Startup Spotlight
Grand Finale

The future is here

December 4, 2020 | Live streaming

Startup Spotlight 2020 was awesome. And so will be its ending.

After 2 months of hard work, including 1000+ individual mentoring & pitching meetings, and conversations with some of the stars of the technology world, Startup Spotlight will end with a Grand Finale online pitching event on December 4.

The Grand Finale rules are pretty simple: the best 10 out of the 40 startups will get through the Semi-Finals and qualify for pitching in front of an audience of investors, potential business partners and supporters.

And the winner will take the whole 225.000 EUR investment award.

Join us on December 4, starting 4 PM EET!

TICKETS

SAVE YOUR SEAT

Startup Spotlight

AGENDA

All good things come to an end. Until next year! Here is the event's agenda. EET time zone applies.

4:00 PM
Grand Finale Kickoff
4:10 PM
Pitching and Feedback x 10

Best 10 teams are joining us for live pitching and feedback from our jury.

6:05 PM
Panel discussion

Mihai Gheza, CEO & Co-founder, Machinations
Carlos Espinal, Managing Partner, Seedcamp
Andrii Degeler, Journalist & Podcast Host, Tech.eu

6:20 PM
Winner Announcement

Who will get the EUR 225k investment prize?

6:30 PM
It's a wrap, folks!

STARTUP SPOTLIGHT ONLINE

GET READY TO GROW

October - November 2020 | Online

The Startup Spotlight matchmaking program and competition helps ambitious founders to turn their early stage startups into successful companies.

Selected startups get access to a well-curated network of founders, investors, experts and partners to help them reach their objectives. The program ends with the a private pitching event where the best startup will be awarded an €225.000 investment prize.

BENEFITS & PRIZE

+ MORE OTHER PRIZES

Startup Spotlight helps you prepare for the next stage of your startup. Here's the full list of benefits you'll get access to:

€225K investment prize

For the best startup from TechAngels, GapMinder and other investors, structured as a convertible note. Final value to be announced in late September.

Focus on your objectives

We focus on helping you achieve your next business objectives by putting you in touch with relevant experts, investors and partners.

Up to 4 hours / week

Because you focus on your startup, we'll ask for only 4 hours / week of your time. Minimum commitment, maximum impact.

Customised schedule

You'll get a customised schedule of activities based on your needs and priorities, with no mandatory activities to attend.

High-value network

All our mentors are highly experienced founders, investors and experts, including representatives of multiple A-list funds and successful unicorn founders.

€1M in free benefits for all startups

Accessible via F6S Alpha Card that will bring you access to tools & resources.

How does it work?

1st

submit your application

The first step is to submit your application, and give yourself the opportunity to connect with highly-relevant investors and mentors, access to amazing benefits and win our investment prize.

40

startups selected

The jury of the program will select from all the candidates 40 startups who will join the program, based on the potential of their business, quality of their products and experience of their teams.

25

top notch meetings

During the program you can sign for up to 25 1-to-1 meetings with investors and experts based on your requests and our recommendations, and continue to work outside the program with the ones you've clicked.

10

AMAs with world-class experts

You can also join up to 10 ask-me-anything private sessions with some of the world's top experts on building startups invited as guest speakers, where you can hear about their experience and ask whatever is relevant for you.

2nd

opinion on investment strategy

We'll help you refine your deck and investment strategy and get in the best shape when discussing with potential investors and partners.

10

investment pitch finalists

Best 10 pitching startups will qualify for Pitch Day, a private event for the finalists, investors, business partners and press representatives, where the jury will award the winner of the competition with a convertible note of €225K

The program

Schedule

Application

Aug 20 - Sept 27

Selection

Sept 28 - Oct 4

Program

Oct 5 - Nov 29

Pitch Day semi-finals

Nov 30 - Dec 3

Pitch Day + Awards

Dec 4










Application

Aug 20 - Sept 27

Selection

Sept 28 - Oct 4

Program

Oct 5 - Nov 29

Pitching semi-finals

Nov 30 - Dec 3

Private Pitch Day

Dec 4


WHOM IS IT FOR?

Startup Spotlight is open to early stage technology startups from the CEE, which are less than 5 years old and up to 1M EUR in financing.

The jury will positively evaluate the experience and complementarity of the team, the added-value of the solution developed, the target market size and the growth opportunities.

