Tina

Member of the Seedcamp Advisory Board present at Venture Connect on 3rd June

Posted on by Photonickup Posted in Blog, Events, In the News, News, Press Releases

Entrepreneurs have until 22 May to submit their projects

 

Bucharest, 11th May, 2015: Venture Connect, the leading pitching and networking event in Romania, announces a new speaker invited for the 11th event organized on 3 June in ASE’s Aula Magna, Bucharest. Started in 2010, Venture Connect has welcomed over the last four years more than 400 projects and businesses from the CEE region and the US, with entrepreneurs having benefited from various special mentoring sessions to dedicated meetings with potential investors and business mentors. For the following edition, entrepreneurs can submit their projects until the extended deadline of 22 May 2015 on the event website.

 

For the first time in Romania, Venture Connect welcomes for its upcoming pitching session Tina Baker, co-founder of JAG Shaw Baker and member of the Seedcamp Advisory Board. With over 20 years of experience representing venture capital funds and emerging technology companies  with respect to international financings, exits and commercial transactions, Tina Baker will discuss with Venture Connect’s pitching start-ups and participants key issues regarding “How to make your company attractive to foreign investors”

 

Tina Baker is both a US (New York State Bar) and English qualified attorney, and was formerly the chair of Brown Rudnick LLP’s European Emerging Technologies and Venture Capital Practice. She was “Highly Commended” in the category of Best Startup Advisor/Mentor of the Year at the Europas (the European Startup Awards) and is ranked as a leading individual in the 2015 edition of Chambers UK for Private Equity and Venture Capital Investments, the 2014 edition of Legal 500 for Venture Capital and listed in Thomson Reuters’ UK Super Lawyers publication 2013.

 

“In the last couple of years, European start-ups have found their call, with more and more valuable businesses growing each year and a more mature and dynamic ecosystem. This growth is determined by dedicated initiatives such as Venture Connect or Seedcamp which lay the foundations of a healthy and educated entrepreneurial class, while also pushing for a stronger connection with a wider investors’ community, both business-angels and VCs. I look forward to networking and discussing possibilities of growth and development with Romanian companies and share know-how and experience with Venture Connect”, mentioned Tina Baker, co-founder of JAG Shaw Baker and member of the Seedcamp Advisory Board.

 

As with previous sessions, Venture Connect includes two pitching sessions: the first part shall be dedicated to students and early-stage companies in search of seed investment, and the second part shall be dedicated to more mature companies in search of more substantial investments. Over 40 business angels, VCs and business mentors are expected to attend the 3 June session.

 

Entrepreneurs can submit their projects until 22 May on the event website. The entire event agenda as well as the selected pitching projects will be available on 27th May. The 11th edition of Venture Connect will take place in partnership with ASE Startup, the Business Incubator of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies and with the support of Biris Goran law firm. The event organizer is Govnet.

 

Recommended taglines: Venture Connect, entrepreneurs, start-ups, pitching,

Press contact:

 

Alexandra Pahomi – prSTEPS
[email protected] | 0729.003.956

RaduGeorgescu_blog

Venture Mentoring with Radu Georgescu: How to Build an International StartUp

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On Thursday, 12 March, between 3.00 and 6.00 PM, at ASE StartUp headquartes (31 Frumoasa Street), IT entrepreneurs interested in learning how to expand their business internationally have the opportunity to meet with Radu Georgescu, Founding Partner GECAD Group, as part of the first 2015 session of the mentoring program conducted by the Venture Connect Foundation – VentureMentoring.

The mentoring session led by Radu Georgescu will deal with high-interest topics for local entrepreneurs, such as: the expansion of a business in international markets and defining of a unitary business strategy, the identification of strategic partnerships in key markets, surpassing of cultural barriers, business structuring, as well as the steps to follow within a financing process. The event format is interactive and free discussions are encouraged between participants and mentor. For efficiency purposes, the number of participants is limited to 20.

“I have always enjoyed sharing my experience and thinking practical solutions alongside Romanian entrepreneurs. Venture Mentoring is precisely about that: free and inhibited discussions about the business issues encountered by the attendees and finding practical and applicable solutions to their questions together”, says Radu Georgescu, Founding Partner GECAD Group.

