After years of building programs, testing formats, and expanding its footprint across Europe and beyond, InnovX entered 2025 with a clearer sense of who it is, what it does best, and where it creates the most value. The focus shifted from launching more initiatives to strengthening impact: deepening partnerships, refining program architecture, and supporting founders and corporates through increasingly complex international journeys.
This evolution did not go unnoticed. For the second year in a row, InnovX was ranked by the Financial Times, Statista & Sifted as the #1 accelerator in Central and Eastern Europe, a recognition that reflects not only performance, but consistency. More importantly, it marked a turning point: visibility became responsibility. Expectations grew, and with them, the need for stronger structures, sharper execution, and a more globally oriented mindset across everything InnovX delivers.
Behind this progress stands a growing internal team that, in 2025, significantly strengthened InnovX’s capacity to operate at scale, across borders, and across multiple stakeholder ecosystems simultaneously.
At the core of this structure are the founders, Diana DUMITRESCU, PhD. and Daniel Dumitrescu, PhD., whose complementary leadership continues to shape InnovX’s strategic direction. Today, the InnovX team includes Anca Luca, Bianca Păcurar, George Cristian Radu, Gabriel Arabu, Rares Gherasim, Alexandra Ionescu, and Ramadan Omar.
Their arrival was not about growth in numbers, but about strengthening resilience, focus, and execution capacity, enabling InnovX not only to support multiple programs, markets, and international collaborations in parallel, but to do it with clarity, consistency, and an efficient organization.
XTeam
Yet InnovX has never been built by its internal team alone. A critical layer of continuity and strategic depth comes from those who operate at the intersection of ecosystem development, sector expertise, and long-term execution. In 2025, this role was carried by Ana Bobirca and Nicu Iancu, whose work has become foundational to InnovX’s evolution.
With a strong focus on investment strategy, capital readiness, and investor engagement, Ana Bobirca has ensured coherence across how companies are prepared, positioned, and supported in their growth trajectories. Her role safeguards continuity across investment-related activities, reinforcing InnovX’s capacity to connect innovation with capital in a structured and credible way.
In parallel, Nicu Iancu has anchored InnovX’s development in cybersecurity and dual-use innovation, contributing strategic insight in an area that increasingly sits at the intersection of technology, resilience, and institutional relevance. His work has helped position InnovX within critical security and technology dialogues shaping the future of Europe’s innovation landscape.
Nicu Iancu & Ana Bobirca
Together, they provide stability, direction, and domain-specific leadership that extends beyond individual programs. Their contribution is essential to the sustained development of the InnovX ecosystem, ensuring that growth is aligned with strategic priorities and long-term relevance.
2025 brought fresh energy into InnovX’s ecosystem. New cohorts entered STARTUPsX, MoonShotX, Open Horizons Project, each bringing new challenges, perspectives, and ambitions, new events and networking opportunities took place within the EU-LAC and ECYBRIDGE projects.
Across the InnovX community, our alumni continued to achieve meaningful milestones - from international pilots and strategic partnerships to investments, market expansion, and organisational transformation.
Results & Growth
By the end of 2025, InnovX’s evolution was defined by the consistency of the ecosystem it had built over time. What began years ago as a series of acceleration initiatives has matured into a structured, interconnected platform capable of supporting innovation journeys across stages, sectors, and borders.
Across all its programs, InnovX has now accelerated 475 innovators, working closely with 208 corporate innovation partners and engaging 364 mentors and experts from Romania and abroad. Together, these connections have translated into tangible outcomes: €108.3 million in investment facilitated and 453 impactful events delivered, from closed-door strategy sessions and international bootcamps to high-level pitch events and public conferences.
These numbers are not presented as performance indicators in isolation, but as signals of depth and maturity. They reflect the growing complexity of the challenges InnovX addresses and its increasing capacity to operate at scale, supporting founders, corporates, investors, and institutions simultaneously, while maintaining clarity of purpose and execution.
This international reach has been matched by the breadth and diversity of industries represented across the InnovX ecosystem. In 2025, companies accelerated and supported by InnovX spanned sectors such as ICT, Automation, Cybersecurity, Energy, GreenTech, Manufacturing, Production, HealthTech, FinTech, Construction, Telecommunications, E-commerce, EdTech, Space, Mobility, MarTech, Agriculture, Retail, Blockchain, and HR technologies. This cross-sector mix reflects InnovX’s role as a truly horizontal accelerator, capable of supporting innovation at the intersection of technology, industry, and real-world application, while creating bridges between traditionally separate verticals as companies prepare to scale internationally.
Infographic - InnnovX Community Industries
Media visibility accelerated significantly in 2025, becoming a key lever in strengthening InnovX’s public presence and institutional credibility. Throughout the year, InnovX’s work, leadership perspectives, and ecosystem voices were consistently featured across leading business and mainstream media, with Ziarul Financiar and Digi24 as core media partners, alongside continued coverage from HotNews, Business Magazin, and other national outlets.
