Romania, could be EU’s next tech-startup hub, Quartz news publication notes

Thanks to its unique culture, history, education system, and infrastructure, Romania’s capital city of Bucharest has bred a new generation of tech entrepreneurs who are hoping to put it on the startup map, Quartz online publication notes.

According to the European Digital City Index, around 170 startups in information technology have been set up in Romania over the past five years.

“The country’s pool of well-educated STEM talent, combined with low wages and cheap operating costs, has made it an attractive place for international companies looking to outsource. But it is also fast turning into a center for home-grown tech startups -particularly those looking to do so cheaply,” Quartz remarks.

One of the factors that has fostered Romania’s tech boom is its high-speed internet, the digital news publication says. According to tech company Akamai’s “State of the Internet” report, Romania peak’s internet speeds are the fastest in Europe and the sixth fastest in the world, averaging 57.7 Mbps in the third quarter of 2015. By comparison, the US ranked 17th (as Bernie Sanders controversially highlighted during his campaign).

“While western European countries had to upgrade existing telecoms infrastructure to deliver broadband, Romania – and many of its neighboring former-Soviet countries such as Bulgaria and Estonia – skipped the copper wire stage and went straight to fiber. Nowadays, the fact that Romania’s digital infrastructure ranks higher than other eastern European countries makes it an attractive place to start a tech business,” Quartz also notes.

The online publication underlines that Romania has the third-highest percentage of women working in information and communications technologies (ICT) in Europe. 29 percent of their workforce is made up of women, according to Eurostat data, trailing only Bulgaria and Estonia. As a comparison, only 19 percent of the ICT workforce is female in the UK.

So far, the main challenge holding the industry back is access to investment capital. Romanian startups have received EUR13.1 million (USD14.8 million) in funding over the past decade, according to European Digital City Index. By comparison, London startups have raised EUR 8.3 billion (USD 9.4 billion).