Romanian Private Capital: the Next Lever for Economic Competitiveness

Under the High Patronage of the President of the Romanian Senate, the RISE Hub coalition opened institutional dialogue at the Senate on a dedicated fiscal mechanism to mobilise private capital into early-stage Romanian startups. The RISE RO-SEIS proposal is backed by fourteen organisations, all signatories to the Joint Declaration.

Across Europe, startups are recognised as central engines of innovation, productivity, economic growth and job creation. The European Union's Startup and Scaleup Strategy, adopted by the European Commission in 2025, ties Europe's competitiveness directly to its capacity to support these companies, and identifies access to financing as a strategic priority for the Union. For Romanian startups, that access remains a structural challenge. In 2025, Romanian startups raised €103 million across 40 transactions, a 20% drop year-on-year and one of the steepest declines anywhere in Europe¹.

Romania has the conditions to act on this. The information and communications technology sector contributes nearly 10% of gross value added, and the local entrepreneurial base has founders with internationally competitive technical credentials. The opportunity is significant: Romanian households alone hold the equivalent of €80 billion in bank deposits, earning negative real returns². Channelling even a fraction of this capital into innovative companies would simultaneously drive economic growth, broaden the tax base, and reduce technological dependency.

Europe's policy agenda confirms the timing. The 2024 Draghi Report identifies the venture capital gap as a structural weakness of the European Union and calls for an additional €750–800 billion of investment per year, mobilised through private savings. The Letta Report stresses the responsibility of member states to deploy instruments that catalyse private capital, and the EU Startup Strategy translates these recommendations into actionable policy. The moment is right for Romania.

The RISE RO-SEIS proposal is grounded in a comparative review of more than fifteen jurisdictions that operate 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, the global benchmark in this space, whose ten-year official evaluation showed a significant impact on the growth of beneficiary companies and on attracting new investors. Lessons from these jurisdictions, both positive and negative, are built into the architecture proposed for Romania.

The mechanism targets Romanian individual income taxpayers and is built on three complementary tiers: a 50% tax voucher applied directly against income tax owed on non-salary income at the time 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 Romania's fiscal reality and leverages the flat income tax rate as a structural advantage for simplicity and ease of administration.

Companies, organisations and professionals who wish to join the 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. Coordinated by a team of UK-based volunteers under the patronage of the Repatriot association, the initiative brings together fourteen organisations that have signed the Joint Declaration in support of private investment in innovative startups.

Press contact: admin@riseromania.org · riseromania.org

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Sources

1. How to Web, Venture in Eastern Europe Report 2025.
2. National Bank of Romania, Monthly Statistical Bulletin, January 2026.
3. European Commission, Choose Europe to Start and Scale, EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy, 28 May 2025.
4. Mario Draghi, The Future of European Competitiveness, European Commission, September 2024.
5. Enrico Letta, Much More Than a Market, Empowering the Single Market, European Council, April 2024.