Across these channels, InnovX generated hundreds of thousands of impressions and sustained audience engagement through a growing portfolio of long-form editorial content, live broadcasts, and video interviews. In total, over 80 interviews and recorded conversations were produced in 2025, capturing insights from founders, corporate leaders, experts, and innovation experts connected to the InnovX ecosystem.
One of the defining media moments of the year was the Ziarul Financiar LIVE broadcast, which reached over 23,000 impressions and maintained an average of approximately 800 concurrent viewers throughout the event, a strong indicator of sustained attention and relevance. In parallel, 9 dedicated Ziarul Financiar articles were published over the course of the year, reinforcing InnovX’s positioning as a trusted reference point for innovation, internationalisation, and scale-up growth.
Beyond earned media, InnovX’s own communication channels amplified this visibility through consistent storytelling, event coverage, and thought leadership, reaching tens of thousands of organic impressions. Together, earned and owned media formed a coherent narrative layer, not driven by isolated announcements, but by continuity, substance, and long-term presence.
The new partnership with Digi24 marked a turning point in how innovation scaling stories reached the public. As a dedicated television format, the show helps bring the realities of scaling, internationalization, and corporate collaboration into prime media space, generating strong attention and extending InnovX’s voice far beyond the boundaries of its core ecosystem.
Romanian Businesses in the UK: MoonShotX, the accelerator for international scaling
Scaling Romanian Businesses to Japan and Global Markets
Scaling Romanian Businesses in Austria
This increased visibility was further validated by external recognition. In 2025, Innovx, along with Raiffeisen Bank Romania received the Silver Award for Excellence – Corporate Communication at the Romanian PR Award Gala, acknowledging the strength of our partnership and our program’s ability to translate collaboration into real impact for the companies it supports. The award reinforced InnovX's position as a benchmark for how strategic communication, trust, and long-term alignment can elevate innovation programs beyond their immediate ecosystem.
Taken together, these results point to a broader shift. InnovX is no longer defined solely by acceleration cycles, but by its ability to convene diverse stakeholders around shared objectives, align public and private interests, and translate innovation into real economic and strategic value.
The signals of growth seen in 2025 are, above all, indicators of an ecosystem that has learned how to scale - deliberately, responsibly, and with people at its core.
Internationalisation in Action: From Strategic Intent to Global Presence
Building on this strategic framework, 2025 also became a year of validation through presence. InnovX’s international engagement moved beyond dialogue and positioning into moments where Romanian innovation was tested, represented, and recognised within some of the world’s most demanding business environments.
A defining milestone of this trajectory was marked in the United Kingdom, where InnovX concluded a full international cycle with a Closing Ceremony held at the London Stock Exchange - the first time a Romanian accelerator-led initiative reached this level of institutional visibility. This moment symbolised not only completion, but confirmation: that companies supported by InnovX are capable of operating within global financial and innovation ecosystems, on equal footing with international peers.
Bianca Pacurar, Diana Dumitrescu, Daniel Dumitrescu, Anca Luca, Ana Bobirca
This achievement was made possible with the valuable support of the British Embassy Bucharest, and we extend our sincere appreciation to Cristina Dragu 🇬🇧💰🚀 and His Excellency Giles Portman, UK Ambassador to Romania, for their continued trust, openness, and commitment to strengthening cross-border collaboration.
MoonShotX Closing Ceremony, London Stock Exchange
Across the year, international engagement unfolded through a series of carefully structured missions designed as real-world pressure tests, not symbolic showcases. In the United States, InnovX’s continued presence within the SelectUSA ecosystem connected founders and executives with investment communities, economic diplomacy actors, and large-scale market dynamics, offering an uncompromising benchmark for scalability, credibility, and ambition.
In Austria, Vienna functioned as a strategic gateway into Central Europe. Engagements there focused on regional financing structures, institutional frameworks, and cross-border collaboration, reinforcing Austria’s role as both a testing ground and an entry point for companies preparing to expand within and beyond the EU.
We are grateful for the consistent support of the Austrian Embassy Bucharest and for the engagement of Her Excellency Ulla Krauss-Nussbaumer, whose openness and encouragement contributed meaningfully to deepening economic and innovation ties.
Alongside these established international anchors, Japan emerged in 2025 as the most forward-looking addition to InnovX’s global trajectory. Throughout the year, InnovX deepened its dialogue with Japanese diplomatic representatives and ecosystem actors, exploring concrete pathways for collaboration in innovation exchange, technology transfer, and structured market entry. These engagements were intentionally built around trust, cultural alignment, and long-term intent, reflecting an understanding that meaningful access to the Japanese market requires continuity, precision, and sustained presence.