Mentors
& Speakers

of the program

  • All
  • Mentors
  • Investors
  • Jurors
  • Speakers

Des
Traynor

Co-Founder & CSO
@ Intercom

Product strategy specialist, founder of Intercom, world's most used business messaging system.

Irina
Haivas

Partner
@ Atomico

High-growth investor in Europe's best companies from series A and beyond.

Andrei
Brasoveanu

Partner
@ Accel

Early stage investor, interested in enterprise software, developer-oriented software, open-source, security, financial services.

Mada
Seghete

Co-Founder & CSO
@ Branch.io

Experienced marketer and evangelist, founder of Branch.io unicorn.

Matt
Lerner

Founder
@ Startup Core Strengths

Matt leads the best European growth hacking team. He's got 10+ years of experience in building growth experiments (starting with his VP role at PayPal), and now he runs a one-of-a-kind startup.

Ondrej
Bartos

General Partner
@ Credo Ventures

Early stage investor, with investments in UiPath, PriceFX, Productboard and many more.

Dan
Lupu

Partner
@ Earlybird Venture Capital

Investor and adviser in technology companies such as UiPath, FintechOS. Computer science and business background.

Raul
Popa

CEO & Co-Founder
@ TypingDNA

Techstars Alumnus (NYC '18), AI / ML expert building a revolutionary technology called “typing biometrics”. It is currently used in Cyber Security for 2-factor and multi-factor authentication, fraud prevention, and risk-based authentication.

Carlos
Espinal

Managing Partner @ Seedcamp

Investor in 4 European unicorns and thought leader at Seedcamp Podcast.

Vladimir
Oane

Founder & CEO
@ Deepstash

Serial entrepreneur of technology driven businesses with previous exit experience of uberVU to Hootsuite.

Monica
Obogeanu

Startup Programs Manager
@ Orange

Manager of the Orange Fab Romania program, facilitating collaborations between innovative startups and Orange.

René
Schöb

Partner, Head of Tax & Legal
@ KPMG Romania

Head of Tax & Legal at KPMG Romania and coordinator of the KPMG Romania Startup Grow Pad Program.

Ionut
Stanimir

Director of Marketing & Communication
@ BCR

Internationally experienced professional with expertise across strategic areas of media relations, owing to extended professional record within the financial sector.

Dan
Oros

Head of Marketing
@ Google & YouTube Romania

Leading the B2B acquisition marketing projects in the CEE and helping companies and startups grow their business online.

Sergiu
Pop

Startup Programs Manager
@ Microsoft

Empowering startups to scale up and accelerate their businesses with Microsoft’s support.

Mihai
Frentiu

Startups Incubator Coordinator
@ Tech 'n Trade by Metro Systems

Tech’N Trade was launched from the company’s desire to appeal to the young talent category with dynamic ideas from the Cluj region and to build digital retail solutions for the future.

Eugen
Coanda

Engineering Agile Manager @ Tech 'n Trade by Metro Systems

Agile Transformation Coach & Trainer with 15+ years of IT experience and in leading multi functional teams. Active practitioner in Lean-Agile & Product Management.

Raluca
Pantiru

Product Manager
@ Fitbit

Product expertise in building consumer software and hardware products for Fitbit and Vector Watch.

Bogdan
Axinia

Head of eMAG Explore
@ eMAG Group

Senior leader with 16 years of experience in tech companies, currently working as advisor with C-level executives and their teams to drive business growth through technology.

Laura
Stefan

Director
@ Mastercard

She's a finance professional with more than 10 years of experience in the banking sector. She also works closely with lean practices and processes.

Mihai
Buda

Manager
@ Mastercard

Experienced finance professional with background in consultancy.

Alexandra
Marcu

VP Marketing @ 2Checkout
(now Verifone)

She has over 15 years of Expertise in Marketing for Software Business (Commerce, Online Payments, Subscription Billing, SaaS/Cloud Services) and driving cross-functional teams.

Ana-Maria
Andronic

Head of Intellectual Property and Technology
@ DLA Piper Romania

An accomplished attorney and former Romanian judge with dual legal qualifications in the United States and Romania

Marian
Dinu

Country Managing Partner
@ DLA Piper Romania

He leads a team of stars specialized in: mergers & acquisitions, equity and debt offerings, competition/antitrust, with particular focus on the energy, healthcare and IT / telco industries.

