OFFICE MARKET DOMINATED BY HYBRID WORK, INFLATION, RISING PRICES 6

ITALIAN INVESTMENT COMMUNITY SUPPORTING ROMANIA’S OECD ACCESSION 32

A LONGSTANDING COMMITMENT TO A GREENER FUTURE 34

November, 2022 / Volume 26, Issue 9 www.business-review.eu ROMANIAN CREATIVITY GOES TO BENELUX 43

SAMSUNG REMAINS TOP

CONSUMER TECH PROVIDER
ON ROMANIAN MARKET
www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November 2021 EDITORIAL 3

• Editorial • REAL ESTATE

Anda Sebesi
• Editor-in-Chief •
6 Office market
dominated by hybrid work,
inflation, rising prices

COVER STORY

8 Samsung remains top

Prioritising sectors
consumer tech provider on
romanian market

with high added value MAIN STORY

R
omania's FDI inflow reached EUR 8.9 billion in 2021, the 15 OECD and Schengen accession to
boost Romania's foreign investment
highest value since 2009. However, the country continues
flows
to rank last in the CEE region in terms of FDI per capita.
Last year, the net flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) continued
19 Romania needs better infrastructure,
more qualified workforce, and better
on the positive trend recorded in the last part of 2020. Although living conditions outside big cities
the state of alert imposed by the authorities as a result of the
persistence of the SARS-CoV‑2 pandemic was in place throughout
the year, foreign investors were able to adapt to the new economic
INVESTMENTS
conditions, resuming investment projects that had been suspend‑
ed at the beginning of 2020 amid the economic freeze, and even 36 Enthusiasm gives way to caution
among tech investors in second half
initiating new projects.
of 2022
Romania’s efforts should not simply be aimed at attracting any
FDI, but be focused on the types of FDI that create economic value,
37 How Romania’s investment
promotion agency compares to its
stimulate the local business environment or target sectors with foreign counterparts
high added value, thus having lasting effects on the economy. This
38 Romanian startup market sees
was one of the key conclusions of the 9th edition of the Foreign first VC exits to strategic and private
Investors Summit, Business Review’s flagship event. equity investors in 2022
With all that in mind, we’ve decided to dedicate this month’s
cover story to Samsung Electronics Romania. With over half of the CITY
total smartphone market share and one third of premium phone
sales, the Romanian subsidiary of Samsung Electronics is constant‑
ly reinforcing the company’s position as a leader on the technology
market. Romania’s potential of becoming a top tech hub in Eastern 36 When business meets sports
Europe could represent a driving force for Samsung’s strategy, also 45 ALTRNTV: your sustainable
with the help of Romanian consumers, who are always eager to try one-stop-shop
the company’s innovative products and services. 46 New places in town
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Anda Sebesi JOURNALISTS: Aurel Constantin, Mihai Cristea, Deniza Cristian, Romanita Oprea, Oana Vasiliu
CONTRIBUTORS: Ovidiu Posirca, Claudiu Vrinceanu
COPY EDITOR: Anca Alexe PHOTO EDITOR: Mihai Constantineanu PHOTOS: Dreamstime ART DIRECTOR: Raluca Dumitru
Publicație auditată
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SALES MANAGER: Roxana Suhan SALES & MARKETING MANAGER: Luiza Luca Apr 2015 - Mar 2016

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ISSN NO. 1453-729X
SUBSCRIPTIONS on Manpres Distribution Business Review is a member of Fwei

4 NEWS
WHO’S NEWS
BR welcomes information
for Who’s News.
Submissions may be edited fo­­­r
length and clarity.
Get in touch at
mihai.cristea@business-review.eu
Catalina Urse
is the new Country Man-
ager for Pharmaceuticals at
Bayer in Romania & Republic
of Moldova. She joined Bayer
in January 2020 as the Head
of Marketing and Marketing
Excellence of the Pharmaceu-
ticals division. Urse holds a de-
gree in pharmacy and over the
past 20 years she has gained
broad experience with proven
achievements across different
business models in the Roma-
nian pharma industry, from dis-
tribution and pharmacy chains
to local and multinational
pharma companies.
Liviu Togan
has been recruited by Dentons
as a partner to establish and
lead the White Collar and
Government Investigations
group in Bucharest. He has 23
years of experience in White
Collar and Government Inves-
tigations, Compliance, and
Litigation and Arbitration and
has successfully represented
businesses, senior executives,
public officials, and others
in a wide range of investiga-
tions and prosecutions before
Romanian courts. Throughout
his career, Togan has advised
numerous clients on regula-
tory compliance and complex
legal proceedings.
page 5
Zimmer Biomet Holdings opens its
first Romanian office in Sema Parc
By Deniza Cristian
The company will move from distributor representation
to direct representation
Zimmer Biomet Holdings is
opening its first branch in Ro‑
mania and planning to invest
more than EUR 3.5 million
in the country in 2023. The
investment will go towards
logistics expenses (new office,
warehouse, etc.), building the
local team, and securing equip‑
ment stock. The company will
move from distributor repre‑
sentation to direct representa‑
tion, a change that will result
in an expansion of its product
portfolio and medical educa‑
Companies investing
up to 60% more in HR
departments
By Deniza Cristian
In 2022, companies increased the
number of employees in their
HR departments by an average of
60 percent, according to internal
data from EXEC-EDU. “Many of
the challenges faced by com‑
panies in the post-covid period
tion offering and the introduc‑
tion of a number of integrated
digital and robotic technologies
to the Romanian market.
Following the opening of the
new office in Sema Parc, Roma‑
nian patients will have access to
Zimmer Biomet’s latest and most
modern products, a wider range
of solutions for sports medicine,
joint and extremity reconstruc‑
tion, as well as the company’s
digital and robotic technologies.
The ZBEdge range combines
integrated digital technologies,
are related to human resources.
I speak daily with profession‑
als in HR departments, who are
probably going through one of
the most challenging periods of
their careers, which is filled with
pressures, but also with opportu‑
www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November 2022
implants, robotics and monitor‑
ing services, providing a unique
medical platform in orthopae‑
dics. This platform provides
physicians with accurate data
and information to help them
make better decisions for their
patients, both during surgery as
well as in the recovery process
after knee or hip surgery.
“Romania is one of the
largest markets in CEE and an
important customer base for
Zimmer Biomet. We’ve made
a great choice to open our first
office in Romania in Sema Parc.
By the nature of what we do,
we collaborate with surgeons,
hospitals, clinics, and uni‑
versities to improve patient
experiences and outcomes
in Romania and enhance the
efficiency of their operations,
which is why it was essential to
choose an office that was acces‑
sible and well-connected to the
city,” says Marian Isac, Country
Manager at Zimmer Biomet
Romania.
HR has climbed
from sixth to
second place
among the fields
with the most
available jobs
www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November 2022
Air France-KLM and Le Manoir Group sign
two-year agreement
By Deniza Cristian
Le Manoir Group is focused on sustainability
across all its operations
Fine gastronomy business Le
Manoir Group, owned by Ro‑
manian entrepreneur Cristian
Preotu, has joined forces with
Air France-KLM, taking an
active stance towards reducing
CO2 emissions, after signing
an agreement to invest in the
aviation group’s Corporate
SAF Programme (Sustainable
Aviation Fuel), contributing
to the ecological transition of
air transport. The Corporate SAF
programme was launched by Air
France-KLM to encourage com‑
panies to play an active role in
the future of sustainable travel.
”By working with companies like
Le Manoir Group, we can achieve
Air France-KLM’s goal to use
at least 10 percent sustainable
aviation fuel worldwide by 2030.
We are glad to see that Le Manoir
is joining the AF-KLM group’s ef‑
fort to make our activities more
environmentally sustainable
and to reduce CO2 emissions
and carbon footprint globally,”
said Razvan Radut, Country
Sales Manager in Romania for
Air France-KLM.
Through the SAF pro‑
gramme, after estimating the
CO2 emissions associated with
their travel, Air France and
KLM corporate customers are
able to determine the annual
contribution they should make
to this programme. Air France
and KLM will invest all contri‑
butions in the supply and use
of sustainable aviation fuel.
“We are happy that we can
contribute to the Air France-
KLM Corporate SAF pro‑
gramme, as Le Manoir Group
is focused on sustainability
across all its operations. By
investing in the programme,
we want to actively contribute
to reducing the CO2 emissions
associated with our business
travel,” said Cristian Preotu,
the CEO of Le Manoir Group.
nities. Now is the time for them
to take the reins and become
good strategists, after having
struggled to move beyond a sup‑
port department role for the past
20 years,” said Oana Scarlat, the
CEO of EXEC-EDU.
HR has climbed from sixth
to second place among the
fields with the most available
jobs, ranking just below the IT
industry, according to a Hipo.ro
report. In addition, human re‑
sources jobs are considered to be
among the best jobs, both locally
and globally.
NEWS 5
Shaun Conning
is the new Chief People Of-
ficer of Superbet Group. He
will coordinate the HR and
organisational culture strat-
egy of the company, which has
recorded substantial growth
over the past few years. Before
joining Superbet, Conning
served as Chief People Officer
at DAZN Group, the world’s
leading sports entertainment
platform.
Dennis Selinas
has been appointed Chief Ex-
ecutive Officer of Globalworth
Group. He will join the com-
pany as an executive director
on November 21, 2022 and will
take over as Globalworth CEO
starting with January 1, 2023.
Dennis Selinas has nearly 20
years of real estate experience
in Central and Eastern Europe.
Michal Mrowiec
has been named as the new
President of Ursus Brewer-
ies. He will take over the
new role on January 1, 2023,
following current President
Paul Barnett’s decision to
return to Australia, his home
country. Over the past 7 years,
Michal Mrowiec has been part
of Kompania Piwowarska,
the Polish business of Asahi
Europe & International, most
recently serving as its Sales
Vicepresident.
 www.business-review.eu
6 REAL ESTATE Business Review | November 2022

Office market dominated by hybrid

work, inflation, rising prices
The office market is going through a period of stagnation, with demand values that are similar
to 2021’s. Office deliveries have slowed down and will remain at a low level in 2023. In the first
9 months of 2022, the total demand for office space in Bucharest stood around 200,000 sqm,
resembling last year’s levels. Net demand increased by 5 percent year-on-year to around 106,000
sqm. A total of 65,700 sqm were leased in Q3, a volume almost identical to the one recorded
during the previous quarter, according to JLL data.

By Aurel Constantin

employees coming back from remote work.

For AFI Europe, 2022 was a productive year:
we leased about 30,000 sqm GLA of offices,
mostly through new contracts, we launched
the second phase of the AFI Tech Park office
campus, we completed the AFI City Bucur‑
estii Noi shopping gallery, and broke ground
on the AFI Arad retail park. Additionally,
the pandemic period and the fact that many
tenants worked from home allowed us to
make improvements across most of our office
projects, including refurbishing all common
areas in the AFI Lakeview building, creating
a lounge area for tenants at AFI Park Timiso‑
ara, installing ionisation-based air purifica‑
tion systems in all of our projects, as well as
Demand will mainly increase for premium Class A offices that can accommodate obtaining WELL Health & Safety Certifications
the new lifestyle and working trends
for our office projects,” says Emma Toma,

T
he first half of the year brought good
results for the office market. “The
Bucharest market had a positive
evolution throughout 2022, especially if we’re
talking about the Class A segment, on which
Genesis Property operates. In the first semes‑
ter, almost 100,000 sqm of Class A offices
were delivered (4 new buildings), and around
42,000 sqm (2 new buildings) are due to be
delivered by year’s end, taking the modern of‑
fice stock to approximately 3.34 million sqm,
according to CBRE research. During the first
half of 2022, total leasing activity in Bucha‑
rest saw an 18 percent increase compared to
the same period of 2021, with deals totalling
almost 132,000 sqm,” says Stefan Tudos,
vicepresident at Genesis Property.
“On this market, the tenants are usually
multinational companies with multi-year
contracts and, in the context of redesign‑
ing work in the post-pandemic period, with
a focus on socially relevant amenities and
strengthening the professional community,
there is a favourable outlook for this seg‑
ment’s evolution. However, demand will
mainly increase for premium Class A offices
that can accommodate the new lifestyle and
working trends, with less of an emphasis on
the space itself and more on the networking,
interaction, connection, and culture it creates
for employees,” Tudos adds.
The return of employees into offices is
pushing up demand for spaces. “We’ve been
seeing higher demand for office buildings
locally, especially in the second half of
the year, which was triggered by a wave of
Head of the Office Division at AFI Europe.
“Despite the challenging macroeconomic
and geopolitical contexts, we at CPI Romania
take pride in stating that we’ve had yet an‑
other very successful year in our office line of
business as well. As part of our group strategy,
we actively manage our assets to continu‑
ously improve environmental performance,
quality, and resilience. We’ve thus continued
to expand our myhive office brand by carry‑
ing out a comprehensive refurbishment of the
Victoria Park building, and at the same time,
we’ve made various ESG-compliant upgrades
to other buildings. This has proved to be the
right approach, as this year we’ve managed to
secure over 40,000 sqm of leased space, with
75 percent new leases and 25 percent exten‑
sions,” says Fulga Dinu, Country Manager at
CPI Romania.
 www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November
May 2016 2022
“AS PART OF OUR GROUP
STRATEGY, WE ACTIVELY
MANAGE OUR ASSETS
TO CONTINUOUSLY IM-
PROVE ENVIRONMENTAL
PERFORMANCE, QUALITY,
AND RESILIENCE,”
FULGA DINU, COUNTRY MANAGER AT
CPI ROMANIA
TRENDS AND ESG REQUIREMENTS
As part of their efforts to adapt to changes
on the labour market and new hybrid work
formats, companies are turning to specialised
services to make the transition as smooth and
efficient as possible. In response to market
demands, CBRE has developed a specialised
workplace team that provides workplace
management & strategy services for compa‑
nies in fields such as IT&C, shared services,
pharma, etc. CBRE is the only local company
that integrates the entire set of services for
transactions and office space configura‑
tions, and it also has a suite of architects who
complement the teams of consultants in its
Office department. “When we talk to our
partners, we are always thinking about the
change process for the company's employees.
We begin to understand the organisation
and culture, we design solutions together
with their project teams, and take care of
communication and implementation. This
ensures that we have a finished product with
which the stakeholders will resonate. It is
increasingly difficult to deliver a successful
development project without the change
management component,” says Mihaela
Topor, Senior Workplace Consultant at CBRE.
Flexibility is an important factor that compa‑
“DURING THE FIRST HALF
OF 2022, TOTAL LEASING
ACTIVITY IN BUCHAREST
SAW AN 18 PERCENT
INCREASE COMPARED
TO THE SAME PERIOD
OF 2021,” STEFAN TUDOS,
VICEPRESIDENT AT GENESIS PROPERTY
nies must cover in order to keep employees
happy. “Employees are returning to the office
in growing numbers, adopting hybrid work
patterns that fit their current and future
lifestyles, although the pace of return differs
from one company to another. With some‑
where between 1 to 4 days per week in the
office, employees are more focused than ever
on maintaining a healthy work-life balance,
while employers are making more efforts to
create a work environment and culture that
meet workers’ expectations. Flexibility is the
key word these days, and the hybrid system
is currently the preferred option for both
employees and companies. In this equation,
the office keeps a central role, provided it
is properly equipped and offers employees
multiple options for interaction and collabo‑
ration,” Stefan Tudos explains. The hybrid
work model has been adopted by 70 percent
of companies in the EMEA region, with
Romania having a similar share. For example,
AFI tenants prefer to work from the office for
at least 3 days a week. “There is also a grow‑
ing trend for developing co-working spaces
to better suit hybrid work. Some companies
are choosing to rent temporary or long-term
co-working spaces so they can have flexibility
in their operations,” Emma Toma notes.
COVER
REALSTORY
ESTATE14
7
“WE’VE BEEN SEEING
HIGHER DEMAND FOR
OFFICE BUILDINGS
LOCALLY, ESPECIALLY IN
THE SECOND HALF OF
THE YEAR,” EMMA TOMA,
HEAD OF THE OFFICE DIVISION
AT AFI EUROPE
PRICES ARE GOING UP
According to JLL, after an increase in Q2 from
EUR 18.5/sqm/month to EUR 19/sqm/month,
prime rents maintained the same level in Q3.
However, given the inflationary pressures,
further rent increases are possible over the
next few quarters. “The evolution of rents in
office buildings has been influenced by the
rising costs of construction materials, the
energy crisis, and the overall economic in‑
stability and inflation. Moreover, particularly
in Bucharest, we are experiencing a stock
decline because of the lack of new construc‑
tions, which will lead to an increase in rents
in the coming period,” Toma adds.
“Overall, rents have slightly risen this year
amid improved demand and higher infla‑
tion. The size of the increase varies widely,
depending on the quality and location of the
offices. The most significant changes have
been recorded for Class A offices in Bucha‑
rest, which provide very good conditions in
terms of both facilities and connectivity. We
expect to see further growth in this segment,
as demand for premium offices is likely to
increase and future supply will dry up due to
the current unfavourable market conditions
for the construction of new projects,” Tudos
says.
 www.business-review.eu
8 COVER STORY Business Review | November 2022
 www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November 2022 COVER STORY 9

SAMSUNG REMAINS TOP

CONSUMER TECH PROVIDER
Investing in innovative technologies for buildings and
boosting the sustainability of projects are priorities for
Dimitris Raptis, the CEO of Globalworth Group.

