Ride Safe start-up – new round of EUR 20,000 investments from GapMinder

Cristina Blanaru Business, Start Up

During the Demo Day event organized by Techcelerator, which took place on June 27 in Bucharest, the Most Promising start-up Award went to Safe Ride from Bucharest, an IoT embedded device with a mobile app for moto riders’ safety. This start-up will enter into the process of finalizing a new round of investments totaling EUR 20,000 from GapMinder Venture Partners. The assessment was made based on the impact of the market issue solved by the solution, on the solution in it self, team performance, competitive advantages, financial elements and the start-up strategy. The jury included GapMinder Venture Partners founding members, start-ups ecosystem investors, journalists from publications focusing on start-ups.

Best Pitcher Award, consisting of EUR 10,000, went to EngageApp start-up, based on the votes of the public. EngageApp, developed by a team from Cluj, is a platform that aims to increase work performance of employees in corporations.

Techcelerator Demo Day marked the completion of the first accelerated development round of the Techcelerator program for 12 tech start-ups from 8 cities,  benefiting from up to 100,000 euros investments per company from the GapMinder Venture Partners venture capital fund. GapMinder Venture Partners is mostly funded through the Competitiveness Operational Program 2014-2020 and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

On the Demo Day stage were present start-ups from the first batch of Tehcelerator program that showcased their projects to the public:

  • Apiary Book, an app for beekeepers around the world and for the efficient hive management which currently has the biggest number of users worldwide;
  • AppSeed creates automatically websites for those without web design nor programming skills;
  • Connected Medical Devices, an IoT solution which includes a hardware device for the improvement of the lives of Alzheimer patients and their families;
  • EngageApp is a platform that aims to increase work performance of employees in corporations;
  • ialoc created an efficient restaurant booking and table management solution;
  • Medicaia solution using Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, meant to offer remote, to any patient, an efficient imagery interpretation from a specialist;
  • MiioSmile is a SaaS for dental healthcare industry;
  • Uhura (former More Money) is an AI-based Fintech platform, focused on financial services advisory;
  • Orbiting Cubes designed modular self-reconfigurable robots;
  • Ride Safe, an IoT embedded device with a mobile app for moto riders’ safety;
  • TalentBrowse is a recruiting platform for rapid placement of recently interviewed candidates.

All start-ups present at Demo Day have evolved a lot since they entered Techcelerator and I think the next period will be equally promising for them in terms of business grows and from our perspective, all of them are winners, thus we will have follow-on rounds. At Demo Day we wanted to test the reactions of the market, specifically experienced people like the ones we had in the jury. Ride Safe is one of the projects which evolves clearly toward a businessand we consider it one of the champions of this cohort. We took into consideration the perception of the ecosystem regarding this start-up and we prove our confidence in its potential by investing another 20,000 euros in it to ensure a complete opening to the markets it is targeting

Dan Mihaescu,

founding partner of GapMinder Venture Partners.

The acceleration program, supported by Techcelerator’s partner, was rolled out for a period of 10 weeks, both in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, with the support of more than 60 Romanian and foreign mentors. Techcelerator included sessions of intensive business coaching, mentoring, industry-specific start-up expertise, and marketing services. Start-ups also have access to international communities for scaling and exposure to the global market.

Techcelerator will accept a new series of start-ups starting the autumn of this year.

GapMinder Venture Partners is a venture capital investment fund targeting innovative start-ups in Romania in the seed phase, the first round of investments or the acceleration phase. GapMinder seeks to bring together technology companies with high potential for international expansion in areas such as IT and software, cyber security, artificial intelligence, digital transformation, IT solutions for health, FinTech etc. GapMinder is the first venture capital fund created following the selection of the European Investment Fund. It is mostly funded through the Competitiveness Operational Program 2014-2020 and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

Techcelerator is an acceleration program targeting Romanian technology start-ups. Headquartered in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, two important centers of Romanian innovation, Techcelerator is the first accelerator in Romania to allocate funds for the development of companies in the (pre)acceleration phase. Financial support is provided through the exclusive partnership with GapMinder the venture capital fund recently launched in Romania. Young innovative companies, which believe they have high potential for international development and expansion in growing industries such as: software, cyber security, artificial intelligence, digital transformation, IT solutions for health, AgTech, FinTech and others are targeted.