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The Romanian Internet Tech Startups Directory

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seedcamp-logoWe just got word that the prestigious Seedcamp mentoring program (which also is an early-stage micro seed investment fund) selected one Romanian startup to be part of it for the Seedcamp Week London.
The startup name is Socialook, which provides an advocacy platform that enables companies to turn their employees into brand ambassadors. Other 17 European startups were selected too.

Socialook is from Targu-Mures, Romania and it was founded by Horatiu Mocian. This is his second startup, the first one being Newistic – which is a a customizable web dashboard used for monitoring and analyzing social media for the pharma and healthcare industries.

Other Romanian startups which were finalists in this program were uberVU (2008) and Brainient (2009), which are now quite established in the market.
Socialook is profiled on Romanian Startups website here.

 

webit-logoThe second news is that the startups TheShopPage (founder: Iulian Dragan) and Gameleon (founders: Adrian Calotescu, Mihaela Epuran, Victor Popescu,  Vlad Alexandru Radu) were selected as semi-finalists at the Webit Congress Startup Challenge, part of Webit Congress which is a Bulgarian tech conference (6-7 November, 2013).
While TheShopPage is based in Romania, Gameleon is based in Bulgaria but has Romanian founders.

Both TheShopPage and Gameleon are profiled on Romanian Startups, here and here.

 

Good luck guys!

September 4, 2013 |

Vienna, the City of Music and Architecture, the city which breathes of culture will be soon starting breathing of technology and entrepreneurship and that thanks to the Pioneers Festival.

pioneers-festivalPioneers Festival is an event for entrepreneurship and innovative future technologies which will be held on 30-31 of October 2013 at the Hofburg Imperial Palace, with an additional day (29 of October) at the House of Industry (investors day).

The festival has lined up speakers ranging up from Dave McClure (the guy is busy this end of the year in Europe, he being invited also at Startup AddVenture in Kiev later on) to Danielle Morrill (Mattermark), Eben Upton (Raspberry Pi), Phil Libin (Evernote), David Noel (SoundCloud), Seth Goldstein (Turntable.fm), Vishal Sharma (Google), Eric Migicovsky (Peeble), Patrick Collison (Stripe), Jeff Clavier (SoftTech VC), and others.

As it happens usually at tech conferences, Pioneers Festival has also a Startup Competition section where hardware and software startups can apply for a chance to be selected and pitch in front of key players and investors.

This startup competition, Pioneers Challenge, has also lined up some experienced judges, among them being Tal Morgenstern (Sequoia Capital), Michael Treskow (Accel), Leo Batalov (Orrick), Lyuben Belov (LauncHub), Sean Seton-Rogers (PROfounders Capital).
Among all these judges there is also a Romanian one: Dan Lupu (Earlybird Venture Capital) who is a former student of University ‘Politehnica’, Bucharest and founding member of the Romanian Association of Financial Analysts (now CFA Romania).

Read More…

August 21, 2013 |

This is the story of Andreea Mihalcea, Geekcelerator’s first employee.
The original appeared on her website.
Geekcelerator.com is an investment fund, investing in startups that solve difficult technology problems for other startups.

********************************

Getting to our path in the tech world meant having the guts, devotion and perseverance to chase our obsessions and transform them into a way of living.

I hit a crossroad and felt stuck. A hard truth had blown into my face and I had to deal with it: I was jobless and somehow purposeless. This was it. I’ve reached a dead end.

 

A choice needs to be made

Andreea-Mihalcea-Geekcelerator-articleLast March, that was my story. Our very dear project was put on hold indefinitely. There was nothing more to do. I hit a crossroad and I had to choose. My future had two versions and I wasn’t sure which way to go. One was the steady and proven path: take a 9 to 5 job in a big corporation, be a slight wheel in a huge machinery, struggle to climb up the complex hierarchic ladder, get to be a manager of managers of managers of something and wait for retirement, when I could travel the world and craft my dreams on my daily life flow. Or not.

The other was the risky path of following my passion for technology and pursuing my dream of building my own company. But I lacked experience, I had no idea where to start from and I was afraid of failure. I was damn scared of another dead end.

Read More…

August 18, 2013 |

lisbon-challenge-monitor-backlinks75 tech startups are selected for the Lisbon Challenge acceleration program in Portugal and the Romanian tech startup Monitor Backlinks (profiled here) is one them.

The founder, Razvan Girmacea, will be moving to Lisbon on 28 of August where he will begin a 4 months intensive program. He will meet with 200 international mentors and investors and the beauty of this program is that no equity is taken from the startups. All startups will be given free office space, low cost accommodation, heavily discounted flights and visa help if necessary.

As those 4 months pass some startups will be eliminated (by a jury) and in the end only 10 will remain. Those 10 winner startups will share a 150,000 euros prize (about $198,000) and will be allowed also to participate at Investor Days in London, Sao Paulo and Lisbon. They will also get free office space in Lisbon up to 30 years (hopefully, they won’t need that after several years).

 

 

Read More…

July 25, 2013 |

Accelerator Assembly is, in their words:

Accelerator-Assembly-Startup-Europe

“Accelerator Assembly is an initiative created by the European Commission as part of the EU initiative called Startup Europe.
The Accelerator Assembly is an industry-led initiative delivered by Bethnal Green Ventures, Seedcamp, Seed-DB and Startup Weekend, with the support of Nesta and Springboard/Techstars.

Startup Europe is a Digital Agenda initiative supported by Vice President Neelie Kroes promoting web entrepreneurs to start their business in Europe and to let them flourish in Europe.”

