Create a Romanian Startup Fund
Summary
This intervention proposes the creation of a new public fund to increase the capital in private VC firms.
Rationale
Even with the regulatory reforms discussed in intervention (2) above, many Romanian VC funds will remain under-capitalised. In many European countries, governmental support to venture capital funds has been used successfully to ‘crowd-in’ private funding, rather than crowding-out private investors.
This intervention therefore proposes creating a public Romanian Startup Fund. This fund would invest in startups – either directly, or ideally, by providing capital to private sector VC funds to leverage their expertise for investment decisions. In this way it would act similarly to the European Investment Fund, which also invests in Romania, e.g., through GapMinder or Early Game Ventures, or the British Business Bank.
The Fund managers would work with the ecosystem, the One-Stop-Agency and government stakeholders to define the mandate, co-create the investment thesis, and identify specific stages, sectors, areas where funding is especially needed.