Green Startup Ecosystem Overview Report 2022: Romania has 150 eco-innovative startups

Romania has 150 green startups and 115 key actors, who support them and are basic pillars in the ecosystem, according to the second edition of the Green Startup Ecosystem Overview Report 2022, a mapping of green startups in Romania and Bulgaria, launched on Thursday by Impact Hub Bucharest, together with Innovation Starter, informs a press release.

This year’s ecosystem mapping showed, just like the previous edition, a constant number of newly established startups that aim to solve acute environmental or climate problems through technology: 39 initiatives were born in 2021, the same number as those established in 2020. In total, the report identified 150 green startups in Romania and 115 key actors, who support them and are basic pillars in the ecosystem.

“This year’s mapping shows us a growing interest in circular economy and zero-waste initiatives, targeting both mass production practices and consumer education and purchasing habits. The second fastest growing vertical is represented by solutions in agriculture, food and beverages, which aim both at alternatives to traditional products, as well as solutions that support farmers to grow their crops in a sustainable manner and with greater predictability,” said Raluca Grigore, Impact Hub Bucharest Sustainability Program Manager.

The mapping, carried out by Impact Hub Bucharest (Romania) and Innovation Starter (Bulgaria) in partnership with with EIT Climate-KIC, under the Black Sea ClimAccelerator, with the support of Raiffeisen Bank and OMV Petrom, as main partners, shows that almost half of the green startups in Romania are concentrated in Bucharest, while others operate in main cities such as Cluj or Timisoara.

Since 2012, Impact Hub Bucharest is the first coworking space in Romania, with a community of over 3,000 members in Bucharest, and the organization is globally present in over 100 locations in over 50 countries.

Innovation Starter is the first specialized innovation agency in Bulgaria, founded by Leona Aslanova in 2014, and collaborates with the business environment, the public, academic and the non-governmental sectors to design a long-term innovation culture.