The August edition of the Catalyst Romania Newsletter

We are delighted to bring forth the latest edition of our newsletter, spotlighting notable updates from Catalyst Romania’s team, important developments and milestones attained by our portfolio companies.

🥇 Leanpay Secures €10M Series B Funding from BlackPeak Capital and Catalyst Romania Fund II to become the Digital Consumer Lending Champion of the CEE region 🥇

Leanpay, the pioneering Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) and Point-of-Sale (POS) lending platform announced the successful completion of its Series B funding round, securing a total investment of €10 million. This investment round was led by BlackPeak Capital, a leading growth equity firm in Southeast Europe, followed by Catalyst Romania Fund II, both new investors, and joined by South Central Ventures and Lead Ventures, which had already invested in previous rounds.

Originating from Slovenia, Leanpay is now present in Romania and Hungary and boasts 120 thousand satisfied customers, more than €200 million in consumer loans issued, and cooperation with over 1500 merchant partners, enabling consumers to pay in installments for a wide range of purchases. Last year alone, the company’s revenue grew 2.5x, while since Series A, the company’s revenue growth has been 4x.

Miša Živić, Leanpay co-founder & CEO, expressed his enthusiasm about the new funding: “This investment is a testament to our team’s hard work and commitment to delivering a superior user experience. It will enable us to solidify our market leadership in Slovenia, scale our operations in Romania and Hungary, continue to roll out innovative services, and attract top talent to our growing team to become the digital consumer lending champion in the Central & Eastern European region.” 

Leanpay is renowned for its seamless user experience, setting it apart from traditional financing options. The platform offers an entirely digital experience, eliminating the need for bank visits or paper documentation. Shoppers enjoy the flexibility to check their credit limit before the purchase and choose their installment plan entirely online, making Leanpay a convenient and user-friendly choice.

Janko Medja, Leanpay co-founder and CBDO is proud of how Leanpay accelerates merchant partner revenues across different retail industries. “We have provided value to numerous merchants across a wide range of industries, from electronics and furniture to sports equipment, medical services, and much more. We work with some service providers where Leanpay is one of the top two payment methods, occasionally even the first one. When we implement our solutions with the partners, they can instantly reap the benefits. On top of that, we listen to shops’ feedback to customize our approaches and innovate solutions, leading to even greater success for our partners.” 

“This investment will improve Leanpay’s capital structure and decrease overall financial risk. Additional funds will enable greater investment potential and strengthen the financial stability of all companies in the Leanpay group,” stated Tilen Zugwitz, Leanpay co-founder and CFO.

Niklas Pichler, Managing Partner at BlackPeak Capital and instrumental in the success of this transaction, will join Leanpay’s board to bolster the company in achieving its growth objectives. “The shift in consumer behavior towards flexible payment methods like BNPL is increasingly influencing daily life for all generations and reshaping the e-commerce landscape, which is pivotal for both businesses and customers alike. We are excited to partner with Leanpay, a Slovenian leader in responsible POS lending and a pioneer in the 3rd generation of BNPL solutions in our region operating an asset-light model”, said Niklas Pichler. “Covering an interesting niche within the lending industry, we are confident that the company, with our support, will achieve its full potential and significantly impact the market,” he added.

“We are seeing great potential for Leanpay in our region, and it was a natural move for Catalyst to participate in this investment round, especially since we can help create significant additional value in the company in one of the key markets of Eastern Europe, Romania. We have specific expertise in the team, we have the local network, and we can bring together multi-channel opportunities for Leanpay here, as we have already started to do, in the months leading up to the investment”, said Marius Ghenea, Managing Partner at Catalyst Romania.

Jure Mikuž, Managing Partner at South Central Ventures, remarked, “Developing technologies, which enable traditional industries like consumer lending to get digitalized and more efficient, have always been the core of our strategy. Leanpay is a brilliant example of a company where we’ve found a perfect match of entrepreneurial ambition and industry expertise – all of which have been brought on board by the three co-founders. They are not looking to reinvent the wheel but rather to explore how to make the ride smoother. And by partnering with new investors, this ride should be even faster and more dominant in the markets Leanpay aims to conquer in the next couple of years.” 

Balázs Haszonics, Partner at Lead Ventures, is delighted to reaffirm their support for Leanpay, which aligns perfectly with Lead Ventures’ investment thesis. “The success of this Series B funding round, joined by prestigious investors, underscores our belief in Leanpay’s robust business model and ability to grow and innovate in digital consumer lending space rapidly. We recognize the exceptional founding team with great respect, whose vision and dedication have driven Leanpay’s impressive growth and market presence, and we confidently see significant further expansion opportunities. Leanpay’s growth trajectory and strategic vision make them a standout leader in the CEE region, and we are excited to be part of their journey towards market dominance.”

Leanpay is one of the handful of regional companies that have completed a Series B funding round. This round marks a significant milestone in the company’s journey, reinforcing its status as a leading BNPL and POS lender and setting the stage for future growth and expansion.

✨ Catalyst Romania strengthens its team and appoints two former investment CEOs, Andreea Pipernea and Nick Kovacs, to explore new opportunities in the local market ✨

The two seasoned investment professionals, Nick Kovacs, former CEO of Agista, and Andreea Pipernea, former CEO of NN Pensii, are joining Catalyst Romania as Senior Advisors. With extensive careers in finance spanning decades and rich experience in investments, Nick Kovacs and Andreea Pipernea will provide advisory support for the current portfolio, aiding in governance for companies in which Catalyst Romania has invested. They will also play a role in generating new investment opportunities and in fundraising initiatives for upcoming investment funds.

