30 ENTREPRENEURSHIP
www.business-review.eu Business Review | December 2021
Romania’s startup ecosystem gains trust in Europe With around EUR 10 million invested in Romanian startups so far this year, GapMinder is maintaining its focus on innovative entrepreneurs that are shaping the post-pandemic economy. GapMinder VC founding partner Dan Mihaescu talked to Business Review about the evolution of the fund’s portfolio and the likelihood of a new unicorn startup appearing on the local market. By Ovidiu Posirca How did GapMinder VC do this year in terms of investment volumes and exits on the Romanian startup market? GapMinder has had a very good 2021, with about EUR 10 million invested this year alone. But the evolution of the companies in our portfolio has been even more impressive. The easiest to point to is probably FintechOS’s USD 60 million funding round, the second largest Series B among Romanianborn companies. A few Series A rounds have either been raised or are soon to be finalised by some of our portfolio companies. And there are already many excellent progress stories in our portfolio that are not yet visible and will stay under the radar for a few more quarters.
Do startup valuations risk going into bubble territory? No, at least not yet! I wonder what bubble territory even means in the startup world. Have a look at valuations in the US. They’ve been
