The eYou platform, a Romania-based social media startup currently in pre-launch, aims to become a European alternative to traditional networks, focusing on algorithm transparency, user control over feeds, and AI-powered fact-checking. The project has raised €300,000 in pre-seed funding from Fil Rouge Capital and has already attracted over 10,000 sign-ups on its first day.

Founded by Jasseem Allybokus and Grégoire Vigroux, two French entrepreneurs based in Romania, eYou positions itself as a “trust-by-design” platform in contrast to global players like Facebook and X.

At the core of the product is a real-time fact-checking feature integrated directly into the user experience. With a single click, users can access AI-generated assessments of posts, based on credible and neutral sources, enabling them to verify claims without interrupting the flow of conversation.

The platform also introduces a transparent recommendation system, allowing users to view and adjust the profile built about them. This gives users direct control over the signals shaping their feed and the option to diversify content exposure beyond algorithm-driven echo chambers.

Built in Europe and aligned with strict data protection standards, eYou enters a market increasingly concerned with misinformation, platform accountability, and the dominance of non-European tech giants.

The public launch is scheduled for May 2026. Until then, users can join the waitlist and secure early access at: eyou.social.

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With over 50 teams, 40 mentors, and 30 real-world challenges, this year’s Cluj Hackathon, held from May 24–26 2025, pushed boundaries in agentic AI — and made space for some of the brightest young minds in Romania and beyond to shine. The three-day innovation marathon, hosted by Bosch Engineering Center Cluj, drew not only hackers and developers but also investors, accelerators, and founders curious about the next wave of AI-native startups.

Organized by Adrian Vlasiu, the hackathon aimed to harness the power of artificial intelligence to address real-world societal issues. Participants were encouraged to develop AI-driven solutions across various domains, including education, healthcare, and emergency response. The event’s mission was clear: to create impactful technologies that serve the community.

Now in its third edition, Cluj Hackathon has established itself as a consecrated name in the global hackathon scene, recently recognized by the Major League Hacking as one of the top 100 hackathons in the world.

“That kind of recognition validates the quality of our teams, our mentors, and the energy we’ve been building here in Cluj,” said Adrian Vlasiu, the event’s founder and organizer.

The winners? Three radically different teams united by one trait: they built useful, human-centered products with global potential.

First Prize: AI Interior Design Assistant That Understands Your Style

Filip Csibi, a computer science student at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, teamed up with Mark Renner, a theology high school student passionate about computer science and one of the youngest participants of the hackathon, to win first place with a product that turned heads.

Their AI-powered interior design app that helps users visualize room layouts and purchase suggested furniture in a few clicks. Using OpenAI APIs and DALL·E 3, the app generates personalized room visuals and learns user preferences over time. Ideal for people who move often or want quick, affordable design help, the app could soon evolve into a 3D and VR-based design platform.

Despite being just a duo, the team delivered a highly-polished prototype and impressed judges with both technical execution and vision. Filip said the experience reinforced the importance of teamwork — and they are already planning to expand the team for next year’s edition.

Second Prize: A Chatbot to Fix University Bureaucracy

Few things frustrate students more than getting information from university secretariats. Matei Botezat, Bogdan Buruian, Luca Balasoiu and Bogdan Biris, all four computer science students from Babeș-Bolyai University, created a smart fix: a university helper chatbot powered by Google Dialogflow and Cloud Functions.

Their idea? Free up secretaries’ time and reduce student stress by automating answers about scholarships, Erasmus programs, student IDs, and more. Mentorship from experts like Maria and Zoli (Fetch.ai) helped them refine the app’s business potential and prepare it for rollout.

The next step: test a prototype at their own university and explore expanding across campuses via European grants or university consortia. It’s a hyper-local solution with cross-border relevance — and a practical example of AI as administrative glue.

Third Prize: Angel AI — A Calm Voice in an Emergency

From travel panic to cultural misunderstandings, the Angel AI team tackled a universal pain point: what happens when travelers face danger in unfamiliar places? Their AI-powered assistant app aims to provide immediate, culturally aware support in high-stress situations — from medical emergencies to legal trouble or natural disasters.

Originally pitched as a dynamic travel planner, the idea pivoted mid-hackathon to focus on preventive alerts, real-time assistance, and actionable advice in moments of crisis. The team — Cristiana Constantin, Marius Manea and Bogdan Caraeane, all three students at  the University of Bucharest — received key mentorship on shaping their go-to-market strategy and decided to explore white-label partnerships with insurers, travel platforms, or even competitors.

With a rebrand in the works and small features being rolled out to collect traction and data, Angel AI is aiming to become a digital safety net for travelers worldwide.

Mentors: Cluj’s Secret Weapon

Mentors played a critical role in guiding teams toward clarity and viability. One of them, Mo Zidan, highlighted just how far the Cluj tech scene has come, not trying to replicate Silicon Valley, but growing with its own distinct identity.

He was also struck by the confidence and global mindset of young Romanian talent — like the 14-year-old who pitched fluently to a panel of international judges. For Moe, participating as a mentor was a way to “give back” and help build bridges between Cluj and other tech hubs in Eastern Europe and Asia.

“It’s not about copying Berlin or San Francisco. Cluj should link with other rising hubs — places like Prague, Budapest, Jakarta, Seoul. We have the mindset now. And the talent.”

One major evolution at this year’s event? Teams didn’t just use AI as a gimmick — they built AI agents that could act: book transport, send documents, or adapt in real time to changing user needs. Mo described this as “the biggest leap forward” he’s seen at any hackathon so far.

“This year’s AI agents weren’t just reactive chatbots,” said Mo Zidan, one of the lead mentors. “They were capable of taking action — booking taxis during emergencies or rerouting flights. That’s a massive shift.”

