Rubik Garage Accelerator, Scale to US, in retrospective – Cohort 6

March 15, 2024

In November 2023, Rubik Garage Cohort 6 began. The Scale to USA edition is tailored to startup with traction in a European country who want to launch or scale into the US market. 

Throughout more than 3 months, we challenged founders to prepare for expansion into the most competitive market – the USA one. This edition started with a Founders Bootcamp in our hub from Piatra Neamt, Romania, and concluded with an immersion trip in the USA. The program included 25+ workshops, 70+ meetings with investors, and 100+ office hours with experienced mentors.

From the start, we had the support of four strategic partners – Fortech Investments, Google, WIT Angels Club, and AmCham Romania. Initailly, Fortech Investments committed to investing €100,000 in the best startup. By the end of the program, they increased the amount to €500,000, due to the immense potential they saw in the winning team.

Discover the 6^th Cohort

Together with our strategic partners, we selected 21 startups with founders from 8 countries: Romania, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia, UK, Austria. Together, the startups had:  

• Raised investment of €23million
• Total Bootstrapped – €10 million 
• A Total of 480 Team Members 

Sessions – The communication and collaboration application for more efficient online meetings, consolidating all necessary functionalities in one place

Rayscape – A complex digital assistant for radiologists that helps them analyze medical images through artificial intelligence

Bright Spaces – The digital solution for commercial space management that facilitates faster space leasing

Nifty Learning – Functions as a command center for professional development within companies

AI Driven Education (AIDE) – A personalized virtual teacher based on artificial intelligence, adapting the learning experience for each student

FoodFix Tech – It helps you transform food knowledge into a scalable revenue model

Langly – An AI-powered English learning solution for educational institutions and businesses, based on the Oxford model

KOTYS Technologies – Empowers the family farms with AI, enabling them to use fewer resources and achieve higher yields sustainably

Virbe.ai – Provides an optimized customer experience for retail customers through virtual beings

Spacer – Simplifies cloud deployment for web developers

BEESERS – An app that provides access to the full medical journey from home

Soft Edge – Mobile AI solutions for inspecting hail damage on vehicles

iflows – The platform that digitizes your business and optimizes workflows

Readmio – A digital platform revolutionizing children’s learning using voice recognition

SkillBrain – Online school of IT professors, which facilitates learning and offers support for obtaining a new job

Artivive – An app hosting a community of over 280,000 artists, facilitating the transition of artistic creations to the digital realm through augmented reality

Knolyx – A tool facilitating continuous learning through an AI-driven individual training plan based on company and employee data

CodeWell  – Digital Employee Factory – A platform with digital employees that automates processes, increases conversions and reduces operational costs

Atfield – A tool for viticulture with state-of-the-art climate sensors to help sustainable and climate-resilient viticulture development

VAUNT – A platform that simplifies the process of buying and selling international properties

Veruvis – Creates a functional interface between mind and brain, revolutionizing the global neural optimization market through innovation

Starting the Program with a Founders Bootcamp

The program started on November 19, 2023, with a three-day Founders Bootcamp in Piatra Neamt. 

The founders acquainted themselves with each other and the Rubik Hub team, engaging in the first in-person workshops with: Marius Istrate (Tech Angels Romania), Ruxandra Muys-Stoyan & Selena Stan (WIT Angels Club), Emanuel Martonca (SoftFight), Manuel Cazac & Ioana Chilom (AmCham Romania), Alexandru Chifu & Alex Burciu (Fortech Investments), Loredana Niculae (NNC), Thea Gherdan, Sebastian Gabor & Ruxandra Pui (Digitail), Alex Gavril (Promocrat), Ciprian Harabagiu (Decalex Digital), Radu Mîndru (FIDAS Coach). Furthermore, the founders delivered their initial pitches prior to the three-month acceleration period.

Over Three Months of Acceleration

Over the following 3 months, the startups participated in intensive workshops with mentors from our community, engaged in group and individual meetings, had sessions with investors, coaching sessions, and benefited from our Startup Support Package, including access to the House of Startups and media exposure.

During the three months, the startups had the following sessions:

