NATO DIANA Accelerator: Romania is among the top applicant countries in the program, having submitted 88 proposals last year.

Cristian Dascălu, Techcelerator, an organization that supports companies to access NATO DIANA: We see more and more AI startups and scaleups in the dual-use field and we aim to accelerate their development and attract investment

Romania was in 2024 being among the top applicant countries in DIANA- NATO’s accelerator for innovation, with 88 proposals, increasing from 8 proposals in 2023 to 88 last year, said Horia-Răzvan Botiș, member of the NATO DIANA Board of Directors at Investors’ Day #7, an event organized on June 16th by Techcelerator, the longest-running high-tech accelerator in Romania, to bring together tech startups and investors.

The seventh edition of the event was a special one, focusing on security innovation and dual-use technologies. It had partners such as NATO, DIANA – Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, Google for Startups, Romanian Tech Startups Association (ROTSA) and EIT Digital – Europe’s largest digital innovation ecosystem.

The event included three panels that discussed the future of defence in Eastern Europe, the investments in the sector with representatives of some of the most important investment funds or organizations and local and diaspora startups developing technological solutions for defence, cyber security or critical infrastructure.

Among the topics discussed was this year’s edition of DIANA –  NATO’s program to accelerate advanced technologies with commercial use but also with defense and security applications.

Startups developing dual-use solutions can apply for the third edition of DIANA until July 11. By participating in DIANA, they will also have access to a network of more than 180 test centers in Europe and North America to carry out testing, evaluation, validation and verification activities.

Founders interested in enrolling in DIANA can be advised by the Techcelerator team in the application process.

Horia-Răzvan Botiș, NATO official: Don’t forget: although DIANA is an innovation accelerator, it originates from the defense sector

“Last year, Romania had 88 proposals, being among the top countries applying to the DIANA accelerator. It was an important achievement, but we didn’t manage to go further – only one company reached phase 2, but did not advance to phase 3. Romanians can come up with solid solutions, but I think we face a small disadvantage – either because of the language or the way we express ideas in writing. Basically, the presentations don’t accurately reflect the very good quality of the product. Pay more attention to proposal writing and give some examples. Try to put everything together in a five-page document describing: the invention, what you are proposing, the technology used and how it can be used. And remember: although DIANA is an innovation accelerator, it comes from the defense sector. So it is essential to include a clear military use in your proposal. This was our biggest obstacle last year. Although many companies submitted strong proposals, the main feedback we received was that there was a lack of a convincing defense use justification. I encourage you to apply. There are 10 areas in which you can apply and I think this year is an opportunity for Romania to collaborate more deeply with two or three companies,” said Horia-Răzvan Botiș, member of the NATO DIANA Board of Directors.

The 10 challenge areas for this edition include: energy and power, advanced communication technologies, contested electromagnetic environments, human resilience and biotechnologies, critical infrastructure and logistics, operations in extreme environments, maritime operations, resilient space operations, autonomous and unmanned systems, data assisted decision-making

Those selected will join the first phase of the DIANA program by participating in a six-month accelerator program starting in January 2026, becoming part of DIANA’s 2026 cohort of innovators. The innovators receive a €100,000 grant to enable them to continue improving their solution while participating in the accelerator program.

Incidentally, Rune Linding, challenge manager at NATO DIANA, spoke about the very wide diversity of challenges startups can apply for until July 11.

“This alliance is very strong and we are seeing a massive influx of collaboration and development of new technologies. Our research, development, innovation groups, teams are collaborating remarkably well across cohorts. This year we have 10 challenges covering a broad spectrum – from energy to data-driven decision-making. Some challenges are quite futuristic, while others are more traditional. For example, we are pursuing challenges in areas such as advanced communication technologies. What remains very important is that we are focusing on topics that are central to NATO. For example, the ‘Contested Electromagnetic Environment’ challenge is directly inspired by developments in electronic warfare. And ‘Human resilience and biotechnology’ includes everything from war medicine and disposable medical devices to neurobiology, synthetic biology, bioengineering and bioproduction. If you are thinking of participating, please submit your proposals as soon as possible,” explained Rune Linding, challenge manager at NATO DIANA.

The importance of dual-use solutions (civil and military) was also discussed by Alina Urs, Senior Cyber Security Manager, National Cyber Security Directorate (DNSC).

”It is essential to give projects a clear military dimension. Following several visits to Ukraine I have seen how technologies conceived as purely civilian can become crucial on the battlefield. I therefore encourage all those considering this direction to explore the interplay between the civilian and military domains, as exemplified by Ukraine – Ukrainians are remarkably open to sharing their lessons learned,” said Alina Urs, Senior Cyber Security Manager, National Cyber Security Directorate (NCDSD).