The momentum created in 2025 laid the groundwork for a dedicated InnovX delegation to Japan planned for 2026, signalling a shift from exploratory internationalisation toward deliberate, long-term ecosystem integration in Asia.
In this context, we extend our warm thanks to Daisuke Kudo, Kentaro Morita, the Embassy of Japan, Hiroshi Kudo, and to His Excellency Katae Takashi, Ambassador of Japan to Romania, for their openness, strategic dialogue, and support in shaping the foundations for future collaboration between Romanian innovation and the Japanese ecosystem.
Japan Delegation at MoonShotX Opening Gala
Together, these efforts reinforced InnovX’s role as a platform capable of translating local innovation into globally connected opportunity, not episodically, but structurally, across markets, institutions, and cultures.
Internationalisation Embedded at Home
The strategic international focus of 2025 was also reflected in InnovX’s flagship moments in Bucharest. The MoonShotX Opening Gala and Bootcamp Week became true convergence points for founders, multinational corporates, investors, and diplomatic representatives.
Over several days, international expertise and cross-border perspectives were embedded directly into the program’s core. Alongside representatives from the UK, the US, Austria, and Japan, this year's bootcamp also convened a broader diplomatic presence. This included representatives from Cyprus, the Netherlands, and the Republic of Moldova, such as H.E. Pericles Stivaros (Ambassador of the Republic of Cyprus), Janette Verrijzer (Embassy of the Netherlands), and H.E. Victor Chirila (Ambassador of the Republic of Moldova). This extended participation enriched the dialogue around innovation, resilience, and cooperation, demonstrating InnovX’s capacity to convene both strategic markets and regional partners within a single ecosystem framework.
InnovX Abroad: Active Presence in Global Innovation Forums
International engagement in 2025 extended well beyond events hosted in Romania. Members of the InnovX team actively represented the ecosystem in key global innovation forums, contributing to institutional dialogue, policy-level conversations, and cross-border collaboration.
Early in the year, InnovX was present at the MIT Dual-Use Ventures Program in Boston, where Daniel Dumitrescu, PhD., our Chief Innovation Officer, took part in an intensive programme focused on the intersection of commercial innovation, national security, and emerging technologies. Hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the programme brought together leading experts, investors, and practitioners working at the crossroads of dual-use technology, cybersecurity, AI, defence innovation, and public–private collaboration. This engagement strengthened InnovX’s understanding of transatlantic innovation dynamics and reinforced its role in positioning Romanian and European innovation within complex global security and technology ecosystems.
In Bratislava, InnovX joined its European consortium partners Sploro, PEDAL Consulting, and Migros Ticaret for the official kick-off of the Open Horizons Project, focused on strengthening startup–corporate engagement across the continent. As a core partner responsible for corporate engagement and pilot coordination, the InnovX team contributed to shaping the operational framework that connects high-potential deep-tech startups with real corporate challenges at European level. The meeting marked an important moment of alignment between partners, reinforcing InnovX’s role within EU-funded innovation initiatives and its capacity to operate effectively within complex, multi-country collaboration structures.
At Mobile World Congress Barcelona (MWC 2025) and 4YFN, InnovX was represented by Anca Luca, Chief Growth Officer, who spoke about the Open Horizons Project, a European Commission / European Union –funded initiative supporting women-led deep-tech startups.
Beyond the panel, MWC created valuable moments of reconnection with InnovX alumni active on global markets and enabled strategic conversations with European and international partners, reinforcing InnovX’s role as an active contributor to the global innovation dialogue.
In Brussels, InnovX participated in the EIC Summit 2025 as an official European Innovation Council and EISMEA partner, engaging with European institutions, EIC-backed innovators, and ecosystem leaders, while showcasing initiatives such as STARTUPsX and Open Horizons Project within the European deep-tech landscape.
InnovX also strengthened its presence in Southern Europe in 2025 through participation in the EGG Investor Day by Eurobank, held in Athens. Diana DUMITRESCU, PhD., represented the organisation at a high-level forum that brought together 41 startup teams from seven countries and over 200 international investors from Europe, North America, and Israel. The event offered a strong snapshot of the Central and Eastern European innovation landscape, highlighting the growing maturity of startup ecosystems across sectors such as AI, FinTech, GreenTech, and HealthTech.
Beyond the pitching sessions, the event reinforced the strategic importance of corporate open innovation, venture banking, and cross-border investment as key drivers of regional transformation. Contributions from government representatives and Eurobank’s leadership underscored the role of startups in shaping future-ready economies. InnovX’s participation reflected its continued commitment to connecting corporates, investors, and high-potential founders across CEE, and to actively contributing to platforms where innovation is translated into scalable, investment-ready opportunity.
