TechAngels at 10: a short history of angel investing in Romania

By TechAngels · Published 11 September 2026

The TechAngels 10-year brochure, “Mică istorie a investițiilor de tip angel din România” (a short history of angel investing in Romania), is a 46-page publication from 2023, the association’s tenth anniversary. It is written in Romanian and free to download. It documents how an informal group of 18 investors became a community of 132 members by mid-2023, through interviews with the three founders, the presidents and vice-presidents who organised the group, and eight startup founders who raised money from its members.

Download the brochure (PDF, 0.9 MB, in Romanian)

What the brochure contains

The brochure has three parts.

The history. The opening chapter, “Certificatul de naștere” (the birth certificate), follows the group from the first press mention in autumn 2012 and the founding certificate dated July 2013, through the 2016 elections, the 2019 change of leadership, the pandemic year and the affiliations with Business Angels Europe Club and, in 2021, with EBAN. It closes with a member’s-eye view of the Romanian tech ecosystem: where it has matured and where it is still short of investors, accelerators and later-stage capital.

The investors. Interviews with the founding trio, Andrei Pitiș, Radu Georgescu and Bogdan Iordache; with the people who organised the association, Mălin-Iulian Ștefănescu, Dan Călugăreanu, Mihai Guran, Matei Dumitrescu and executive director Irina Albu; and with members Marius Istrate, Sabin Gîlceavă, Mihaela Matei and Radu Bugică. Everyone answers the same questions: how the ecosystem has changed, what patterns they see in pitches, the most frequent founder mistakes, and three pieces of advice for founders.

The founders. Eight founders describe working with angel investors: Adrian Cernat (SmartDreamers), George Lemnaru (Green Horse Games), Mihai Dârzan (PROCESIO), Ionuț Vlad (Tokinomo), AnaMaria Onică (VoxiKids), Adrian Ispas (Vatis Tech), Pincu Ionescu (AutoVantage) and Ciprian Cazacu (EasySales). Each says when they first raised from angels and why, what the relationship brought beyond money, what they would want done differently, and how to choose an angel.

The milestones it records

The figures below are the ones the brochure itself reports, as of 2023, for TechAngels members’ own investments.

2013: 18 founding members, with the official founding certificate dated July 2013.
2016 to 2019: members invested about €10 million and financed roughly 95 startups; the aggregate member portfolio passed 175 startups by the end of 2019.
2020: pitch sessions moved from monthly to weekly during the pandemic, and members invested €4 million that year.
2019 to 2023: aggregate member investments above €20 million, made directly, through syndication with other angels, via investment platforms or alongside VC funds.
Mid-2023: 132 members, and over €40 million injected by members into Romanian tech startups across the decade, into more than 200 companies.

For today’s numbers, use the key figures page, which is updated as new periods are published, and the impact of angel investment in Romania for the longer view.

Who should read it

Founders preparing to raise. The startup section is eight first-hand accounts of what an angel relationship looks like in practice, from the first meeting to board work after the round. It pairs well with questions for founders who worked with angels before and with the interview series on what to expect from your business angel, for example the conversations with PROCESIO and VoxiKids.

Investors considering membership. The investor interviews show how members think about syndication, the quality of pitches, the mistakes they see most often and why they joined. Read them alongside how to become a business angel in Romania and the membership page.

Journalists and researchers. The history chapter is the association’s own account of its first decade, with the names, dates and elections in one place. It is the best single source for how TechAngels came to be; for citable current figures, use the key figures page above rather than the 2023 snapshot.

The brochure is one of two downloadable TechAngels publications; the other is The Good Advice Booklet, where members share one piece of advice each for founders.

Frequently asked questions

Is the TechAngels 10-year brochure available in English?

No. The brochure was published in Romanian only, in 2023, for the association’s tenth anniversary. For an English overview of what TechAngels is and how it works, start with the About page and the key figures page.

How many members did TechAngels have when the brochure came out?

The brochure reports 132 members by mid-2023, up from 18 founding members in 2013. Membership has grown since; the current count is published on the key figures page rather than in this article.

Who is interviewed in the brochure?

Founders Andrei Pitiș, Radu Georgescu and Bogdan Iordache; presidents Dan Călugăreanu (2016 to 2019) and Mălin-Iulian Ștefănescu (2019 to 2023); vice-presidents Mihai Guran and Matei Dumitrescu; executive director Irina Albu; members Marius Istrate, Sabin Gîlceavă, Mihaela Matei and Radu Bugică; and eight founders from SmartDreamers, Green Horse Games, PROCESIO, Tokinomo, VoxiKids, Vatis Tech, AutoVantage and EasySales.

Yes. It is a public TechAngels publication. Link to this page or to the PDF itself rather than re-uploading a copy, so readers always get the current file.

If you are a founder with a working product and want to pitch to the people interviewed here, read the investment criteria and apply. If you invest your own capital in tech startups and want to join them, see how membership works.