2021 in REVIEW. 2022 in PREVIEW : SeedBlink

As we are entering into the new exciting year, we thought that it is the perfect time to step back and have o firechat type interview with all our members and supporting partners about the milestonses of 2021 and their predictions for 2022

Today we will discuss at 2021 in REVIEW. 2022 in PREVIEW. with Andrei Dudoiu – Managing Partner and President Bod at SeedBlink.

ROFIN.TECH : Andrei, how was 2021 for SeedBlink from your perspective and what was the biggest achievement / milestone of this year?

Andrei Dudoiu: SeedBlink is very much a tech start-up itself, and in June we’ve raised 3.3 million euros of new investment, 1.2 million euros from crowd-investors, using our own platform, with Catalyst Romania Fund II as a lead-investor.

We started to have a European footprint, expanding was the most important commitment we made to our own investors when we raised money in June. We already have start-ups from the UK, Bulgaria, Italy, Estonia, France, Kosovo and Austria on board.

With the power of our community, we’ve raised more than 50% of the funding rounds, covering especially early-stage startups, with more than 37 million euros invested in European tech startups. Our community now numbers more than 8000 investors from 45 countries. We are also extremely excited to have facilitated 5 follow-on rounds, empowering our investors to further invest in success.

ROFIN.TECH: What is something you’ve learned during 2021?

Andrei Dudoiu: Every day brings new challenges. It’s a new business model, we are trying this crazy mix of equity crowdfunding, VC structure and investment club. It’s challenging, we are a startup, a lot of things do not work the way we’d like them to, but every day is an opportunity to evolve, adapt, move forward. Our investors do not invest in lottery tickets, they build portfolios really assesing each opportunity. We have also learned humbleness: we don’t know everything, and we need to build trust in ourselves as a team and, beyond that, in our investors.

ROFIN.TECH : Could you tell us what you’re most excited about this 2022 coming time at SeedBlink?

Andrei Dudoiu: In 2022, we want to foster greater engagement among our users, with better thesis matching, data driven portfolio, secondary market and improved deal sourcing and portfolio growth.

2022 for us is being pure European, completely country-less, but an European technology company. We’re taking it step by step: SeedBlink is looking forward to expanding to other European countries, including: Greece, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. These expansions will provide SeedBlink with the opportunity to work with national-level accelerators and plentiful venture capital. After that, SeedBlink will expand into Western Europe where they can partner with other platforms. We want to bring more people together under a single umbrella with a single goal: Grow the European tech ecosystem while enhancing our investors wealth.

ROFIN.TECH : Can you share with us top 3 positive predictions that you see in the Romanian Fintech ecosystem for 2022?

Andrei Dudoiu: Increased efficiency, increased transparency and improved access to financial services and inclusion while delivering an exceptional user experience are among the most important principles for the fintech industry in my opinion.

I think that 2022 will see increased growth in the Romanian fintech sector of solutions aimed at better serving the financial services infrastructure, investment and wealth management we serve and open banking structures.

We must also not forget the need to continue to strengthen the national regulatory environment. For example, the EU Crowdfunding Regulation provides investors on crowdfunding platforms with an adapted and enhanced framework for investor protection. In this context, the Romanian Financial Supervisory Authority has supported the EU Crowdfunding Regulation and the local laws implementing the MiFID Amendment Directive and its approval according to the

About SeedBlink:

Launched in January 2020 by a team of former bankers, serial entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists, Romania-based SeedBlink is already Europe’s fastest growing investing platform specialised in sourcing, vetting, financing, and scaling European tech start-ups.

A marketplace matching investors with technology start-ups, SeedBlink is poised to play a key role in the development of Europe’s tech ecosystem.

About Andrei Dudoiu:

After 20 years in banking, Andrei started a new life journey in 2018, ready to experience new things, develop his skills and autonomy as an entrepreneur and support the innovation ecosystem. Since then, Andrei initiated Human Finance – a digital accelerator – and at the end of 2019, SeedBlink – an investment platform dedicated to supporting Romanian and European tech startups and their visionary founders.