The deals that opened the path for Romania’s first "tech unicorn"

Investments in technology companies in Romania have increased steadily over the years to USD 53 million in 2017, a recent report showed. However, fewer than 30 transactions were concluded involving technology companies in Romania in 2017, in sharp contrast with the United Kingdom and France, where more than 700 have been recorded. This makes the news that Romania has its first locally-founded “tech unicorn” even more impressive. The term, which refers to a company that has been valued at more than USD 1 billion, was used to describe UiPath, a tech startup founded in Bucharest and now headquartered in New York, which managed to raise USD 153 million from international investors. But what were some of the Romanian co-founded IT companies and tech startups that investors found worthy before it? From the 2003 acquisition of the RAV anti-virus to a USD 600 million valuation for Bitdefender, we look at the deals that highlighted the development of the local tech and startup scene or simply set examples of what could be achieved. 2003: Microsoft acquires RAV antivirus from Gecad This was the groundbreaking transaction of the local IT sector and the first among several that would turn Radu Georgescu into a serial entrepreneur. With the deal, Microsoft acquired the intellectual property and technology assets of Gecad, the provider of the Bucharest-based RAV antivirus technology. The value of the transaction was not disclosed. 2010: Naspers takes over 83 percent in local Gecad ePayment Georgescu followed up with the sale of an 83% stake in online card payment services provider Gecad ePayment to Allegro, a company of the South – Africa-based media group Naspers. The value of the deal was not made public. 2011: 3TS Cisco Growth Fund buys minority stake in Avangate Investment fund 3TS Cisco Growth Fund bought a minority stake in e-sales solutions provider Avangate for EUR 4 million. Avangate is another company founded by Radu Georgescu. 2012: Twitter buys Summify Summify, the provider of a daily news digest based on the user’s social networks, was bought by Twitter for an undisclosed sum. At the time of the transaction, the Summify team was located in Vancouver, Canada. The company was started by Mircea Pasoi and Cristian Strat. After the acquisition, several of Summify’s features were disabled and the product was eventually shut down.