AI, Creativity, and the Future: A Bosch Perspective

As the host of the Cluj Hackathon 2025, Bosch Engineering Center Cluj provided not just the venue, but a fertile ground for forward-looking innovation. For Maria Barbatei, Group Leader of VR & AR Activities at Bosch, what stood out most was the breadth and relevance of the solutions.

“First of all, in this edition, the variety of solutions was extremely wide,” Maria noted. “The participants tackled problems from several industries, and especially the winners provided a solution which is relevant to all of us as it influences our daily lives and helps us to design our work environment at the office or at home as it fits us best.”

Beyond the creativity and boldness of the teams, Maria emphasized Bosch’s ongoing investment in AI-driven development and a data-first culture:

“I believe that the development of AI in the next five years will be fast-paced, and this is the reason why at Bosch we focus on data-driven development, and aim to foster a data-first culture while staying ahead with the AI advancements. We do this with the projects and activities in the data-development area as well as with building communities to expand these competencies in the organization with a rich mix of learning formats and collaborative activities.”

Bosch’s innovation programs don’t just support external events like the hackathon; they’re also fueling internal breakthroughs, with multiple invention reports being generated every year. It’s a model of how corporate R&D and grassroots innovation can work hand-in-hand — and how Cluj’s tech ecosystem is positioning itself for long-term, AI-powered growth.

What’s Next for Cluj Hackathon?

The 2025 edition marked a turning point — with agentic AI becoming not just a buzzword but a tool for building real products with real users. The energy was palpable. So was the ambition.

As the Cluj tech ecosystem continues to mature, the hackathon proves it’s not just a launchpad for code, but a catalyst for startups, mentorship, and international partnerships.

Organizer Adrian Vlasiu sees even bigger things on the horizon: an expansion across Romania and Europe, the launch of a Senior Hackathon for professionals aged 30+, and the formation of a European Hackathon League to foster a cross-border community of builders.

“We’re creating a platform where ideas meet capital, mentorship meets execution, and regional talent meets global relevance”, Adrian said.

One thing’s certain: the future of AI isn’t being built in Silicon Valley alone — it’s also coming from a theology high school student in Cluj, a chatbot for university offices, and a virtual guardian angel for tourists.

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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 to buy and sell secondhand goods, with all proceeds directed to a charity of the seller’s choosing. This unique approach combines commerce, charity, and sustainability, aiming to foster community trust and drive positive social change within corporate environments.

A Marketplace Built on Trust

Boon was designed to operate exclusively within companies, allowing only colleagues to engage in transactions. This trust-based model addresses common challenges in peer-to-peer marketplaces, such as issues with reliability and security, while strengthening workplace community bonds. Inspired by Szakal’s experience attempting to donate an old computer to an animal shelter, Boon evolved from a charity-focused concept to a marketplace built on workplace trust, where companies act as intermediaries to guarantee secure and transparent exchanges.

Unique Use Cases and Versatility

Boon’s applications go beyond simple product exchanges. Sellers can offer unique experiences—like cooking classes or tech tutorials—using the proceeds to support local charities. In one instance, a company’s CEO auctioned a barbecue invite, with all funds going directly to charity. This flexibility in offerings showcases Boon’s potential to cultivate both shared experiences and charitable impact, helping to strengthen workplace connections and inspire collaborative generosity.

Social Impact at Its Core

With Boon, every transaction reinforces a commitment to social responsibility. Szakal emphasizes that the platform empowers users to select from a list of verified local charities, ensuring that donations are meaningful and impactful. By allowing employees to support causes close to their hearts, Boon fosters a sense of purpose and engagement that resonates with the younger workforce. Furthermore, Boon’s built-in AI tool measures the environmental benefits of each purchase, making the environmental impact of secondhand buying visible and accessible for users.

Aligning with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Human Resources (HR)

Boon is a powerful ally for corporate CSR and HR initiatives, helping companies easily digitize and expand their charity efforts. The platform allows employees the freedom to support causes that matter to them, and Boon’s charity verification process assures companies that they’re contributing to reputable organizations. This alignment with CSR policies also enhances employee engagement and satisfaction, particularly among Millennials and Gen Z, who are more likely to value companies with strong social responsibility practices.

Boon’s Business Model and Future Plans

Unlike typical marketplace models, Boon’s business model aligns directly with its social impact mission. The platform operates without charging companies or users, focusing instead on the success of the charities it supports. By acting as a “fundraising department” for these organizations, Boon creates value without imposing fees or transaction costs on companies or individuals.

Currently in its early stages, Boon launched to the public in September with initial adopters like Rebel Dot, a forward-thinking company that shares Boon’s commitment to social impact. Looking ahead, Stefan Szakal has ambitious plans to expand to Bucharest by November, with the possibility of entering an international market by the end of the year. This growth plan illustrates Boon’s scalable potential, driven by a focus on impactful, community-centered commerce.

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On the 25th of May 2023, FreshBlood HealthTech, the local representative of EIT Health in Romania organized in Cluj-Napoca an event part of their Morning Health Talks series, having as main theme “Hospitals and startups, joint drivers of healthcare innovation”.

FreshBlood organizes two Morning Health Talks events per year, focused on how startups can help each other through sharing their achievements and problems.

The discussions of the first edition of this year were centered on real case studies, best practices and lessons learnt from different stakeholders – organizations, startups and hospitals – to boost healthcare innovation through collaboration between healthtech startups and hospitals.

The event started with an introduction of EIT Health and FreshBlood HealthTech priorities in 2023, by Dr. Ion-Gheorghe Petrovai. The Romanian NGO will focus this year on supporting an increase of health innovation capacity, while at the same time fostering engagement and generating inspiration in the healthtech community.

