Several Romanian entrepreneurs and a local law firms have started a foundation meant to help  Romanian IT and online startups. The VentureConnect Foundation was set up by Ana Maria Andronic, Daniel Visoiu, Marius Ghenea, Radu Georgescu, Orlando Nicoara, Peter Barta si Dragos Roua (more about them further down the article).

Venture Connect was initially created by law firm Biris Goran, which aimted to connect entrepreneurs and potential investors. The law firm initiated one-day events allowing investors to interact with already pre-selected entrepreneurs looking for growth and expansion capital.

The Foundation will start a series of entrepreneurial projects in February this year. Each month, it will organize Venture Mentoring sessions. The first event is scheduled for May this year.

Marius Ghenea is a serial entrepreneur, known for the FIT Distribution IT&C group of companies. He is one of the ‘angel’ investors in the Lion’s Arena TV show on TVR 2 national TV station. Using a similar format to the popular Dragon’s Den shows, five entrepreneurs hold auditions for wanna-be entrepreneurs from across Romania, who hope to convince at least one of the investors to put money in their idea.

Radu Georgescu is the founder of Gecad, a multi-national group gathering software, Internet and tech companies. He already made two partial exits from the business, in 2003 when Microsoft acquired RAV Antivirus technology from GECAD and in 2010, when Allegro/Naspers acquired eCommerce company ePayment.

Orlando Nicoara is the general manager of media group Mediafax. He previously took part in the creation of Boom Advertising.

Dragos Roua started a network of websites in 1999, then went on to start a business  in New Zealand, while keeping his personal blog alive.

Peter Barta is the executive director of the Foundation Post Privatizare (Post privatization), which focuses on entrepreneurship. His work so far focused on management and consultancy.

editor@romania-insider.com