InnovX’s international presence in 2025 also extended to Central and Eastern Europe through participation in the MIT Global Startup Workshop (MIT GSW) 2025, hosted in Warsaw. Representing InnovX, Daniel Dumitrescu, PhD. joined a global gathering of corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, scientists, investors, and policymakers focused on innovation, sustainability, and cross-sector collaboration.
InnovX also contributed actively to the event’s applied innovation dimension. Daniel Dumitrescu, PhD. served as a jury member in the Startup Pitch Competition, evaluating early-stage solutions addressing real-world challenges across AI, energy, healthtech, and deep tech. In parallel, InnovX showcased insights from ECYBRIDGE, highlighting European efforts to strengthen synergies between civilian and defence cybersecurity.
Participation in MIT GSW reinforced InnovX’s role as a connector between science, business, and public institutions, and as an active voice in shaping conversations around emerging technologies, resilience, and responsible innovation across borders.
MIT Global Startup Workshop
InnovX’s international presence also reached Latin America, where participation in the EU–LAC Innovation Cooperation event in Mexico City opened new avenues for transatlantic collaboration. This engagement highlighted InnovX’s growing role in connecting startups, corporates, and institutions across continents, including early steps toward cross-continental cooperation in cybersecurity through the ECYBRIDGE framework.
Further strengthening its European footprint, InnovX was represented in Germany at the Clusters Meet Regions – Cross (X) Innovation conference in Regensburg, organized under the European Cluster Collaboration Platform. The event provided insight into how regional innovation ecosystems, clusters, and public actors collaborate to drive sustainable and resilient growth across Europe.
A System, Not a Series of Events
Taken together, these initiatives illustrate InnovX’s approach to internationalisation as a continuous, hands-on process, not a collection of isolated missions or appearances.
By embedding global dialogue into its programs, maintaining an active presence in international policy and innovation forums, and cultivating long-term diplomatic relationships, InnovX has positioned itself as a platform capable of operating across markets, institutions, and cultures, transforming local innovation into a globally connected opportunity.
From Idea to Scale - InnovX Active Programs
At the heart of InnovX’s ecosystem lies a deliberately structured pathway designed to support companies not at a single moment in time, but across the full arc of their growth. From early-stage founders shaping their first scalable assumptions to mid-corporates and mature organizations navigating international expansion, InnovX’s programs function as interconnected stages within the same journey.
Rather than operating as standalone initiatives, STARTUPsX, MoonShotX, Open Horizons Project, and ECYBRIDGE, EULAC Innovation Cooperation and InnovX.AI form a progression built around readiness, ambition, and context. Each program responds to a different set of needs, while sharing a common philosophy: acceleration is not about speed alone, but about building the right foundations for sustainable growth.
STARTUPsX – Building the foundations
STARTUPsX represents one of the entry points into the InnovX ecosystem, supporting early-stage founders as they move from idea to structure and market readiness.
In its most recent edition, the program attracted 85 applicants, selecting 24 startups to participate in the acceleration and matchmaking phases. These teams engaged with 42 mentors, 16 investors, and 14 corporate representatives, resulting in 60+ strategic introductions and exposure to 7 international markets across Europe and beyond.
As 2025 comes to a close, InnovX is preparing to welcome a new cohort, continuing its role as a launchpad for emerging founders entering the European innovation landscape.
Applications for the STARTUPsX program are open, and startups ready to build with structure and ambition can apply here.
MoonShotX – Scaling with intent
If STARTUPsX builds the foundation, MoonShotX is where scale becomes deliberate and more strategic. Designed for scale-ups and mid-sized companies, the program focuses on internationalization, corporate collaboration, and access to capital.
The 2025 edition of MoonShotX was built on the momentum of a powerful conclusion to the previous cohort. Earlier this year, the first MoonShotX journey came to a close with a landmark Closing Ceremony hosted at the London Stock Exchange, a symbolic moment that marked the program’s transition from a national scaling initiative into a truly international platform. Bringing Romanian companies onto one of the world’s most iconic financial stages reinforced the ambition, credibility, and global readiness that MoonShotX now represents.
In 2025, MoonShotX brought together 21 mid-sized companies, supported by 113 international experts, corporate leaders, and investors. Across its flagship moments, including the Opening Gala and Bootcamp Week in Bucharest, the program engaged over 200 participants and reached an estimated 70,000+ people through media coverage and public-facing content.
MoonShotX continues to position itself as a strategic bridge between Romanian innovation and global markets, supporting companies navigating complex cross-border growth journeys.
Open Horizons – Deep tech, equity, and corporate collaboration
Open Horizons Project brings a European-funded dimension to InnovX’s ecosystem, focusing on women-led deep-tech startups and structured collaboration with large corporations.
