs and other influential people.”

The competition is open to EU registered startups younger than 3 years, which have raised less than €1 million in external funding. Applications are open until May 22nd 2014.

Tech All Stars Competition

• 10th-11th June 2014. Over two days, 12 finalists get to know London’s vibrant startup scene, connect, learn and get inspired by successful entrepreneurs. Finalists will be trained and challenged in an eliminatory pitch battle and a distinguished selection panel will chose the top three.
• June 12th Founders Forum London. Top three finalists pitch their startup to a world-class audience of tech leaders and investors. The best European startup will be elected, and the winner will be announced by Neelie Kroes
• Summer 2014. The Grand Tech All Stars Winner will be panellist at the European Commission’s Digital Agenda Assembly again rubbing shoulders with the movers and shakers of the tech world.

Previous Tech All Star Winners include Irish company Trustev which offers real time, online verification using social fingerprinting technology (see MEMO/13/557) and Cognicor a Spanish start-up offering an automated complaint resolution service (see MEMO/12/472).

StatupEurope is the European Commission action plan to strengthen the business environment for web and ICT entrepreneurs in Europe and contributing to innovation, growth and jobs. It is a Digital Agenda initiative supported by @NeelieKroesEU to help innovative tech companies start in Europe and stay in Europe.

Find out more here
– techallstars.eu @TechAllStars
– @StartUpEU, #StartUpEurope
– About Startup Europe
– Neelie Kroes’ website

Contacts
Email: comm-kroes@ec.europa.eu Tel: +32.229.57361 Twitter: @RyanHeathEU

Read the press release here.

On the 2nd and 3rd of April 2014, in Timisoara will take place the starting event of the 2014 Business Days series, which is the most important platform fully dedicated to provide support for the Romanian entrepreneurial environment. Business Days returns to Timisoara for the third time (http://timisoara2014.businessdays.ro) and brings along the already traditional event format with plenty of novelties, also international speakers – experts in the very recent domains of the business world. Timisoara Business Days will be hosted by Centrul de Evenimente Hotel Club Senator & Expovest (the Events Center at Hotel Club Senator & Expovest).

The anniversary edition of this 4 year old Romanian business event with the biggest impact will incorporate, among many others the following:
– 4 conferences (a total of 44 inspirational presentations),
– 16 workshops with more than 50 experts, consultants, entrepreneurs, managers, professional trainers and moderators who will assist the participants in their development of managerial and entrepreneurial abilities within the frame created by the interactive sessions and exchange of experiences,
– 4 round tables (with debates focused on some hot topics with huge direct impact in the Romanian business environment, involving more than 48 prestigious guests from various fields).
One of the novelties brought by the present edition is a special workshop dedicated to leaders, held by the famous conductor and neuroscience expert, maestro Giorgio Fabbri, dedicated to a new kind of intelligence for an innovative leadership.

One of the events will be dedicated to the technology entrepreneurship having speakers like Radu Georgescu, Andrei Pitis, Radu Ticiu, Horatiu Moldovan and Daniel Giurea.

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Innovation Labs 2.0, the first pre-acceleration program in Romania organized by TechLounge with the support of Orange and Microsoft is open once again for business.
Students and young professionals passionate about entrepreneurship and technology can register for the hackathons that open the program by completing the registration form available online at http://2014.innovationlabs.ro/register

Innovation Labs 2.0 is a pre-acceleration program targeting the youth that want to build their own technology startups. The program starts with two 24 hours hackathons that will take place in Bucharest on March 1st and in Cluj on March 8.

Each hackathon starts with a pitching sessions where the attendees have 1 minute to convince the audience. The teams are then formed around the most appreciated projects. For the next 24 hours the participants will work to develop their business concept and their minimum viable product. Their efforts will be supported by mentors: entrepreneurs, professionals and industry leaders. In the end the teams will pitch their projects in front of a jury and the best 26 projects (16 in Bucharest and 10 in Cluj) will enter the pre-acceleration program.

In between March 4 – May 15, the Innovation Labs 2.0 teams will continue to develop their own startups by working with well-known entrepreneurs, specialists and industry leaders. They will attend TechTalks, open discussions with experts in different areas, and they will participate in mentoring sessions aimed at helping them solve the problems they face and turn their ideas into viable startups.

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