The Venture Mentoring sessions is a project developed by the Venture Connect Foundation, which has supported over 170 business projects from Romania, Bulgaria and the Republic of Moldova through its mentorship programs on various topics relating to business and technology in the past two years. Mentors that have taken part in the Venture Mentoring program include Daniel Nicolescu (Country Manager PayU Romania), Daniela Crețu (coach, entrepreneur and Managing Partner Opteam Associates), Ana Maria Andronic (Partner Biris Goran and co-founder of Venture Connect), Marius Ghenea (Business Angel) or Dan Vișoiu (Partner BAC Investment).

Registration for this session is opened at: http://www.ventureconnect.ro/events/venture-mentoring/. The participation fee is RON 300.

For further details, please contact Alexandra Pahomi at [email protected] or Mihaela Perciun at [email protected]

VentureConnect2015

Announcing Venture Connect: 3 June 2015

Posted on by Photonickup Posted in News

The Venture Connect Foundation announces that the 11th edition of Venture Connect will take place on 3rd June 2015, in partnership with the Business Incubator of the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies (ASE) and with the support of Biris Goran law firm.

The Business Incubator is an ASE project to be launched at the end of February that was created with the purpose of fostering the entrepreneurial spirit of students, master students and PhD students of the academy and to provide them with support in their entrepreneurial activity.

The 11th edition of Venture Connect will be hosted in ASE’s Aula Magna and will stand out by a new approach, but also with the support of some notable guests, business angels and investment funds from the American Continent. Moreover, the Venture Connect Foundation opens the session for this event’s pitches submissions.

The entrepreneurs willing to present their business in front of some of the most important investment funds, accelerators, incubators in Romania and Europe can submit the projects until 13th May 2015 on the event’s website: www.ventureconnect.ro. Before the event, Venture Connect Foundation shall organize two mentoring sessions to support the finalist entrepreneurs with respect to efficiency and structure of the pitch, public speaking skills and discourse elaboration.

The Venture Connect event shall include two pitching sessions: the first part shall be dedicated to students and early-stage companies in search for seed investment, and the second part shall be dedicated to more mature companies in search for a more substantial capital input.

“After more than four years since we launched the project, we take pride in a community of over 400 companies which visited Venture Connect and came in touch with investors. We are glad to be able to offer the Romanian entrepreneurs access to an important network of contacts in Romania, Europe and the American continent, and that Venture Connect is the place where investments happen”, states Ana Maria Andronic, co-founder of Venture Connect.

For more details on how to participate to Venture Connect, please visit our Admission Page or contact at us [email protected].

DanLufkin

Meet Dan Lufkin in Bucharest on 12th December

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On 12th December, Bucharest Stock Exchange is organising a must see event –> A capital conversation – Wall Street and BVB. The keynote speaker will be Dan Lufkin, Wall Street legend and co-founder of DLJ investment bank.

Participation is free of charge. The event can also be found on Facebook as well.

The number of seats is limited, so please confirm your participation as soon as possible at [email protected]. Deadline for registration is December 5, 2014.

Ready for a capital conversation? Then join us on 12th December :-)

AERO

AeRO presented at Venture Connect Anniversary Edition

Posted on by Photonickup Posted in News

Companies, even in an early stage of development, can access the required money. In Romania, areas as IT, technology, agriculture and services have potential for accelerated growth. Also, investors are always in search of new opportunities for investments with higher degree of risk, and high yields” stated Bogdan Mugescu, Business Development Specialist at Bucharest Stock Exchange.

Venture Connect is the most important regional meeting dedicated to entrepreneurs from technology area searching for early-stage financing and venture capital. At the anniversary edition, six Romanian and Bulgarian companies had the opportunity to present their business plan to more than 100 potential investors and business partners.

“Four years after we launched the Venture Connect project, we are proud with a community of over 400 companies who stepped in and had direct contact with investors, with 230 companies that joined our mentoring program, as with important investments as TJobs, Bittnet Systems, Flori de Lux and Green Horse Games. We are glad to offer to Romanian entrepreneurs’ access to an important network of Romanian and regional contacts and that Venture Connect became the place where investments happen. For the next period, we explore new opportunities, with a strong objective: bold financing of sustainable IT and software projects” mentioned Ana Maria Andronic, Partner at the law firm Biris Goran and Co-Founder of Venture Connect.

Pitching companies: November 2014

Posted on by Photonickup Posted in Blog, In the News

Very glad to present the six pitching companies that entered the stage and presented their businesses. To see live demo from the event, check out our Facebook page.