Dr. Ion-Gheorghe Petrovai also presented the Hubvantage program, launched at the beginning of 2022. Hubvantage is a personalized support program for HealthTech startup founders, with all year round activities specifically designed to help HealthTech startup founders get the support they need to move to the next level. The program offers founders: thorough needs assessment and identification of the immediate needs to address, personalized one-on-one mentoring with healthcare, technical mentors and relevant patients/users, the opportunity to be part of an exclusive club of health founders that inspire and support each other, specially designed events with relevant high quality content, access to opportunities and resources, national and international exposure through the consortium network.

The Hubvantage program is organized in collaboration by FreshBlood HealthTech, HIVE Center for Health Innovation of Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca and Activize and is supported by EIT Health.

Next speaker, George Megas, EIT Health HUB and Horizon Europe National Contact Points’ Coordinator at the National Documentation Centre, Athens, Greece explained how they encourage the collaboration between startups and hospitals in Greece.

“We are the EIT Health Hub in Greece, supporting startups in the healthcare sector, and students, trying to do that with the knowledge triangle integration model, connecting startups, industry, academia and research organizations. 

As a hub we have a variety of acceleration programs available for our community startups, depending on their maturity level. We have given more than a million euros to Greek startups through EIT Health in the last five years.

We have a lot of students participating in a variety of EIT Health programs, education programs, summer schools, campuses, we are among the first in recruitment of students EU-wide regarding EIT Health student and education programs. 

In today’s Morning Talk we’ve discussed mostly about how to connect startups with hospitals. EIT Health gave us a mandate last year to create a specific program for this. We selected the category of startups in hospitals and we created the SymbIASIS program.

SymbIASIS comes from the Greek words ‘symbiosis’ and ‘iasis’ which means healing. The goal was to connect the startups with some interesting parties inside the hospitals that were supporting the program, of course, not all Greek hospitals are in the program. We have public hospitals, private hospitals and we had 14 startups participating in 2022. We are going to have 15 more in 2023. In total, with the addition of eight more or seven more new hospitals and clinics this year, we’re going to have 15 hospitals and around 55 startups, and we’re going to do common events to put them in discussions. 

We are not going extremely deep in the technology connection, but we know what the startups are offering. We analyze their maturity and we know what the hospital’s needs through specific surveys, and we put them in common grounds like today’s events, we bring them together to events, we let them discuss.

The most important factor is to find the right person from the hospital with the right culture and mindset that likes and enjoys technology and he is technological savvy and he can understand the solution at hand provided by the startup. So it’s all about people. If you find the right people, then the connection can happen. But of course you have to overcome some regulatory issues or you have to have some procurement methodologies if you are talking with public hospitals. And these things can be overcome if you have the willingness to collaborate or if you have the culture to collaborate.

If you have the right technology, maybe the doctors that know about it and can understand it won’t say no to it, they will look at it, they will support it. And then maybe there are some pilots happening inside the hospitals. 

One other issue is funding, for example we have a startup with a new AI technology to support the anesthesiologist, they’re going to do some testing in some hospitals in Greece, but we are not sure if we can find funding for this. They’re doing it without funding just to collect some data and test their technologies. I think that the government should also support these efforts.The Ministry of Health, the hospital departments should allocate some funding in the innovation departments. They should have specific departments focusing on this. If they don’t have their own department on scouting for technologies then they can rely on EIT Health. We can scale the technology for them through SymbIASIS projects or other projects.”, said George Megas, EIT Health HUB and Horizon Europe National Contact Points’ Coordinator at the National Documentation Centre, Athens, Greece.

Next there were two online presentations, “How to prepare your startup for hospital collaboration” from Petros Papachristou (PhD), Chief Information Officer Hellenic Healthcare Group, Athens, Greece, while Dr. Ionut Nistor – Senior Nephrologist, lecturer at the “Grigore T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Iasi, coordinator at MAVIS Techcenter transfer presented “Startup-hospital collaboration in Romania in 2023 – the UMF Iasi example”.

Petros Papachristou presented the needs in digital technology of a big group of hospitals, Hygeia Group in Greece, as its CIO. He stressed that a hospital needs to have in place a digital strategy, a business model for new solutions, to modernize the IT environment for all hospital basic functionalities and to have structured, medical codified data based on standards. Petros also presented case studies of successful implementations of digital services in their group of hospitals, like the Online Electronic Health Record or the Patient Experience Telemedicine.

Dr. Ionut Nistor presented the MAVIS Center for Innovation and Technology Transfer part of the at the “Grigore T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Iasi, Romania, and some of the projects and activities of this technology transfer center. One of the challenges presented was the management of chronic patients and the process they went through to find solutions created by European startups to solve this problem, with the help of EIT Health.

The event continued with a startups panel with the topic “Collaborating with hospitals do’s and don’ts”, having as invited panelists Stefan Iarca – Co-founder & CEO Rayscape, Andrei Moldovan – Product & Account Manager at MediNav, Alexandru Lazar – Tech Executive and Founder Docviser.

It was very interesting to find from each of the startup founders, how they managed to create the first collaboration with a hospital.

“What has been very important for us was to find what they call an early adopter. We basically found a professor in our hometown of Timisoara, Romania, who was willing to give us a shot, to allow us to test our solution in their hospital, in their clinical environment. That was the point where, by having him and proving to him that the solution is indeed something that could work, it has been much easier from that point on to go to other hospitals and talk to them and say, look, we have this deployment here. The one crucial thing I would say is to get this early adopter to test your solution.”, said Stefan Iarca, Co-founder & CEO Rayscape.

“Once the startup was founded, and we had the MVP ready, we adopted a doctor in a private hospital. We sent him our solution to try it, and he was impressed with it. He also became part of the team. And then with his help, so a down top approach, we managed to get the interest of the hospital where he was working. There was a trial by fire, we entered the market and saw how the product would change or survive. We work now with around 15 hospitals, mainly with private clinics. But we also started working with the Ministry of Health and we have some pilot projects with state hospitals”, added Andrei Moldovan, Product & Account Manager at MediNav.