ON ROMANIAN MARKET
He spoke to Business Review about the company’s office
and logistics portfolio in Romania, which has grown to EUR
1.5 billion in value, and provided insight into the emerging
opportunities offered by the local market.
By Anda Sebesi
 www.business-review.eu
10 COVER STORY Business Review | November 2022

With over half of the total smartphone market share and one third of premium phone
sales, the Romanian subsidiary of Samsung Electronics is constantly reinforcing the
company’s position as a leader on the technology market. Romania’s potential of
becoming a top tech hub in Eastern Europe could represent a driving force for
Samsung’s strategy, also with the help of Romanian consumers, who are always
eager to try its innovative products and services. Julia Kim, President of Samsung
Electronics Romania and Bulgaria talked to Business Review about the success story
behind Samsung Electronics Romania and provided insight into the company’s ap-
proach to sustainability, one of its top priorities both locally and globally.

What can you tell us about Samsung’s current worldwide opera-
tions?
Despite the macroeconomic uncertainties, which are likely to
persist, we have managed to obtain record revenues each quarter
so far this year. In the third quarter, revenue grew 3.8 % to 76.78
trillion won (USD 54 billion). Specifically, the smartphone business
posted solid profitability as demand increased following the release
of the foldable phones and new wearables. Even though the eco‑
nomic contraction has hit demand for
consumer electronics, we expect our
annual revenue to exceed the histori‑
cal high of 2021.
What is the story behind Samsung’s
success in Romania?
Samsung Electronics Romania
emerged as a fully autonomous sales
subsidiary in June 2010, at a time of
general growth for the IT market in
South-East Europe. Its success here is
the result of a very good mix: a grow‑
ing market, a solid team that brings
Samsung’s vision, mission, and values
to life, and tech-savvy consumers look‑
ing for a brand that puts their needs
first and offers quality and inspiration.
And it is precisely the fact that Romanian consumers appreciate
innovation and quality that has allowed us to maintain our leading
position in the mobile and visual displays categories.
What are the pillars of the company’s strategy?
They include customisation, connectivity, sustainability, and a peo‑
ple-first approach, which means understanding that each person is
unique and that they all want to customise their devices to suit their
lifestyles. In response to this, we gradually introduced new prod‑
ucts like the Bespoke Jet™ vacuum and Bespoke Washer and Dryer,
expanding our line-up to every room in the home to offer consum‑
ers more ways to customise their spaces. We have also expanded
our Lifestyle TVs series, which features the latest technology and
increased customisation options, allowing users to express their
personal styles and access tailored video and audio experiences.
A better future requires seamless connectivity. As a founding
member of the Home Connectivity Alliance (HCA), which brings
together various smart home appliance manufacturers, we aim to
foster greater interoperability between devices across brands to
give consumers more choice and to enhance the security and safety
of products and services. Through our SmartThings app, users can
control more than 40 functions in 15
product categories from 13 brands,
including Samsung Electronics. I men‑
tioned sustainability as being a main
pillar; on the one hand, that means
building sustainability into the ways
customers experience our products,
and on the other hand, it involves
expanding the use of recycled materi‑
als to include all mobile products and
home appliances over the next three
years.
One of the key statements made by
Samsung Electronics is “We create
a culture of infinite possibilities.”
How does the concept translate to
innovation for its customers world-
wide?
Behind any product launch, whether it's a new phone, a new type
of TV or a range expansion like the Bespoke home appliances, there
are entire research teams working hard so that the innovations we
bring to the market can really add value to the lives of our con‑
sumers. Throughout the process, we also rely on the feedback we
receive from consumers as we carefully study their desires and their
expectations, but also new ways in which we can provide them with
new experiences and open up infinite possibilities.
I think it's also important to mention that our culture of infinite
possibilities has a new layer, as we are now increasingly focused on
a future built on everyday sustainability. This means that we use in‑
novation to respond to the needs of our consumers, in Romania and
www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November 2022
worldwide, but also to empower people to reduce their carbon foot‑
print and make positive changes towards a better tomorrow. And let
me give the readers an example of how we integrate sustainability
into our culture: to eliminate battery waste, we’ve launched the So‑
larCell Remote with a built-in solar panel that can be charged during
both day and night. The latest version of the SolarCell Remote gets
electricity from radio frequencies in devices like Wi-Fi routers and
it will be included alongside more Samsung products, including TVs
and home appliances, with the aim of eliminating more than 200
million batteries from landfills.
How has your portfolio developed over the years and how what
is your view of the Romanian consumer?
Based on our data, Romanian consumers make their purchase
decisions based on three key criteria: price, quality, and sustain‑
ability. They spend their incomes
on food, savings, and investments,
but also—depending on budget
constraints—on experiences
(relaxation, entertainment, etc.).
They are also willing to pay extra
for quality because they really ap‑
preciate innovation, which for us
translates into very good results in
the premium area. If we’re talking
about young Romanian consum‑
ers, we know that they are looking
for means of self-expression.
They like individualised shopping
experiences and pay a lot of atten‑
tion to brand ethics and corporate
responsibility.
Customers are at the core of
our strategy, so we are constantly
adapting and expanding our
portfolio according to their needs
and expectations. Our services and products now cover much of
what people’s current needs mean, from high-performance phones
for multitasking to customisable electrical appliances, including
cutting-edge heat pumps to provide people with more comfort.
What are some similarities and differences between the Roma-
nian market and other markets on which you operate in the CEE
region?
Romania, just like Bulgaria where we also operate, is a growing tech
hub in Eastern Europe, and both countries have been successful
in creating an attractive business environment. Both Romania and
Bulgaria have a lot of potential for further growth, including in the
smart home market area. Two years ago, I had the opportunity to
coordinate the development of Samsung’s business in Hungary, a
country that is on its way to becoming a leading digital technology
hub, with consumers who, just like Romanians, are eager to try our
innovative products and services.
COVER STORY 11
How has this year been for Samsung in Romania in terms of
achievements, financial results, and investments?
Although global economic activity is experiencing a slowdown, we
have managed to continue to grow and develop in several segments.
In the smartphone segment, Samsung’s market share continues to
be at over 50% in terms of units sold. In the premium segment, one-
third of the phones sold on the market are Samsung devices. This
demonstrates Romanian consumers’ affinity for premium Samsung
products, which have state-of-the-art specifications.
In terms of TVs, the company has a market share of 42 % of the
total market in terms of value. We continue to see positive develop‑
ments in this segment as a result of the increasing consumer interest
in Smart TVs and connectivity, as the technology behind these
devices now offers users unique viewing experiences.
How important is Romania for
Samsung and what is the coun-
try’s weight in the company’s
portfolio?
As already mentioned, Romanians
are very open to new technologies,
something that is also reflected by
the increases recorded in sev‑
eral business segments, including
smartphones and consumer elec‑
tronics. Moreover, our data and
recent studies show that Roma‑
nians are increasingly interested in
investing in a Smart Home, seeking
intelligent solutions for their
homes that will not only provide
them with more comfort, but also
help them save energy. Taking all
these aspects into account, we can
see that the Romanian market has
a lot of development potential, and
therefore, it holds major strategic value for us.
What are your longer-term plans in Romania?
We are, of course, focused on strengthening Samsung’s position
as a leader on the technology market. We will continue to provide
Romanian consumers with products and solutions designed to bring
them new experiences and new alternatives for a higher quality of
life. We also want to bring AI-based technologies closer to people;
as examples, I would mention the upcoming Bespoke washing
machines with AI Ecobubble (a function that achieves the same
level of cleanliness with lower energy consumption). We are also
committed to launching 100% Wi-Fi-enabled appliances by the end
of 2023 to ensure access to SmartThings Energy, an easy-to-use,
app-controlled smart metre service that helps users reduce energy
consumption. And of course, our plans also include guaranteeing
the best performance you can get in the smartphone world through
the launch of new flagship phones and accessories.
 www.business-review.eu
12 COVER STORY Business Review | November 2022

Setting the stage

for sustainable living
Samsung Electronics is tackling climate change through a complex and comprehensive
approach. Achieving net zero direct and indirect carbon emissions by 2050 and developing
carbon capture and utilization technologies to reduce emissions are some of the strong
commitments the company announced recently as part of its new sustainability strategy.
By Anda Sebesi

T
his fall, South Korean
manufacturer Samsung
Electronics announced
its new environmental strategy,
a comprehensive effort to join
global efforts to tackle climate
change. It includes commit‑
ments to achieve enterprise-
wide net zero carbon emis‑
sions, plans to use more
renewable energy, as well as in‑
vestments in new technologies
that will allow the company
to develop energy-efficient
products, increase water reuse,
and implement carbon capture technology. Samsung Electronics
has also joined RE100, a global initiative dedicated to pursuing 100%
renewable energy. As part of this commitment, within five years the
company plans to match the electricity needs of all the international
markets where it operates outside of Korea with renewable energy
generation.
“The climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges of our time,
and the consequences of inaction are unimaginable. Every one of
us must contribute to the effort, including businesses and govern‑
ments. Samsung is responding to the threat of climate change with a
comprehensive plan that includes reducing emissions, new sustain‑
ability practices, and the development of innovative technologies
and products that are better for our planet,” said Jong-Hee Han, Vice
Chairman and CEO of Samsung Electronics.
Furthermore, in September this year, at the International Con‑
sumer Electronics Fair (IFA), the company unveiled its vision for
adopting a smart lifestyle in order to provide a sustainable future for
next generations. The challenging context of the recent years has led
consumers worldwide to become increasingly aware of their impact
on the environment and eager to adopt a greener and more respon‑
sible behaviour. They want to actively contribute to the creation of
a more sustainable environment and lifestyle, and they want to use
brands with whom they share the same values in terms of sustain‑
ability. “Consumers have an
increased need for sustainable
alternatives and we are happy
to meet their needs by offer‑
ing them the most up-to-date
smart home appliances, which
generate energy savings. By
using efficient home appli‑
ances that are synergetic with
our SmartThings solution, we
want that home experience to
be genuinely sustainable,” said
JaeSeung Lee, president and
manager of the Digital
Appliances Division at Samsung
Electronics. The environmental commitment made by Samsung
Electronics includes an enterprise-wide effort to enhance resource
circularity throughout the entire product lifecycle, from raw material
sourcing to recycling and disposal. The plan also details investments
in new technologies to reduce emissions from process gases as well
as to reduce power consumption in consumer products. The com‑
pany also aims to explore carbon capture and utilization technolo‑
gies and tackle harmful airborne particulate matter.
In acknowledgement of the need for innovative approaches
around environmental sustainability, Samsung Electronics will
invest over KRW 7 trillion (about USD 5.1 billion) in its environmental
initiatives by 2030. The investment figure will be aimed at reduc‑
ing process gases, conserving water, expanding electronic waste
collection, and reducing pollutants and excludes costs related to the
expansion of renewable energy use.
A FOCUS ON SELF-SUSTAINABLE HOMES
Samsung Electronics seeks to become the No.1 brand when it comes
to energy efficiency. To do this, the company has intensified its ongo‑
ing efforts and collaborations in order to provide its customers with
solutions that can help households cut their energy consumption
down to zero. In addition, Samsung’s brand vision is to create a com‑
fortable, energy self-sufficient, and minimum-emission home. In its
www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November 2022 COVER STORY 13

attempt to become a market leader in the energy efficiency technolo‑ ary solutions that can support people’s lifestyles, bring new forms of
gies segment, Samsung has developed partnerships with companies entertainment, and encourage sustainability through the different
that have similar goals. For example, together with Patagonia, a US- ways in which we care for our planet,” says Benjamin Braun, Chief
based company specializing in outdoor clothing and gear for silent Marketing Officer at Samsung Europe.
sports, Samsung developed a new washing machine technology that
reduces microplastic pollution generated from clothes by up to 54%. HELPING PEOPLE ADOPT A SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLE
At the beginning of 2022, Samsung launched the SmartThings The design for Samsung’s smart home appliances is based on two
Home technology, laying the groundwork for the development of fundamental concepts: being sustainable and helping people save
a genuinely sustainable home. By combining appliances that are money and reduce their carbon footprint. The company’s Bespoke
connected to services like SmartThings Energy and the AI En‑ product range and its Digital Inverter technology are great examples.
ergy module, users can optimise their energy consumption while The modular structure and replaceable panels of the Bespoke refrig‑
maximising their savings. Currently, SmartThings Energy works on erators extend their lifecycles and hence reduce waste from electri‑
about 40 Samsung home appliances that can be activated using the cal and electronic equipment (WEEE). After 25 years of intensive
SmartThings app, including washing machines, dryers, dishwash‑ research, the Digital Inverter technology contributes to the increase
ers, air conditioners, vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, ovens, cooker of home appliances’ energy efficiency, performance, and durability.
hoods, cooking stoves, microwaves, TV sets, and energy counters. The sustainability of a brand is closely linked to the experience
SmartThings is thus a big step forward towards a sustainable future, it provides to its customers. With that in mind, Samsung Electron‑
which Samsung intends ics decided to offer a
to contribute to through 20-year warranty—the
its home appliances. The longest warranty pe‑
company also aims for riod ever offered by the
100 % of its imported company—for its Digital
goods—like fridges, Inverter engines and
washing machines, compressors. This way,
residential air condition‑ Samsung increases the
ers, and eco heating sys‑ reliability of its products
tems—to be connected to and confirms its com‑
the SmartThings app in mitments to reducing
the near future. electronic waste and
The company has also promoting sustain‑
come up with another ability.
sustainable innovation: Users are also
in partnership with encouraged to make
Qcells, it developed greener decissions by
Net Zero Home, a self- using the SmartThings
sustainable home that Energy app, which
can generate and store monitors diferent usage
energy from solar panels patterns and provides
in order to power all real-time data that helps
Samsung equipment them reduce energy
controlled through the consumption. Accord‑
SmartThings app. ing to company repre‑
“Through its most sentatives, all Samsung
recent innovative products with a Wi-Fi
products and services, connection will have
Samsung offers its access to the SmartTh‑
customers greater ope‑ ings Energy app by
ness, connectivity, and 2023. Plus, Samsung will
efficiency when it comes bring an additional 10 %
to their day-to-day user energy saving capability
experience. We therefore to all its appliances, to
continue in our mission reach the highest energy
to search for revolution‑ saving standard, A+++.
 www.business-review.eu
14 MAIN STORY Business Review | November 2022
www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November 2022 MAIN STORY 15

OECD and Schengen accession

to boost Romania's
foreign investment flows
Romania's FDI inflow reached EUR 8.9 billion in 2021, the
highest value since 2009. However, the country continues to
rank last in the Central and Eastern Europe region in terms
of FDI per capita. Last year, the net flow of foreign direct
investment (FDI) continued on the positive trend recorded in
the last part of 2020.