Cristina
Bucur

Counsel, Corporate & M&A
@ DLA Piper Romania

She practices in the area of Corporate and M&A, with particular focus on mergers and acquisitions. Technology and healthcare are some of her strengths.

Dan
Mihaescu

Founding Partner
@ GapMinder Venture Partners

Investor and adviser in early-stage technology companies. Recently invested in some of the newest high-growth tech startup from the CEE - MEDIjobs, Machinations, Deepstash, FintechOS and more.

Malin
Stefanescu

President & Investor
@ TechAngels

Early stage business angel, investments including Symphopay, SmartDreamers and TypingDNA.

Andrei
Dudoiu

Co-Founder & CEO
@ SeedBlink

Founded the first equity crowdfunding platform in the region which helped 12 innovative startups to get total funding rounds of more than EUR 3.5 mil. Over 20 years of banking experience.

Andrei
Pitis

Founder & CEO
@ Simple Capital

Investor in early-stage companies. Sound engineering background and previous successful founder of Vector Watch with exit to Fitbit.

Mircea
Vadan

Managing Partner
@ Activize

He's driven to help tech startups. Support programs expert with a focus on early-stage tech products, customer development and product-market fit.

Marius
Tirca

Co-Founder & CTO
@ UiPath

Founder of startup turned to decacorn and pragmatic tech enthusiast with sound engineering background.

Ioana
Hasan

Co-Founder & Product Manager
@ SmartBill

Product management expert turned into tech founder.

Jon
Bradford

Founding Partner
@ Dynamo VC

Investor in supply chain and mobility companies. Serial entrepreneur that pioneered the startup acceleration space in Europe and set grounds for Techstars London.

Sitar
Teli

Managing Partner
@ Connect Ventures

Investor in early-stage technology companies such as Incrediblue or Typeform and extensive board director experience.

Daniel
Tomov

Founding Partner
@ Eleven Ventures

Daniel Tomov is among the pioneers of the venture capital industry in Bulgaria. Three years after he graduated from the American Unversity in Bulgaria, and spent some time in the corporate world, in 2000 Tomov cofounded the the first seed fund in Bulgaria.

Kamil
Mieczakowski

Vice President
@ Notion Capital

Investor and adviser in technology companies. Sound educational background in ML and data science.

Bernat
Nacsa

Principal
@ Day One Capital

Their fund is operational since 2018 with a capitalization of EUR 27M and still raising. Bernat is working on sourcing new deals, performing due diligence, and supporting portfolio company performance.

Veronika
Pistyur

General Partner
@ Oktogon Ventures

Early-stage investor & startup ecosystems expert.

Marcin
Szelag

Partner
@ Innovation Nest

VC based in Poland, focused on European early-stage SaaS companies. He's mostly interested in martech and vertical SaaS.

Max
Gurvits

Partner
@ Vitosha Venture Partners

Investor in early-stage scalable startups. Previous experience as entrepreneur in the legal field and investment banker.

Viorica
Gheorghita

Senior Product Manager
@ Spotify

Product expert, with expertise in: product management, UX, digital marketing, e-Commerce, digital strategy, digital advertising, client presentation & stakeholder management, agile methodology, project management, product roadmaps, product optimisation, product usage tracking.

Cristian
Olarasu

Director of Product
@ Nike

10+ years of experience in growing technology companies. Background in new product initiatives, software product design and development. Figuring out gaps between product / engineering and business teams.

Anna
Buldakova

Product Manager
@ Facebook

She built a product management community with 30+ thousand members and she's and active writer on product management expert topics.

Liana
Dumitru

Design Manager
@ Plaid

Product design expert, previously managing designers across several product areas at Dropbox. Angel investor.

Elina
Halatcheva

Managing Partner
@ BrightCap Ventures

Investor in early-stage companies. Strong experience in the private equity industry, mainly for the real estate sector.

Cosmin
Ochisor

Partner
@ GapMinder Venture Partners

Investor and adviser in early-stage technology companies. Recently invested in some of the newest high-growth tech startup from the CEE - MEDIjobs, Machinations, Deepstash, FintechOS and more.

