According to a report by McKinsey, globally, over 12,000 Fintech startups are competing with banks for up to $1 trillion in profits of which up to 60% are at risk, in the following five retail businesses: consumer finance, mortgages, small-business lending, retail payments, and wealth management.

As an investor, I’m focused on tech, fintech and real estate startups. These areas have seen a huge wave of disruption, transformation, and evolution, and the tide is still high.

My own home country, Romania, is a hotspot for tech and fintech innovation, and I keep a close eye on what’s going on in this market. Though it’s still in an early stage compared to nearby countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic or Hungary, the Romanian fintech industry is poised to take off as demand for fintech solutions and digital banking increases.

Here are a few exciting startups that caught my eye recently. Some of them are in startup accelerators, some of them have already gone through various rounds of investment, but all of them have one thing in common: they provide innovative, agile solutions for needs and issues that traditional companies have ignored for too long.

1. Fintech OS – B2B services and TaaS enabling automation for financial services. The fact that this is a Romanian company that has achieved such rapid growth proves that (to paraphrase) geography is not destiny. Their experience is inspiring.
2. Fagura – P2P Lending. Although Fagura is actually coming from Moldova, they are present in Romania. This is a friendly peer-to-peer platform, modelled on UK similar companies. I think it has good potential for success.
3. Smart dreamers – a platform for recruitment marketing automation, they’re already in the UK, the US, and Singapore, with enterprise-ready software that helps companies reach and engage with potential candidates online.
4. Medjobs – this is a platform for recruitment and jobs in the healthcare sector. I like their focus and the fact that they’ve honed in on this very specific opportunity, as it is a very dynamic niche and was generally very fragmented.
5. Typing DNA – such an original idea! They’ve developed an app for typing biometrics authentication – recognizing people from the way they type, this is an AI-based solution for risk-based authentication and fraud prevention.
6. Competitors.app – a very useful and comprehensive app for monitoring competitors’ marketing activity across online channels.
7. Finqware – this was badly needed in Romania, since most companies and people have several bank accounts and they need a centralized dashboard for their finances.
8. Keez – A user-friendly alternative to accounting, payroll, and ERP software.
9. Teleport HQ – An AI powered platform and suite of open source tools which simplifies UI building and adds realtime optimisations by analysing user’s intentions.
10. Cyscale – a Multi-Cloud Platform, for all major providers like Amazon, Google and Microsoft, which handles Cloud Native Security, Threat management and Secure Cloud Design.

Do you know of any other Romanian Startups that are worth mentioning here? Leave a comment – or, if you are an entrepreneur launching your startup, you can always contact me and let’s see if there’s an opportunity of working together!