“We were kind of lucky because my co-founder is a doctor so our advantage was that we started from a real problem existing in hospitals, and we tackled it. Because he is the medical director,  we haven’t encountered any bureaucracy issues. We were able to launch the pilot program into a big county hospital. We had this opportunity to test our first version of the product one year and a half ago. With real data from real patients in the hospitals. We get some feedback. Of course, we had multiple iterations afterwards. It’s an ongoing process. We’re a software development company. So we know exactly what we’re doing. We know how to iterate on the process. So all we needed was the right feedback, from the real hospitals, to understand exactly what’s happening there and what are the challenges.”, said Alexandru Lazar, Tech Executive and Founder Docviser.

The final part of the event was dedicated to the presentation of “The patient feedback monitoring – a modern tool for health managers” by Dragos Vana – Founder Graphs.ro.

FreshBlood HealthTech, Cluj based NGO, is one of the main catalysts for healthcare innovation in Romania, supporting healthcare related startups since 2017. The NGO is also the hub of EIT Health in Romania starting from 2018.

Adriana Dunca, RIS Program Manager FreshBlood, explained the scope of the Morning Health Talks series of the events, and also informed of the other events and programs for startups they organize in Romania.

“We organize two Morning Health events per year, for this event our purpose was to have international speakers, local speakers and startups talking about how they work/collaborate with hospitals and their challenges and lessons learned. We focus a lot on startups helping each other through sharing information, sharing the process and sharing their problems. And I think we really accomplished that.

For this year, we will also have two satellite events in Techsylvania (How to tech in HealthTech – the startup way and GIPIA informal gathering) and also we will have HealthTech Next Generation #4 in December. So these are our major events. We also have the Hubvantage program in which we will have about four more events, and also the mentorship part. We’re also collaborating with LevelUP, the first Health & Life Sciences startup accelerator in Romania, where we are offering support and mentorship. We are also part of DIGIT-PRE – The European support programme for Innovative Solutions in Prevention, Prediction & Remote care. DIGIT-PRE combines 10 regional ecosystems (across 7 European countries) with diverse economic profiles. We helped identify and formulate the challenges and we still have a lot of things to do this year. 

We are always looking for new opportunities to help startups so we might just create new services/programs according to the feedback that we have. In whatever we do, we focus on the startups and with all the experience that we have, we see where we can help them improve. That’s how the Hubvantage program appeared. What we do is we try to connect the community and help them share information among them: startups, founders and mentors.”, said Adriana Dunca, RIS Program Manager FreshBlood.

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Veridion (formerly known as Soleadify) announces a $6 million late seed round to expand to US and further develop their proprietary AIs that are specifically trained to understand the global business landscape, enabling their clients, including tier 1 consultancies and market intelligence firms, to access reliable data on 80 million businesses worldwide, saving thousands of hours of manual research and achieving record accuracy and refresh rates.

The deep tech startups raised the seed round from LAUNCHub Ventures, OTB Ventures, Underline Ventures, and existing investors Day One Capital and GapMinder Venture Partners.

Veridion leverages the power of AI to revolutionize big data and to comprehend billions of webpages every week in order to build and maintain a highly accurate, global scale, near real-time, single-source-of-truth database of company data made available through a Complex Search API and a Matching & Enriching API.

They are one of the first companies to deploy AI at this scale for data acquisition, setting them apart from the traditional firmographic data players that buy data from government registries as well as simple web-scraping alternative data providers.

Firmographic data is information that can be used to categorize organizations by a host of information such as business activity, products or services offered, location, employees, industry, technology offered etc. Enterprises are missing reliable, up-to-date information about market participants and a lack of those crucial insights leads to sub-optimal decisions and challenges when navigating through dynamically changing environments.

Veridion is positioned to be a firmographic intelligence leader, boasting a database of over 60 data points on over 80 million businesses with record accuracy rates and the highest refresh rate on the market.

Veridion saw solid growth figures in 2022, with over 3x increase in recurring revenue and an impressive zero churn in clients. Their biggest clients include, among others, tier 1 consultancies with specialized procurement and insurance teams, one of the largest global insurtech platforms, procurement platforms, and top tier market intelligence companies. There are multiple reasons for this, key among which is their highly granular data, the control their APIs offer on confidence scores and their internal matching engine which allows them to pinpoint businesses at unprecedented rates.

The name change is intended to highlight the company’s unique standing in the market, their commitment to being a single source of truth and reflect the company’s ambitious plans for future growth.

Florin Tufan, founder and CEO, Veridion: “We believe that the next generation of business decision engines, regardless of industry or vertical will require a completely new format of data. Predictive models will rely on AI more than human intuition and will be capable of processing exponentially more data as their core resource. For this, the data needs to be fresh, granular, easy to work with, and integrate-able across a wide array of processes. This has been our focus from the beginning and with this round, we’ll be able to double down on our approach.”

The firmographic data market in which Veridion operates is also known as the business information market and was valued at $211 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow towards $291 billion by 2027, with new technologies like AI representing a game-changer for big data. According to Gartner’s Data Quality Market Survey, the average financial impact of bad data on organizations in 2022 was estimated to be around  $12.9 million per year.

Recent developments in ML capabilities unlocked the doors for Veridion to be positioned quite differently from other market participants. Players such as Delphai, Planck Data, and Grata have collectively raised over $110M in the past 7 years of operations and development. While companies like these cover local markets and company records in the 10 – 20 million range, Veridion boasted over 70 million company records within their first two years of activity.

Delphai covers primarily private markets for M&A, prospecting and supplier sourcing, segments where Veridion brings in-depth data on hundreds of millions of products and services and business activities in all commonly used taxonomies worldwide such as NAICS, NACE, SIC, etc on companies from all around the world. Planck Data is focused on commercial underwriting but only covers the US market as opposed to Veridion’s global coverage and Grata, which is focused primarily on deal sourcing also lacks the in-depth perspective that Veridion brings on specific company descriptions, risk signals and other rapidly expanding data points that Veridion extracts on the companies they oversee.

