Last time, we already presented you the Startup scene in Mexico.
Today, we wanted to have a brief look at the country Romania and how Entrepreneurship is handled there. One parnter of our project Mission:Enterprise is the University politehnica of Bucharest which gives us a reference to Romania.
Romania is one of the poorest countries, yet one of the fastes growing economies in the EU.
Current situation:
Romania has great potential to become one of the most vibrant innovation Hubs in Central and Eastern Europe. Technology is here one of the primary growth drivers in Romania. The IT & C services sector for example is forecasted to reach EUR 4 billion by 2020. Since Romania is a small country, very few Romanian Startups are targeting only the local market, with most aiming at least regionally, if not globally.
Even if Romania is forcasted to become a big innovation Hub, there are some borders hindering the development:
- Starting a business is difficult, because the time to register for VAT got increased
- bad access to venture capital investment
- low volume of new firm creation and a low survival rate
- lack of entrepreneurial culture and SMEs collaborating with other
Still, Romania is a pretty attractive country for (international) Entrepreneurs. Reasons for that are:
- low costs of living compared to other startup cities in Europe
- impressive technological infrastructure
- high relative salaries
- more capital at the doorstep
Therefore, if you are interested in trying your luck in Romania, here are some support programs:
- The government came up with the Startup-Nation program in 2016, where they select 10.000 newly established companies to fund them by using national budget funds.
- In Spring 2020, the startup Nation program is already going in its third round
- The Romanian government put a focus on technology, attracting foreign companies to invest, hire or open up subsidiaries. Mainly banks, consulting and retail firms are starting to invest in the ecosystem.
Crowdfounding isn’t as established as in other EU countries. In Romania, there is still a lot of education needed around the general public about potential and impact of these initiatives.