Marvin
Liao

Early Stage VC Investor
@ Tech/Media executive

Investor and adviser in technology companies, formerly a Partner at venture capital fund 500 Startups, running the SF based accelerator program.

Radu
Georgescu

Founding Partner
@ Gecad Ventures

Serial entrepreneur in the software and eCommerce space. Successful exits such as ePayment business by Naspers, Avangate by Francisco Partners and Vectorwatch technology by Fitbit.

Enis
Hulli

General Partner
@ 500 Startups Istanbul

Investor and adviser in early-stage technology companies and the host of a podcast on growth journeys from emerging ecosystems to global markets.

Anca
Albu

Managing Director
@ Swiss ICT Investors Club

Diverse professional background in business development, strategy, operations, and marketing. With an intense passion and curiosity for technology and innovation. Maintaining trust-based relations with startups and over 350 investors.

Marius
Istrate

Growth strategist & angel investor

Hybrid work advocate and ex-Chief People Officer for UiPath, Marius is focused on building great teams and setting them to perform.

Alan
Clayton

Global Roaming Mentor @ SOSV

Acceleration specialist, mentor at HAX, Food-X, Chinaccelerator RebelBio and IndieBio accelerators. Previously 5x founder.

Paolo
Ertreo

Product Designer @ Dropbox

As a growth product designer, he focuses on creating experiences that are user-centered, performance-driven, and business-oriented. Previously he was leading design on the Growth team at Strava.

CHRIS
MASSEY

Product Lead
@ Mind the Product

Product management and team alignment expert with a background in content, marketing, & communities.

Radu
Hasan

Co-Founder & CEO
@ SmartBill

Engineer turned into founder. Co-founded SmartBill and he's active also as business angel.

Aaron
Krall

SaaS Gwoth Consultant
@ SaaS Accelerator

Helping SaaS companies to achieve scalable, predictive growth and to look for proven systems and frameworks they can implement into their business to increase revenue and build a scalable SaaS.

Antonio
Eram

Founder & CEO
@ Netopia

Serial entrepreneur in the mobile marketing and payments industry and angel investor.

Ioana
Teleanu

UX Manager
@ UiPath

Senior UX Designer with a solid background in RPA, Healthcare, Financial Services and Banking industries. Encompasses a great love for the design craft, which makes her excited and curious about design in other industries too.

Dimitris
Kalavros-Gousiou

Co-Founder & Partner
@ Found.Ation

Investor with entrepreneurial background and a passion at the intersection of tech, culture and new media. He also serves as Co-Founder and General Partner at Velocity.Partners, a pre-seed and seed Venture Capital Fund active in Greece and SEE.

Marcin
Grodzicki

Chief Product Officer @ Sotrender

Product management specialist, previously startup founder.

Carmen
Sebe

Board Member
@ SeedBlink

Executive with extensive operational, general management, new products and markets, business partnerships, transition planning and execution, organizational development, product development.

Jag
Singh

Managing Director @ Techstars Berlin

Investor and supporter of the next wave of disruptive European startups.

Martyn
Davies

Head of Developer Education
@ Vonage

Product and community strategist with multi-year experience in developer advocacy / evangelism, community management, and developer education.

Dan
Calugareanu

Partner
@ Early Game Ventures

Investor and adviser in early-stage technology companies, skilled in Negotiation, Business Planning, E-commerce, Business Development, and Entrepreneurship.

Borys
Musielak

Founding Partner
@ Smok Ventures

Early-stage investor in CEE, previously engineer turned entrepreneur.

Rumen
Iliev

Partner
@ LAUNCHub Ventures

Seed Stage investor in startups across South Eastern Europe. Passionate about Entrepreneurship, Startups, Venture Capital, Technology investments & Social Impact.

Jacek
Łubiński

Investment Manager @ Market One Capital

VC investment professional with computer science background. Focused on Marketplaces (SaaS based) and B2B Software.

Mihai
Rotaru

Founder
@ Neobility

Serial entrepreneur with previous sucessful exit of CleverTaxi to MyTaxi (currently Free Now). Self-taught transportation and mobility expert.

Jeroen
Corthout

Founder & CEO
@ Salesflare

Founder, B2B sales and product expert.

Dan
Toma

Co-Founder
@ OUTCOME

Innovation and lean startup expert with entrepreneurial background. Worked with companies such as Deutsche Telekom, Bosch, Jaguar Land Rover, Bayer, John Deere or Allianz.