The biggest name in firmographic data is Dun & Bradstreet, with over 200 years experience in the field. Dun & Bradstreet and Veridion may serve slightly different market segments, but their differences are pronounced when it comes to data products and capabilities. Veridion offers a distinct advantage in its coverage of the SMB landscape, with regularly refreshed data and in-depth product-level information and retail locations. The NLP-based approach employed by Veridion also enables the extraction of unique data attributes for specific industries, such as specific underwriting and supplier risks, enabling the company to better meet the needs of its clients through custom data solutions.

After validating their data with large enterprise clients in commercial insurance underwriting, supplier discovery, and private market analysis, Veridion is releasing self-service APIs to enable faster data integration for potential clients and open up to new markets in data-centric SaaS or other early-stage solutions.

Veridion plans to continue building its US footprint by opening a New York office in 2023 to more closely support their growing base of clients in the region.

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In 2022 the Romanian HealthTech ecosystem grew in maturity and got more visibility on the European map of HealthTech innovation, with the support of catalyst organizations like FreshBlood and ROHealth and through the achievements of MedTech startups like re.flex. The ecosystem has seen in 2022 the launch of Hubvantage, a new mentorship program with the objective of capacity building at the level of the healthtech ecosystem and of BIOdyssey, a hub dedicated to healthcare innovation.

Together with Dr. Ion-Gheorghe Petrovai, Co-Founder and Director of Innovation at FreshBlood HealthTech, the local NGO representing EIT Health in Romania, we reviewed the main highlights of the Romanian HealthTech ecosystem in 2022.

Launch of the Hubvantage mentorship program

Launched at the begining of 2022, Hubvantage is a program organized in collaboration by FreshBlood, HIVE Center for Health Innovation of Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca and Activize that has the objective of capacity building at the level of the HealthTech ecosystem. 

The program is supported by EIT Health and helps health tech founders get reality based feedback from mentors and from more advanced startup founders from the health tech ecosystem.

“Until now we’ve organized seven events that had the purpose of exposing the founders to relevant information, both technical and activity based from the more advanced founders, as well as exposing the doctors with HealthTech, to the innovation mindset and methodology, and examples of innovation from the ecosystem. We are also organizing mentorship sessions based on an evaluation of startup needs that are answered by relevant mentors as well as more advanced founders.”, says Dr. Ion-Gheorghe Petrovai, Co-Founder and Director of Innovation at FreshBlood HealthTech, the local NGO representing EIT Health in Romania.

Re.flex, a Romanian HealthTech startup included in the apps approved to be reimbursed in Germany through the DiGA system

In 2022, Romania got more visible on the map of HealthTech innovation and one of the examples is re.flex, a Romanian startup which was included in the apps approved to be reimbursed in Germany through the DiGA system. 

DiGAs are “apps on prescription”, digital health applications that can be prescribed by doctors for patient use for a variety of diagnoses. The introduction of DiGAs is quite revolutionary, and Germany has officially introduced a legal framework to include digital health care innovation into primary care.

re.flex is the most accurate digital assistant for MSK physical therapy on the market. It helps patients treat knee, hip and lower back pain effectively and lasting, using validated exercise protocols. With proven results in reducing pain and improving the quality of life, re.flex offers instant 3D feedback to help patients exercise correctly.

In March, FreshBlood organized an event called Morning Health Talks, which talked specifically about the re.flex achievement of being accepted into DiGA. And this provided a lot of inspiration for potential founders by showcasing the example of the re.flex founder, Camil Moldoveanu, and his team.

“When we started five years ago with FresBlood, we wanted to put Romania on the map. And I do believe that re.flex is the proof of innovation made in Romania that can become a reference in much more advanced markets.”, says Dr. Ion-Gheorghe Petrovai from FreshBlood HealthTech.

FreshBlood, part of an international consortium with the purpose of identifying and consolidating a portfolio of demand led solutions for the healthcare ecosystem

Recently, FreshBlood became part of an international consortium called DIGIT-PRE, made up of 10 different partners, with the objective to build a collaboration between different partners with the purpose of identifying and consolidating a portfolio of demand led solutions to digitize prevention, prediction and remote care in the healthcare ecosystem. 

The project is focused on the development of the local ecosystem through a call named Interventional Innovation Investment. This consortium is coordinated by ISAB INNOVATION SKANE from Sweden and includes partners from France, Belgium, Finland, Portugal and as well as Hungary and Romania.

“DIGIT-PRE is one of the highlights of the Romanian HealthTech ecosystem, not just for the end of 2022, but will be one of the highlights in the future. We are very happy to be one of the representatives of the Eastern Europe, putting Romania again on the map of healthcare innovation. We are looking forward to connecting this opportunity with the smart specialization strategy of the North-West Region of Romania, but as well as with other regions of Romania.”, says Dr. Ion-Gheorghe Petrovai from FreshBlood HealthTech.

Healthcare innovation was identified as one of the three priorities of the smart specialization strategy for the Nord-West Region of Romania, so the participation of FreshBlood in the consortium is well in sync with the expectations of growth of the regional ecosystem.

“FreshBlood is a main regional actor for the ecosystem, and its actions of identifying and consolidating a portfolio of demand led solutions for the healthcare ecosystem are filling an important gap between various actors. The strengthening of FreshBlood as an organization, especially with a participation in an international consortium is very well welcomed and in direct correlation with the expectations of growth of our ecosystem. After a rigorous process, health was identified as one of the three priorities of the Smart Specialization Strategy for the Nord-West Region of Romania. So, sustaining the regional HealthTech ecosystem with specific actions correlated with the main needs for its growth is a key area of focus for RDA North-West. This focus is provided through the action plan of the RIS3, including the North-West Regional Programme for 2021-2027 programming period.”, said Cristian Otgon, Head of Smart Specialization Department at North-West Regional Development Agency of Romania.

