“Small tech companies feel they can do very good leverage on competencies. Even though they do not have capital available, they can make a difference in the new economy with their competencies,” said Sergiu Mircea, head of marketing with Banca Transilvania.
“This is an important signal and a good thing for Romania, because we are relatively exposed to IT services. When you’re small you can adapt faster. Any crisis can bring you down, but there are also lots of opportunities. I saw in our ecosystem of companies that things moved relatively fast after the first phase of the crisis.”
“The power to adapt is the key element in a crisis. Many startups have found solutions to continue their business as close to the pre-crisis level as possible, using digital solutions and ensuring employee safety,” said Ovidiu Ghiman, commercial director on the business segment of Telekom Romania. He announced during the show that the communications group with one-billion-euro yearly revenue would be joining the ZF IT Generation project as a partner along Banca Transilvania, Stratulat & Albulescu, Cushman & Wakefield Echinox and Mindspace.
The IT industry remains interesting to investors, even during the crisis, said Silviu Stratulat, managing partner of law firm Stratulat & Albulescu.
“As a general idea, I can say that of all the deals I had been working on before this forced vacation, the only ones that continued are those involving IT companies. I can say all startup and scale-up company deals, as well as higher value deals continued, and some new ones came up,” Silviu Stratulat said.
“A UK company contacted us which is interested to buy a company in Romania that develops hotel industry software. It is interesting that with our travel sector completely frozen, we have this acquisition intent, with negotiations on equal footing. I think there are winners in every crisis, I think there are opportunities.”
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)