Romania’s entrepreneurs are no strangers to success at home and abroad. Every week we’ll round up five local business pioneers to get the low down on them and their businesses. This week we chose five entrepreneurs who inspired us.

Radu Ciorbea, Zebra Pay

Radu Ciorbea, born in the Republic of Moldova, started Zebra Pay in 2009, in an attempt to offer a self service payment alternative to Romanians. He moved to Romania in 2009 to start the business that now offers the option to buy press, plane tickets or tickets for events, pay bills, buys computer games and music.

Cornel Nicolae Moisoiu, Librarium bookshop chain

Mosoiu, 35, started the Librarium bookstore chain in 2008, with a first shop in Timisoara. At the moment Bastilia bookshop in Bucharest and three more bookshops in Cluj – Napoca, Timisoara and Iasi are in the chain. Librarium rented the Petrascu villa in the Romana square in Bucharest, where the Bastilia bookshop was opened .

Alexandru Padurean, Papa La Soni

Everyone knows Alexandru Padurean as Soni. few know that he used to run the famous Laptaria lui Enache terrace on top of the National theater in Bucharest, that he started shortly after the 1990 fall of communism, as well as the Gulyas restaurant in Bucharest. He then went on to open the restaurant Papa La Soni at the Vama Veche seaside resort, together with Razvan Cucui. The latest addition is the restaurant under the same name in Bucharest. He studied economics and in the past he wrote for a magazine called 'Bucataria pentru Toti' (Translated as Cooking for everyone).

Maria Lucian Hohan

Romanian Maria Lucian Hohan (in opening picture) is already an international brand. The Romanian fashion designer turned her passion into a business and made a big impression on the world scene. Dresses made by Hohan were worn on the red carpet at the Golden Globe and other international events by the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Diane Kruger, Katherine Heigl, Natalie Imbruglia, Vanessa Hudgens and featured in fashion magazines all over the world. Check out the celebrity roll call here. Hohan started in early 2000 with a budget of EUR 800, two sewing machines and a dressmaker and has now reached EUR 0.5 million annual turnover.

Claudia Filip, Pomello

Pomello delivers food freshly cooked, served in the pot in which it was cooked, using the idea of a personal chef. It is not the only business that Claudia Filip has started. She also runs Go Go Diet, which delivers food for a two-week South Beach diet. She started Pomello in 2008, with an investment of around EUR 50,000.

editor@romania-insider.com