During Open Call #1, 9 corporate partners shared a total of 17 innovation challenges, attracting 263 applications from women-led deep-tech startups across Europe. Following a competitive selection process, 7 startups entered the Inception Programme, and 5 are now preparing to move forward into the piloting phase, where solutions are tested directly with corporate partners. With up to €55,000 per PoC, the program prioritises real-world validation over theoretical acceleration.
At the same time, Open Call #2 is currently open and already demonstrates strong market pull, with 7 corporate partners confirmed across key strategic industries, including retail, maritime and shipbuilding, energy, professional services, construction, and advanced manufacturing. Corporations such as PENNY | REWE Romania, Fincantieri, Tüpraş, Colliers, Alumil Romania, Repsol, and Holcim highlight the program’s relevance for organisations seeking applied innovation, sustainability-driven solutions, and direct engagement with emerging deep-tech capabilities.
With three cohorts planned, over €1.2M in cascade funding, and a growing pipeline of startups moving from challenge definition to piloting and follow-on collaboration, Open Horizons strengthens InnovX’s role at the intersection of European innovation policy, corporate demand, and scalable deep-tech execution.
Applications are currently open, and eligible startups are invited to explore the opportunity and apply here: https://cascadefunding.sploro.eu/apply/program/open-horizons-oc2-applicants
ECYBRIDGE – Innovation at the intersection of security and resilience
Completing this pathway, ECYBRIDGE addresses one of the most strategically relevant areas of innovation today: cybersecurity and dual-use technologies. Positioned at the intersection of academia, industry, and public institutions, the program facilitates cross-border collaboration and knowledge exchange in domains essential to economic and societal resilience.
Through more than 15 events delivered within the ECYBRIDGE framework, in collaboration with its consortium partners, InnovX has contributed to building a specialised space for dialogue at the intersection of cybersecurity, dual-use innovation, and European strategic resilience. These activities were complemented by the development of three White Papers, offering applied insights and policy-oriented perspectives to ongoing conversations around cyber resilience, hybrid threats, and cross-sector preparedness at European level.
Across conferences, expert panels, and applied research dialogue, ECYBRIDGE has strengthened connections between innovators, researchers, institutional stakeholders, and public authorities, reinforcing InnovX’s capacity to operate within complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
Nicu Iancu, Gabriel Raicu, Constanta Maritime University, MARITIME CYBERSECURITY CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE, InnovX, Euro-Atlantic Resilience Centre, The Romanian National Cyber Security Directorate, The National Institute for Research & Development in Informatics - ICI Bucharest, Safetech Innovations, BIT SENTINEL, CYSCOE - Cyber Security Cluster of Excellence, Cyber Dacians, Baltic Defence College, Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy, National Defence University "Carol I" Bucharest, Military Technical Academy "Ferdinand I", RiskSight, Infili Technologies SA, Romanian Association for Information Security Assurance (RAISA), Beia Consult International
This trajectory culminated in its most recent international conference, which unfolded over three days and brought together more than 50 speakers, moderators, and facilitators from academia, industry, defence, and public institutions. Structured across six high-level panels and two applied workshops, the conference created a focused space for strategic exchange on Europe’s cyber resilience, hybrid threat landscape, and long-term security readiness.
EU–LAC Innovation Cooperation – Bridging Continents Through Innovation
The EU–LAC Innovation Cooperation Program extends InnovX’s ecosystem beyond Europe, positioning it as an active connector between the European Union and Latin America & the Caribbean (LAC).
Through EU–LAC, InnovX has played a bridging role between startups, accelerators, corporates, universities, and public institutions, facilitating dialogue, knowledge exchange, and collaboration across regions. The program focuses not only on innovation transfer, but on creating durable networks capable of supporting sustainable development, talent mobility, and joint problem-solving across different regulatory and cultural contexts.
In 2025, this role became tangible through InnovX’s participation in the EU–LAC Innovation Cooperation delegation in Mexico City, where the team presented strategic initiatives from the InnovX ecosystem, including STARTUPsX, Open Horizons Project, and ECYBRIDGE. These exchanges brought together startups, institutions, and decision-makers from both regions, opening pathways for collaboration in areas such as human-centric digital transformation, cybersecurity, water management, circular economy, and mobility.
Beyond individual events, the EU–LAC program reinforces InnovX’s positioning as an ecosystem operator capable of working across continents and institutional frameworks. By partnering with organisations such as ENRICH in LAC, Centro de Innovación UC Anacleto Angelini and Start-Up Chile in Chile, InnovX contributes to a growing international network where innovation serves people, resilience, and equal opportunity, aligned with global priorities such as the green transition and regulatory convergence between the EU and LAC regions.
InnovX.AI – Building the Infrastructure Behind Smarter Acceleration
In 2025, InnovX took a decisive step toward the future of acceleration by launching InnovX.AI, its next-generation digital platform designed to rethink how innovation ecosystems operate at scale.