➢ Getlokal

Getlokal is a user generated review site focusing on places and events. Getlokal serves consumers and businesses via a highly developed web site and mobile Apps. The majority of the content is written by other consumers so people feel confident in trusting the information.

➢ 59sec

59sec helps companies to answer leads under 59 seconds, boosting conversion rate. The potential buyer enters on the client’s site and fills up a form. Afterwards, 59sec notifies everybody from the allocated sales team via Push Notifications on mobile devices and visual/sound notifications on desktops.

➢ Avandor

Avandor calculates complex psycho-socio-demographic profiles for anonymous online users based only on the public pages they look at on multiple sites.

➢ Memshare.eu

Memshare is an unified informatic system, created for managing three important aspects of your company: memory, communication and activity level.

➢ Axosuits

Axosuits is an advanced Exoskeleton Suits which help paraplegics walk again. We are providing ease of use through more power and affordability by intelligent design.

➢ Mobuy

Mobuy is a point-of-sale focused mobile marketing channel optimized for large retailers, helping them to connect with shoppers on-location. Mobuy integrates exclusive offers from some of the best brands, stores and restaurants.

A new investment after Venture Connect: FlorideLux

Posted on by Photonickup Posted in Blog, In the News

Like all great news in the industry, they come after patiently waiting and delivering well.

For the eight session of VentureConnect, we welcomed in November 2013, one of the most promising online companies in Romania – FlorideLux. A great team, sustainable plans and a strong desire to extend and reinforce their leading position in the online flower market.

Today, FlorideLux announces a new investment by Mediafax Group and BAC Investment Banking after the VentureConnect November session.

“Participating in the VentureConnect November session brought to the attention of investors our intention to develop a new business model and also to continue the strategy began more than 10 years ago. I strongly believe that VentureConnect can support entrepreneurial businesses by opening new doors and opportunities as just in under five minutes you can make a statement of power”, mentioned Marius Dosinescu, CEO and Co-Founder FlorideLux.

The next VentureConnect session is planned on 7th July at Connect Hub. To sign up for the event please visit our page.

Starting with 2013, Venture Connect is organised in partnership with Ziarul Financiar (www.zf.ro).

Venture Connect: 10 pitching companies

Posted on by Photonickup Posted in Blog, In the News, Press Releases

Just two weeks from now, on 7th July, at Connect HUB (www.connecthub.ro) we welcome you to the ninth edition of VentureConnect. Carrying on the model of the previous editions, the event will have two pitching sessions: a growth session — for more mature companies and one dedicated to early-stage start-ups.

We wish all our pitchers the best of luck.

 

Mondo Taxi

Mondo Taxi is a free smartphone app that allows anyone to order a licensed taxi or hire car in seconds in the following cities: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Melbourne & Sidney, Australia, Stockholm, Sweden.

The app is built on very scalable and advanced technology and is among the best in the industry.  Some of the unique points are: Orders (you send the order to nearby taxis, not to one driver at a time), Choose drivers (the drivers “send offers” for you to choose from, based on time, distance and driver ratings from other users), Interactive (follow the taxi on the map as it approaches you), Messaging (chat with the driver via in-app chat messaging system; Call him from the app if you need to), Pre-booking (order a taxi in advance up to 48 hours (available soon), Card payments (pay for your trip with a debit or credit card, fast and simple (available soon).

 

White Image

White Image is a full-service agency specializing in email marketing. Launched in 2003, White Image helps companies in various fields of activity with the purpose to create relevant messages via email and SMS, giving them tools and tactics of data analytics and marketing automation.

 

Cinema Scheduler 

In just a few seconds, Cinema Scheduler generates daily or weekly film schedules in agreement with all cinema and distributor constraints. Advanced forecasting and scheduling algorithm is a critical input, but Cinema Scheduler’s role doesn’t end there. We work closely with our clients to ensure that what we can learn from their business processes is appropriately merged with our overall strategic development process. Also, Share Dimension provides a Care Plan offering customers the easy way to stay up-to-date with new features and keep their system operational. Share Dimension’s care plan will provide all major and minor software upgrades and will guarantee unlimited expert support as well as access to our knowledge base to keep your system operating efficiently.