By Aurel Constantin

A
lthough the state of alert imposed by the authorities as a
result of the persistence of the SARS-CoV‑2 pandemic was
in place throughout the year, foreign investors were able
to adapt to the new economic conditions, resuming investment
projects that had been suspended at the beginning of 2020 due to
the economic freeze caused by the pandemic and even initiating
new projects. “Investments are a central issue of the OECD acces‑
sion discussion, as well as the adoption of non-discrimination and
transparency principles, the liberalisation of capital flows, and the
setup of a transparent and open regime for FDIs. Romania’s OECD
accession is a strong signal for investors and Romanian businesses
about its commitment to adhere to the highest standards. Foreign

Luca Niculescu, State Secretary,
National Coordinator regarding
Romania’s accession process
to the OECD Commission
Romania’s OECD accession is a strong sig-
nal for investors and Romanian business-
es about its commitment to adhere to the
highest standards. Foreign investors will
find an even more favourable and predict-
able business environment in Romania
starting with the pre-accession period.
Daniel Anghel, Board Member
and Chair of the FDI Task Force
Foreign Investors Council
Five categories of competitiveness are
usually analysed in studies on attracting
FDI: legislative predictability, market size,
labour market, economic sophistication,
and digitalization level. Romania should
first develop a strategy to attract FDI,
which should highlight the essential sec-
tors for its development.
Jan Demeyere,
Co-founder & Partner at Speedwell
It is not easy to convince people to invest
in Romania. But when you see that the
purchasing power in Bucharest is as
high as that in Warsaw, it is easy to find
customers for projects. Furthermore,
Romania is a NATO and EU country, so it is
a safe country.

16 MAIN STORY
Radu Hanga, President at Bucharest
Stock Exchange (BVB)
Despite the challenges it faces, Romania
is moving forward, still developing in a
good way. Having strategic investors with
a long-term view is very important for
the future of a company as well as for the
future of the economy.
H.E. Ms. Laurence Auer, French Republic
Ambassador to Romania
We are the third largest investor in Roma-
nia, with many of our top companies hav-
ing a presence here, in all sectors. French
companies had invested EUR 1.2 billion in
Romania as of last year, and our commer-
cial ties are strengthening as Romania
proves to be an asset for the EU.
Lucian Enaru, Country General Manager
at Schneider Electric Romania
We must implement digitalization in ev-
ery sector, as the economy must become
more efficient; and there is a huge need
for big infrastructure projects. Acceler-
ating digitalization will lead to more IT
infrastructure being developed, and that
will bring more opportunities.
Eric Stab, Vice-President Foreign
Investors Council | Chairman and CEO
at ENGIE Romania
Investing in Romania, like in any other
country, can be a roller-coaster ride, but
when you look back at what you have
achieved as a foreign investor, the bal-
ance is very positive. That is something
that we should not forget.
Tiberiu Danetiu, Director Marketing
at Auchan Romania
We are celebrating 16 years of generat-
ing business in Romania; and it’s not just
about business, but also about value
creation. About 90 percent of the food
products in Auchan are produced locally
by our partners, and 85 percent of our
producers are Romanian.
investors will find an even more favourable
and predictable business environment in
Romania starting with the pre-accession peri‑
od,” said Luca Niculescu, State Secretary and
National Coordinator of Romania’s OECD ac‑
cession process, in his keynote speech at the
9th edition of the Foreign Investors Summit,
Business Review’s landmark event. He added
that an improved country rating—which will
have a major positive impact on Romania’s
www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November 2022
capacity to access international financial
markets—and the country’s increased
involvement in global decision-making
and economic practices will be some of the
most noticeable results of Romania’s acces‑
sion to the OECD.
Daniel Anghel, Board Member and Chair
of the FDI Task Force at the Foreign Inves‑
tors’ Council, said that Romania’s efforts
should not simply be aimed at attracting
any FDI, but be focused on the types of
FDI that create economic value, stimulate
the local business environment or target
sectors with high added value, thus hav‑
ing lasting effects on the economy. “Five
categories of competitiveness are usually
analysed in studies on attracting FDI: leg‑
islative predictability, market size, labour
market, economic sophistication, and
digitalization level. Romania should first
develop a strategy to attract FDI, which
should highlight the essential sectors for
its development, after an evaluation of the
competitive advantages of its economy.”
Though Romania still has plenty to do
in order to create a more predictable busi‑
ness environment, it remains an attractive
destinations for investors. “It is not easy to
convince people to invest in Romania. But
when you see that the purchasing power
in Bucharest is as high as that in Warsaw, it
is easy to find customers for projects,” said
Jan Demeyere, co-founder and partner at
Speedwell.
In his turn, Radu Hanga, the president
of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB),
noted that we were all witnessing a posi‑
tive economic development of our country.
“The Romanian capital market was the
best performing in the CEE region this year
from the perspective of resilience—and
this is noticeable considering the context.
We have a conflict on our border, and
we’re used to being seen as a weak spot,
a market that overreacts to both positive
 www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November 2022 MAIN STORY 17

and negative situations. Looking at the main

index, we could see that it was down only 10
percent from the begining of the year com‑
pared to 27 percent in Hungary, 25 percent in
Austria, and 37 percent in Poland.”

SUCCESS STORIES OF FRENCH INVEST- H.E. Dr. Peer Gebauer,

MENTS
H.E. Ms Laurence Auer, France’s Ambassador
to Romania, stated that French companies
were among the biggest investors in the
country, with millions of customers and tens
of thousands of employees. “The success of
French-Romanian ventures is symbolised
by Dacia, who launched its first electric car
here. Dacia is one of the most important
parts of Renault Group and it has a Roma‑
nian identity. Today, we are the third largest
investor in Romania, generating 8 percent of
the GDP,” she noted, also pointing out that
Romania was an asset for the rest of Europe
and that France would continue to invest in
the country.
Cristian Preotu, CEO at Le Manoir, said
that it was not only large French companies
that were operating in Romania, but also
SMEs. “And it’s not just about investing, but
about reinvesting as well. French companies’
investments may not be taken into account
by all the statistics, but they bring in a huge
amount of capital.” Official data shows that
French companies have invested EUR 1.2 bil‑
lion in Romania to date. Of the top 20 largest
companies in Romania, five are French.
Eric Stab, Vice-President at the Foreign
Investors’ Council and Chairman and CEO
at Engie Romania, highlighted the fact that
foreign investors have found Romania to be
a welcoming country and a good place for
investments. “Investing in Romania, like in
any other country, can be a roller-coaster
ride, but when you look back at what you
have achieved as a foreign investor, the bal‑
ance is very positive. That is something that
we should not forget.”
Francois Coste, CEO Groupama |
President CCIFER
Investors place high value on Romanian
talent, including languages or technical
skills, and we hope to also see some of
the workforce that now resides in other
countries coming back. There are two key
conditions that can convince Romanians
to stay or come back: good healthcare
and quality education for their children.
Lucian Mihai, Commercial Director at
Gonzales Mecanica de Precizie
In a contest of geopolitical difficulties it is
very important to find the right commer-
cial models to make projects of energetic
independence. We must have a global
vision, but it is important to act and
develop locally.
Cristian Preotu, CEO at Le Manoir
French investments in Romania have a
long history and they’ve been significant
in size, and we are not just talking about
new investments, but also about re-
investments. French companies may not
be taken into account by all the statis-
tics, but they bring in a huge amount of
capital.
German Ambassador in Romania
Romania is much more than an excellent
economic partner for Germany; we have
close political partnerships which are of
particular value during these times of
crisis and of brutal Russian aggression, so
we are relying on this partnership for the
entire EU.
Mihai Boldijar, General Manager Robert
Bosch and the Representative of Bosch
Group in Romania, VP with regional
responsibilities
We have constantly grown our business
here, having added the factory in Blaj
and the call centre in Timisoara. Later, we
opened another manufacturing facility in
Cluj, followed by a research facility. This
will continue, as it has been a very suc-
cessful journey.
Dr. Christian von Albrichsfeld, Head of
Country Continental Romania
When we started out, it was a place with
good and cheap labour, but we also saw
that there were over 200,000 people
studying in the universities, and this led
us to immediately begin research and
development operations. Currently, we
have 17,500 employees here and we’ve
invested EUR 2.1 billion.

18 MAIN STORY
Andreas Lier, Managing Director
at BASF Romania
& President of AHK Romania
Romania has the potential to at-
tract new investors, especially in
the energy sector, in both natural
gas and renewable energy. There
are still plenty of opportunities
here. Romania has also developed
as an innovation hub with a lot of
startups and I am very optimistic
about its future.
Theodor Artenie,
Head of Tax at Noerr
The history of German invest-
ments in Romania are going back
a long time as there were German
companies in Romania at the
beginning of the last century. And
we’re seeing these companies
operating across many different
sectors of the economy.
Lucian Enaru, Country General Manager
at Schneider Electric Romania, said that
Romania had become an important support
service centre for Schneider, covering over
40 countries. “The high energy prices are
forcing us to mobilise all our forces in Ro‑
mania to implement the knowledge we have
about energy management, which we’ve
sourced from all over the world.”
Tiberiu Danetiu, Marketing Director at
Auchan Romania, noted that investing is
not just about the money, but also about
value creation. “We have strong relationship
with our Romanian suppliers, they’ve been
growing with us, so about 90 percent of our
products today are local. And there are many
small producers that deliver directly to our
shops.”
Francois Coste, CEO of Groupama and
President of CCIFER, said that Romania of‑
fers plenty of opportunities, as the market is
not yet saturated. “Investors are aware of the
fact that Romanian talent can perform very
good services for the benefit of Europe or the
whole world.”
A LONG HISTORY OF GERMAN INVESTMENT
H.E. Dr Peer Gebauer, the German Ambassa‑
dor to Romania, said at the start of the third
panel of the Foreign Investors Summit that
Germany was Romania’s most important
partner and that German companies have
built great success stories here. “Romania
is much more than an excellent economic
partner for Germany; we have close political
partnerships which are of particular value
during these times of crisis and of brutal
Russian aggression, so we are relying on this
partnership for the entire EU.” He added that
we cannot accept the Russian aggression and
that all EU countries must help Ukraine end
this war.
Theodor Artenie, Head of Tax at Noerr,
said that the history of French investments
in Romania are going back a long time as
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Business Review | November 2022
there were German companies in Romania
at the beginning of the last century. Also, in
modern times, there are companies that are
already 30 years old.
Mihai Boldijar, General Manager at
Robert Bosch, noted that Bosch first started
operating in Romania 28 years ago. “Since
then, we have constantly grown our busi‑
ness here, having added the factory in Blaj
and the call center in Timisoara. Later, we
opened another manufacturing facility in
Cluj, followed by a research facility. This
will continue, as it has been a very success‑
ful journey.”
Andreas Lier, Managing Director at BASF
Romania, said that his company was also
celebrating 20 years in Romania and that
the country remains a very good destina‑
tion for investors. “Romania has the poten‑
tial to attract new investors, especially in
the energy sector, in both natural gas and
renewable energy. There are still plenty
of opportunities here. Romania has also
developed as an innovation hub with a lot
of startups and I am very optimistic about
its future.”
Dr Christian von Albrichsfeld, Head of
Country at Continental Romania, pointed
out that they had also entered Romania
about 22 years ago. “When we started out,
it was a place with good and cheap labour,
but we also saw that there were over
200,000 people studying in the universi‑
ties, and this led us to immediately begin
research and development operations.
Currently, we have 17,500 employees here
and we’ve invested EUR 2.1 billion. In the
past year alone, we have invested about
EUR 150 million. Around a third of all our
employees here are working in research
and development. I think this is one of the
biggest opportunities for Romania, as it has
a lot of young people coming out of univer‑
sities, including many engineers.”
www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November 2022 MAIN STORY 19

Romania needs better

infrastructure, more qualified
workforce, and better living
conditions outside big cities
Romania has attracted billions of euros in foreign direct investments over the
past three decades, and it has managed to close some of the gap that separates
it from the most developed countries in the EU. However, there is still a lot to
improve, especially in terms of infrastructure, education, healthcare, and digital
skills. And right now, there are plenty of opportunities arising in all sectors of
the country’s economy.
By Aurel Constantin

T
he second day of Business Review’s Foreign Investors
Summit started with a speech by Economy Minister Florin
Spataru, who explained that there were many things the
Romanian economy had to change in order to make use of all the
opportunities coming from European programmes and the associ‑
ated non-refundable financing. “The economy must enter a period
of transformation in order to become more sustainable, and we
need to take exceptional measures in order to boost ESG invest‑
ment. One of the solutions has to do with changing the way things
are done in the manufacturing industry. We have a EUR 300 million
programme to support the transition towards a more environmen‑
tally friendly industry, and I will fight to keep the programme going
until all the funds are used up,” the minister said. “Then there are
the measures being taken towards the development of a circular
economy. We have the minimis scheme and we also creating new
circular economy projects that we can get funding for. This is how
we can create a framework for the economy of the future, one that
is more sustainable,” he added. Next steps also include developing
strategies for mineral resources, for boosting the competitiveness
of the economic sector. “The government will have to make sure
that these strategies are followed and put into practice,” Spataru
concluded.
“Romania has grown into a major centre for mobile technology,
information security, and related hardware research. The country
has a well-earned global reputation for developing strong cadres of
computer science, technical, and engineering talent,” stated H.E.
Mr David Muniz, Charge d’Áffaires, Embassy of the United States
in Romania, explaining why our country was such an appropriate
host for the International Telecommunications Union Conference.
“However, Romania’s ICT sector is just one of the many industries
that have attracted US investors’ interest. Some of our most valu‑
able brands—from the defence, energy, automotive, pharmaceuti‑
cal, consumer products, healthcare, finance, and other sectors—are
supporting tens of thousands of jobs and have invested billions of
dollars on this market. As we salute the American Chamber of Com‑
merce’s 30th anniversary next year, we would highlight that the
number of its US and US-affiliated members have multiplied ten
times to over 500 members today. We can say with pride that our
commercial relationship is a critical component of the 25-year-old
US-Romania Strategic Partnership.”
But Muniz also admitted that not everything is great in Ro‑
mania. “The European Commission’s 2020 Country Report for
Romania pointed to persistent legislative instability, unpredict‑
able decision-making, low institutional capacity, and corruption
as factors eroding investor confidence. US companies are echoing
these concerns, along with shortfalls in energy and transportation
infrastructures that reduce operating efficiency and increase costs.
We urge the Romanian government to continue combatting corrup‑