The North-West Regional Development Agency of Romania, together with Digital Innovation Zone from Iași, was also part of the EIT Health DRIVE program in 2022, designed to upskill organizations from Central-Eastern and Southern Europe in designing validated, sustainable health & life science startup support programmes tailored to regional needs.

Global StartupCities eHealth Program 2022 announced its winner

Global Startup Cities eHealth program was organized by the Hive Center for Health Innovation together with Cluj-Napoca City Hall and Linnify, identifying and supporting startups in the early stage in order to validate their solution through a model that was proposed by Linnify.

This multi-stage EU eHealth startups competition is a chapter of the Global StartupCity Cluj-Napoca and it’s designed to help early stage health innovation entrepreneurs transform their ideas into world changing companies, faster and smarter. Within this program, Cluj-Napoca is taking care of the healthcare and AI components.

The program and the final competition took place in October 2022 and the winning startup, Synaptiq.io, was promoted through the network of global startup cities at the Unique Summit conference in Braga, Portugal, at the end of November. 

“Global StartupCities Health Initiative means for the city of Cluj-Napoca an amazing opportunity to develop and offer support to the regional ehealth ecosystem, by providing to startups customized training and mentoring through its support process. Additionally, the winner of the StartupCities competition will benefit by support for scientific validation and medium-term mentoring.”, says Razvan M. Chereches, MD PhD, Director HIVE Health Innovation Center.

A growth of maturity at the level of the national HealthTech ecosystem

We are seeing a growth of maturity at the level of the national HealthTech ecosystem with some opportunities potentially provided by the Recovery and Resilience Plan for Romania (PNRR) financed by the EU. The telemedicine norms have been released at the end of September and there is hope that Romanian telemedicine startups will also benefit from the implementation of this regulation. 

The end of the year also saw the launch of BIOdyssey, an innovation hub based in Bucharest, which is dedicated to healthcare and it is supported both by the university environment as well as by know-how brought from the USA, but filtered in Israel for a better connection with the environment in Eastern Europe. This hub will train innovators and later on provide the additional funding solutions to the innovators that are actually growing their project at the fundable level.

“BIOdyssey is the first hub focused on innovation in HealthTech in Romania, founded with experts in the field from Israel and the US. Through BIOdyssey we want to help those Romanians who want to develop HealthTech solutions and have an impact on healthcare with the help of technology, by offering them all tools and assistance they need to succeed: an innovation framework which has been tested and validated for many years in Israel, access to international experts in the technical, medical and business fields from Israel, the USA and Japan (among others) to mentor our teams, to help them with identifying and validating ideas that are competitive at a global level and to give them support on the technical and business implementation of those ideas. Concretely, this would include helping entrepreneurs find investors in their field, and opportunities to access our international network of hospitals and accelerators. BIOdyssey offers all of this through 2 distinct programs: the Germination program, which has already started and can be compared to a “Mini MBA for startups” focused on identifying and validating business ideas. The acceleration program follows the 1st, and is focused on accelerating the most promising ideas and teams from the Germination program. Though startups which have not gone through the Germination program are also eligible to apply. BIOdyssey is the bridge in HealthTech between Romania and the most innovative ecosystems in HealthTech in the world: Israel and the US.”, says Elena Ovreiu, co-founder and CEO BIOdyssey.

One other highlight of autumn was the annual hackathon for health organized by the Medical University in Bucharest together with support from Johnson & Johnson. This hackathon once again showed the potential of Romanian innovators to solve relevant problems. Another hackathon, EIT i-Days, was organized in Cluj-Napoca, at the Hive Center for Health Innovation, with support by EIT Health. The event focused on neurology and enjoyed the collaboration with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the jury at the final presentation.

The ecosystem saw activity also at the level of clusters, the healthcare clusters now having their regular conference, at the end of October. Not only a conference where you see people from different institutes of research or from different companies which are focused on innovation in healthcare, but an opportunity to connect to international organizations to explore the partnerships and see potential opportunities of developing your own projects. The BEhealth conference organized by ROHealth cluster, is now an important part of the ecosystem, with FreshBlood and EIT Health supporting both the educational session as well as the international startup competition that took place in the conference.

“Our focus for the next year is very much linked with sustainability. Because in the future there will be less and less money coming from the EU to support innovation. And we need to find internal resources both public and private. And this is going to be done only through partnerships. We are beginning to explore partnerships with potential other players in the ecosystem. We will prepare a fundraising campaign for the beginning of the next year, as well as building on the projects that have been visible and that can make a difference in healthcare in Romania, Europe and in the world.”, says Dr. Ion-Gheorghe Petrovai, Co-Founder and Director of Innovation at FreshBlood HealthTech.

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Y Combinator-backed startup Nestor, a People Intelligence Platform that is transforming the way organizations develop and retain talent by creating a common language for skills at work, announced today that it has raised a $2 million seed round for further expansion. The round is led by Eleven Ventures, joined by Underline Ventures, and prominent angel investors from the San Francisco Bay Area. Lead investor, Eleven Ventures has been an early backer and key part of scaling into the global markets of companies such as Payhawk and Gtmhub in verticals like fintech and the future of work.

Over the past years, the transition to hybrid work environments coupled with ongoing phenomena such as the Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting, have forced organizations to rethink their workforce development strategies. The rigid structure of jobs inside the organizations and pushing training for employees from top down, assuming the organization knows best what are the skills people need, clearly do not work in this new dynamic. Furthermore, this has a negative impact on employees, leaving the individual with the feeling that they have no say over the work that they do. Tomorrow’s workforce development is agile, business-focused, and democratized to give people far more ownership, opportunity, and equity.