Basically, Startup Europe’s Accelerator Assembly is the network for startup accelerator programs in Europe and now How To Web, the leading tech conference in Romania and Central-Eastern Europe, is part of it too.

Read More…

July 3, 2013 |

webstock -logoOn 27 of September 2013, at JW Marriott Grand Hotel in Bucharest, the online community gathers for an offline meeting in the most important social media conference from Romania organized by Evensys (partnering with Vodafone, one of the most important players in mobile communication in Romania).

Webstock is a one day meeting and beside the conference itself, where social media experts are invited to speak, there is also a contest of the best Romanian social media project, Webstock Awards.

 

Any project in social media can be submitted to Webstock Awards, choosing from 12 categories:
● Publishing
● Utility
● Visual
● User Generated Content (by brand)
● Blogging Campaigns
● Special Projects (Brands)
● Facebook Applications
● Bloggers Project
● Mobile applications
● Instagram (by Brands)
● Best Content Campaign on Facebook
● Innovation

There is a pre-selection of these projects which will be held between 3-9 September and then the final selection (10-20 Septembrie).
All projects must be submitted no later than September 3, 5:00 PM. You can submit your project here.

Read More…

September 1, 2013 |

startup-addventureStartup AddVenture tech conference and startups competition managed to bring in some heavy names in the startup world, names which would make any conference proud to have them. It will be taking place between December 4-5 2013 in the capital of Ukraine: Kiev (at the Ukrainian National Stadium “Olympic”).

Dave McClure from 500Startups, Don Dodge from Google Ventures, Mike Butcher from Techcrunch, Michael Bayle from ESPN Mobile, Robin Wauters from TheNextWeb as well as local known tech entrepreneur, VC or media representatives like Katia Gaika from Skolkovo, Igor Ryabenkiy from Altair Capital, Olexandr Tkachenko from 1+1 Media, Anna Degtereva from Happy Farm, Igor Zhadanov from Readdle, Piotr Wilam from Innovation Nest and others.

Read More…

August 19, 2013 |

blueseed-local-motors-rally-fighter-challengeBlueseed, the future offshore startups accelerator and where Dan Dascalescu is a co-founder, together with Local Motors invites you to create a Custom Rally Fighter Skin (Vehicle Wrap) that embodies the international, innovative, entrepreneurial, collaborative spirit that is the lifeblood of both Blueseed and Local Motors.

The objective of the Blueseed Custom Skin Competition is to design a Rally Fighter Skin that beautifully, intelligently and clearly communicates the task and purpose of Blueseed; a seaborne startup community that will allow entrepreneurs from anywhere in the world to launch and grow their companies just 30 minutes by ferry from Silicon Valley, but wholly in international waters.

Requirements:
– all custom skin design submissions must include the Blueseed logo.
– the Local Motors logo must be included, although subtle representation is emphasized over prominence.
– all custom skin design submissions should stay clear of windows and door handles.

The winner will take home $1,000 and will have the design applied to the Rally Fighter car, while the second place will take home $500. The third place will win $250.

Read More…

July 28, 2013 |

how-to-web-lets-grow-togetherThe well known Central and Eastern European tech conference How to Web (founded by Bogdan Iordache) will open the gates for yet another edition this year.
This will happen between 20-21 of November in Bucharest-Romania, as usual, at Crystal Palace Ballrooms (near Piata George Cosbuc, Calea Rahovei).

The conference has already lined up some speakers: Tal Siach – co-founder & CMO at Visual.ly (Israel), Michael Levit – founder at Spigot and Managing Partner of Founders Den (US), Kei Shimada – director of business develpment at Dentsu (Japan), Adii Pienaar – co-founder & CEO of Woo Themes (South Africa), Philipp Kandal – co-founder & CTO of Skobbler (Germany & Romania), Jon Bradford – managing director at TechStars (UK), Carlos Espinal – partner at Seedcamp (UK) and more (see the list here).

For two days, How to Web puts you in front of leading innovators, entrepreneurs and professionals for a feast of hands-on talks on global web trends, product & business innovation and new technologies.

How to Web also organizes the Startup Spotlight program & competition where most innovative Central and Eastern Europe startups are showcased. If you’re thinking to participate, the applications are open on startupspotlight.co website.

Let it be yet another fun one! Let’s Grow Together!

July 16, 2013 |

blueseed-bitcoin-bitangelsIn May this year a band of angel investors was formed – named BitAngels, the first multi-city angel network and incubator dedicated exclusively to digital currency startups. They came together in the wake of the Bitcoin 2013 Conference, held between May 17 and 19 in San Jose, CA.

60 angel investors poured about $7 million worth of Bicoins into the new fund at launch, but a month after the network grew to 120 angels and over $18 million dollars worth of Bitcoins.

BitAngels made its first bitcoins investment in Blueseed (one of the founders is Dan Dascalescu), the “offshore venture” that incubates startups in international waters – on a boat – not far off the coast of Silicon Valley. The location allows startup entrepreneurs from anywhere in the world to launch or grow their companies near Silicon Valley, without the need for a U.S. work visa.

The angel network BitAngels was established by the Engine.co founder David A. Johnston and SocialRadius CEO/Marketwire founder Michael Terpin, along with four additional founding board members Gyft CEO Vinny Lingham, Memory Dealers CEO and “Bitcoin Jesus” Roger Ver, Tradehill CEO Jered Kenna and angel investor Sam Onat Yilmaz.

The network is in talks to fund other three Bitcoin startups.

June 21, 2013 |

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