20 MAIN STORY
Florin Marian Spataru,
Minister of Economy
The economy must enter a period of
transformation in order to become more
sustainable, and we need to take excep-
tional measures in order to boost ESG
investment. One of the solutions has to
do with changing the way things are done
in the manufacturing industry.
H.E. Mr. David Muniz, Charge d’Áffaires,
Embassy of USA in Romania
Romania’s ICT sector is just one of the
many industries that have attracted US
investors’ interest. Some of our most
valuable brands—from the defence,
energy, automotive, pharmaceutical,
consumer products, healthcare, finance,
and other sectors—are supporting tens
of thousands of jobs and have invested
billions of dollars on this market.
Perry V. Zizzi, Managing Partner
at Dentons Romania
We have been here for 25 years and we
represent a large number of clients, so we
have seen it all. The fact that Romania is a
member of the EU and NATO makes a big
difference to foreign investors, especially
now when we have tanks at our doorstep.
Mioara Iofciulescu, LL.M, EMBA
Managing Director at Atlantis Romania
I do believe that the workforce is Roma-
nia’s biggest asset. I think that US inves-
tors also see that. We are a country with
hard-working people, and we have proven
loyalty to our companies. Investors
coming here will find a beautiful country,
wonderful people, and plenty of business
resources.
Elisabeta Moraru, Country Manager
at Google Romania:
In the last five years we have done
projects to improve the digital skills of
more than half a million Romanians. That
is a huge opportunity because the digital
economy is the area where we are all
trying to succeed and I believe Romania
can play a more important role in this
environment.
Ramona Jurubita, Vice-President
of Foreign Investors Council | Country
Managing Partner at KPMG Romania
& Moldova
We’re seeing many problems in Romania
today, from the workforce shortage to
rising prices and the energy crisis, and we
must find ways to tackle these problems
and make sure that we can overcome
them. One answer is in investments,
specifically in US investments.
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Business Review | November 2022
tion, holding consultations with stakehold‑
ers, and conducting impact assessments
consistently before enacting legislation to
improve the overall business climate and to
strengthen its position among EU member
nations who also seek to attract US inves‑
tors,” he said.
Ramona Jurubita, Vice-President of the
Foreign Investors Council and Country
Managing Partner at KPMG Romania &
Moldova, took over from David Muniz and
explained that the panel would focus on
investments, but also on possible answers
to the crisis that we are experiencing today.
“We’re seeing many problems in Romania
today, from the workforce shortage to
rising prices and the energy crisis, and we
must find ways to tackle these problems
and make sure that we can overcome them.
One answer is in investments, specifically
in US investments,” she argued.
The information & technology sector is
one of the key components of the future
economy. Romania is lagging behind other
countries in terms of digital education,
and this may impact the way the future
is shaped. But while Romania as a nation
has some of the worst digital education
scores, a significant part of its workforce is
highly qualified in IT&C. Elisabeta Moraru,
Country Manager at Google Romania,
noted that Google employs more than 300
developers locally, who are responsible for
most of the development being carried out
for smart mobile devices. “In the last five
years we have done projects to improve
the digital skills of more than half a million
Romanians. That is a huge opportunity be‑
cause the digital economy is the area where
we are all trying to succeed and I believe
Romania, as a digital challenger, can play a
more important role in this environment.”
Teresa Shafer, Ph.D., Executive Dean for
Institutional Affairs at Tiffin University, an
institution that has been present in Roma‑
nia for 23 years now, talked about bringing
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Business Review | November 2022
the US’s applied education practices to
Romania. “What makes Romania unique
is the fact that there is an open mindset, a
strategic mindset among the leaders here,
who want the youth and the senior leaders
to think differently. Along with my respon‑
sibility of teaching and running part of our
programmes, I have the distinct pleasure of
working across our international campus‑
es. And we have some that have failed, in
countries that don’t have that open mind‑
set, that want to keep doing things the way
they always have. That doesn’t work, it
doesn’t bring value,” Shafer argued, add‑
ing that she sees new positive changes in
Romania every time she visits.
“I do believe that the workforce is
Romania’s biggest asset,” said Mioara Iof‑
ciulescu, LL.M EMBA, Managing Director
at Atlantis Romania, pointing out that the
high number of qualified young profes‑
sionals that are joining the workforce every
year is crucial. “I think that US inves‑
tors also see that. We are a country with
hard-working people, and we have proven
loyalty to our companies.”
Also on the topic of investments, Perry
V. Zizzi, Managing Partner at Dentons
Romania, pointed out that Romania was in
a good position, geopolitically speaking.
“We have been here for 25 years and we
represent a large number of clients, so we
have seen it all. The fact that Romania is a
member of the EU and NATO makes a big
difference to foreign investors, especially
now when we have tanks at our doorstep.
At this point, we are seeing a lot of interest
not only from tech investors, but also from
investors in green energy or agriculture
and clients who are engaged in military
procurement.”
ON THE LOOKOUT FOR NEW INVEST-
MENTS
The topic of the final panel of the 2022
Foreign Investors Summit was finding
MAIN STORY 21
the proper balance between tradition and
innovation for thriving businesses in the
years to come, with a focus on FDIs originat‑
ing from two of Romania’s most important
economic allies, Israel and Italy. “There are
many challenges regarding R&D in medtech,
and the most important one is financing,”
said Dr Elena Ovreiu, CEO & Co-founder of
H.E. Mr. Alfredo Durante Mangoni,
the BIOdyssey Health Innovation Hub and
Ambassador of Italy in Romania
Senior Lecturer at the Politehnica University Italian companies are operating in a
of Bucharest. “When I say that about financ‑ number of sectors here, and the problem
ing, I am referring to Romania. What I saw in is that a significant share of Romanian
workers are choosing to go abroad, where
Israel was universities producing dozens of
they can find better working conditions,
startups every year, many of which go global
public services, education, and health-
and are backed by research carried out inside care.
the universities. There are many innovation
tools available for startups, grants for profes‑
sors, and other types of grants for different
levels of innovation. There is also a great
amount of collaboration between universities
and hospitals, as you cannot have innovation
without the involvement of medical institu‑
H.E. Mr. Reuven Azar, Ambassador of
tions,” she explained.
Israel in Romania
The situation is different in the manufac‑ Two things are at the root of many
turing sector, represented in the panel by problems: permits and processing. We are
Matteo Baldan, Group Chief Financial Officer in a global crisis, which means there is
at Martelli Europe. “In the last two years, we less money available for investment, but
if you look deeper you’ll see that there is
have seen more onshoring of manufacturing
also more reluctance about going to the
and a big increase in demand, despite the stock exchange to find money.
fact that we’ve been seeing pessimism on the
market since February. We work only with
luxury and premium brands. The biggest
concern we have is finding local workforce
that has the ability to work with automation
and digitalization tools.”
Inflation and high energy prices will
definitely impact manufacturing, but the
Teresa Shafer, Ph.D. Executive Dean for
solutions lie in more efficient processes or
Institutional Affairs at Tiffin University
consumption cuts. “The most convenient What makes Romania unique is the fact
approach is to reduce consumption, but this that there is an open mindset, a strategic
is not always possible for industrial process‑ mindset among the leaders here, who
want the youth and the senior leaders to
es. Therefore, players should try to secure
think differently. I have been coming here
fixed prices for their energy supply. For the
since 2000 and I can say that there’s been
medium term, they should look at installing a lot of change over the past two decades.
PV panels in order to produce some of the
energy they need,” said Bogdan Asanache,

22 MAIN STORY
Matteo Baldan, Group Chief Financial
Officer at Martelli Europe
In the last two years, we have seen more
onshoring of manufacturing and a big
increase in demand, despite the fact that
we’ve been seeing pessimism on the
market since February.
Bogdan Asanache, Country Manager
at Econergy Balkan
The most convenient approach is to
reduce consumption, but this is not
always possible for industrial processes.
Therefore, players should try to secure
fixed prices for their energy supply. For
the medium term, they should look at
installing PV panels in order to produce
some of the energy they need.
Dr. Elena Ovreiu, CEO & Co-founder
BIOdyssey. Health Innovation
Hub - Senior Lecturer Politehnica
University of Bucharest
There are many challenges regarding
R&D in medtech, and the most important
one is financing. What I saw in Israel was
universities producing dozens of startups
every year, many of which go global and
are backed by research carried out inside
the universities.
Country Manager at Ecoenergy Balkan. He
added that there are some EU funds available
for green energy, but they are not easy to
access, so it may take a long time to get such
funds.
“There are two aspects that should be
highlighted. The first is the infrastructure
gap and the second is the scarcity of skilled
workforce. In terms of the infrastructure
gap, we are certain that Romania can catch
up rather quickly, but the lack of the skilled
workforce is causing a bigger concern,” said
H.E. Mr Alfredo Durante Mangoni, Ambas‑
sador of Italy in Romania. “Italian companies
are operating in a number of sectors here,
and the problem is that a significant share
of Romanian workers are choosing to go
abroad, where they can find better working
conditions, public services, education, and
healthcare. The biggest problem has to do
with living conditions in areas that are not
close to big cities,” he added.
H.E. Mr Reuven Azar, Ambassador of
Israel in Romania, also brought up two key
issues that Romania should address: permits
and processing. “We are in a global crisis,
which means there is less money available
for investment, but if you look deeper you’ll
Ana Maria Tepus Digital Entrepreneur
The world is becoming less global and
mentalities are getting more divided,
therefore all business links should be
strengthened. Furthermore, as supply
chain issues are causing headaches
across the board, it may be a perfect time
for Romania to step up.
www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November 2022
see that there is also more reluctance about
going to the stock exchange to find money.
Foreign investors are looking for assets,
including in real estate, and there is money
waiting to come in, but all of that hits a wall
due to the current issues around permits.
The second big issue has to do with pro‑
cessing: sometimes it is caused by a gap in
infrastructure, other times by an absence of
labs for food sampling, for example.”
One of the biggest areas of opportunity
for Romania is the agricultural sector,
which should be developed more ag‑
gressively. And even though the largest
farms in the country are already owned
by foreign entities, there is still plenty of
room left for FDIs. “Another major source
of opportunities is tourism, with many
Israelis now invading Romania, looking for
new holiday destinations that are not too
far from home. I saw some official statistics
that said Israelis were the most numerous
foreign visitors in Romania. This is some‑
thing that we can develop much further,
and we are already working on it,” Reuven
Azar noted.
Identifying the right measures to im‑
prove Romania’s business environment is
the most important thing authorities can
do right now. “I think the education system
should be reformed and that we should see
a better link between the school system
and the labour market. At the same time,
we should try to attract European funds
for smart projects in manufacturing and
renewable energy. Great importance should
also be placed on key infrastructure, its
development across large territories of the
country, as it would significantly boost
the modernisation of these areas. Italian
companies are currently based around
Timisoara, Cluj, and Bucharest; we have an
ongoing project at the embassy to assess
other high-potential areas in Romania in
order to generate a new wave of Italian
investments,” Alfredo Durante Mangoni
concluded.
 www.business-review.eu
24 INTERVIEW Business Review | November 2022

Mihail Raduta, Accion Labs: Tech

and innovation are part of our DNA
With over 15 years of experience
as an executive in the Roma-
nian IT industry, Mihail Raduta,
Country Manager at Accion Labs
Romania, sat down with Busi-
ness Review to talk about the
company’s recent entry on the
Romanian market.
By Mihai Cristea

You have recently launched operations in
our country, so to kick off our discussion
please tell us: what is Accion Labs, why
Romania, and what are your company’s
core values?
Accion Labs is a a cloud and digital trans‑
formation services company that supports
business development through emerging
products and technologies. Our new centres
in Romania will be integrated into Accion’s
global offering and will focus on all areas of
Accion’s services offering to customers in
North America and Europe.
Our core values are Innovation - striving
to do things differently to achieve improved
results and create a culture of creativity and
innovation, Value Creation – enhancing our
brand value with the support of our custom‑
ers, employees, and investors Empathy and
Respect - creating an environment that fosters
collaboration, honesty, trust, and wellbeing,
and Result Oriented – having a sense of own‑
ership, problem solving, better productivity,
and focus on outcomes.
What can you tell us about your plans in
Romania?
In the short-term, we want to launch the
centre with the core Management team and
other team members in Q3 2022 and to build a
centre of 100+ people in the first half of 2023.
Then, we plan to build an Extended Develop‑
ment Centre focusing on Cloud and Digital
Engineering services for a select group of
customers. As for the mid and long-term, say
in the next 2-3 years, we want to build on the
foundation to enlarge the development centre
and serve as the hub for Accion’s delivery ca‑
pability expansion in the Central and Eastern
European regions.
We expect the Romania operation to be a
significant part of Accion Labs’s global expan‑
sion strategy, mainly focused on Europe and
the US markets.
What are the main areas in which the Ac-
cion Labs technologies stand out?
Among the areas in which Accion Labs has
demonstrated its expertise at a global level,
we can mention the healthcare system,
artificial intelligence and machine learn‑
ing, human computer interaction, and data
analytics.
One of the largest financial and admin‑
istrative healthcare networks in the United
States wanted to consolidate data from
multiple business units into a company-wide
consolidated Data Warehouse for their Busi‑
ness Intelligence applications. Accion Labs
built a Data Warehouse and consolidated data
from multiple business units within the com‑
pany to enable consistent reporting of KPI
metrics. The client built multiple Business
Intelligence applications that read data from
this Data Warehouse, resulting in improved
decision-making through actionable insights.
Accion engagement has also helped a tech
company build a next-gen analytics platform
that delivers better business outcomes with
insightful data based on accurate predictive
modelling. We achieved 5x performance im‑
provements by re-engineering the entire data
lake to the analytical engine pipeline. Also,
the highly concurrent, elastic, non-blocking,
and asynchronous architecture we designed
reduced runtime to around 8 hours, from 30
hours previously while processing 4.6 billion
events.
One of the world’s most successful global
asset management software companies was
facing a problem of data flooding that was
generating chaos across its technology infra‑
structure. Accion engaged with this company
to plan and implement their unique digital
journey. The kick-off to the discussions
happened with the scheduling of extensive
deep-dive sessions wherein Accion engineers
highlighted the problems with Relational Da‑
tabase Management Systems, citing that over
the years, RDBMS has been the first choice
for most organisations to manage their data
storage, but the fast-growing volumes of data
have made it imperative for companies to
build more robust data management systems
that are able to handle the load. In this com‑
pany’s case, the limited capability to integrate
unstructured data from smart devices was
choking up the system and needed a major
overhaul.