Irina
Scarlat

Global Head of Growth
@ Revolut

Full-stack product marketer and experienced project manager, previously leading the marketing efforts of Uber in Romania. Entrepreneur at heart.

Cristian
Munteanu

Founder & Managing Partner
@ Early Game Ventures

Investor and board member in early-stage tech companies. Previous entrepreneurial experience with a marketing and creative background.

Adrian
Gheara

Investor & adviser

Investor and adviser in early-stage technology companies, currently helping TypingDNA on their mission to make online authentication effortless with typing based biometrics.

Bretton
Putter

Founder & CEO
@ Culture Gene

Leading expert on startup and high-growth company culture, helping companies to transition effectively to remote work.

Corina
Stirbu

CMO
@ Wolfpack Digital

Marketing strategist fueled by helping tech products, SaaS companies, and startups grow to the next level through data-driven actions & optimization.

Claudiu
Murariu

Co-Founder & CEO
@ InnerTrends

500 Startups Alumnus, product expert creating top-notch on-boarding processes. Passionate about data algorithms designed to offer deep insights into customer success.

Marius
Ghenea

Partner
@ 3TS Capital Partners

Venture capitalist & PE investor in tech companies. Skilled in investment, negotiation, business planning, management, and corporate development.

Dorin
Boerescu

CEO
@ 2Performant

Serial entrepreneur in the digital marketing space with exit experience.

Andra
Zaharia

Content Marketer
@ The Content Habit

Content marketing specialist with over 10 years of experience and with a strong passion for the cyber security and privacy industries.

Cristian
Tamas

Co-Founder & CMO
@ TypingDNA

Digital marketing expert on a mission to make online authentication effortless with typing based biometrics.

Ivan Brezak Brkan

Founding Editor & CEO @ Netokracija

Digital media entrepreneur and specialist, with a knack for content marketing.

Valentin
Radu

Founder & CEO @ Omniconvert

Serial entrepreneur and visionary with over 16 years of experience in technology and online marketing. Data-driven marketer and growth hacker.

Dragos
Stanca

Founder
@ Upgrade 100

Digital media expert with over 20 years of experience. He was the CEO a major Romanian digital and print media company, nowadays part of Mediafax Group.

Matei
Pavel

Co-Founder
@ T-Me Studios

Entrepreneur in the mobile apps space and angel investor. Recently invested in Soleadify.

Cristian
Dascalu

Partner
@ GapMinder Venture Partners

Fund partner actively investing & accelerating startups in Eastern Europe. Also co-founder of Techcelerator and owner of ClujHub co-working space.

Romeo
Man

Founder
@ MAN.digital

Sales and marketing expert working with software houses and software consulting companies and B2B SaaS in CEE.

Eugen
Potlog

CRO Strategist
@ UX Studio

Highly technical CRO strategist with 12 years of experience in User Experience (UX), Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) and Digital Analytics.

Dragos
Nicolaescu

Founder
@ Visionary Business Consultants

Angel investor and consultant for startups with over 25 years of experience in business and management.

Dave
Collins

Founder
@ Software Promotions

SEO & Google Ads expert, helping businesses tap into all that Google offer, safely and efficiently.

Mihai
Guran

CEO & Managing Partner
@ GCG Consulting

Vice-President of TechAngels Romania. Founder, mentor to startups and angel investor. EEng, MBA, and PhD student.

Testimonials

from program alumni

Raul Popa

Co-Founder & CEO
@ TypingDNA

“Startup Spotlight was a great opportunity to interact with other entrepreneurs and with seasoned professionals who could provide guidance for growing our company. We have incorporated many of the things we learned through the HTW experience into our business and believe that it brought us an extraordinary launching opportunity.”

Valentin Radu

Founder & CEO
@ Omniconvert

“The How to Web team has put together a great concept where not only are startups brought into contact with investors, but the guidance from mentors and networking helped us understand better the SaaS game that we are in and also gave us more knowledge about how to tackle the channel market fit phase that Omniconvert encountered.”

Georgios Gatos

Co-Founder
@ Incrediblue

“We had the chance to meet awesome people, some of which later become our investors and got featured in some of the biggest tech outlets in the world. Highly positive experience, great business outcome!”

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