
The rapid market expansion creates a fertile ground for fintech innovators, offering investors high‑growth opportunities and SMEs modern financial tools. These startups could shape the future of payments and credit infrastructure across Eastern Europe.
Romania’s digital payments landscape is on the cusp of a transformative boom, with analysts forecasting a near‑$93.5 billion market by 2030. A compound annual growth rate exceeding 20% reflects both consumer adoption of online commerce and a surge in SME digitisation. This macro‑trend is attracting capital to home‑grown fintech firms that can capture value across the payments value chain, from transaction processing to credit assessment.
Among the most promising ventures, FilmChain leverages blockchain‑style transparency to streamline royalty collections for the screen industry, securing €2.55 million in growth funding. Finqware builds an Open Banking‑based treasury platform that automates cash management for multi‑entity corporations, backed by €2.72 million. Seed‑stage players Lendox, Symphopay and Vestinda focus on AI‑enhanced credit intelligence, payments orchestration, and community‑driven trading ecosystems respectively, together attracting over €1 million in early capital. Their diverse solutions address critical pain points—cash flow visibility, fraud mitigation, and cost‑effective merchant services—essential for a digital‑first SME sector.
For investors, the convergence of robust market growth and targeted fintech innovation signals a compelling risk‑adjusted opportunity. The highlighted startups not only benefit from ample domestic demand but also possess scalable models that can expand across the EU’s regulated payments space. As Romanian SMEs continue to modernise, these firms are poised to become foundational infrastructure providers, potentially delivering outsized returns while reshaping the region’s financial services ecosystem.
Independent market projections indicate that total digital payments in Romania could climb to nearly $93.5 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual rate of just over 20 %. This growth is opening new opportunities for startups developing payment gateways, embedded‑finance solutions, and merchant tools designed to support an increasingly digital SME sector.
The Recursive spoke with a couple of regional investors to nominate fintech startups worth watching.
This article is done with the support of the Dealigence platform. Please feel free to contact us if we missed something: [email protected]. / If the deal’s original currency wasn’t the euro, we convert it to the ratio listed on the publishing day.
About: Provides digital Collection Account Management services for the screen industries, collecting and allocating revenues transparently and efficiently. Features include a royalties management system for digital distributors, broadcasters, and studios.
Founders: Irina Albita, Maria Tanjala
Latest round: €2.55 M
Stage: Growth
Investors: The Holt Xchange, DeBa Ventures, HearstLab, ROCA X, TechAngels Romania
Total funding: ~ €3 M
About: European fintech infrastructure provider and licensed Payment Institution offering an Open Banking‑based Treasury Management Automation platform for CFOs and finance teams of multi‑entity, cross‑border organisations and financial institutions.
Founders: Cosmin Cosma, Danut‑Ovidiu Covalciuc, Dumitru T.
Latest round: €2.72 M
Stage: Growth
Investors: SevenX Ventures, Elevator Ventures, GapMinder Venture Partners
Total funding: €3.83 M
About: A Credit Intelligence Service that leverages advanced AI and proprietary models to enhance credit‑risk assessment for corporate and SME clients, improving portfolio quality and identifying default or fraud risks by analyzing over 12,000 alternative data points.
Founders: Cosmin Curticapean, Sebastian Presecan, Mihai Grosu
Latest round: €719 K
Stage: Seed
Investors: ROCA X
Total funding: €1.53 M
About: Payments orchestration platform that integrates bank systems, enabling merchants and banks to utilize payments as a business tool for customer engagement and cost optimisation.
Founders: Daniel Nicolescu, Sebastian Ionita
Latest round: N/A
Stage: Seed
Investors: Early Game Ventures
Total funding: €1.19 M
About: A community‑driven ecosystem that enables users to build diversified and automated trading strategies across multiple asset classes and brokers. Features include backtesting, demo trading, live trading, and access to expert‑created strategies, all secured with bank‑grade encryption and two‑factor authentication.
Founders: Alin Breaban, Diana Drajneanu
Latest round: €411 K
Stage: Seed
Investors: Techstars, dpixel
Total funding: €692 K
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