26 INTERVIEW
Double-digit growth for Nestlé Romania in 2022
With an 11.1 percent growth of its local business, supported by a double-digit expansion
on 7 of its 9 divisions, Nestlé Romania aims to double its operations over the next 5 to
10 years. Silvia Sticlea, Country Manager at Nestlé Romania, talked to Business Review
about the company’s financial performance both locally and globally.
By Anda Sebesi
Earlier this year, Nestlé Global announced
its financial results for the first nine
months of 2022, reporting significant or-
ganic growth. What were the main drivers
of these results?
For the first nine months of 2022, at the Group
level, Nestlé saw an organic growth of 8.5
percent, with real internal growth (RIG) stay‑
ing resilient at 1 percent and pricing surging
by 7.5 percent.
In the Europe Zone, organic growth
reached 7.1 percent, with pricing account‑
ing for 5.7 percent. RIG was resilient at 1.5
percent, following a high base of comparison
in 2021 along with supply chain constraints.
Foreign exchange negatively impacted sales
by 7.5 percent, reflecting the appreciation of
the Swiss franc against the Euro. The Zone
saw market share gains in coffee, Infant Nutri‑
tion, and plant-based food.
By product category, the key growth driver
was PURINA PetCare, fueled by premium
brands Gourmet, PURINA ONE, and PURINA
Pro Plan. Sales in Nestlé Professional grew
at a strong double-digit rate, led by bever‑
ages. Water posted double-digit growth, with
strong contributions from international and
local brands. Sales in Infant Nutrition also
grew at a double-digit rate, based on strong
momentum for human milk oligosaccharides
(HMOs) products. Confectionery reported
mid-single-digit growth, with strong demand
for KitKat and seasonal offerings. In the third
quarter, our vegan KitKat V was rolled out
across 15 European countries. Coffee posted
low single-digit growth, led by NESCAFÉ
soluble coffee, and continued strong sales
developments for Starbucks by Nespresso.
Culinary reported a sales decrease, impacted
by negative growth in pizza and noodles. Gar‑
den Gourmet plant-based products continued
to see strong double-digit growth, reflecting
new product launches.
What can you tell us about Nestlé Roma-
nia’s results in the first nine months of
this year?
Nestlé Romania finished the first nine months
of the year with a growth of 11.1 percent,
supported by a double-digit evolution in 7 of
www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November 2022
our 9 divisions, including Infant Nutrition,
Pet Food, Nespresso, Nestlé Health Science,
and Coffee. We expect the good overall per‑
formance to continue until the end of 2022.
Solidarity with society and its current needs
is important to us, and the products donated
by Nestlé Romania since the beginning of the
year have exceed CHF 600,000 and 90 tonnes
of food and beverages. In a period character‑
ised by frequent changes, I am glad to lead a
united, strong, and ambitious team, which
has demonstrated flexibility and adaptabil‑
ity to further develop a business that brings
beloved products into the homes of Roma‑
nian families. Through all of our projects, we
reconfirm our commitment to improving the
quality of life and contributing to the well-
being of society at large.
In the third quarter, the OptiXpress brand
entered Nestlé's portfolio and launched the
Nestlé LITTLE STEPS® 3 range for young
children in cardboard packaging designed
for recycling and spoon dispensers made of
at least 95 percent cane plastic, a renewable
resource. On the packaging of JOE Mini, JOE
Good Day, JOE Dreams, JOE Original Bar,
and JOE Noir Bar, you can already find the
Rainforrest Alliance and Cocoa Plan symbols.
Nestlé communicates the “100 percent cocoa
from sustainable sources” message on 34
percent of its Sweets portfolio.
What are your expectations for the evolu-
tion of the Nestlé Group this year from
a financial perspective, both locally and
globally?
At the Group level, we expect organic sales
growth of around 8 percent. The underlying
trading operating profit margin is expected
around 17 percent. Underlying earnings per
share in constant currency and capital ef‑
ficiency are expected to increase. In Romania,
we estimate a double-digit growth, upholding
the year to date trend.
 www.business-review.eu
28 CONSTRUCTION Business Review | November 2022

Going beyond the details

After almost a decade of operating in Romania, BTDConstruct & Ambient is one of the top 10
construction companies on the local market, according to IBCfocus. Along with its tailored
construction management strategies, BTDConstruct & Ambient is working towards becoming
a full-service provider by integrating new lines of business. The company’s Head of Business
Development, Razvan Parvulescu, sat down with Business Review to talk about the company’s
plans for the coming years.
By Anda Sebesi
ielopolu, Dimri Residence, Promenada Mall
(the underground structure of the extension),
Up-site by Atenor, and Medicover Hospital.
At this time, we have contracts totalling more
than EUR 150 million. Other major proj‑
ects that have been completed by our team
include Win Herastrau, Luxuria Domenii
Residence, The Ivy, Gran Via Park, C-entral
Residential, H Victoriei 109, H Pipera Lake,
Ibis Styles Bucharest City Center, and many
more. The projects we have contracted for the
coming year are mainly based on sustain‑
ability and energy efficiency solutions, with
a total of 8 major projects with completion
dates spanning over the next 1-2 years.

What is the added value that BTD brings to

What is the story behind BTD and how has
the company developed since its establish-
ment?
Our company’s story began with a small team
of professionals who, back in 2013, set out on
a journey to build a general contractor firm
that would make a difference on the country’s
dynamic and ever-changing real estate mar‑
ket. The initial team soon grew into a group
of experienced innovators in the field of civil
engineering, architecture, interior design, and
project management, all of whom shared a
strong sense of business ethics and a desire to
always work in the client’s best interest.
Since the beginning, we’ve been feeding into
the motivation to push beyond the limits of
our plans and develop creative solutions.
From the sketch stage to the moment of
handing over our construction projects, we’ve
upheld our core vision of going beyond the
details. Over the years, we have managed to
make our mark on some of the most impor‑
tant and impressive residential projects on
the market, and now, after almost 10 years
of operations—which we will celebrate next
year—, we are one of the top 10 construction
companies in Romania, according to the inde‑
pendent ranking released by IBCfocus.
If we were to look at the financial side, in
2016, with 17 employees, we had a turnover
of over RON 25 million and a profit that was
close to RON 3 million. The company has
grown every year, so in 2021 we had a turn‑
over of RON 304 million, a profit exceeding
RON 11 million, and a team of 103 profession‑
als.
What are some of the main projects BTD
has developed and implemented?
Our company has multiple projects un‑
derway, including Liziera de Lac, Vulcan
Residence, Stejarii Residential Club II, Dan‑
each of its projects?
Our most important and reliable asset is our
team. With the experience and ambition to
build using innovative solutions and modern
technologies, we have the ability to create
tailored construction management strategies
that can be measured in terms of costs and
time savings, risk reduction, and quality en‑
hancement. The value we add to each project
is bolstered by innovative services that make
for more creative solutions rather than chal‑
lenges and our team is the key essential here.
The strength of our company lies in the
quality of our work, which is made possible
by our team of professionals who are trained
to carry out highly complex tasks in a timely
manner while adhering to the highest quality
standards. With this vision in mind, we have
brought together professionals with an aver‑
age of over 19 years of experience in this field.
We work closely with specialised partners in
areas like technical construction consulting
or health and safety. Together, we can assist
 www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November
May 2016 2022
those who request our services in all stages
of their project, from the design phase to
construction and operation.
What can you tell us about the digitaliza-
tion of the construction industry and what
are the main benefits for this sector?
The term “brick and mortar” is already
outdated. The digital age is here, the digital
push is accelerating, and the race is tight. The
industry is quickly embracing new technolo‑
gies, from automation to Building Informa‑
tion Modelling (BIM) and analytics tools,
encouraged by the current economic con‑
text—but that’s not the only reason. This race
forces companies to assess their competitive‑
ness and market position more broadly.
A major upgrade is the use of common
data environments and BIM by companies to
deliver projects faster and more efficiently.
This is a major change from 10-15 years ago,
when teams would gather near the end of the
month and review how they were tracking
projects using spreadsheets and paper forms.
Technology now allows company manag‑
ers to better understand the production
process and whether it is economically ef‑
ficient, as well as the regional characteristics
of markets and customer requirements. All
these digital benefits result in streamlined
processes and improved customer experi‑
ence.
How important is digitalization for BTD?
Digitalization is one of our top priorities
and a key factor in the modernisation of the
whole local industry. This is exactly why our
company has accelerated its digital transfor‑
mation across all business areas since last
year to ensure high efficiency and flexibility,
allowing us to react more rapidly to new
market conditions. Simultaneously, the
team at BTDConstruct & Ambient is focused
on operational optimisation and improved
planning of construction phases, without
compromising on the quality of the work.
What can you tell us about sustainability
within BTD and how the company ap-
proaches this topic?
In recent years, it has become clearer that
sustainable projects will occupy the spec‑
trum of new buildings. We have been strong
supporters of the industry's move toward
resource efficiency. One positive aspect is
that the need for sustainability is being bet‑
ter acknowledged in general, not just in our
country’s construction industry. For example,
all the developers with whom we are working
have implemented nZEB standards and have
included sustainability elements into their
projects, and BTD has integrated them in all
phases of construction. Recently, there has
been a lot of progress in the construction
sector along these lines, but the transition
process is complex and changing practices
will take time. However, a paradigm shift in
real estate development—from the focus on
construction costs to the lifecycle or sus‑
tainability of a building over time—is also
essential. Moreover, the concepts of sustain‑
ability and energy efficiency must first and
foremost be embraced by real estate develop‑
ers and included in the projects they intend
to develop. We are optimistic that we will
soon begin to see the industrialisation of the
construction sector (to include prefabrication
and integrated systems), which will lead to a
higher level of optimisation.
What are the most important sustainable
initiatives the company has implemented
so far?
We rely on sustainable development solu‑
tions and on the continuous improvement
of our products and services, an asset that
allows us to offer our customers alterna‑
CONSTRUCTION
COVER STORY 29
14
tive methods that not only solve an existing
problem, but also anticipate future needs.
Our company encourages sustainable and
efficient development and respect for the
environment, our customers, suppliers, and
employees and it pays particular attention to
risk prevention, health, and safety at work.
Our sustainable development solutions in‑
volve close collaboration between stakehold‑
ers so that the construction’s impact on the
environment is minimised. We were among
the first companies to integrate sustainable
solutions such as thermal insulation, waste
management, and enhanced practices to
reduce the construction site's impact on the
surrounding community. More precisely, last
year we recycled over 2,000 tonnes of waste,
we implemented special noise control and
anti-dust discharge panelling in construc‑
tion sites where the landscape allowed, we
acquired new, state-of-the-art construction
machinery, and we are constantly striving to
use more sustainable construction materials.
What are your plans for 2023?
Development plans for the next few years
are based on the same orientation towards
sustainable and energy-efficient projects, as
our objective is to strengthen our position in
the industry as a quality and detail-oriented
general contractor and builder. We are also
working towards becoming a full-service pro‑
vider by integrating new lines of business.
 www.business-review.eu
30 ENTREPRENEURSHIP Business Review | November 2022

Romania preparing new startup

legislation to boost entrepreneurship
While the European Union has put forward the Startup Nations Standard of Excellence
in a bid to boost the creation of entrepreneurial firms, Romania is working on its own
legislation that aims to support newly founded firms that are proposing innovative
products and services.
By Ovidiu Posirca

The executive arm of the EU has already proposed a common approach for the startup sector, covering
aspects ranging from legislation to access to finance and diversity

T
he need to overhaul the legislation
around startups has been highlighted
by Sebastian Burduja, the minister of
Research, Innovation, and Digitalization.
“Our legislation is 32 years old. I support
a new law for commercial entities; I know
it’s a ‘Pandora's Box,’ I know many say it’s
impossible, but our aim should be to create a
new type of commercial entity for innovative
startups. They will have much more flexibili‑
ty and will be able to experience much higher
growth here, in Romania. This is an impor‑
tant item on our list of goals. And we will
need your help, because we are going to have
endless discussions in Parliament, with com‑
mercial lawyers, banks, and other entities,”
said the minister during the Investors’ Day
event organised by Techcelerator. Burduja
further quoted World Bank data which shows
that Romania has plenty of startups, but that
many of them get shut down rather quickly
compared to those in other countries.
“Specialists have told us to find a way to
finance them. Look at what they have done
in Israel, in Silicon Valley, look at Ireland and
many other countries. And I came up with
this idea of the Romanian Innovation Fund,
a ‘fund matching’ initiative through which
the government will match the financing of
private investors—both VCs and angels. The
selection will be made using private sector
criteria and methodologies. The state will
finance this instrument, but it will interfere
as little and as efficiently as possible,” the
minister added. The European Commission,
the executive arm of the EU, has already
proposed a common approach for the startup
sector, covering aspects ranging from legisla‑
tion to access to finance and diversity. We
have many programmes supporting general‑
ist startups and some initiatives targeted to‑
wards tech startups, but we are still followers
instead of leaders in this regard, according to
Ionut Tata, CEO of Iceberg Plus.
”Legislation should represent the transla‑
tion of public policy into reality, therefore I
would be glad if, at a policy level, we could
agree to turn tech startups into a priority
 www.business-review.eu
November
Business Review | May 2016 2022
and not just adopt FOMO-type measures.
Let’s not pass laws only to add bureaucratic
hurdles to the already complicated life of
Romanian startups,” Tata told BR.
OPENING A STARTUP SHOULDN’T COST
MORE THAN EUR 100
The EU’s Startup Nations Standard of Excel‑
lence declaration states that across member
states, an entrepreneur should be able to
establish a startup (legal entity) both online
and offline, within one day, for a fee of no
more than EUR 100. The EU is also proposing
that each member state open a helpdesk that
can support startups and scaleups from other
European countries that may want to
enter its market.
“All day-to-day interac‑
tions between startups
and authorities (such as
company creation, filing
of taxes, participation
in public procurement
opportunities, electronic
ID and digital signatures)
are designed to be carried
out in a digital first manner,”
according to the declaration.
Marius Ghenea, managing partner
at Catalyst Romania, points out that Romania
is relatively advanced in terms of implement‑
ing some EU regulations tailored for startup
support, such as the ECSP (Equity Crowd‑
funding Service Provider) legislation. The law
was adopted by the Romanian Parliament a
few months ago and the first providers are
currently undergoing the approval process.
Following that, they will be able to passport
the authorisation issued by the Romanian
FSA (Financial Supervisory Authority) to
any other EU country. This will be useful in
matching startups in Central and Eastern
Europe (CEE) with providers of capital in
Western Europe. At the same time, Ghenea
suggests that passing a single startup law in
Romania would not necessarily represent the
silver bullet in fostering the growth of the
local ecosystem.
“The problems that startups face are
complex, starting with financing needs where
the crowdfunding law could help, but we
need to continue with public policies that
also involve public funding, especially in
the form of grants, particularly for research,
development, and innovation. Furthermore,
bureaucracy needs to be eliminated or at
least reduced for startups, and there should
be more entrepreneurial education, mentor‑
ing, and other forms of support for startups,”
the Catalyst Romania managing partner tells
BR. Better policy and education are needed
in Romania to encourage the launch of new
businesses, according to the Global Entre‑
preneurship Monitor. Established Business
Ownership (EBO) in the country remains low
(4.1 percent), although the economy has a
relatively strong early-stage entrepreneurial
activity despite the pandemic. The report’s
authors point out that if more
new businesses
could
grow into
the established
phase and have highly visible
success, then confidence might gradually
increase among the general population, fos‑
tering a stronger entrepreneurial culture and
ecosystem in Romania.
“Policies that help new businesses grow
and establish themselves will be particularly
valuable, such as tax incentives for invest‑
ments and hiring or matching grants that can
persuade lenders to increase their entre‑
preneurial portfolio,” authors of the Global
Entrepreneurship Monitor add.
EUR 2.4 BILLION IN FUNDING FOR ROMA-
NIAN STARTUPS BY 2030
The adoption of a new startup law is part
of Romania’s bigger ambition to become
a hub for entrepreneurial companies. The
research minister noted that that up to RON
12 billion (around EUR 2.4 billion) in funding
will target emerging companies in Roma‑
nia until 2030 under the National Plan for
Research, Development, and Innovation.
Additional funds can be unlocked through
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
COVER STORY 14
31
the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience
(PNRR) and the Operational Programme
for Intelligent Growth, Digitalization, and
Financial Instruments (POCIDIF). Asked
about more advanced startup-related regula‑
tory frameworks that could serve as models
for Romania, Ghenea notes that the UK and
Estonia are among the top achievers in this
field. He points out that we have seen better
cooperation between Romania and Estonia
lately, both in terms of private business
projects expanding from Estonia to Romania
or the development of various joint business
concepts. Estonia has already had 10 startups
reach unicorn status, with valuations of more
than USD 1 billion, while only one startup
with Romanian roots has ever
reached the same level, namely
UiPath, which is now a pub‑
lic company.
The Startup Estonia
government agency acts
as a one stop shop for
entrepreneurs, provid‑
ing an online platform
where they can find all the
documents and informa‑
tion they need to start a firm
in the country. A company can be
founded in Estonia in just 15 minutes, while
taxes can be done in just 3 minutes through
e-government solutions. The Romanian min‑
ister did not mention Estonia as a model for
the new local legislation for startups, but the
best practices mentioned in the EU Startup
Nations Standard of Excellence could also
serve as a development model.
As the EU aims to reach autonomy in
strategic industries, ranging from energy
to battery and chip production, innovative
startups are needed to generate the Union’s
economic growth in the coming decade. The
stakes are especially high as Europe is com‑
mitted to becoming the first carbon-neutral
continent by 2050. "Germany, for example,
recently announced a EUR 30 billion public
fund to support technology-focused startups,
and that is the kind of bold move that I would
love to see in Romania as well. We won’t be
able to compete with 300 million, which is
the amount we might have available for the
same purpose under current Romanian policy
instruments," concluded Iceberg Plus' CEO.
 www.business-review.eu
32 MACROECONOMY Business Review | November 2022