A notable ecosystem milestone this year was the recognition of InnovX.AI, as a winner of the Microsoft CEE AI Fintech & Insurtech Accelerator. The award validated the platform’s mission to support financial institutions in identifying and enabling future unicorns through explainable AI, personalised funding pathways, and high-integrity data frameworks. Developed in close collaboration with partners such as Microsoft, NVIDIA, Mastercard, and regional banking leaders, InnovX.AI illustrates how InnovX-driven innovation translates into real-world, bankable solutions at the intersection of AI, fintech, and responsible finance.
Developed from years of hands-on work with startups, corporates, investors, and public institutions, InnovX.AI emerged as a direct response to a recurring challenge encountered across the ecosystem: fragmented workflows, manual processes, and disconnected decision-making throughout the innovation lifecycle. Rather than adding another tool to an already complex landscape, InnovX.AI was built to replace fragmentation with coherence, bringing all stakeholders into a single, integrated, AI-powered environment.
The platform supports the full acceleration journey, from early-stage scouting and structured evaluation to investment readiness and funding strategy. By combining artificial intelligence with human expertise, InnovX.AI enables data-driven insight at moments where intuition alone is no longer sufficient. Its role is not to automate judgment, but to augment it — helping transform raw innovation into structured, bankable opportunity while preserving the human context behind each venture.
At its core, InnovX.AI focuses on three essential shifts:
- turning potential into performance through predictive insight and structured evaluation;
- bridging the gap between ideas and investment by aligning startups with the right financial pathways;
- and enabling tailored funding strategies that reflect real business maturity, not generic benchmarks.
More than a digital platform, InnovX.AI represents a strategic capability for the entire InnovX ecosystem. It strengthens InnovX’s ability to operate across programs, markets, and institutional environments with greater speed, clarity, and consistency. At the same time, it reflects a deeper belief that acceleration itself must evolve, becoming more transparent, more scalable, and more resilient as innovation ecosystems grow in complexity.
As part of this long-term vision, InnovX also established a legal entity in the United Kingdom in 2025, creating a dedicated international base for the future development and deployment of InnovX.AI. While still in its early stages, this structure lays the groundwork for scaling InnovX.AI across international markets, supporting global partnerships, and anchoring future innovation and investment-related activities within a mature and trusted legal framework.
Together, InnovX.AI and this international expansion mark the beginning of a new chapter for InnovX - one where technology reinforces judgment, insight replaces guesswork, and startups are supported not only to grow, but to grow intelligently, across borders and at scale.
InnovX Academy – Turning Knowledge into Capability
Beyond acceleration programs and international exposure, InnovX Academy represents the ecosystem’s long-term investment in people, skills, and strategic thinking. Built as a learning platform for founders, corporate leaders, students, and professionals, the Academy translates real-world innovation experience into practical education formats, grounded in reality, not theory.
Throughout the year, InnovX Academy delivered hands-on workshops, applied learning sessions, and collaborative events, addressing topics such as business strategy, funding readiness, innovation management, and long-term growth planning. The focus remained constant: equipping participants with clarity, structure, and decision-making confidence in increasingly complex environments.
In 2025, the Academy strengthened its presence through live learning formats and institutional collaborations, including dedicated workshops and co-created sessions with academic partners. Notable examples include the Bright Minds, Bold Plans initiative developed together with Facultatea de Management, specialized InnovX Academy workshops hosted at University of Bucharest, designed to bridge strategic thinking with execution.
Facultatea de Management, SNSPA
Facultatea de Management, SNSPA
A key element of InnovX Academy’s impact is its strong network of expert partners, such as REI & Partners, whose contribution brought applied expertise, market insight, and real funding know-how into the learning experience. These partnerships ensure that Academy content stays closely connected to market realities, regulatory frameworks, and the actual challenges faced by growing companies and innovation leaders.
University of Bucharest (UniBuc)
InnovX Academy continues to evolve as a space where learning meets practice, and where education supports the broader mission of InnovX: building resilient organizations, informed leaders, and innovation ecosystems ready to scale responsibly and sustainably.
Partnerships & Corporate Collaboration
Partnerships remained a central driver of InnovX’s ecosystem in 2025, evolving from individual collaborations into a structured network of long-term strategic relationships. Across all programs and initiatives, InnovX worked with over 200 corporate innovation partners, reflecting the scale and maturity of the ecosystem it has built over time.
This partner network extended well beyond Romania. In 2025, InnovX collaborated with corporates and institutional partners operating across Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan, alongside organizations active in additional international markets. This geographic diversity enabled companies within the ecosystem to engage with multiple business cultures, regulatory environments, and market dynamics, reinforcing InnovX’s role as a connector between local innovation and global opportunity.