• Approaching investors in USA – Ruxandra Muys-Stoian (WIT Angels Club)
• USA Visa Process – Manuel Cazac (AmCham)
• Sales in USA – Gabriel Pana (CEO at Traction Keys, Co-Founder at WhitePipe)
• Key Differences Between the US and European Mindset within the Startup Ecosystem – Ciprian Popoviciu (3x Founder, 1x Exit, Director at the Center for IoT )
• Building Ethical AI startups – Nell Watson (President EURAIO, Tech Advisor Silicon Valley, founder with 1 exit)
• Sales & Growth in the USA – Eoin Mcguinness (Hubspot)
• Legals in the USA – Alexandru Stanescu & Tudor Velea from Lexters
• Scaling Operations across multiple territories – Ciprian Harabagiu (Decalex, VP Tech Angels Romania)
• CX Best Practices & Metrics: Learnings from 4k+ startups and customer service 2023 trends –  Hannes Ortmeier (EMEA VC & Startup Partnerships Manager @ Zendesk)
• Pitching US style – Paul Kallmes (Start-up mentor from San Francisco)
• Sales/Partnership – Chris Joannou (Draper University)
• Approaching US investors & Flowlie onboarding – Vlad Cazacu (Co-founder & CEO Flowlie)
• Peer-to-peer feedback 
• Growth through endorsement channels to reach a wider audience –  Eric Melchor (Founder of the Innovators Can Laugh B2B )
• Ask Me Anything session with founders with experience in US – Claudiu Murariu (CEO & Co-founder at InnerTrends) & Alex Gavril (Head of Growth at promocrat)
• Pitch Demo – Sebastian Gabor (Co-founder & CEO Digitail)
• IP for Startups in the US – Teodor Chirvase

Immersion Trip in the USA & Pitch Events

The program culminated with an immersion experience in the USA featuring three pitch events –  San Francisco on February 27th, Palo Alto on February 29th, and Austin on March 6th. This was an unique opportunity for founders to experience first-hand the startup ecosystem there, to connect with potential investors, partners, and to get tailored feedback. 

At the last Demo Day, the big investment prize was awarded to one of the startups. Continue reading to discover who got it. Read more about the USA trip here.

For the US trip, we had the support of US Landing Partners such as SILKROAD Innovation Hub, Austin Chamber of Commerce, Highwire, Austin Technology Council, Austin Venture Association, Endeavor, Silicon Valley Proptech Association, Menlo College, Plug and Play, EIT, International Accelerator, Honorary Consulate of Romania in San Francisco, UiPath, Flowlie, and Linnify.

Awarded Startups

First Pitch Event in San Francisco (February 27th, 2024)

🎊 Best Pitch – Virbe, the solution for optimized customer experience for retail customers through virtual beings

🎊 Audience Award – Vaunt, the platform that simplifies the process of buying and selling international properties

Press mentions – Start-up.ro, 

Second Pitch Event in Palo Alto (February 29th, 2024)

🎊 Best Startup chosen by the jury – Readmio, a digital platform revolutionizing children’s learning using voice recognition

🎊 Audience Awards – BEESERS, the app that provides access to the full medical journey from home, & Sessions, the communication and collaboration application for more efficient online meetings, consolidating all necessary functionalities in one place.

Last Pitch Event in Austin (March 6th, 2024)

🎊 Cohort Award – Readmio, a digital platform revolutionizing children’s learning using voice recognition

🎊Audience Awards – BEESERS, the app that provides access to the full medical journey from home

 🎊 Winner of the Big Investment Prize – €500,000 from Fortech Investments – Rayscape, the MedTech startup that acts as a complex digital assistant for radiologists, helping them analyze medical images through artificial intelligence.

Here’s what Valentin Filip, the Managing Partner of Fortech Investments, says:

“Although we initially decided to invest a smaller ticket in the current round of Rayscape we are now investing 500.000 euros due to the many great signals that we got from them. First of all, we focus a lot on healthcare startups and we believe in the power of synergy and creating multiple opportunities for Rayscape, as well as other star-ups in our portfolio, from similar verticals. We know the industry and we are impressed with the amount of value that Rayscape creates both for patients and, most importantly, for radiologists, a sector that needs more human capital. The accuracy and results of their solution are unquestionable.

The team, of course, played an important role in our decision, and Rayscape has brought together all the people with the right expertise and background. Ștefan impressed us even from day one and we knew we were making the right bet. Their current achievements are impressive, and the multitude of markets they entered proves the potential of their solution. 

The Rubik Garage Accelerator is exactly what a startup like Rayscape needs to enter the US market successfully. They have the right connections and intros and we learned this after a long collaboration with them. We’ve been working together for quite a while now and they have always provided us with good, quality leads and mature startups that were a great fit for us. We hope that we’ll be able to keep supporting them because they have definitely helped us a lot.”

Press mentions –Start-up.ro, Startup Cafe, SeeNews, Forbes, Tech.eu, Romania Hub, The Saas News, Icebreake.media, Bbabo.net, Revista Biz, Economica.net, Vestbee, Ain, Romanian Insider, Startup Cafe

Rubik Garage is a free-equity and fee-free accelerator, powered by Rubik Hub / North-East Regional Development Agency. Two editions are organized yearly – one for empowering startups scale into European markets, one for helping them scale into the US market. This was the sixth edition of the program.

So far, the Rubik Garage team directly supported 300+ startups & 2000+ founders, with the help of 200+ mentors.

Thanks to everyone who supported us in our journey of creating the bridge between the European and US startup ecosystems!