Italian investment community

supporting Romania’s OECD accession
With the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) having
initiated accession negotiations with Romania at the beginning of this year, the Italian
Embassy in Bucharest held a special workshop on the Anti-Bribery Convention, which
is a critical instrument in the country’s efforts to become an OECD member and build a
transparent trade and investment environment.
By Ovidiu Posirca

Romania could be accepted in the OECD in the next 2-3 years

T
he workshop, jointly organised with
the Romanian Justice Ministry, was
attended by high-ranking officials in
both countries.
“Today's event proved useful in explain‑
ing to practitioners, magistrates, lawyers, and
people dealing with corporate compliance
programmes about the effectiveness of the
OECD Convention in preventing and fighting
foreign bribery. Romania has already taken
some important steps in this regard,” Alfredo
Durante Mangoni, the Ambassador of Italy in
Romania, told BR. He added that the event
was also aimed at sharing Italy’s experience
in terms of corporate criminal liability in the
context of the Anti-Bribery Convention.
As for Romania’s ongoing negotiations to
join the OECD, the ambassador pointed out
that the country must respond to different
standards and benchmarks that are estab‑
lished within each of the 26 technical com‑
mittees that are called to issue their opinion
on Romania.
“As far as Italian companies are con‑
cerned, we would of course be very pleased
to see that Romania adopts and implements
the same integrity, anti-corruption, account‑
ability, and good governance practices, all
of which also have an impact on securing
foreign investments,” the ambassador added.
Mangoni went on to explain that Ro‑
manian companies—be they private or
state-owned—that go abroad to carry out
international trade and investment must act
in compliance with the Anti-Bribery Conven‑
tion.
According to Antonio Gullo, professor of
criminal law at the LUISS Guido Carli Uni‑
versity in Rome, the conference was a great
opportunity for the two countries to share
experiences in the field of anti-corruption,
which is key in the general strategy to fight
economic crimes. Efforts to combat corrup‑
tion are already supported by Romania’s
European Union membership, which brings
important rule of law benchmarks.
“I would just highlight one, namely the
whistleblower protection policy, also a cru‑
 www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November
May 2016 2022
cial element in the fight against corruption. I
believe that many synergies can be exploited
in terms of implementing both EU law and
OECD standards,” Mangoni argued.
ROMANIA COULD JOIN THE OECD BY 2025
OECD accession has been one of Romania’s
foreign policy objectives since 2004, when
it first applied for membership. The Foreign
Affairs Ministry (MAE) points out that the
country “could join the OECD in the medium-
term” as it has a “generally favourable assess‑
ment” from the organisation, which cur‑
rently counts 38 members including states in
Central and Eastern Europe such as Poland,
the Czech Republic, and Hungary.
Lorenzo Salazar, Vice-Chair of the OECD
Working Group on international bribery, told
BR that Romania could become a full mem‑
ber of the OECD by mid-2025 if it gets the
approval of all technical committees.
“Once you will have fulfilled all the obliga‑
tions and effectively implemented the OECD
convention against bribery, I believe it will be
in the interest of not only Romania, but also
the OECD to receive you as a new party in the
organisation,” Salazar said.
The OECD Anti-Bribery Convention estab‑
lishes legally binding standards to criminalise
bribery of foreign public officials in interna‑
tional business transactions and provides
a host of related measures that make this
effective. It is the first and only international
anti-corruption instrument focused on the
“supply side” of the bribery transaction,
according to a description provided by the
organisation. Asked if OECD accession would
help Romania attract more foreign invest‑
ment, the Italian ambassador pointed out
that it could enhance the country’s business
relations with non-EU states.
HOW ROMANIA COULD BENEFIT FROM
JOINING THE OECD
The MAE points out that as an OECD mem‑
ber, Romania would be acknowledged as a
functional market-based economy and a con‑
solidated democracy, which would positively
impact the country’s rating and its ability to
attract foreign investment.
Romania will also benefit from support
regarding public policies from OECD member
states through periodic evaluations of the
country’s policies in specific domains (peer
MACROECONOMY
COVER STORY 33
14
review) and the proposal of recommenda‑
tions for their improvement. Currently,
Romania participates as a member or associ‑
ate in 22 committees (procedures are ongoing
for another 3), and as a guest in more than
40. The country has also adhered to 54 OECD
legal instruments and has applied for adher‑
ence to 12 others. “The fight against corrup‑
tion is a crucial challenge for the interna‑
tional community, and it cannot be overcome
without the active participation of societ‑
ies in partnership with the public sector,”
professor Gullo argued during the workshop,
according to a press statement. “On the road
to ensuring a level playing field, the integrity
of society will also be achieved through the
implementation of effective strategies to
combat economic crime. Italy has devel‑
oped an internationally acclaimed model of
criminal liability for legal persons, with the
aim of involving legal persons in the joint
management of corruption risks through the
adoption of compliance programmes.”

34 INTERVIEW
A longstanding commitment to a greener future
Coca-Cola HBC Romania started
publishing sustainability reports
before they became mandatory.
Business Review sat down with
Alice Nichita, Corporate Affairs
& Sustainability Director, to talk
about the actions the company
is taking as a result of its com-
mitment to a sustainable future.
By Anda Sebesi
What are the main issues being brought to
light by the 8th edition of Coca-Cola HBC
Romania’s sustainability report?
Our 2021 Sustainability Report shows the
concrete steps we have taken in key areas,
such as reducing resource consumption and
CO2 emissions, responsible packaging, sup‑
porting people and communities. Above all,
the report stands as proof of our commitment
to leaving a better world #AfterUs. This is our
eighth sustainability report, as we started
reporting on this topic before the European
directive made it mandatory.
To summarise our progress, we have
managed to reduce water intensity in the pro‑
duction process by more than 6 % compared
to 2017. We have reduced carbon emissions
from direct operations by switching to 100
percent clean and renewable electricity
and by using rPET in our packaging. We’ve
replaced coolers supplied to customers with
energy-efficient ones, reaching 42 % energy-
efficient coolers in 2021. We continue to invest
in training and development for our people
and to provide equal opportunities for all of
them, in an inclusive work environment.
In 2021, through our After Us platform,
we continued to support vulnerable groups
and youth, with our programmes reaching
over 8,000 beneficiaries. We got over 15,000
consumers involved in our public awareness
campaigns, which were aimed at correctly
separating and collecting recyclable waste.
Moreover, through the Big Belly network of
smart containers we installed in Bucharest,
we supported the collection of 34 tons of
recyclable waste.
Coca-Cola HBC obtained the Alliance for
Water Stewardship certification for all its
production facilities in Romania, beco-
ming the sole beverage manufacturer on
the local market to hold this type of certifi-
cation. What does it mean for the company,
its consumers, and the local economy?
Water is the main ingredient in our drinks,
and access to water is fundamental in our
production activity. At the same time, it is a
vital resource for communities. We therefore
carefully monitor consumption, and our
strategy sets clear targets for reducing water
consumption and treating wastewater in our
production processes. The AWS certification
confirms our commitment to responsible wa‑
ter use and motivates us to further invest and
innovate, attaining better results every year.
Last year, Coca-Cola HBC adopted a Net
Zero target by 2040, which refers to carbon
emissions across its entire value chain.
What are the key measures the company
will take, both in Romania and elsewhere,
to achieve this goal?
In 2021, the Group made a commitment to re‑
duce emissions across its entire value chain to
net zero by 2040. It is the final destination of
a journey that started many years ago. At the
group level as well as locally, we are imple‑
menting a series of initiatives that will help us
meet our ambitious target. In Romania, these
www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November 2022
include increased use of rPET, with lower
carbon emissions, taking important steps
towards a circular approach, switching to
100 percent clean and renewable electricity,
providing our customers with energy efficient
coolers, and transitioning to transport solu‑
tions with reduced or zero carbon emissions
through our "Green Fleet" programme.
Only by working together with customers,
partners, suppliers, authorities, and local
communities can we have a greater impact
and contribute to a better world.
What can you tell us about the innova-
tions brought by Coca-Cola HBC in terms of
the green packaging of its portfolio of soft
drinks in Romania?
All our packages are 100 percent recyclable
and 20 percent of our PET portfolio, repre‑
senting the entire mineral water portfolio, is
bottled in rPET. Moreover, in 2021, we intro‑
duced KeelClip™, an innovative, minimalist
paperboard packaging solution to replace
plastic wrap on our multipack cans with
recyclable, biodegradable cardboard. We are
currently making an investment of over EUR
10 million in our Ploiesti plant, which will
allow us to become the first local soft drinks
company to produce rPET in-house and will
support our ambition to expand our rPET
packaging portfolio. In addition, as the leader
of the soft drinks industry, we are offering our
full support for the successful implementa‑
tion of the Deposit-Return System, the bi-
ggest circular economy project in Romania.
 www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November
May 2016 2022
Headless commerce approach accelerates
evolution of digital commerce
What is headless commerce and how does
it change digital commerce?
From a purely technical standpoint, headless
commerce is the separation of the front-end
(what users see) from the back-end (what
store admins see). From a business perspec‑
tive, being able to manage the customer-
facing aspects of the brand separately from
the technology behind them creates multiple
opportunities. It allows brands to create
and integrate a wide range of shopping
experiences without the fear of disrupting
the transactional aspects of their business.
Moreover, headless commerce is an approach
that accelerates the evolution of digital com‑
merce, as it allows retailers to integrate the
latest available technologies without making
massive changes to their infrastructure or
business logic. For a webstore, headless
commerce is not just a new technology; it
is a strong business strategy that can help it
attract new customers and grow rapidly on a
competitive market. It is the freedom to adapt
to an ever-growing market.
What functionalities will the online store
of the future have?
The rise of headless means that the future
will not be about what online stores want to
create, but about what customers expect to
see. In other words, the stores of the future
will have to be everywhere the shopper is.
If the shopper prefers video content, then
Live Shopping should be the standard. If
most of their activity is on social networks,
then social commerce should be integrated.
It’s that easy. Furthermore, it’s worth noting
that traditional and online retail will merge,
and we will most likely only be talking about
retail. This means that omnichannel delivery
will become the new normal.
Additionally, we believe that areas such
as B2B will continue to grow and that these
B2B stores are going to quickly outgrow the
traditional limitations of their market: they
will enhance the user experience, offering
subscriptions and turning their websites into
educational hubs for their business custom‑
ers.
How will live shopping impact online
sales? Are companies interested in adopt-
ing the live shopping solution?
If we were to look at China, where the live
shopping craze started, we would see that
the websites that implemented it correctly
saw consistent growth in both conversion
and retention rates. For instance, whereas a
traditional webstore has an average conver‑
sion rate of anywhere between 1.5 and 2.5
percent, the conversion rate of a website that
sells through live shopping may vary between
DIGITAL
COVER
COMMERCE
STORY 14
35
Business Review sat down for
an exclusive interview with
Cristi Movila, Eastern Europe
General Manager at VTEX, to
talk about how headless com-
merce is set to change digital
commerce, the future of on-
line stores, live shopping and
its impact on online sales, and
the e-commerce industry as a
whole.
By Mihai Cristea
15 and 30 percent on average, according to a
study conducted by Gartner, KPMG, and Ali‑
baba. Obviously, this applies to websites with
constant live shopping programmes, whose
buyers are coming back for the content as
much as they do for the products. While we
haven’t seen rates this high in Europe, almost
70 percent of customers say that they expect
companies to communicate with them in real
time, according to Salesforce. This means that
live shopping is here to stay.
How would you describe the evolution of
B2B ecommerce?
B2B ecommerce is exploding on the local
market. Until recently, B2B products were
mostly sold by phone or via email, but nowa‑
days the online segment is getting stronger,
as more and more stores or marketplaces are
being launched in the Romanian online envi‑
ronment. The B2B niche has started to adopt
modern e-commerce technologies, from inte‑
grated marketplaces to omnichannel delivery
and even live shopping. A good example of
this is Macromex, one of our clients, whose
digital business yields great results, even
though it is a rather recent development.
This is in part due to the implementation of
cutting-edge technology, but also to excellent
segmentation and the company’s great efforts
of educating the market.