A defining pillar of InnovX’s partnership model continued to be its collaboration with Raiffeisen Bank Romania, which, in 2025, grew stronger than ever, into a multi-layered strategic relationship.
MoonShotX Team
Together with Cristian Marius Sporis, Sorin Suciu, Laura Ionescu, Laura Mihaila, Andreea Porojan, Livia Fericean, Liviu Mihai, Florentina Balasa, Ioana Silistraru, Mihaela Vasiluta and Bianca Daniela Ciubotaru, InnovX co-designed and delivered advanced acceleration formats that connected companies to corporate expertise, financial know-how, and international growth pathways. This collaboration exemplified how financial institutions and innovation ecosystems can work together at scale, grounded in trust, strategic alignment, and long-term vision.
This partnership became a benchmark for how corporate institutions and innovation ecosystems can move forward together, with trust, strategic depth, and shared ambition.
Cristian Sporis, Raiffeisen Private Banking
Laura Ionescu, Raiffeisen Private Banking
Sorin Suciu, Ana Bobirca, Diana Dumitrescu, Laura Ionescu, Alex Cristescu
The same depth of collaboration defined InnovX’s work with Microsoft. Supported by experts such as Aimen Aldahash, Robert Pufan, Ovidiu Pismac, Daniel Rusen, Alina Irma Orban, Sergiu Pop, alongside a broader regional Microsoft team, founders and scale-ups were guided through AI adoption, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and enterprise readiness.
In 2025, this collaboration evolved decisively from knowledge-sharing to implementation, helping companies build solutions designed not just to function, but to scale internationally.
Microsoft team
Legal and structural readiness remained a fundamental pillar of sustainable scaling throughout 2025. In close collaboration with DLA Piper, InnovX ensured that companies approaching international markets did so with a solid legal and governance foundation in place. From structuring cross-border partnerships and pilot collaborations to preparing for investment and international operations, legal clarity was treated as an enabler of growth, not a constraint.
DLA Piper, Vienna
Through the expertise of Bogdan Buta, Cristina Bucur, and Tudor Nedelea, founders were guided through the practical realities of expansion, aligning innovation with robust frameworks that support credibility, compliance, and long-term resilience in global contexts.
Bianca Pacurar, Cristina Bucur, Anca Luca, DLA Piper Washington
Bogdan Buta, Tudor Nedelea, DLA Piper London
Together, these partnerships did more than support individual programs. They shaped a shared way of working - one based on trust, expertise, and long-term commitment, that InnovX proudly carries into the year ahead.
Beyond its long-standing collaborations, 2025 marked a year of active partner expansion for InnovX. Through its programs, international presence, and diplomatic engagement, the ecosystem welcomed new corporate and institutional partners that engaged directly in program delivery, mentoring, pilot development, and market access. These collaborations further densified the ecosystem, bringing together expertise from energy, manufacturing, retail, technology, finance, and global trade.
Among the new partners joining the InnovX ecosystem in 2025 are organizations such as Siemens, repsol, Procter & Gamble, EY, PPC Romania, LG Electronics, Holcim, Stahl, Elyaf Tekstil, Tüpraş, FINCANTIERI, PENNY | REWE Romania, Alumil Romania, Colliers, SKInnovation, Invest Hong Kong, icanpreneur | file > new > startup®, ENRICH in LAC
Alongside this growing partner base, InnovX continued to work closely with a strong and trusted network of investors and venture capital funds, whose ongoing involvement supports the investment readiness and scaling journeys of companies across the ecosystem. This includes: Eleven Ventures, Catalyst Romania, Founders Bridge, Growceanu, Impact Ventures, Sparking Capital, Fortech Investments, cleverage.vc, Elevator Ventures, SeedBlink, Presto Ventures, Metis Ventures, V7 Capital, Feelsgood, ROCA X.
Together, these partnerships illustrate a defining characteristic of InnovX’s maturity: the ability to convene corporates, institutions, and ecosystem organizations across geographies and sectors, and to translate collaboration into sustained value for companies navigating complex global environments.
The Experts Behind the Progress
Behind every program, partnership, and milestone in 2025 stood a strong network of mentors and experts whose experience, commitment, and long-term involvement shaped the InnovX ecosystem. From strategic guidance and hands-on mentorship to challenging assumptions and opening international perspectives, their contribution remains a defining element of InnovX’s approach to acceleration and scale.
Throughout the year, 364 mentors and experts engaged across InnovX programs, supporting founders, scale-ups, and corporates at different stages of their journey. Many of these collaborations reflect long-term relationships built on trust, shared values, and a common ambition to strengthen Europe’s innovation landscape. Thank you ALL!
