More than 30 investors from Transylvania have decided to set up Risky Business, the first acceleration fund for startups in Romania, with a value of EUR 250,000. The fund was recently launched in Cluj-Napoca.

Risky Business was founded by American entrepreneur Jennifer Austin and Romanian entrepreneurs Radu Iuhas, Bogdan Colceriu, Vlad Iuhas, and Adrian Horotan. They have also been running the Spherik accelerator program in Cluj-Napoca.

The acceleration fund will invest up to EUR 20,000 in around 15 companies this year, and the fund's investors also have the chance to co-invest up to EUR 100,000 in any of these companies, alongside Risky Business.

Well-known business people from Transylvania have decided to invest in the new fund, including Andrei Dunca – the founder of LiveRail, which was bought by Facebook for USD 500 million, Sergiu Biris – the founder of Zonga and Trilulilu, Phillip Kandal – who sold his company to Telenav for EUR 24 million, and Voicu Oprean, Marcel Anghel, and Calin Vaduva – the founders of some of the biggest IT companies in Cluj-Napoca.

Besides the investors active in the IT sector, Risky Business also managed to attract other business people such as Dan Pitic – the founder of Perpetuum, Marcelus Suciu – the founder of the Marty Restaurants chain, Simion Muresan – the founder of Electrogrup, and Andrei Trifan – the owner of the Subway franchise in Romania.

“We are proud to have reunited so many diverse investors with solid experience, who believe in our vision and in promoting local investments,” said Jennifer Austin, Risky Business co-founder. “The development of a local investor community is crucial for accelerating Romania’s technological development,” she added.

To select the companies in which it will invest, Risky Business has launched an acceleration program hosted by Cluj Business Center. The program will culminate with a Demo Day at Techsylvania, one of the most important tech conferences in Romania. Those interested in registering for this program can do it until February 15 on Riskybusiness.ro.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com