Konstantin Rangelov, co-founder and CTO of Dronamics, a Bulgarian-based company and the first airline in the world to be licensed to produce and operate cargo drones, said he knew from the company’s founding that Dronamics would also need to be involved in ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance – the military process of gathering and analyzing intelligence to support operational decisions).

“Humanity has this strange habit of weaponizing anything that can be weaponized. We always knew this day would come. Somehow we expected that at some point someone would knock on our door and say: “Hey, by the way, what product do you guys have? For uș it’s only a small part of what we do in our business as our airplanes are designed for cargo transportation,” explained Konstantin Rangelov, co-founder and CTO of Dronamics.

The company announced two weeks ago that it had secured €30m in funding from the European Innovation Council.

“Defense tech solutions are becoming the new El Dorado. There are a lot of new funds coming to the market, new programs from the European Investment Fund, the European Investment Bank that are financing a new generation of companies. The defense solutions market is very different from the enterprise or consumer market, in the sense that it’s much more difficult to launch a startup in this area, it’s much harder to create the first products, to win the first customers. It often requires consortiums between several countries to acquire some of the products created and commercialized by these startups. So the startups have a limited number of options to start selling“, explained Bogdan Iordache, manager of the investment fund Underline Ventures.

“It would be great to see more solutions from Romania enrolled in the DIANA accelerator. For example, in 2023, in the first DIANA call, we had eight applicants from Romania. In the second year, there were 88. Basically, last year we felt a wave of energy around this program and we hope this trend will continue. We are seeing the emergence of Romanian AI companies and, hopefully, soon there will be more and more Romanian players in the dual-use field, especially in the area of resilience and cyber security. When I say resilience, I refer to a broad spectrum – from medical and emergency response applications to those related, of course, to defense. We aim to accelerate the development and attract investment for these startups and startups. The goal of this event launched by Techcelerator is to support startups developing dual-use solutions and to generate connections between key players to create hackathons, accelerators or partnerships between companies in this field”, said Cristian Dascălu, Co-Founder and Managing Partner Techcelerator.

Among the founders, investors or officials from organizations that participated as speakers at the event were Horia-Răzvan Botiș – Member of the NATO DIANA – NATO Defense Innovation Accelerator, Rune Linding – Challenge Manager NATO DIANA, Valentin Ene – Euro-Atlantic Center for Resilience (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Alina Urs – Senior Manager Cyber Security National Cyber Security Directorate (DNSC), Cătălina Dodu – Partner and Cybersecurity Leader EY Romania, Giuseppe Lacerenza – Partner Keen Venture Partners, Oleksandr Bulatnikov – Investor Presto Ventures, Bogdan Iordache – Partner Undervline Ventures, Kristina Boseva – Investment Manager Impetus Capital, Bogdan Pasca – Investment Principal Early Game Ventures, Dorottya Csák – Manager EIT Digital,  Konstantin Rangelov – Founder and CTO Dronamics, Cristian Ruță – Cofounder and Chief Operating Officer Arcanna AI, Vlad Cazan – Cofounder KFactory, George Bara – Cofounder and Chief Strategist Zetta Critical, Andrei Dragomir – Founder & CEO Aquark Technologies.

The moderators of the event were: Cristian Dascalu – Co-Founder and Managing Partner Techcelerator, Alexandru Sârbu – Investment Advisor Techcelerator, Daniel Mereuță – Vice President TDCX.

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About Techcelerator

Techcelerator is the SEED accelerator targeting advanced technology start-ups in Romania and South Eastern Europe. With offices in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and activities at national and regional level, Techcelerator is an accelerator and investment partner for high-tech start-ups at SEED level, in the acceleration and post-acceleration phase. Targeted for acceleration and investment are young, innovative companies with high potential for international growth and expansion in growth industries such as Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, FinTech & InsurTech, B2B SaaS, eHealth, PropTech, Digital Transformation, Sustainability and Clean Tech and AeroSpace & Defense. Techcelerator benefits from the strategic support and collaboration with numerous local and European VC investors to support the tech ecosystem in Romania and South Eastern Europe.

Techcelerator has successfully supported over 200 start-ups throughout previous accelerator rounds, as well as through various support programs, organized by itself or in partnership with other entities in the ecosystem. Since its launch, Techcelerator portfolio companies have benefited from a total investment of over €40 million through the investment rounds attracted so far.