Maria-Luiza Jipescu, Adina Saniuta, Ph.D., Aimen Aldahash, Alina Tiugan, Andreea Porojan, Bogdan Năforniţă 🚀, Daniel Dumitrescu, PhD., Delia NECULA, Diana DUMITRESCU, PhD., Dorina T., Emilia Mazararu, CFA, George-Adrian Stanciu, Gioga Constantin, Gina Beatrice Lazarescu, György Bodó, PhD, Issabela-Cella Raileanu, Laura Ionescu, Liviu Munteanu, Madalina Ciinaru, Maria Alexandra Dorofte, Melinda Mureșan, Nicu Iancu, Oana Lupan, RALUCA MOICA, Raluca Nicolescu, CFA, Radu Cornea, Robert Pufan, Roxana Barbato, MBA, Sandra Cahu, Sergiu Pop, Simona-Loredana Harpa, Sonia-Denisa Fedorovici, Steliana Moraru, Suleiman A, Iuliana Pascu , Anca Ghiuță, Ioana Dumitrescu, Ioana Tudor, Ailyn Abibula, Irina Stefanescu, CRISTINA KALINOV (POGEA), Diana Iacob, Gina Lazarescu, Adriana Petrov-Lungu, Alexandra Ioana Șocarici, Elena Vladuleasa, FCCA, RALUCA MOICA, Adela Tapurin, Bogdan-Ionut Lazaroiu, Mugurel Gheorghe, Cristina Bucur, Catalin Gavrizescu, Simona Turiga, Luminița-Mirela Mușat, Veronica-Raluca Moise, George Mucibabici Jr., Alina Rus.
Looking Ahead - What’s Next
As InnovX closes 2025, the focus shifts naturally from consolidation to continuity. The year ahead is shaped by the same principles that guided recent growth: depth over volume, international relevance, and programs designed to respond to real market needs rather than abstract trends.
STARTUPsX enters the next phase with preparations underway for a new cohort, continuing its role as the entry point for early-stage founders ready to build strong foundations. The program will maintain its emphasis on structure, decision-making, and exposure to investors and corporate stakeholders, while expanding opportunities for international connection early in the founders’ journey. For a deeper look at this year’s progress, outcomes, and community impact, the full STARTUPsX Program Report is available.
For MoonShotX, the year ahead builds on a clear international trajectory. With strong engagement already established across priority markets such as the UK, the US, Austria, and Japan, the program will continue to support scale-ups and mid-sized companies navigating complex expansion paths. International market access, corporate collaboration, and capital readiness remain central, reinforced by flagship moments that bring global stakeholders directly into the ecosystem. A detailed overview of program’s milestones, international activity, and company journeys can be explored in the full MoonShotX Program Reports, for both the first and the second edition.
Open Horizons Project moves forward on two parallel tracks. Startups selected during the first cohort’s Inception Phase are preparing to work closely with corporate partners in the next stage of implementation, while Open Call #2 opens the door to a new wave of women-led deep-tech founders. Together, these tracks strengthen the program’s role as both a delivery mechanism for immediate collaboration and a long-term pipeline for equitable access to innovation at a European level. Insights into the program’s structure, selection process, and early collaboration outcomes are captured in the Open Horizons Program Report, available here.
In parallel, ECYBRIDGE continues into its next phase as a platform for strategic dialogue and collaboration at the intersection of cybersecurity, innovation, and institutional resilience. Building on the momentum of its international conference and applied research activities, the program will further connect academia, industry, and public institutions around shared European priorities.
Across all initiatives, InnovX moves into the next year with a clear sense of direction: scaling what works, deepening what matters, and staying present where innovation, policy, and global collaboration intersect. The ecosystem enters the future not by expanding indiscriminately, but by strengthening its capacity to support companies, partners, and institutions in navigating an increasingly complex global landscape, together. A comprehensive overview of InnovX’s 2025 activities, impact, and ecosystem evolution is available in the full InnovX Annual Report
As we reflect on the progress and milestones achieved throughout 2025, one thing stands out clearly: InnovX has grown not only in scale, but in purpose. The past year has been shaped by meaningful collaborations, international dialogue, and a shared commitment to building an innovation ecosystem that connects people, ideas, and opportunities across borders.
Looking ahead, InnovX enters the next chapter with clarity and confidence. With strengthened programs, trusted partnerships, and an increasingly international community, the ecosystem is well positioned to continue supporting founders, corporates, and institutions as they navigate complex and fast-evolving markets. Our commitment remains unchanged: to foster collaboration, enable sustainable growth, and contribute to innovation that creates real, long-term value.
As we continue to evolve, we remain deeply grateful to the community that makes this journey possible - founders, partners, experts, and institutions alike. We look forward to expanding this ecosystem further, supporting the next generation of innovators, and driving positive change in the year ahead.
Wishing you a wonderful holiday season and a bright year ahead!
- InnovX Team
Editorial lead: Alexandra Ionescu
