Page 25 - bne magazine September 2023

bne September 2023 Companies & Markets I 25
New research reveals surge in AI startups in Southeast Europe
bne IntelliNews
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 interna- tionally, 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
New research reveals a surge in AI startups focusing on specific sectors such as healthcare, fintech, agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, retail and sustainability.
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 technol- ogy. 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 found- ers 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 evolu- tion starting from 2022 (development stage, attracted
or targeted funding rounds and future goals).
Russian e-commerce major Ozon floats
on Kazakh AIX
bne IntelliNews
Russian e-commerce major Ozon Holdings said on July 28 its American Depositary Shares (ADS) have been admitted to trading on Kazakhstan's Astana International Exchange (AIX), in a bid to maintain liquidity as Ozon struggles to keep its primary Nasdaq listing, Reuters reported.
"Admission of the ADSs to trading on AIX could potentially increase liquidity of the ADSs and provide investors,
including international investors, with an opportunity to trade the ADSs," Ozon said as cited by Reuters.
To remind, in March 2023 NASDAQ Stock Exchange has announced that it will delist Ozon along with other Russian tech majors such as internet giant Yandex, classifieds portal Cian, e-payment operator Qiwi and online recruitment platform HeadHunter (HHR). Ozon is contesting the decision.
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