TL;DR Romania is the biggest market in this group, with about 19 million people and nine in ten of them online. It keeps its own currency, the leu, and still has a large rural economy next to fast-growing cities. Good fits are farm services, rooftop and community solar, remote care for older people, and software that sells to the rest of the EU.

The market in numbers

  • Population: about 19.0 million in 2025[1].
  • GDP per capita: about US$22,500 in 2025[2].
  • Internet use: about 91% of people were online in 2024[3].
  • Manufacturing: about 12% of GDP in 2025[4].
  • Tourism: about 29.7 million nights were spent at tourist accommodation in 2025, per Eurostat[5].
  • Remittances: personal remittances received were about 2.5% of GDP in 2025[6].
  • Currency: the Romanian leu (RON), managed by the National Bank of Romania[7].

What founders here actually have to work with

Nineteen million people[1] is a real home market, which is not something you can say about most of its neighbours. You can build, test and reach decent revenue in Romania alone before you look abroad.

Internet use above 90%[3] means you can sell online even outside the big cities, so a rural customer is not out of reach. That matters because farming is still a big part of life across the country [Requires validation], and farm services that work from a phone have room to grow.

The leu adds a layer that euro countries don't have. If you sell in euros to EU clients and pay costs in lei then currency swings affect your margin, so price with that in mind.

Many Romanians work elsewhere in the EU and send money home, about 2.5% of GDP[6], so families abroad are a buyer worth thinking about for care ideas.

Ideas that fit Romania

All of these were researched for India. The rupee costs and Indian licences don't carry over, so treat each one as a brief you rework for Romanian rules and prices in lei.

Farms and food

  • Cropdoctor: Crop diagnosis that sells no inputs and sticks to the label. Build it around EU-approved products and Romanian crops instead of the Indian list [Requires validation].
  • Cropscout: Scouting maps flown by local drone operators between spraying jobs. Drone rules come from the civil aviation authority, so check them first [Requires validation].
  • Coreridge: GPS-logged soil sampling on big arable fields. Large farms and seed companies running trials are the buyers.
  • Heatcollar: Heat-detection collars and a breeding desk for mid-size dairy farms. Fit the herd sizes to Romanian farms, which may differ a lot from Indian ones.
  • Coldcart: Shared electric cold pickups from farm clusters to a pack-house. Start with one fruit or vegetable region and one buyer.
  • Uglybox: Weekly boxes of graded-out produce for city households. Bucharest and Cluj are the obvious places to test it.
  • Hiveproof: Hive-to-jar records and purity checks for honey sellers. EU labelling rules replace the Indian export checks [Requires validation].
  • Dripservice: Yearly service contracts for farm drip systems. Orchards and vegetable growers with drip lines are the target.

Solar and energy

  • Solarrows: Raised solar rows with crops underneath so farmland keeps producing food. Permits for solar on farmland are the first thing to check [Requires validation].
  • Fieldkeep: Helping farmer groups build and own small solar plants that sell to the grid. Grid connection rules will decide the business case [Requires validation].
  • Panelfair: Fee-only quote checks and handover inspections for families buying rooftop solar. An honest second opinion is easy to explain and cheap to start.
  • Lullcharge: Charge schedules for home solar batteries. Only useful if tariffs reward shifting load, so confirm that first [Requires validation].
  • Faultpool: Shared fault models for small solar installers. Installers get better diagnostics without handing their data to a rival.

Care and health

  • Ringbuddy: A voice companion that phones older people on any phone. Sell to the son or daughter working in Italy or Spain as much as to the parent.
  • Pillpouch: Dose-time pouches and pharmacist reviews for people on many pills. Pharmacy rules decide who can pack and deliver, so check them [Requires validation].
  • Rashdesk: Small-town pharmacies send skin photos to a dermatologist. This is triage and referral, not diagnosis, and telemedicine rules apply [Requires validation].

Work and software

  • Paidtrace: Verified references and payment proof for freelancers selling abroad. It works in any EU market, so Romania can be the first of several.
  • Spindlehand: Cobots leased monthly to tend CNC machines in small shops. Suppliers to the car and parts plants are the natural first buyers.

Rules to check before you start

Companies register with the National Trade Register Office (ONRC), and tax is run by the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF). I couldn't load either official site while researching this page, so confirm the steps with them directly [Requires validation]. The central bank is the National Bank of Romania (BNR)[7]. As an EU member, Romania has a point of single contact for permits and EU citizens can set up a business there as at home[8]. Health, farm input and drone ideas each carry their own approvals [Requires validation].

This is a starting list, not legal advice. Check with a local lawyer or the agency itself.

Questions founders ask

Advice and inspection services are the cheapest start. Panelfair and Cropdoctor above need know-how, a phone and a way to reach customers, not a warehouse or a factory.

Do foreigners need a local partner to start a company in Romania?

For EU citizens, the EU says you can set up your own business in any member country[8]. I couldn't confirm the rules for non-EU founders, so check with ONRC or a Romanian lawyer before you commit.

Should I price in lei or euros?

Price in lei for local customers and in euros for EU clients. Keep an eye on the gap between where you earn and where you spend, because the leu moves against the euro.

Talk to Yash

Romania is big enough to build a real business at home first, and I'm happy to help you decide which customers to win before you look abroad. If you need a hand, you know where to find me.

Talk to Yash →

Sources

  1. World Bank, "Population, total: Romania", 2025. https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/ROU/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?format=json&mrv=1
  2. World Bank, "GDP per capita (current US$): Romania", 2025. https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/ROU/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?format=json&mrv=1
  3. World Bank (ITU data), "Individuals using the Internet (% of population): Romania", 2024. https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/ROU/indicator/IT.NET.USER.ZS?format=json&mrv=1
  4. World Bank, "Manufacturing, value added (% of GDP): Romania", 2025. https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/ROU/indicator/NV.IND.MANF.ZS?format=json&mrv=1
  5. Eurostat, "Nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments (tour_occ_ninat)", 2025. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/api/dissemination/statistics/1.0/data/tour_occ_ninat?geo=RO&unit=NR&nace_r2=I551-I553&c_resid=TOTAL&lastTimePeriod=1
  6. World Bank, "Personal remittances, received (% of GDP): Romania", 2025. https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/ROU/indicator/BX.TRF.PWKR.DT.GD.ZS?format=json&mrv=1
  7. Banca Națională a României, home page, 2026. https://www.bnr.ro/
  8. Your Europe, "Startups in the EU: registration and support", European Union, 2026. https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/lifecycle/starting/startups/index_en.htm

For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.