First Venture Connect event

The investors attending the event included Blue Sky Capital from France, Intel Capital and 3TS Capital from U.S., GED Capital Development from Spain, Fraser Finance, a UK-based specialist investment banking firm, as well as other investors such as Oresa Ventures (an investment company with Swedish origins focused on private equity investments in Central and Eastern Europe), Enterprise Investors (one of the oldest and largest firms managing private equity and venture capital funds in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe), Credo Ventures ( a venture capital company focused on early-stage investments in Central Europe) as well as NCH Investors (a large financial investor with substantial activities in Romania) and Post-Privatization foundation (the first Romanian foundation devoted solely to entrepreneurship).

The selected projects included Pasiunea.eu (Serban Ciusca), Intelligentics.ro (Marius Corici), HotelPeeps.com (Alexandru Lupsan), Newistic.ro (Horatiu Mocian), Indekspot.com (Andrei Savu), Tjobs.ro (Calin Stefanescu), Sharedimension.com (Claudiu Tanasescu), Paylogic.ro (Cristian Udrescu) and RevvNation.com (Bobby Voicu).

“Considering that despite the relatively short period of selection, nine projects and entrepreneurs were selected to male pitches and considering the large number of interested investors in attendance, the VentureConnect concept, which assures direct contact between these two groups, worked well, and investors showed a sustained interest in continuing this series of events”, said Dan Visoiu, partner with Biris Goran, the law firm that founded VentureConnect.

VentureConnect was launched in 2010, with members of its Advisory Board, including well-known investors and entrepreneurs in the IT & online sectors, such as Marius Ghenea (a serial entrepreneur and business angel), Radu Georgescu (serial entrepreneur and president of Gecad), Orlando Nicoara (general manager with Apropo Media and online entrepreneur), Dragos Roua (serial online entrepreneur), as well as Ana Maria Andronic (senior associate of Biris Goran) and Dan Visoiu (partner at Biris Goran), the founders of VentureConnect.