Nestor’s People Intelligence Platform brings together employee engagement, performance management, and development planning with a skills-based approach and uses predictive analytics and nudging automation to help organizations develop and retain talent. The solution links skills to the most important talent operations by creating a unified skills-based profile to enable employees to forge new career paths or lateral moves based on both their interests and the organizational needs. With Nestor, each employee is empowered to take ownership of their own development, access new growth opportunities, get involved in cross-functional initiatives, and learn new future-fit skills that will help them succeed.

Nestor is now trusted by HR and people leaders in the most forward-thinking mid-to-large enterprises, including Fortune 500 companies, across Europe, North America, and Latin America. Nestor’s platform achieves a 98% adoption rate in organizations, as employees see a clear output in their individual career growth, develop new skills, discover opportunities, take new roles, and are retained for longer. Recently, UiPath’s Chief Culture Officer Andreea Baciu became an advisor.

This funding round will enable Nestor to grow its sales and customer success teams and accelerate its expansion on the newly entered US and Latin America markets with a focus on mid-to-large enterprises. The company will further invest in its product innovation and plans to launch its smart career pathing module so that employees can easily explore what are the alternative paths they can take in their careers and what skills they should focus on acquiring in the next period. 

“Every employee is unique. We envision a world where every employee receives the right opportunity at the right time to continually learn and improve the skills that will help them succeed. We help organizations make an impact on each employee’s development and enable HR people leaders to build agile people strategies that move beyond the traditional job approach by placing skills at the front and center of their talent operations.”, says Bogdan Apostol, CEO & Co-founder of Nestor.

”We’re excited to work with Bogdan and Raluca. We’ve been knowing them for a long time and they’ve always been passionate about organizational development. We couldn’t be more happier that we were there to help them identify the best partners to scale globally with.”, says Bogdan Iordache, General Partner at Underline.

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Former UiPath General Counsel Vasile Tiple launches Goodlegal, a legal infrastructure platform aimed at providing organizations with an out-of-the-box legal operations framework to achieve legal compliance by leveraging the latest technology advancements and industry-standard content.  

Goodlegal received a pre-seed investment of €1.2 million from early UiPath investors Earlybird Digital East Fund, which led the round, Credo Ventures together with Daniel Dines, and including the latest CEE VC fund, Underline Ventures.

“We are starting our journey to reinvent legal and help our customers to focus on their business, develop great products and become self-sufficient with Goodlegal infrastructure. Our mission is to make legal easy, accessible, and actionable.”, says Vasile Tiple.

Goodlegal is a one-stop-shop for legal compliance which aims to democratize legal by providing individuals and organizations with a legal infrastructure platform to drive frictionless engagement with the stakeholders. It offers various functionalities, ranging from drag-and-drop document builder to out-of-the-box documents, editor and text analysis, e-signature, automation functionalities, and integrations, through which every organization can achieve a sound legal compliance and operations framework in no time. 

Currently, there isn’t a platform available to provide a prebuilt legal infrastructure needed for the daily operations of a company. The entire legal tech market was built around very specific features without considering the bigger picture of what a company might need to be legally compliant. Even the end-user legal market evolved in two different directions: tools built for external lawyers on one side and tools built for in-house lawyers on the other side. Goodlegal is addressing both these legal market inconsistencies by addressing the needs of both law firms and in-house lawyers.

”We aim for Goodlegal to become the industry-accepted <legal operating system>, a standard blueprint for how to put your legal infrastructure in place. Our immediate goal is to be the go-to legal platform for all startups and help them freely achieve the next stage in their company evolution, while medium and long-term goals include large enterprises for which we are developing various integrations, creating a Goodlegal ecosystem for any company irrespective of its size or industry.”, adds Vasile Tiple.  

Vasile Tiple was UiPath’s General Counsel and the architect of the global legal and compliance team. He was at the forefront of designing and implementing the company’s legal operations, support, and automation vision. In his last role at UiPath as Head of Legal & Compliance Automation, Vasile created the go-to-market of the internal Legal Automation Program he implemented in 2016 in UiPath Legal to use RPA for legal work. Vasile has a Ph.D. in International Law from the University of Bucharest, is an author of various academic papers on law, administration, and AI, and previously worked at various organizations, including Adobe.

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Cluj-based Fortech, one of the city’s top software development companies, launches Fortech Products to help essential industries in Romania innovate through technology. The new division builds digital solutions from scratch and supports entrepreneurs developing products and services in the same direction with resources, capital, and technical and business expertise.

Many industries that have proven essential, especially in recent years, are affected by the lack of digitization. For example, Romania ranks last in the EU for digital competitiveness, according to the results of the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) 2022, which tracks digital progress in EU member states in areas such as the integration of digital technologies by businesses and public services digital.

That’s why Fortech Products focuses primarily on medicine and production, to bring them to the standards of Western countries, working together with specialists who know best the challenges, shortcomings, and shortcomings “on the ground”.

“Although many companies and industries have intensified their activity and oriented towards digitalization in recent years, we are far from capitalising on this opportunity. Most initiatives fail due to a lack of the right approach, having an opaque strategy, without a deep understanding of the problems and contexts that foreshadow or exist in society. Because of this, the multitude of strategies implemented do not bring the desired results and end up being more expensive than their absence”, states Valentin Filip, VP of Products within Fortech.

For the effective digitization of Fortech industries, partnerships are made with specialists in various fields to build solutions that can be integrated later into their professional activity. That’s why those who have identified a problem that needs a digital solution can develop it together with Fortech Products, having the option to choose their degree of involvement. Those who want to take the first step in entrepreneurship can become founders of a startup to develop, launch and finance together the technology and investment company. Instead, specialists who want to benefit from digitization can act as consultants and get involved with their professional experience, and Fortech will cover the entire solution development process. Regardless of the option, the goal is for them to be the first to benefit from the advantages of the technology so that their customers and, implicitly, the industry and the technological ecosystem in Romania develop as a result of these advances.

