Report: Romanian startups attracted more than EUR 100 million in venture capital last year

The volume of capital that Romanian startups raised in 2021 more than tripled compared to the previous year, going from EUR 30 million in 2020 to more than EUR 116.9 million in 2021, according to the Romanian Venture Report 2021 released by How to Web. Compared to the EUR 8.2 million value in 2017, it grew 13 times.

This aligns Romania to a general trend as the level of overall European investment value exceeded EUR 100 billion, also a nearly triple growth compared to 2020 levels, the report notes.

The 2021 report, which provides an analysis and collection of statistics on investments in Romanian startups in 2021, tracked 71 transactions. The total investment volume of 2021 also includes the EUR 51 million Series B round raised by FintechOS, the biggest investment of the year.

Similar to the international venture capital market dynamics, the average size of the first investment rounds has also grown on the Romanian market by 88.8%, from EUR 357,000 in 2020 to EUR 647,000 in 2021.

The average round sizes increased from 2020 by 33% for pre-seed and 70% for seed rounds, the report shows.

A total of 55% of the follow-on deals were made at the seed stage, the majority with Romanian capital only, totaling a volume of EUR 36.2 million, which represents 31% of the overall 2021 volume (including FintechOS).

The report tracked 18 transactions of more than EUR 1 million, representing 68% of the total 2021 investment volume.

“When comparing 2021’s market dynamics with our historical data, we were stoked to see that the venture capital deals hit this milestone of more than EUR 100 million in volume and that this translates into a 3x growth from the previous year. This achievement came after just a couple of years from the moment when Bucharest-born UiPath reached unicorn status and in a year when another diamond in the rough, Bucharest-based fintech startup FintechOS, reeled in their Series B round,” Alexandru Agatinei, CEO of How to Web, said.

The report is available here.

(Photo: Artur Szczybylo/ Dreamstime)