Rubik Garage Accelerator, spring of 2023, in retrospective – Cohort 5

July 8, 2023

In the spring of 2023, together with four strategic partners, Fortech Investments, ROCA X, SeedBlink from Romania, and Startup Wise Guys from Estonia, we had the fifth edition of our Rubik Garage accelerator.

For this cohort, we selected 24 startups with founders from 15 countries: Romania, Poland, Estonia, Ukraine, Georgia, Slovenia, Netherlands, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, United Arab Emirates, Belgium, Turkey, and Greece. Together, the startups had:

• Total Team Members – 118
• Total Annual Revenue in 2023 – € 1,400,000
• Total Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) – € 40,000
• Total Bootstrapped – € 915,000
• Investment Raised by June 2023 – € 270,000
• Total Investment Committed by 1st of June 2023 – € 527,000
• Seeking to Raise in the next 6 months a Total Investment of – € 6,400,000
• Total Paying Customers – 897
• Total Testing Customers – 3,120

The 5^th Cohort

Allventures – A dynamic trip route planner – a new dimension of traveling with curiosity, excitement, and friends.

Amygdala Health – A digital health program for chronic heart diseases.

Careshaper – The SaaS application that comes to bridge the gap between mental health care professionals and their patients’ needs.

CheeryCat – Helps cat owners to find diseases in the early stages.

Conta25 – The SaaS platform that allows accountants to optimize their work.

Da Vinci Green Systems – Dynamic systems for greenhouses.

DDDInvoices – A single API for global e-invoicing compliance.

Domovoice – a service for quickly creating unique personalized fairy tales in text and audio formats using artificial intelligence.

Dyver – Fast eCommerce growth with scalable AI-generated product documentation.

Equinox AI – Algorithmic market-making firm active in cryptocurrency derivative markets.

inSHAPE – The first app that rewards users who work out with real money & perks.

LinkPeak – Tool for creating Link-Cetric Pages for Marketing Purposes.

MyLegal – Digitizing and automating legal services.

#NFGrapevine – Connects wine lovers & makers by adapting new technologies including NFTs.

PlusHero – An interactive app for kids to learn different subjects in the game format by playing different games and winning tokens NFTs.

Power DCloud – Fast & Low-cost Web3 platform for decentralized full-stack applications.

REVital – A complete remote patient monitoring solution.

SalesOMMO – The heads-up display of the Super-Sales.

Senflua – Insurtech Startup. Quick, easy-to-use, and digital available 24/7.

SkillBrain – A focused EdTech company that teaches in-demand IT skills.

SpotUs Space – Digitalizing the workplace environment – a self-service mobile app for parking or office desk reservations and digital access to the building.

ToUtoring – An online academic tutoring marketplace for children, that connects families with a network of talented tutors who can help them achieve their academic potential.

Unde.io – Streamlining the process of organizing and promoting events.

Uphave – A marketplace for vintage, second-hand fashion shops.

Program stucture

Founders Bootcamp – The program started on March 22, 2023, with a three-day Founders Bootcamp in Piatra Neamt. The founders got to know each other and the Rubik Hub team and had the first in-person workshops with Marius Lupu, Gautam Kumar, attended an Ask Me Anything session with Razvan Suta (Startup Wise Guys), Alex Burciu and Alex Chifu (Foretech Investments), and Emil Chichioi (Rubik Garage alumnus and co-founder of Bloomcoding). Also, the founders had their first pitches before the three months of acceleration.

Acceleration – During the next 3 months, the startups had intensive workshops with mentors from our community, group and individual meetings, and enjoyed benefits from our Startup Support Package, such as House of Startups and media coverage.

Demo Day – The program culminated with a four-day event dedicated to the Mentors’ Community. The startups pitched in front of an audience of over 100 attendees, attended in-person workshops held by Sebastian Gabor and Ruxandra Pui from Digitail and Andrei Dudoiu from SeedBlink, and had the opportunity to form authentic connections with investors, mentors and other founders. Twenty startups pitch at Demo Day on June 16^th.

Follow-on Ready to Raise Program – tailored to top alumni in our accelerator who are looking to raise investment in the next 3-6 months.

Curricula

• Priorities & key metrics – Ciprian Harabagiu (Decalex)
• Resilience mindset – Catalin Mester (I love Failure)
• Cashflow optimisations – Anca Nicola, Roxana Popa, Florin Deaconescu, Ioana Bara, and Poliana Iliescu (PwC)
• Identifying technical bottlenecks – Tiberiu Baraboi (Expertware)
• Pricing strategies – Emanuel Martonca (SoftFight)
• How to handle media and leverage its power – Vlad Andriescu (start-up.ro)
• Sales strategy during the economic downturn – Oana Manea (Mytraffic)
• Building resilience and mental toughness mindset – Stoyan Yankov
• Customer development – Eoin McGuinness (HubSpot)
• Pricing strategy – Follow-up session – Emanuel Martonca (SoftFight)
• Building a scalable product – Marius Lupu (BBW Solution)
• Hiring & organizational culture when growing a startup – Magor Csibi (Trend Consult)
• Legal basics for startups – Tudor Velea (SLV Legal), Alexandru Stefan (SLV Legal), Ana-Maria Draganuta Briard (Legally Remote)
• Sales & Marketing on a low budget – Stanislav Birov (Meta)
• Myths about investors – Alexandru Bogdan (ROCA X)
• Go to Market strategy – Cristina Bogateanu (Nagarro)
• Pitching for Demo Day – Emil Chichioi (Bloomcoding)
• How to pitch on stage – Gabriela Constantinescu (Chambr)

Awarded Startups at Demo Day

🎊 Best Startup – DDD Invoices – A single API for global e-invoicing compliance.

🎊 Best Pitch – Amygdala Health – Digital health programme powered by behavioural science to create healthy habits that last.

🎊 Ready to Raise – Senflua – Insurtech Startup. Quick, easy-to-use, and digital, available 24/7.

🎊 Cohort Award – Uphave –  A marketplace for vintage, second-hand fashion shops.

Rubik Garage is free-equity and fee-free and is powered by Rubik Hub / North-East Regional Development Agency. This was the fifth edition of the program.

Thanks to everyone who supported us in this journey!