Last night, the spotlight was on the 7th cohort of the Rubik Garage Accelerator during an electrifying Demo Day!
After 2.5 months of intensive learning, countless workshops, personalized 1:1 sessions, insightful AMAs, and no fewer than 75 investor meetings, our startups took the stage to showcase their hard work.
This was their moment to shine, and they didn’t disappoint. These founders have poured their hearts into refining their pitches, highlighting their progress, and proving their solutions are poised to make a global impact.
🏆 The Winners
- Best Startup: Apollo AI Technologies
- Best Pitch: SiWeGO
- Founders’ Award: Fairytales
- Ready to Raise (A spot in our follow-on program):
🔥 An Action-Packed Event
Before the Demo Day, we had three standout moments:
1. IP Protection Workshop
We began the day with an exclusive workshop on how to protect your intellectual property while scaling globally. Delivered by Florina Firaru, Head of Intellectual Property at NNDKP, this session was packed with game-changing insights:
- How to transfer IP securely
- Preparing IP for due diligence and M&A
- Practical tips to ensure bulletproof IP protection
It was a knowledge-filled session that left founders equipped to scale with confidence.
2. Launch of Rubik Scale to USA 2025
We officially launched Rubik Scale to USA 2025, an equity-free, 12-week accelerator tailored to pre-Series A startups with the ambition to break into the US market.
The program will culminate in an immersion trip to the USA, including pitching sessions to top investors and partners. And the cherry on top?
Fortech Investments, our strategic partner, announced their commitment to invest in one of the participating startups. Starting with a baseline investment of €150,000, this amount could grow based on the progress and disruptive potential these startups demonstrate. 🚀
3. Star-Studded Fireside Chat
Next, we hosted a Fireside Chat featuring:
- Two unicorns
- Two VCs
- One startup
- One journalist
Here’s one golden nugget of advice shared during this lively discussion:
“Find the right investors, right partners, learn from your mistakes, choose wisely, and be patient with the first people that represent you in a new market—they will be your image. Get the right people, and they’ll bring more talent and customers into your organization.”
A huge thank-you to our stellar panelists and their invaluable insights!
- Andrei Văcuţ (EMEA Sales Engineering Senior Director, at UiPath)
- Bogdan Axinia (Managing Director at eMAG Ventures)
- Mark Palfalvi (Principal, PortfoLion Capital Partners)
- Valentin Filip (Managing Partner Fortech Investments)
- Ciprian Cazacu (CEO Easy Sales)
- Oana Coșman (Startups & Investments Editor at start-up.ro) – moderator.
A special shoutout to UiPath, our fantastic hosts, for making this event unforgettable. Also, we are proud to have Orange as our partner, playing a key role in the success of our program and fostering the growth of innovative startups.
To our amazing founders: We couldn’t be prouder of how far you’ve come. You’ve officially became one of the Rubikorns—and who knows? The next unicorn might just be in this very cohort.