36 INVESTMENTS
Enthusiasm gives way to caution among
tech investors in second half of 2022
A relative decline in seed rounds can also be observed
R
omanian venture funding for the
third and fourth quarters of 2022
continues to decline, gliding to its
lowest level in nearly four years as early-stage
investment shows clear signs of prudence.
We find that only two or three tech startups
managed to attract funding of over 1 million
euros in the second part of the year. In con‑
trast, in Q1 and Q2 2021, more than ten tech
companies raised funding of 1-2 million euros.
Yarooms is one of the Romanian IT startups
that managed to get significant financing,
raising EUR 2 million. The SaaS (software-as-
a-service) startup creates office work manage‑
ment software and offers solutions for office
and meeting room booking, hybrid work
planning, and digital signage. The investment
round was led by GapMinder and also had the
participation of SeedBlink.
"Macroeconomic events, the outbreak
of the war in Ukraine, inflation, and rising
energy prices have influenced the general
sentiment among investors. The figures for
the third and fourth quarters of 2022 reflect
the reality of the entire tech ecosystem. Tech
solutions are attracting interest and there
is an appetite from the market and inves‑
tors because they are at the heart of the
development of all economic sectors today.
The third quarter shows a return on invest‑
ment intention, but not at the same level as
in the first quarter of 2022. A possible cause
of these developments may be the decrease
in the number of new startups entering the
Minimum Viable Product stage. A relative
decline in seed rounds can also be observed,
alongside an increase in the number of series
A rounds," says Malin-Iulian Stefanescu,
President of TechAngels.
This downward trend for Romanian
venture funding in the past quarter falls in
line with global and European trends. For
example, early-stage funding declined by
more than 40 percent quarter over quarter
and year over year, according to Crunchbase.
This signals that European venture capital
firms have scaled back their investment pace
due to the global economic downturn. The
most noteworthy change in European venture
in the third quarter was seen in early-stage
funding, which sank below USD 5 billion for
the first time since the start of 2021.
Equally large sums are more accessible to‑
day through European grants coming directly
www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November 2022
After the enthusiasm around
tech financing during the
first few months of 2022, the
last two quarters have been
defined by caution. Over half
of all investors have either
postponed their planned
investments or stopped them
altogether.
By Claudiu Vrinceanu
from Brussels in the order of millions of eu‑
ros. Romanian IT startup Amsimcel attracted
mixed financing of EUR 4.8 million through
the European Innovation Council (EIC) ac‑
celerator. Amsimcel is a Romanian deep-tech
technology startup developing a platform for
verifying state-of-the-art chips.
Another venture that stood out was OxidO,
a deep-tech company in the automotive in‑
dustry, which finalised its first round of seed
investments totalling EUR 1.2 million.
At a lower level, there have been sev‑
eral startups that have raised hundreds of
thousands of euros in the last two quarters.
While 2021 saw were more than 20 startups
announcing investments of this size, their
number decreased considerably this year. For
example, Footprints For Retail, a Romanian
startup that operates a media retail platform,
has secured EUR 275,000 from eight inves‑
tors and seeks to attract another EUR 225,000
from an investment fund.
Parol, a Romanian end-to-end technology
startup that helps doctors and medical clinics
provide better patient care, has secured EUR
450,000 in funding in an investment round
led by The Mavers Ventures and three other
angel investors (ex-UiPath). Meanwhile, local
startup ialoc, which developed a platform for
reservations and quick payments at the table
for the food service industry, has reached to‑
tal investments of EUR 800,000 after recently
announcing that it had raised EUR 500,000
from MaxyGo Invest Holding.
 www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November
May 2016 2022
How Romania’s investment promotion
agency compares to its foreign counterparts
The Romanian government
has finally approved the es-
tablishment of the Romanian
Agency for Investments and
Foreign Trade. To envision
the ideal design of the new
agency, we should look at the
development course of Invest
Romania, the earlier version
of the country’s foreign in-
vestment promotion organ-
isation, which the new agency
will absorb.
By Claudiu Vrinceanu
I
nvest Romania comes in 8th in Europe's
overall ranking of investment promo‑
tion agencies, which is based on Emerg‑
ing Europe's annual investment promotion
survey. Romania ranked in the same place as
last year, having seen its highest ranking in
2019 in 5th place, and its lowest in 12th place
in 2018. Remarkably, Invest Romania scored
high this year for validity of information and
support for community building, but obtained
low scores in other categories, namely online
presence and ease of use, innovativeness,
creativity, and response to current develop‑
ments.
WHERE ROMANIA DOES WELL
Romania’s current agency ranks well in terms
of the validity of the information provided to
stakeholders. This component looks at how
reliable, valid, and up-to-date the content of
an IPA’s website, social media, and news‑
letters is. For example, the website of the
promotion agency should offer up-to-date
information about available incentives, its
social media channels should be used regu‑
larly, and posts should target global investors
with relevant information. Another critical
criterion is the agency’s capacity to offer up-
to-date information about the country's tax
system and macroeconomic conditions.
By comparison, Invest Romania is doing well in terms of support and community building
Invest Romania, in partnership with
Adecco Romania, launched a 2022 Guidebook
for Investors that shows how the covid-19
pandemic has impacted the growth and
stability of the Romanian market, as well as
how the impact was mitigated by swift eco‑
nomic measures. Furthermore, fresh official
data were released during the drafting of this
material: in April, the International Monetary
Fund launched the World Economic Outlook,
which estimates an economic growth of 2.2
percent of real GDP by the end of 2022.
Since 2018, Emerging Europe has been
researching how the region's 23 national
investment promotion agencies (IPAs) com‑
municate their value proposition and how
they use their digital channels to grab the
attention of potential investors and highlight
the various business opportunities offered by
key sectors.
This year, the Invest Moldova Agency
dropped out of the top five but still reached
the top 10, holding the seventh position.
Despite its lower score for the validity of
information component, the Moldovan IPA
improved its scores in the other categories.
By comparison, Invest Romania is doing
well in terms of support and community
building, which means that its online plat‑
forms provide information regarding what
forms of assistance IPA staff can offer inves‑
tors in the country and explain how its advis‑
INVESTMENTS
COVER STORY 37
14
ers handle inquiries from potential investors
and how they manage aftercare.
WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM ESTONIA'S
CASE STUDY
For the third year, Invest Estonia and Invest
Lithuania have taken the top two spots in
the ranking. This year they were followed by
CzechInvest, Ukraine Invest, Invest in Geor‑
gia, and the Investment and Development
Agency of Latvia (LIIA).
The Estonian IPA has been leading the
ranking for three consecutive years and it is
the only agency to have received the maxi‑
mum score for the innovativeness and cre‑
ativity component. Interestingly, in the first
edition of the ranking, Estonia ranked 14th.
Invest Lithuania, the winner of the first two
editions of the list (2018 and 2019) received
a higher score than Invest Estonia for online
presence and ease of use.
What can we learn from Estonia's case
study? The agency is using technology to help
potential foreign investors learn about Esto‑
nia's business opportunities. Better informing
potential investors can help overcome one of
the biggest global issues around FDI, namely
the problem of asymmetrical information
among business decision-makers. This is
especially acute in the case of emerging mar‑
kets, where there are often limited resources
for investment promotion.

38 INVESTMENTS
Romanian startup market sees first VC exits to
strategic and private equity investors in 2022
2022 has been marked by
many changes, challenges,
and uncertainties in the tech
financing landscape, but it
has also brought the first
exits by venture capital funds
to strategic investors and
private equity funds as well as
new startup funding through
the European Innovation
Council (EIC) Accelerator.
By Claudiu Vrinceanu
FIRST VC EXITS TO STRATEGIC INVESTORS
The tech startup ecosystem has developed
significantly in the last five years, having
recorded somewhere between 500 and 1,000
new startups being born. Of these, 200-300
got financing from business angels and ven‑
ture capital funds. As a result, we’re starting
to see the first exits by venture capital funds
following their investments in Romanian tech
companies. A prime example this year was
the transaction in which MedLife purchased
the bulk share package in SanoPass, one of
the most active Romanian ventures in the
health tech space. MedLife has also started
investing in tech after its multiple takeovers
of clinics and fitness networks. We also saw
the first exit carried out by Cleverage VC, an
investment fund launched by several Roma‑
nian investors specialising in health tech.
Meanwhile, SeedBlink also made its first
exit from a tech startup, two and a half years
after the initial listing. MedLife also bought
part of the shares that had been sold to indi‑
vidual investors through the crowdfunding
platform.
In general, Romanian founders fall into
one of four main scenarios. The first one is
the "acquihire" or masked hiring, whereby a
corporation buys the startup for its team. A
second option is a startup being acquired by
a corporation for its advanced technology.
Venture capital invests in enterprises that have not yet been proven successful
There is also a scenario where the startup gets
purchased by a corporation for its customer
(user) base it has built up over time. And
finally, an exit scenario involves the purchase
of a startup by a corporation that is existen‑
tially threatened by the new technology or
business model being developed by the firm’s
founders.
FIRST VC EXIT TO PE FUNDS
Another first recorded in 2022 in the Roma‑
nian IT field was the involvement of private
equity funds in tech startups. Previously,
only venture capital funds had invested in
Romania’s tech industry, but this area is also
becoming relevant for private equity funds,
which generally invest in large companies
with a proven track record and mature firms
with an established business model.
By comparison, venture capital invests
in enterprises that have not yet been proven
successful but that show significant potential
and provide an opportunity to make back
higher-than-typical returns if they deliver on
that expected potential. The significant dis‑
tinction between private equity and venture
capital has to do with size and risk levels.
More specifically, Abris Capital Partners, a
private equity investor, supported Alsendo in
acquiring a majority stake in Innoship, to sup‑
port the growth of the delivery management
www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November 2022
company in Central and Eastern Europe, to‑
gether with its four founders. Gapminder, the
leading venture capital fund that invests in
technology companies, sold its entire stake in
this transaction. Innoship will help accelerate
the transition of Alsendo, which already has a
presence in Poland, the Czech Republic, and
Slovakia, to a specialist supplier of advanced
delivery management technology throughout
Europe.
STARTUPS FUNDED THROUGH THE EURO-
PEAN INNOVATION COUNCIL (EIC) ACCEL-
ERATOR
According to data published by the Eu‑
ropean Innovation Council, until this year,
.lumen had been the only Romanian company
selected in the Horizon Europe programme,
following a rigorous process, having obtained
funding of EUR 9.4 million. Recently how‑
ever, Romanian startup AMSIMCEL, the first
GPU-Powered Physical Verification Frame‑
work with High-Performance Computing
capabilities, raised EUR 4.8 million in blended
financing through the European Innovation
Council (EIC) Accelerator. The company ranks
among the 75 innovative European firms that
will receive financial support worth EUR 400
million, all in the form of grants and equity
investments from the European Innovation
Council (EIC) Accelerator.
 www.business-review.eu
40 ADVERTISING Business Review | November 2022

Video content becomes top

campaign tool for marketers
International specialists say that it’s easy to get caught up in chasing new developments
and expanding tech capabilities when your team should really be championing what you
already have and thinking creatively about how you can put it to better use. But the most
important thing that marketers and advertisers can bring to e-commerce is creativity, and
not just in terms of design and visuals, but in new and innovative approaches to doing
just about anything in the retail space.
By Romanita Oprea

A
s pointed out by the Digital Marketing
Institute, video is a versatile and en‑
gaging content format that not only
gives us a real-life picture of what is going on,
but it’s also easy to share across multiple plat‑
forms. In fact, 86 percent of businesses are
already using video as a marketing tool. Con‑
sumers like it because it’s easy to digest, en‑
tertaining, and engaging, while marketers like
it because it can provide a potentially huge
return on investment (ROI) through many
channels. According to Anca Ciuluvica, digital
media planner at Spoon, these days, when
there are so many brands and products and
when we, as consumers, are constantly being
bombarded with all kinds of information, we
need something to catch our attention, and
this “something” is a combination of creative
ideas, media strategies, and messages. “In the
retail space, with most products now being
sold online, you need to find the perfect mix
of creative formats, messages, and platforms
to attract customers and get their attention.
If we’re talking about e-commerce, where the
shopping experience is quite similar from one
brand to another, the way you can stand out
is through the type of communication you
use, through design and visuals, as well as
through media placement. The right mix can
bring you loyal customers, and that is what
keeps the business rolling in the long run.”
Vlad Giogu, group creative director at pas‑
tel, says that championing creativity should
be a constant process that continuously
develops and grows. And if you care about
the creative process and the idea that results
from it, then you must provide that idea with
the best possible delivery. “The delivery
should make use of the latest tech solutions
and the latest research data to ensure that the
message gets delivered to the exact audience
you want and in the way you want it. Creativ‑
ity is always important, just as long as you are
not creating for the mere sake of it. Of course,
there should be a never-before-seen and ar‑
tistic element to what you are creating, but at
the end of the day, you’ll have measurable re‑
sults that need grounding in reality. Creativity
is more about connecting existing dots in the
right context and reaching the right audience
rather than re-inventing the wheel.”
According to Andreea Ghenoiu, creative
partner at Jam Session Agency, creativity in
e-commerce communication can give heart
 www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November
May 2016 2022
to a system that delivers customer satisfac‑
tion and trust through the product itself. And
building love for the brand around story‑
telling helps this customer satisfaction last
longer and generates empathy even when the
product/brand does not deliver flawlessly.
“Love triggers loyalty. It depends on how
we define this ‘always new’ or ‘never done
before.’ It’s hard to state that something has
never been done before; I would say that it
depends on how it gets re-done. If the idea
has been done before, but the execution is
fresh or the storytelling angle is different, it
means that it is new. Sometimes the way you
say something becomes even more important
than what you say.”
“The first and best option is always the
one you can rely on. Creativity is agencies’
‘in-house’ weapon and it should always
be exercised on complicated briefs. The e-
commerce industry is perfect for this because
there are lots of challenges, whether we’re
talking about the absurdly limited space in
offline retail or the flood of online communi‑
cation. Well, when the obstacles are tough,
the journey to the mind of the consumer is
creativity-driven, and lots of great ideas are
waiting to be discovered,” thinks Cosmin
Baba, creative director at Oxygen. A balanced
view is also put forward by Radu Olteanu, cre‑
ative partner at 35Creatives Studio by Galeriu
& Partners, who says the creativity is key can
be both true and false, at the same time. Yes,
creativity is important, but so is the tech. He
doesn’t see a conflict between those two, but
rather an osmosis. “Yes, you can be creative
without using technology. But imagine using
that tech to upgrade your creativity. It’s not
2.0 or 3.0; it’s infinity.0. Today, we’re seeing
a democratisation of technology. People are
getting access to things that weren’t even
imaginable 5-6 years ago. Prices are dropping
faster than we can assimilate new tech. So
why should we be afraid of putting technol‑
ogy to a good use? Let’s bring creativity and
technology together.”
NEW ROADS TO CREATIVITY
In this context, how much weight does cre‑
ativity still carry and how much room is there
from something that’s never been done be‑
fore, especially in a world where creation and
innovation have always been sought after?
“Creativity can really make a difference, and
the context of a certain time and place can be
used as a source of inspiration. Some more
courageous brands have even integrated
political topics and gained popularity by do‑
ing so (e.g., Burger King’s Brexit campaign).
It is important to provide information in a
way that people can remember and resonate
with, so they’ll start to love it and yearn for it.
Creativity might also mean saying something
that impacts people’s way of thinking and
generates real changes that can benefit us and
the planet. As such, there will always be room
for new things, because they grab attention in
a world that’s full of information,” said Anca
Ciuluvica.
COVER
ADVERTISING
STORY 41
14
But it also depends how we define creativ‑
ity. Some people define it as something that
sells, while others see it as something crazy.
“In both cases, whether we like to admit it or
not, creativity plays a major role in business
development. Everyone must be creative,
from a young person making their first steps
inside an ad agency to an entrepreneur. In
today’s business environment, you must
constantly reinvent yourself, and this is a cre‑
ative process in itself. So, everything revolves
around creativity. Even in our personal lives,
let’s think about that everyday question,
‘What should we eat today?’—the response
is a creative one as well,” Radu Olteanu
argued. We can watch beautiful inspirational
speeches on YouTube, describing epiphanies
and creative breakthroughs, but in reality, ev‑
erything is much simpler. Every decision we
make involves a certain amount of creativity.
His point is buttressed by the Oxygen rep‑
resentative, who believes that there’s always
an amazing new campaign right around the
corner of the mind. Nowadays, retail and
e-commerce brands can be found in the most
unexpected places, but they end up making
sense for consumers thanks to their innova‑
tive campaigns.
SKY IS THE LIMIT?
But how far should creativity go without
being considered exaggerated or disturbing?
“It can go super wild, but what we want to
maintain is relevance and truthfulness to the
brand. Never forget that ‘your art is commis‑
sioned.’ The storytelling, the influencers,
the innovation… all of these should speak as
a whole in the name of the brand. We tend
to put video on a pedestal. We’ve somehow

