Almost half of the AI startups from Southeast Europe that want to attract funding in the next two years aim for amounts of over €1mn, mainly to expand internationally, to increase the team and to launch new services and products, according to the second edition of the "RO AI MAP 2022/2023" report, conducted by Techcelerator and Google for Startups to promote artificial intelligence (AI) start-ups in Romania and Southeast Europe.

“Starting with this year, in Eastern Europe, and particularly in Romania, we are witnessing a massive increase of AI startup ecosystem that is drawing significant international attention, thanks to a combination of factors including a regional talented workforce and access to resources,” said Cristian Dascalu, managing partner at Techcelerator, in his foreword to the report. 

“The latest trends indicate a surge in AI startups focusing on specific sectors such as healthcare, fintech, agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, retail and the sustainability sector,” Dascalu added. 

In the latest edition of the AI map, more than 150 startups using AI from Romania were identified, the number increasing from 100 to 150 compared to last year, and 100 start-ups from the SEE.

More than half of the identified startups were launched after 2020. Also, 10% of the startups in the previous edition of the report exited the market, more precisely, under ten entities.

The report also found that Slovenia had the largest share of enterprises using AI technology across the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region, at 12% in 2021. This figure was more than twice as high as the second-ranked country, Slovakia, where only 5% of businesses used any AI technology. In Romania the share was just 1%. 

A third of survey respondents said their main goal for this year is to attract more customers. Other important objectives of founders are to attract a new round of investment, to increase their team, to enter new markets or to launch services and products.

The report had two objectives: the first was to identify and map artificial intelligence startups in the region, and the second objective was to collect information about their evolution starting from 2022 (development stage, attracted or targeted funding rounds and future goals).