A recent example from the medical industry is EndologiQ, a digital assistant for doctors performing endoscopies. The solution helps them standardise their reports and extract data for research. When Andrei Groza, a gastroenterologist, turned to Fortech Products, he had only an idea, frustration with the state of reports at the time, and a vision of functionality and design.

“I was looking for an IT partner to help me build an application for digestive endoscopy, and they were the only ones interested in the idea and the solution’s potential. This collaboration helped me fulfil my dream of using the knowledge I gathered during my Ph.D. In developing a product used by all doctors practicing endoscopies, I participated directly in every stage of product development. The overall enthusiasm, professionalism, and openness to discussions and ideas made this experience among the best of my career, and I hope it will last”, explains Andrei Groza, doctor, about the collaboration with Fortech Products.

This division complements the main activity of Fortech, and the investment division, Fortech Investments, launched last year. Those who choose to collaborate with Fortech Products benefit from Fortech’s almost 20 years of experience in software development, knowledge accumulated in different industries, with numerous clients, and the most diverse solutions. Moreover, Fortech Investments has 17 startups in its portfolio, meaning that the beneficiaries have access to all their relationships and all the lessons learned about the life cycle of a successful start-up, as well as the barriers that arise along the way.

“The Fortech Products division naturally came to life, after developing software for almost 20 years and starting to invest seriously in start-ups more recently. In practice, we want to close the “circle” that we have created and for others to benefit from the dynamics between all entities – the technical expertise in software development and the business and market knowledge we have gathered by strategically investing in startups. These will be used to develop digital products that solve problems in essential industries such as medicine or manufacturing. Thus, everyone benefits – companies, employees, industries and, most importantly, consumers, people.”, adds Valentin Filip, VP of Products at Fortech.

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]]> https://startupsnthecity.com/telios-care-and-cluj-business-campus-to-launch-the-first-hybrid-clinic-in-romania/ Wed, 25 May 2022 07:46:28 +0000 https://startupsnthecity.com/?p=2588 Telios Care, a pioneer in telemedicine in Romania, and Cluj Business Campus announced the opening of the first hybrid clinic in Romania, which combines the services of a normal clinic with telemedicine and homecare visits. The clinic will be opened in an office campus dedicated to both the employees who work and live in the […]

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Telios Care, a pioneer in telemedicine in Romania, and Cluj Business Campus announced the opening of the first hybrid clinic in Romania, which combines the services of a normal clinic with telemedicine and homecare visits. The clinic will be opened in an office campus dedicated to both the employees who work and live in the campus and employees residing in Cluj-Napoca and the surrounding areas.

The new medical unit will become the place where patients will have access to full medical care services covering all 23 specialties offered by Telios Care, making Telios the only experienced telemedicine company in Eastern Europe now giving people a ‘real choice’.

The investment in this new project is projected to be between 500.000 and 700.000 euros and covers both the purchase of medical equipment and the overall makeover of the space.

„We are pleased to tell the CBC community that starting this year they will have access to high-quality medical services, delivered in a friendly and innovative way. Philip Choban is a visionary and the Telios Care team has proven to be a benchmark in telemedicine in Romania. We believe that the future of medicine, like the future of work, will have a hybrid component and we are honored that they chose Cluj-Napoca and Cluj Business Campus to bring it to life”, says Vlad Buzoianu, CEO of Cluj Business Campus.

This clinic will also be an additional medical unit for those who have access to Telios Care’s medical services with or without health insurance. Both categories will be able to access the medical services at discounted rates and, of course, receive the same personalized care they now receive using telemedicine. Secondly, the general population also has direct access to the clinic and information on how they can benefit from medical services.

„Telios Care was founded with the sole purpose of making health and wellness services as accessible and affordable as possible through new and emergent technologies, being at the same time a patient-oriented business. Now we can move on to the next level and give people the opportunity to choose how they want to receive healthcare. Telemedicine brings the opportunity to reach people in rural communities and the Telios Care team makes this thing happen every day through its international expertise, professionalism and dedication. In fact, our experience in the field of telemedicine is our main asset.” says Philip Choban, CEO & Founder of Telios Care.

Through this partnership, Cluj Business Campus offers its community high-quality medical services and extends the range of services designed to strengthen the philosophy of „1-minute city” and „work-life blending”, which is an essential concept in the Romanian real estate and office building market. It also consolidates the idea that Cluj Business Campus has been outlining since its inception, the opening of the first hybrid clinic in Romania in an office campus. In addition, it reveals the next step in the Telios Care business, Telios Home Visit, the homecare medical service branch that will start this year in Cluj and in a small number of cities, including Bucharest, during the pilot phase. After this period, the service will be available nationwide.

Through its founding members, Telios Care, a pioneer in telemedicine in Romania, brings over 25 years of experience in the United States of America in the field of distance medical care services.

In 2017, together with the other founding members, Lucian Coșoi, Matt Henry (in the USA) and Dr. Adrian Danciu, Philip Choban laid the foundations of the first dedicated telemedicine service in Romania. In its 5 years of existence, it has offered telemedicine services for the employees of more than 200 companies in Romania, covering over 110,000 employees and 23 medical specialties.

The Telios Care team shares the same vision – access to quality medical services, available anytime, anywhere. An easier doctor’s appointment, a better doctor’s appointment. In support of this vision, it is transforming the way beneficiaries and companies use their time and resources. 

Cluj Business Campus (CBC) in Cluj-Napoca is a real estate project that brings the concept of a „1-minute city” to the Romanian office market. Offices, apartments, bistros, a rooftop bar, a gym, a fitness room, a park, a kindergarten, an international school, and a podcasting studio are housed in the 30,000 square meters. Today, the campus has adopted the blending work-life philosophy and is building an environment in which wellbeing and sustainability are the main pillars of everyday life.

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