42 ADVERTISING
developed a system in which ideas are au‑
tomatically translated into videos, and only
after we see the idea as an amazing video
can we develop the campaign as a whole.
That does not mean we don’t do campaigns
without video; it simply means that we tend
to first imagine the idea as a video,” Andreea
Ghenoiu of Jam Session explained.
While pastel’s group creative director
believes that creativity shouldn't have limits
and that it's a process that ends when the
creator is almost certain it needs more, Radu
Olteanu argues that creativity is not a product
we can measure. Is not something like pota‑
toes, which we can buy per kilo. “Creativity
is good as long it serves your purposes. When
it crosses that line and it starts to affect your
job or your business, I don’t think I can still
call it creativity. It’s only called that when
it has a positive impact on your life or your
business.” At 35Creatives Studio by Galeriu
& Partners, video and photo production for
social media is a mélange between different
areas of interest, with Olteanu seeing himself
simultaneously as a filmmaker/photographer,
as someone who understands social media,
and as a marketer who can see what people
take from his productions, identify the
message that sticks, and find the triggers for
reaction. He thinks trends are only useful for
lazy people, who will grab at trends as if their
lives depended on it. In his opinion, one must
do everything to achieve the client’s goal,
whether it requires them to deploy trends
from 2008 or 2018. “There is no such thing as
a recipe for success or a standard solution for
a brief. Some ‘old trends’ could be useful for
a new problem. If we only follow the latest
trends, we risk being too much like everyone
else. They represent guidelines, options that
may or may not be useful. I don’t think your
client will be happy about your deliverables if
they merely follow trends but don’t actually
help them reach their goals. So, let’s be smart,
not lazy! Content creations is not a highway.
Is rather a car on the highway. And thar car
must ride on your strategy. You can have a
Mercedes Benz, or you can have a Dacia 1300.
If you choose a Mercedes, people will see
you in the feed. It’s up to the client. But here
is the magic. This Mercedes doesn’t have a
70k euro price tag. It’s a luxury car, with an
incredible price, that most of the companies
can afford it,” added Radu Olteanu.
35Creatives Studio operates in the niche of
tabletop videos/photography for food, drinks,
and other products. They are a one-stop-shop
where clients can receive full photo and video
production services: concept, pre-produc‑
tion, production, and post-production, all
at reasonable costs. Their productions are
mainly used on social media and YouTube,
but they are trying to keep their standards
high, using some of the best equipment, from
lenses and motion control systems to post-
production facilities. Besides the tech, they
are always trying to improve their shoots and
have an out-of-the-box approach.
“I think there is a limit and that brands
need to be aware of how their actions and
their communication may affect people and
the environment, but besides that, there is
no other limit to creativity, especially now,
when AI and automation are playing such
big roles in our lives. Creativity comes from
the soul and it can’t be replicated easily;
it needs a human touch. Through video, a
brand can provide more details and make the
consumer part of their story,” said the Spoon
representative. In recent years, and especially
in 2022, Ciuluvica and her teams have seen
video performing better than static assets on
www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November 2022
many platforms, which makes video a must-
have component of almost every campaign.
TikTok has also had a great impact on this
format, as many users have moved to this
platform and vertical video content is now in
high demand as users want to get their infor‑
mation in a quick and entertaining way.
“A video can be the star of a campaign if
it hits the right goal for the brand, meaning
that it should be part of something bigger,
and that integrating it into the campaign map
of deliverables should make its purpose sud‑
denly become clear. Once you understand its
role, video becomes more than just a passive
way to deliver information, and it can be
creatively integrated into the life of the con‑
sumer. On this one I would say we all need
to reset our mindsets,” said Cosmin Baba.
Young generations feel different about video
campaigns and the way stories are being told.
The key is to be interesting while pitching
the product to them, without overkilling it
or reaching cringe levels. “For us, the target
is the trendsetter when talking about video
content, and what we try to do is take it to
the next level and provide them with a video
product that’s worth their attention. So, we
keep up with them by acknowledging their
creativity and mixing it with the technology
that serves the right purpose,” added Oxy‑
gen’s creative director.
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Business Review | November
May 2016 2022
Romanian creativity goes to Benelux
Wunderman Thompson Benelux has appointed Sandra Bold to the newly created role of
Chief Creative Officer. In her new role, Bold will work across Wunderman Thompson offices in
Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Brussels, to lead the agency’s creative output and drive excellence
across its client portfolio in the region. In addition, Bold is the president of the IAB MIXX
Romania 2022 jury—another reason for BR to sit down with her and find out more about all
those new challenges and opportunities.
By Romanita Oprea
How did the proposal from Wunderman
Thompson arrive?
I’m a strong believer that most things in life
happen for a reason. We might not under‑
stand why some things pop up in our lives,
but they do, and it’s our duty to give them a
chance. I’m thrilled to take on this new Chief
Creative Officer role for the Benelux region.
From the creative work they produce to the
way they collaborate across areas of expertise,
it’s clear that Wunderman Thompson sees the
potential in its offices in Antwerp, Brussels,
and Amsterdam working together as one.
What are the main values you share?
If you’ve worked in Romania’s advertising in‑
dustry, then you know that you can take any
crumb and turn it into a Michelin star dish.
Wunderman Thompson has this same vision
of locking in and creating
opportunities whatever it takes.
What made you decide to take the job,
given the great position you held at that
time as Global Creative Director at Publi-
cis Milan?
I once read in a book that when you are of‑
fered a seat on a rocket ship, you don’t ask
what seat it is.
What were the first decisions you took
in the new role and what are your main
goals?
My goal is to create less spam. We’re in the
business of barging into people’s lives, so we
might as well barge in with something that
entertains them, not just spam them by flash‑
ing a product in their faces. All my decisions
tend to go towards keeping that principle
alive.
How did you decide to choose advertising
and keep on doing it over and over again?
I always thought it was cool that you could
think of something and put it into the
advertising machine and then it can go out
on the market, for everyone to see. There’s
some kind of magic there. Being responsible
COVER
ADVERTISING
STORY 43
14
for how a brand speaks and what it does for
people: whether it makes them laugh, think,
act, react, and more. The part about enter‑
taining people attracts me the most.
How would you characterise yourself as
a creative? What about as a leader of the
creative department?
My ultra-secret formula, ready in a micro‑
wave minute, is that I’m not pretending to
be something that I’m not; I’m trying to not
fall in the trap of “a leader should or would,
therefore I should or would.” And what is
equally important is asking for advice when
you feel like you need it.
What are the biggest challenges in your
new role?
I’ll be honest: there are plenty. But if I were to
pick a big one, it is all the travelling. I am still
not used to it.
How would you describe the 2023 advertis-
ing industry?
I’ve been scared to predict the future since
I thought that 2020 would be The Best Year
Ever—and we all know how that went. Now,
in 2022, we’re dusting the pandemic off and it
feels like we’re starting to have fun again.
What do you think will be the top trends
around advertising creativity in the com-
ing year, and why?
I’m not sure about trends, but what I know for
sure is that we need more entertainment.
What is your wish for 2023, professionally
speaking?
Being able to create work that makes people
not want to change the channel.

44 SPORT BUSINESS
When business meets sports
Ion Schiau is a board member at the Romanian-Swiss Chamber of Commerce and the managing
partner of Albini Prassa, a Swiss watch distributor. He is also one of the few local businesspeople
who actively supports sports initiatives, with a focus on rugby.
By Oana Vasiliu
I
on Schiau lived in Switzerland for several
years, where he worked for the Swatch
Group. He returned to Romania for busi‑
ness purposes and he rapidly became an avid
supporter of sports. His company supports
several sports clubs, including the rugby club
from Gura Humorului (Suceava county) and
the rugby team from Alba Iulia. In 2018, in
partnership with Tissot, he created a limited
edition of 500 watches in collaboration with
the Romanian national rugby team.
Why was a sports working group created
within the Romanian-Swiss Chamber of
Commerce?
First, we believe sports are a driver of change
in society, health, and education. Further‑
more, Switzerland has excellent know-how
around sport management, with dozens of
international federations and schools focused
on sports. We know Switzerland has strong
communities that constitute the backbone
of elite and performance sport. Most Swiss
companies have an important role in these
communities, starting from the local level
and reaching the regional and national levels.
We believe our initiative to create a sports
group can have a significant positive impact
in the long term.
What is the current stage of the project
and what has been the response so far?
All companies from the Romanian-Swiss
Chamber of Commerce have been ap‑
proached, and we will have the first consoli‑
dated feedback ready in the coming weeks.
In a previous interview, you mentioned
that your objective was to create a consul-
tancy hub regarding sports sponsorships.
www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November 2022
How would this work?
Good question. The ambition here is to
consolidate what we believe to be good
practices, useful tips, coherent presentations
and pitches, all of which are being efficiently
implemented at a professional level in Swit‑
zerland. I’ve sadly noticed a major lack of
such tools and practices among Romanian
sports clubs. Enabling local structures to build
up their offers—in a sense, their products—
and consolidate long-term relationships is key
in engaging communities.
In your opinion, what types of companies
should invest in sports? And why?
There’s absolutely no restriction. The base
of the pyramid has to be as large as possible,
with contributions from RON 100 to RON 1
million; support is important at any level.
Now, of course, in order to engage companies
in this process, you must build trust, and that
can only be achieved through transparency.
I would be truly happy to see companies
that are strongly engaged in sports in Swit‑
zerland finding adequate ways to relay their
communication and involvement in com‑
munities in Romania. This would represent a
coherent extension of their policies.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve
learned in the arena of sports manage-
ment? And what can you tell us about us-
ing sports as a communication tool for the
brands you’ve represented?
Well, I guess that consolidating a partnership
over the long term is the hardest thing to do.
We often assume that the handshake and
signing a one-year contract is the ultimate
goal, but it’s actually only the beginning of
a long-term effort. Another point I would
make is that no matter the sport, if you have
a coherent message and dedicated teams,
you’ll create a great story and ultimately have
a strong impact that is well received by your
audience.
 www.business-review.eu
Business Review | November 2022 SUSTAINABLE FASHION 45

ALTRNTV: your sustainable one-stop-shop

If you’ve recently walked on Elisabeta Boulevard, near Universitatii Square, maybe you’ve
noticed ALTRNTV, a concept that combines a store and a coffee shop, all dedicated to a
sustainable lifestyle. BR went inside to talk to owners Alina Tiplea and Daniela Staicu.
By Oana Vasiliu

It's vital for brands and consumers to think

ALTRNTV's address is 26 Regina Elisabeta Blvd. more sustainably in order to look after our planet

A
s the sustainable fashion industry in
Romania is just starting to take off,
there are no certified sustainable
clothing manufacturers in the country. Until
recently, there were no shops that promoted
a circular economy model by gathering
and selling sustainable fashion from local
producers. Atelier Merci, the NGO behind the
ALTRNTV brand, aims to address this situa‑
tion by offering handcrafted clothing made
from sustainably produced vegan and organic
materials. The social enterprise is committed
to circular economy practices, using textile
scraps from clothing to create decorative
home products and bags and offering recy‑
cling services for its customers’ used clothes.
All profits from the new ALTRNTV shop
will be used to fund the Merci Charity As‑
sociation, Atelier Merci’s parent organisation,
which supports children with medical needs.
ALTRNTV features sustainable products
for women, men, and children, whether it's
clothes, accessories or interior decorations.
The store currently hosts 60 designers who
work with natural, organic materials or use
upcycling or recycling techniques. 94 percent
of them are Romanian designers and 11 per‑
cent are social businesses.
“We are a social business. Our NGO found
a creative way to raise funds for our health‑
care projects, by creating a social tailoring
workshop. And because the impact of our ac‑
tions is very important to us, as it is our main
driver, we want to not be a burden on the
planet, and instead do good for the communi‑
ty. We have therefore started to find sustain‑
able solutions in our social business, which
are also applicable in the tailoring workshop,”
Alina Tiplea explains.
It seems that sustainability is a trend‑
ing word; but when asked how they would
characterise the local sustainable clothing
market, the owners explained that there are
actually very few initiatives that offer truly
sustainable and durable solutions. “It is a
market that’s still in its early stages, and there
is plenty of room for more such initiatives,”
Daniela Staicu argues.
WHAT MAKES A TRULY SUSTAINABLE
BRAND?
In the ALTRNTV concept, sustainability does
not only refer to the material from which a
product is made. It should be a much more
complex concept, because it includes several
other aspects like responsibility, transparency
or impact. “A sustainable brand is concerned
not only with the type or quality of its materi‑
als, but also with the quality and lifetime of
its products, the quality of its working envi‑
ronment, and with all related issues that are
directly or indirectly linked to the business,
such as the waste it generates, the sourcing
of fabrics, transport practices, packaging
choices, etc.,” Alina adds.
Their business is quite new, but the two
owners are keen on continuous learning.
“We like to innovate and find solutions to
the problems we encounter on our way to a
greener world,” Daniela says.
THE CONSUMER’S POINT OF VIEW
Asked about the smallest change consumers
could make to become more eco-conscious,
the ALTRNTV owners noted that before mak‑
ing a purchase, they could at least ask them‑
selves some questions: who, where, how,
and why. “A consumer should take a look out
at the transparency of the brand. Read the
label, just as you would for a food product.
You need to be given information about the
product beyond just its size and price. Look
out for local brands and support small busi‑
nesses,” Daniela concludes.
 www.business-review.eu
46 NEW IN TOWN Business Review | November 2022

New places in town By Oana Vasiliu

Bucharest is becoming one of those places where there’s always something to do or somewhere
to be. The city’s perpetually bustling with activities, new venues, festivals, and new places to eat,
shop or experience.

Centrale Pizza Bar Animaletto House Sonder

a bonus, they have a small bar

truck outside, where you can get
wine, beer, gin, and bubbles.

PLACES WITH A TWIST

Privé ArtWine & Fromage (32
Corbeni Street) is the place where
artisanal cheeses from all over
the world (but mostly France)
and over 200 wine labels—among Privé ArtWine & Fromage
them all the wine regions of
France as well as New World and
Kraft Market
Romanian wines—are delighting

A
n urban terrace appeared
recently behind the
Novotel hotel, called
Kraft Market (8-10 Matei Millo
Street). There’s generous open
space featuring a central bar, a
children's playground, and kiosks
serving international cuisine.
The space is based on the artisan
concept and the idea of creating a
place where a community of en‑
thusiasts and artisans can meet
and enjoy the magic behind each
craft. Several interesting street
food trucks are available here,
including Smokăreală (slow-
cooked, smoked Texas barbecue),
Hushimo (Asian: Thai – Viet –
Indo), Nahuas Tacos, and Meana
Macedonian Kitchen.
Central pizza bar (122 Calea Vic-
toriei) is another new place that
serves contemporary Neapolitan
pizza. The menu has 9 pizza op‑
tions, and you can also buy half
a pizza or combine two different
halves into one, so you enjoy
more taste variety.
Smith Eatery (39 Carol Davila
Street) offers eclectic street food,
inspired by global travels and
cooked with local products. As
guests. The location hosts several
events every week, so check them
out online to see what they have
in store.
Animaletto House (4 Dianei
Street) is divided into several
areas: the ground floor features
a bar, sofas, and comfortable
armchairs; in the attic, you’ll find Smith Eatery
the dining area of the house, so
everything is different includ‑ Sonder Coffee & Bites (3 Vasile
ing the music, the design, the Alecsandri Street) has a Scan‑
lights; and the courtyard is pretty dinavian vibe, with a menu
generous too. The venue’s menu inspired by the Nordic cuisine.
is based on sharing dishes and Best known as a brunch place, it
having a meal at home with your has plenty of vegan and vegetar‑
loved ones. ian options as well.