Oradea is gaining recognition as a growing hub for start-ups and entrepreneurship. The city’s remarkable growth and development was highlighted in the Startup Ecosystem Report 2023 (
Startup Ecosystem Report 2023
) by Startup Blink, the world’s most comprehensive startup ecosystem research center.

Local startup ecosystem

According to the report, Oradea climbed 138 places in the global ranking compared to the previous year, the highest increase at national level compared to other cities, ranking 620 out of 1,000 cities worldwide. The city has also improved its national ranking, being the 4th best city in Romania for startups, after Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and very close to Timisoara (606th place overall).

The city of Oradea offers an environment conducive to entrepreneurship, attracting talent, investors and innovators. Sectors such as information technology, software development, e-commerce, renewable energy and tourism have seen remarkable growth. A growing number of startups and co-working spaces, incubator and accelerator programs for tech startups such as Bright Labs Incubatorled by Make IT in Oradea, are making our city increasingly attractive to young local entrepreneurs as well as to those from the region or even the diaspora.

Oradea’s startup ecosystem thrives on the collaborative spirit of the private, public and academic sectors, the transfer of know-how and the connectivity of different industries. The city hosts conferences and networking events that bring together entrepreneurs, investors and industry experts. These events foster meaningful connections, encourage the exchange of ideas and create opportunities for partnerships and investment.

Due to the extraordinary evolution of the local startup ecosystem, the Startup Blink team invited Mayor Florin Birta to give a special mention as a representative of the national community in the report.

“The city’s significant rise in this ranking is great news for our community. From the beginning our goal has been to develop a strong and attractive technology hub to provide opportunities and a better quality of life for our community, as well as to compete with the major cities in this field. We aim to achieve local results and attract startup founders with high aspirations, which will make Oradea more attractive and create better jobs with fantastic potential. We would like to become an ecosystem that offers support and attractive growth opportunities”, said Florin Birta, Mayor of Oradea.

Support infrastructure

Recognizing the importance of startups and entrepreneurship in stimulating economic growth, Oradea’s local government has played a key role in promoting the startup ecosystem by offering tax incentives and initiating funding and growth programs through the Make IT in Oradea program, a public-private partnership initiated by Oradea City Hall and ADLO SA, together with local IT companies.

Over the past 2 and a half years, Make IT in Oradea has put substantial effort into developing and promoting the local tech startup ecosystem and training the next generation of tech startup founders through the Bright Labs Incubator program. But also in retaining and attracting young talent to Oradea through workshops, mentoring and scholarships for high school and university students in real profiles or IT, along with tax breaks for IT companies with office space in Oradea.

National context

Startup Blink ranks Romania 42nd in the top global ecosystems for startups in 2023, dropping two places in the ranking. It ranks 25th in Europe and 20th in the European Union. In the Eastern Europe region, Romania ranks 8th, down one place. Bulgaria remains above Romania in this top.

Romania provides entrepreneurs with affordable, highly talented professionals and access to the European market. The country focuses mainly on IT and outsourcing. More than 220,000 Romanians are already part of the IT scene.

With the remarkable success story of UiPath, Romania’s first unicorn, the country has proven that it can foster entrepreneurship and expand into global markets.

Much more can be done in terms of involving the public sector in creating an investment-friendly legislative framework, and a development in entrepreneurship education through secondary schools and entrepreneurship programmes would be welcome. The government has allocated €400 million of National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) funding to private equity funds.

More information about the Startup Blink 2023 report, can be accessed at startupblink.com .

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