Sebastian Florian
Founder, editor in chief of Startups&TheCity.
LevelUP Demo Day: Driving Innovation in Health & Life Sciences in Romania and beyond
On February 27, 2025, the LevelUP Health & Life Sciences Accelerator Demo Day took place at Hub UTCN in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, bringing together some of the most promising health tech startups. The program’s finalists...
Accelerating the digitization of town halls, using artificial intelligence
Between November 2024 and February 2025, the Cluj IT Association, in partnership with Smart Innovation Norway, carried out the project "AI-Driven Green Digital Transformation in Public Administration".
The project pursued the development of an approach model...
Seven years of EIT Health presence in the Romanian HealthTech ecosystem
EIT Health, a network of best-in-class health innovators supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, began engaging with the Romanian healthtech ecosystem by opening a...
EmpoWomen: Final Call for Women-Led Deep-Tech Startups to Join the Programme
The EmpoWomen Programme launched last month their 2nd Open Call for its transformative initiative, empowering women-led deep-tech startups across European emerging markets and associated countries.
The programme offers a unique opportunity for startups to...
Building Peace from Cluj to the World: Kai Brand Jacobsen’s Legacy with PATRIR
In the winter of 1997, an 18-year-old Kai Brand Jacobsen set foot in Cluj-Napoca for the first time. What was meant to be a brief visit to meet Denisa — whom he had met...
Evaluation of digital maturity and sustainability of public administration
Between November 2024 and February 2025, the Cluj IT Association will run in partnership with Smart Innovation Norway the project "AI-Driven Green Digital Transformation in Public Administration."
The project will follow the development of an...
Boon startup: Revolutionizing Peer-to-Peer Marketplace for Social Good
Founded this fall in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Boon is a pioneering peer-to-peer marketplace that goes beyond conventional secondhand selling by integrating social impact into every transaction.
Created by entrepreneur Stefan Szakal, Boon enables employees within companies...
EIT Health Morning Health Talks #2/2024, Romania: Open Innovation in Healthcare with industry leaders
On Thursday, 19 September 2024, Morning Health Talks #2 was organized by FreshBlood HealthTech, the local representative of EIT Health in Romania, an event that brought together healthcare innovators, entrepreneurs, and experts in a...
Rubik Garage Accelerator is empowering European Startups to expand in the US Market
Rubik Hub, part of the North-East Regional Development Agency of Romania, in collaboration with strategic partners including Fortech Investments, Google for Startups, WIT Angels Club (Silicon Valley), AmCham Romania, proudly introduces "Rubik Garage –...
Cluj-Napoca is accelerating healthcare innovation in Romania: 12 new startups & 12 bright insights
On September 18th 2023, the inaugural edition of the LevelUP Health & Life Sciences Accelerator program in Cluj-Napoca culminated in an impressive Demo Day, marking the successful conclusion of a pioneering initiative for health...
Unchain Fintech Festival: the Davos summit for digital banking in the CEE region
The Unchain Fintech Festival's 2023 edition which took place in Oradea's fortress, located in NW Romania, was hailed as the Davos summit for digital banking in the CEE region by its organizers and received...
The story behind the success of Cluj’s biggest hackathon: a journey of community and...
The inaugural Cluj Hackathon, the first hackathon in Romania focused on Artificial Intelligence, and Generative AI took place between June 16-18, 2023, at the Bosch Engineering Center Cluj. More than 115 participants, organized into...