Romanian Private Capital: the Next Lever for Economic Competitiveness
In a country with €80 billion in unproductive bank deposits and only €103 million raised by startups in 2025, the RISE Hub coalition proposes a three-tier fiscal mechanism for the mobilisation of private capital.
Under the High Patronage of the President of the Romanian Senate, the RISE Hub coalition yesterday opened, at the Senate, institutional dialogue for a dedicated fiscal mechanism to mobilise private capital towards innovative startups at the beginning of their journey. The RISE RO-SEIS proposal is backed by fourteen organisations that are signatories to the Joint Declaration.
Startups are recognised at European level as central engines of innovation, productivity, economic growth and jobs. The European Union's Strategy for Startups and Scale-ups, adopted by the European Commission in 2025, places Europe's competitiveness in direct relation to its capacity to support the development of these companies and defines access to financing as a strategic priority at community level. For innovative startups in Romania, access to private capital financing is a challenge. In 2025, the volume of venture capital attracted by Romanian startups stood at €103 million across 40 transactions, a 20% decline from the previous year and one of the largest drops recorded at European level¹.
The Romanian context provides the conditions to capitalise on this direction: the information and communications technology sector contributes nearly 10% to the economy's gross value added, and the local entrepreneurial ecosystem has founders with internationally recognised technical credentials. The opportunity is significant: the equivalent of €80 billion sits in household bank deposits alone, earning negative real returns². Directing a fraction of this capital towards innovative companies would simultaneously produce economic growth, consolidate the tax base and reduce technological dependency.
The European agenda confirms the timeliness of the moment. The Draghi Report of 2024 identifies the venture capital deficit as a structural vulnerability of the European Union and recommends an additional investment effort of €750–800 billion per year through the activation of private savings. The Letta Report highlights the responsibility of member states to intervene with instruments that catalyse private capital, and the European Startup Strategy translates these recommendations into applicable policies. The moment is right for Romania.
The RISE RO-SEIS proposal is grounded in a comparative analysis of more than fifteen jurisdictions that have implemented fiscal mechanisms to mobilise individual investment in startups, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany and Canada. The reference model is the UK's Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme, considered the global benchmark in this space, whose official ten-year evaluation demonstrated significant effects on the growth of beneficiary companies and the attraction of new investors. The lessons of these jurisdictions, positive and negative alike, have been integrated into the architecture proposed for Romania.
The proposed mechanism targets Romanian individual income taxpayers and is built on three complementary tiers: a 50% fiscal voucher applied directly against income tax owed on non-salary income at the point of investment, full exemption from capital gains tax on exit after a minimum three-year holding period, and loss relief in the event of startup failure. The architecture is adapted to Romanian fiscal reality and leverages the flat income tax rate as a structural advantage for simplicity and transparency of application.
Companies, organisations and professionals wishing to join this initiative are invited to contact us at admin@riseromania.org.
About RISE Hub România
RISE Hub România is a coalition that mobilises resources for innovation, startups and entrepreneurial excellence. The initiative, coordinated by a team of volunteers from the United Kingdom under the patronage of the Repatriot association, brings together fourteen organisations that are signatories to the Joint Declaration for stimulating private investment in innovative startups.
Press contact: admin@riseromania.org · riseromania.org
Sources
- How to Web, Venture in Eastern Europe Report 2025.
- National Bank of Romania, Monthly Statistical Bulletin — January 2026.
- European Commission, Choose Europe to Start and Scale — EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy, 28 May 2025.
- Mario Draghi, The Future of European Competitiveness, European Commission, September 2024.
- Enrico Letta, Much More Than a Market — Empowering the Single Market, European Council, April 2024.
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