Starting Up Romania

Abstract

The report is organized in four chapters that together provide a comprehensive assessment of entrepreneurship and startup performance in Romania. Chapter one examines the context of entrepreneurship in Romania through a cross-country comparison that covers key outcomes and structural pillars of the ecosystem. The analysis exploits both firm-level data and cross-country indicators. Chapter two spotlights the potential of subnational entrepreneurship ecosystems, with a focus on tech startups and high-potential startups. This chapter identifies potential subnational ecosystems and sheds light on the characteristics of average tech startups in Romania, and their similarities to and differences from high-potential startups from Romania. It also includes a connectedness analysis, which helps us understand the relationships between entities in the ecosystem and the regional interdependencies. Chapter three examines the characteristics of public programs and private ecosystem enablers supporting entrepreneurship in Romania. Chapter four presents the policy recommendations stemming from the analysis within the report and juxtaposes them with policy priorities identified by ecosystem stakeholders.

This report is complemented by the separate report "Scaling Up Romania: A Policymaker's Toolkit" that outlines stakeholder- and diagnostic-driven policy recommendations for Romania’s National Startup Ecosystem Strategy. See link below.