 

Smart Bill

Smart Bill is Romania’s no. 1 invoicing software since 2007, serving at the moment around 23000 customers. Smart Bill is available as desktop solution requiring a license key, as well as a cloud solution requiring subscription. As of 2010, the company entered the inventory management solutions market with Smart Bill Inventory Management.

Smart Bill is used to issue about 200.000 documents per month, and to invoice over 1 billion Euros per year. This service manages the entire invoicing process: invoice issue, delivery and storage.

 

Lokko

Lokko is a mobile application which provides courier delivery on the day of the ordering, eliminating a number of indirect costs. Lokko provides a real-time map tracking, proof of delivery signatures and pictures and a rating system to provide the best assessment of the service. The application can be downloaded on iOS and Android.

 

Fitter

Fittter is the perfect solution for fitness studios that would like to offer their customers specialized guidance through a mobile app. All the best-practices from personal trainers, along with the tracking and documenting benefits are now at the fingertips of every fitness enthusiast that trains in the gym. Countless training plans backed by detailed equipment usage guides and personalized profiles make fittter the best companion in the workout studio.

Fittter is a white-label concept marketed as a SaaS (software as a service, cloud-based solution) for workout studios. In exchange of a membership fee (subscription) they get access to the mobile application (iOS & Android) which they easily make available to their clients and to a customized dashboard where they manage the accounts, customer relationship and interactions. No additional hardware or software infrastructure, investment or technical knowledge is necessary.

 

Poketo

Pocketo is a bluetooth and WiFi development board that makes it easy to prototype and develop Internet connected devices without using physical components like sensors, buttons, leds etc. Pocketo comes with a mobile application that emulates all the components you need and also offers all the sensors you have on your smartphone. When you’re done, the physical components fall right into place with your code, no adjustment needed. What you get: a development board that can be controlled over bluetooth and wifi empowered by a mobile application.

 

Rewordly

Rewordly is intellectual tracking to turn your reading and writing online, across all streams, into a single personal library and quantifed digital magazine of you or your team. We allow users to centralize and capitalize on their own content empire, and show what they know, in a sleek and versatile web 2.0 way. For thoughtful and passionate individuals and teams, Rewordly is your knowledge management and humanized branding solution. If Linkedin is what you do, Rewordly is what you know. “

 

Clepsisoft

Clepsisoft is a provider of computer security testing, called Penetration Testing (PenTesting). PenTesting Service is testing a computer infrastructure (servers, software, databases, access policies, security policies, highlighting vulnerabilities) from the perspective of an attacker (so-called “hacker”).

 

Clubbing Tribe

With Clubbing Tribe you can meet the hottest clubbing people and parties anywhere you go in the world based on your favourite Music style on your phone. The is a mobile social app for Club Events&Promotions/Discounts and new Party friends. ClubbingTribe combines Facebook experience and Viber like communication, with no phone calls only messaging, along with a Dating feature functionality.

For more information, please email us at office@ventureconnect. Also, check out the Romanian version of the material on ZF.ro.

Venture Connect: See you on 7thJuly!

Posted on by Photonickup Posted in Blog, In the News

 

In order to accommodate the program of all the invited guests, we have postponed the Venture Connect meeting for 7rd July 2014, Connect HUB, Buchaest. We will follow-up with the details in the following days.

Hope to have you join us. Do not worry, we have prepared some very interesting pitchers on our agenda.

Venture Mentoring with Radu Georgescu: 8 May, TechHub Bucharest

Posted on by Photonickup Posted in In the News, Press Releases

We are happy to announce the beginning of the Venture Mentoring program. The first session is planned on 8th May, together with Radu Georgescu: Serial Entrepreneur & Venture Capitalist, Founder of GECAD Group.

The Venture Mentoring program consists of a series of mentoring sessions, where entrepreneurs can discuss freely and in a very friendly environment their business and issues which they are facing, receiving practical advice on how to sustainable develop their company.

The session on 8th May (TechHub Bucharest, 14.30 – 17.00) plans to discuss the following topics:

– Managing your company’s growth: evolution from the start-up stage to achieving a competitive product, increasing the number of clients and how right you rate increased faster than you expected,
– How to choose the correct investors for your business?
– Advisors and mentors – at which point in the development of your business should they become involved?
– Identify strategic partnerships, business structure and strategy.

The number of seats is limited. You can register at the event page.

Looking forward to next Venture Mentoring session.