The year 2022 was something that even we would not have expected to be so successful and full of unforgettable memories. The pictures can prove it!
Through the nostalgia that took over us once the year ended, in this article we will look at the fantastic things we managed to do together!
The InnovX Acceleration Program is made up of a series of events, although each round having a predictable and fixed structure, it always addresses new topics intended to help in the education of the participants, either from Scaleups Cohort, Startups Alliance or from Investors Alliance.
This year there were 2 Demo Days dedicated to Startups Alliance and Scaleups, all with workshops and various activities behind them to prepare the ambitious minds with the desire to contribute to the innovative ecosystem of technology of the CEE region.
2022 started strong with the Pre-Acceleration Phase of the first cohort of this year, having as participants Kim4Industry, Bold, Quarks Interactive, Quick Legal, Synaptiq, Qpick, Charger.ro, RaBit, Prime Dash and GuidefAI. The second cohort, having the Pre-acceleration Phase in November, was made up of Data Privacy Manager, Crave, Carfix, NewCar4Future, Axigen Messaging, Autowass, Softlead, Movcar, Gekka and Ecap. Each Pre-Acceleration had 6 weeks with workshops concerning topics such as Diagnosis, Technology, Business and Business Plan, Alternative Finance & Legal and Pitch and Selection Week.
Elevator Pitch is one of the main events before Demo Days because the innovators have one more chance to perfectionate their pitching skills, before presenting their ideas in front of a jury in a very short time. Here are some examples of what the innovators felt about it:
The Demo Days happen after the participants got through all of these other important events organized by InnovX: Roasted by Investors, Adopt a Startup, Board Advisor, Internship Fight – Corporate vs Startups and Pitch Foreign Commercial Departments. You can see their description in an article of ours by clicking here.
On the Demo Day of 15th of June, there were many panels called:
🖋“The role of innovation in today’s world” a relevant topic presented by:
🎤 Thomas Kolarik, COO at Banca Comerciala Romana.
🖋 Jobs4UKR, an InnovX-BCR Startup Alliance project presented by:
🎤Roxana Popa, Project Coordinator Jobs4UKR
🎤 Kateryna Kovalevska, Head of Supervisory Board HRpro Ukrainian Association
🎤 Octavian Pascu, Manager – Digital and Emerging Technologies at EY Romania
🎤 Andreea Socol, Presales Director at DRUID.
🖋“2022 Megatrends in Technology” with:
🎤 Daniel Rusen, Director of Marketing and Operations Microsoft Romania
🎤 Karolina Wawrzyniak, CEE Strategic Business Development Manager at Oracle
🎤 Ioan Ovidiu Hotca, IBM Consulting Country Leader – Romania.
🖋 “Investments for European Scaling-up” with:
🎤Pawel Bochniarz, Board Member MIT Enterprise Forum CEE & General Partner ASI Valuetech Seed Fund
🎤Borys Tomala, Chief Executive Officer, Lerta
🎤Alin Stanciu, Partner Catalyst Romania
🎤Mihaela Odica – Chief Operations Officer Adservio.
Here is how the entire event happened, feel free to watch your favorite mentor or speaker below:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=071WFlr79vk
Our participants also wanted to share their thoughts about the experience of pitching in front of a jury on the main stage. There were intense emotions and the time was short for them, making the game much challenging. Here are their testimonials:
Staying on the summer 2022 subject, InnovX also organized an event dedicated to the VCs and investors that wish to learn more about opening a VC or CVC fund and contribute to the investments in the CEE Region. The topics and the speakers that we had on the 14th were the following:
📌 The question “A new financial landscape for a new economy?” was amazingly developed by:
🎤 Dan Costin Nitescu, Professor at The Bucharest University of Economic Studies & Senior Advisor to the Governor at the National Bank of Romania.
📌 The KeyNote Speech was held by:
🎤Sebastian-Ioan BURDUJA, Minister of Research, Innovation, and Digitalization.
📌The concept of “The reinvention of banking in Central and Eastern Europe” was succesfully explained by:
🎤Dana Dima, Retail & Private Banking Executive Vice-President & Member of the Management Board Banca Comerciala Romana.
