Romanian startup community invited to break into Northern Europe

Startup founders, investors, and tech enthusiasts from Romania are invited to participate in the “From Riga to Bucharest – Building Stronger Startup Communities” event to discover opportunities to enter the Northern European and Baltic startup communities. The event will take place on April 18, 18:00 at the Commons Unirii coworking space in Bucharest.

The event will bring together tech entrepreneurs from both countries to discuss potential cross-country cooperation opportunities in areas such as the job market, startup growth, and skill and network development. The event is organized by the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) in partnership with the HackCodeX hackathon and startup studio Creative Motion.

The Baltic region has been named the “unicorn factory”, with one of the highest rates of unicorns per capita in the world. Meanwhile, Latvia, which is at the center of the Baltics, has been named the #1 most startup-friendly country in the world, thanks to its startup visa, business-friendly taxes, stock option policies, and more. Through their rapid economic development, in part thanks to startup innovations, the Baltics are considered by many the “New Nordics”, with close connections within the region. Latvia’s emphasis on building a startup-friendly environment lays the foundation for successful cross-border collaboration, and Latvia invites Romania to take advantage of these opportunities.

“We are thrilled to bring together representatives from Romania and Latvia to explore potential opportunities for growth and innovation said. Our goal is to help Romanian startups reach the Latvian market showing the benefits of the Latvian startup ecosystem, and we believe this event is the perfect opportunity to do so.” –  Polina Ivleva, Leading Expert of the Startup Support Division at LIAA.

The event will place a focus on emerging technologies and ecosystem collaboration. The Latvian Investment and Development Agency will present opportunities for entering the Latvian market, which will be followed by two panels – one on emerging technologies with speakers including Alexandru Agatinei (CEO at How To Web), Mihai Ghinea (CEO at Hazelgate Software), Ioana Anutoiu (CEO at Cruze), moderated by Luca Stirbat, CEO of Creative Motion and ReactorX. The second panel will highlight cross-border relationship building, and will include speakers Razvan Rughinis (Professor at University Politehnica of Bucharest, Co-Founder at Innovation Labs Romania), Līva Pērkone (Co-founder at Helve, Angel Investor at BADideas.fund & Member of the Board at TechChill Foundation), moderated by Luca Stirbat (CEO of Creative Motion and ReactorX). The program will be followed by networking,

The event is co-hosted by the HackCodeX hackathon, which will take place in Riga, Latvia, on June 3-5. The Romanian tech community is invited to attend the hackathon and reap the benefits of participation, which will be discussed in detail at the April 20th networking event. Some of those benefits include working with Northern Europe’s largest tech companies, attending the international job fair with major tech employers in the region, learning from the region’s established professionals as mentors, as well as gaining free entrance to the HackCodeX Forum.