Moldova

Moldova
*

Activation Phase
MEMBERS:
Tekwill

Moldova has made significant steps towards enhancing its startup ecosystem. Promoting a Tech friendly fiscal environment, Moldova is positioning itself on a niche connecting East and West where a flagship example is Tekwill, a private public partnership aiming to increase ICT industry competitiveness and develop its startup ecosystem.

Ana Chirita
Senior Project Coordinator of Tekwill, Strategic Projects Director of Moldovan Association of ICT Companies

Sub-sector Strengths

E-commerce

E-commerce has been steadily rising in Moldova over the years with 12% more Moldovans making purchases online in 2019 than in the previous year. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this trend, leading to a 30% rise in online purchases in 2020. E-commerce aggregators that compare prices of online goods (All Prices) and digitize sale of tickets (iTicket) are capitalizing on these shifts, as are startups such as Strikemall, an e-commerce marketplace, which raised a seed round in 2018. Big on B2B, the sector includes a wide range of B2B startups including Planable, a content review and marketing collaboration platform, and A1, a marketplace with integrated services for sellers.

Why you should invest in Moldova

TOTAL EARLY STAGE FUNDING
<$50 m
GLOBAL AVG.
$431 m
ECOSYSTEM VALUE
<$100 m
GLOBAL AVG.
$10.5 bn
#2 European Ecosystem
Affordable Talent
5
Exit Growth
INDEX
1
Investor Activity
INDEX
10
Funding Growth
INDEX

Reasons to move your startup to Moldova

MEDIAN SEED ROUND
$85 k
GLOBAL AVG.
$494 k
MEDIAN SERIES A ROUND
NA
GLOBAL AVG.
$2.7 m
SOFTWARE ENGINEER SALARY
$6 k
GLOBAL AVG.
$42.1 k

Tax Incentives

A virtual IT park initiative allows participating startups to operate from anywhere in the country and pay a flat tax rate of 7% in place of corporate income tax, personal income tax, social security taxes, and local and real estate taxes.

Local Talent

Tekwill, a $13 million innovation space to develop human capital and support startups, has trained 43,000 people through educational programmes. In addition, Moldovan universities produce 6,500 STEM graduates a year.

COVID-19 Policy

A comprehensive fiscal package has been adopted as per 2020 State Budget Amendment, following several targeted fiscal measures to support businesses and vulnerable households, such as expanding unemployment benefits and strengthening existing targeted social assistance, tax relief for sectors affected by state-imposed restrictions, delaying tax payment deadlines to mid-2020, and other controls.

Startup Community

Startup Genome
Members

MEMBER
Tekwill
Tekwill was created in 2017 as the Center of Excellence of the ICT sector in Moldova supported by USAID and Sweden Government with Moldovan Association of ICT Companies implementation. The basic objective of the TEKWILL Project, as a platform dedicated to the progress of the IT sector, is to ensure a major impact on the economic development of the country by improving the entrepreneurial and educational capacities of society members, but also the research and development potential of higher education institutions, in line with the demand on the IT market.

Get connected

Are you interested in diving deeper into this ecosystem? Drop us a message. Our Ambassadors and Partners can plug you in.

GET IN TOUCH
We use cookies. By continuing to use this site you consent to our use of cookies as described in our cookie policy