“We are thrilled to welcome Andreea and Nick to the Catalyst Romania team, where they will contribute to the growth of companies within our second fund’s portfolio and help identify future business leaders. Leveraging their wealth of experience, we aim to introduce new financing mechanisms for industries with growth potential in Romania and the region,” stated Alin Stanciu, Partner at Catalyst Romania.

Andreea Pipernea is currently an independent member of the Board of Directors of maib, the largest bank in the Republic of Moldova with plans to list on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and Managing Partner at APlus Advisory, an M&A consulting company. Former CEO at NN Pensii, Andreea has previously held executive positions at Citibank, Erste, RBS and ABN Amro in Romania and is also an angel investor and business advisor for a number of local start-ups.

“Throughout my 25 year career in financial services, I have always been close to entrepreneurs and their ambitious initiatives. I am delighted to join the Catalyst Romania team, contribute to the growth of the fund’s portfolio and identify new investment opportunities. I am eager to discover new teams and entrepreneurs, new business ideas as diverse as possible, in order to support them, together with Catalyst Romania, in their growth process”, Andreea Pipernea, Senior Advisor Catalyst Romania.

With an extensive experience in banking, private equity and M&A, Nick Kovacs has been supporting Romanian entrepreneurs in the last 15 years, in various fields of activity, both as an investor and in several executive positions: as CEO of Agista Investments, as a member of the board of the investment platform ROCA X, part of Impetum Group, as a member of the Investment Committee at the private equity company ROCA Investments.

Together with the Catalyst Romania team, we will continue to build a strong player in the growth-equity market, designed to contribute to the most competitive and robust business environment. I believe in the potential of the local business environment, we have more and more entrepreneurs who understand the need to partner with growth funds, and I believe that there is a need for as many initiatives in this direction for our economy, as there is a direct correlation between private equity investments and the economic development of the country”, Nick Kovacs, Senior Advisor Catalyst Romania.

 👏 Congratulations to Vola for winning prestigious Mixx Awards at IAB Europe! 👏

We are happy to announce that Vola has won two awards at the Mixx Awards IAB Europe! Their campaign “Ambrosia Fly Away” has received Gold 🥇 in the Campaign Effectiveness category and Silver 🥈 in the Product Innovation category.

The international recognition of this campaign underscores the importance of raising awareness about this health issue for society and motivates us to continue innovating and bringing solutions for a healthier future.

Created in collaboration with Saatchi & Saatchi Romania, the campaign aimed to highlight a public health issue and help people allergic to ragweed identify symptoms and correlate them with a cause.

Congratulations to Vola for their outstanding achievement and for making a significant impact in public health awareness!

📚 Adservio aims to increase its business by 50% this year, reaching a minimum turnover of 3 million euros 📚

The Adservio team, currently comprising 60 members, has developed a series of new modules, including those based on artificial intelligence technology, which will be launched at the beginning of the new school year in September.

“We have been working for about half a year on two important modules that we will launch this fall, at the start of the new school year. One module focuses on well-being – the well-being of the school, students, and teachers, and another module is for reporting – big data. We are starting to map all the information we have on the platform and offer our users (students, parents, teachers, and even school principals) real-time reports generated with AI, mapping all actions on the platform, from grades and absences to many other details inputted on the platform. This way, we try to provide our users with much more essence in their activity, helping them see the real meaning of their work and, at the same time, offering predictability based on that data,” said Alexandru Holicov, founder and CEO of Adservio, during the ZF IT Generation show. He explained that with the new reporting module, teachers or school principals will be able to see the chances of some students dropping out or making progress in certain areas.

“These are things you normally couldn’t discover and obtain without AI and the interpretation of millions of data points and patterns we can uncover.”

For the well-being module, Adservio collaborates with several specialists in the field, psychologists from high-profile universities in Iași and Bucharest. “Students will receive various questions in the app that they can easily answer with an emoticon. For example, the answer to the question “how do they feel today” can be correlated with certain actions on the platform – absences, lower grades at school, or behavior-related aspects. We try to map these things and provide a perspective for students and parents, who will then discuss these aspects with specialists in the field,” mentioned Holicov, emphasizing that this module aims to detect certain irregularities.

“For example, we try to detect early if a student is being mistreated by other students. If there are certain issues with some children who are more introverted and do not talk as much, a student could report a peer: ‘I see that Andrei, my classmate, is being bullied by others.’”

“If they are not feeling so good, they can raise a flag on the platform, and the teacher will see it.”

Moreover, with this well-being module, parents will also be able to see how their child is feeling. “What Adservio has been doing for 16 years is trying to bring the family closer to children’s education and school. Through this module, we aim to strengthen the relationship between parents, students, and school, helping them know each other better and communicate more effectively and timely to prevent issues rather than fix them.”

Additionally, starting from the new school year, Adservio will also introduce an automatic timetable generation module based on machine learning.

🚀 A new edition of the Romanian Venture Forum is in the works 🚀

Catalyst Romania is now organizing a new edition of the Romanian Venture Forum, in collaboration with CONAF and ROStartUp. The event will provide an excellent networking opportunity for entrepreneurs, investors, and industry professionals. Participants will have the chance to interact with experts, facilitating the exchange of ideas and the creation of strategic partnerships that drive innovation and business growth.

In addition to networking sessions, the Romanian Venture Forum will feature a series of panels covering interesting and relevant topics. The forum promises to be a catalyst for collaboration and economic growth, offering participants the tools and knowledge needed to take their businesses to the next level. Stay tuned for more details!

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