📌The two notions: “From Private Banking to Private Equity to Venture Capital” were delienated by:
🎤 Andra Ion, Director Erste Private Banking,
🎤Thomas Bobek, Head of Private Equity at Erste Asset Management
🎤 Pawel Bochniarz, General Partner Valuetech VC.
📌“From Limited Partner to Managing/ General Partner” was held by:
🎤 Marek Kukuryka, President of the Management Board of 2Riders, Limited Partner Valuetech
🎤 Ivaylo Simov, Managing Partner at Eleven Ventures.
📌A notable topic, “Impact VCs vs Seed Corporate VCs vs Early Stage VCs”, was meticulously described by:
🎤Kamilla Rácz, Investment Analyst at Impact Ventures
🎤Katerina Manley, Investment Manager Seed Starter ČS Petar Tsachev, Investment Analyst at LAUNCHub Ventures.
📌The question “Is CEE already a regional hub for tech investments?” had been unfolded by:
🎤 Michal Olszacki, Founder of Polish Institute for Research and Technology Nikola Yanev
🎤 Marketing Manager Eleven Ventures Liviu Munteanu, Partner Founders Bridge.
📌We found out insights about “Setting up your venture capital fund in Romania and Europe” from:
🎤Cristina Bucur, Counsel Corporate at DLA Piper
🎤Madalina Hagima Hristescu, Chief Legal Officer InnovX-BCR.
Moving forward to the next Demo Days, the Investors Alliance and Startups Alliance Demo Days took place on the 28th and 29th of November.
Talking about the Startups Alliance event, there were two panels, namely “Startups Alliance Panel” that had Stefan Buciuc, CEO la BCR Social Finance and Radu Puchiu, Director – Technology & Society Program Director – Technology & Society Program Aspen Institute Romania and it was moderated by Adrian Seceleanu, Editor Business Hi-Tech, Ziarul Financiar; the second panel was called “InvestorsAlliance.EU Panel – The rise of CEE Investment Ecosystem” and it was held by Suleiman Arabiat, Investment Manager, Elevator Ventures, Antonela Dragomir, CFA, Investment Manager Catalyst Romania, Alexandru Bogdan, CEO RocaX Valentin Filip, Partner Fortech Investments, Ioana David, Managing Director cleverage.vc, moderated by Dana Ciriperu , Deputy Editor in Chief at Ziarul Financiar.
The subjects were very vast and there were approached topics of interest, an in-depth look already being taken in a previous article that can be read here.
The Investors Alliance Demo Day took place on the 28th of December in which pitched Netopia Ventures, EVA, Future Now Ventures, Dicor Holding, Energy Capital, OPX Ventures. The members of the Jury were Suleiman Arabiat, Ioana David, Valentin Filip, Liviu Munteanu, Ana Bobirca, Marius Adrian Lupu, Elemér Eszter, Alin V. Stanciu, Roula Bachtalia and Marius Diaconu.
A short summary would be that we firstly started with a Keynote speech that was held by Ava Beznoska, Head of Erste Private Banking Romania.
The event continued with two panels that had the following subjects:
💡The role of Banks in the VC world, held by: Suleiman Arabiat, Investor Manager Elevator Ventures Ventures, Roula Bachtalia, Director egg – enter•grow•go, Eurobank, Daniel Dumitrescu, CIO InnovX and it was moderated by Liviu Munteanu, Partner Founders Bridge.
💡The rise of CEE Investment Power Players, held by: Ana Bobirca, Partner CEFS, Alin V. Stanciu, Partner Catalyst Romania, Elemér Eszter, Managing Partner Impact Ventures and moderated by Adrian S. , Editor Business Hi-Tech, Ziarul Financiar.
💡 The Pitch session was moderated by Bogdan Hristescu , General Manager CEE Region at Cambrist & Diana Dumitrescu, CEO InnovX.
💡The ceremony was moderated by Ionut Stanimir, Director Marketing & Communication at BCR.
The participants also had some words to share with us after the panels of both events. Here is what they claimed:
None of this could have been done without our speakers, mentors, partners and all the like-minded people that were with us this year. Together we are stronger!
BCR covers all the costs of the program.
Author: Balan Monica-Claudia, Junior Marketing Officer, InnovX.