Marius Ghenea
Managing Partner @ Catalyst Romania
Bucharest, Romania
Marius Ghenea is a Series A investor at Catalyst Romania in Bucharest focused on Software and SaaS. • Partner of Catalyst Romania VC Fund (part of 3TS Capital Partners) - http://catalystromania.ro/ • “Investor of the Year in Romania 2016 and 2017" award by CESA with Catalyst Romania Fund • Serial entrepreneur and business-angel with successful investments in SEE, ranks in fortune Romanian surveys Capital, Forbes. • Experienceas an start-up entrepreneur with Flamingo, from zero revenues and capital to a $50M company, the largest IT product distribution network in Romania, in 7 years. Setting-up a Flamingo International group structure with direct operations in 7 SEE countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Yugoslavia) and one fully-fledged subsidiary in Holland, 1999 – 2001. • Manager of team of 500+ people with Flamingo, employees from various countries (majority Romanian), cultures, backgrounds and contributing to the creation of one of the best teams in the IT business in the Balkan region • Experience in private equity and venture capital investments. Deal-leader on 6 (123ContactForm, VectorWatch, Marketizator Friends, Intelligent IT/SmartBill, Smartdreamers, Vola.ro) out of 10 investments of Catalyst Romania Fund. • Exit track-record: VectorWatch, sold to FitBit early 2017, PCGarage, bought by Naspers/Emag in 2016; VikingProfil, bought by Pruzsinski of Poland, 2008, Flanco, successful exit in 2006, Flamingo, successful IPO in 2004, etc. • Co-Founder VentureConnect (regional matchmaking platform for tech start-up entrepreneurs and early-stage investors); President Romanian Association for the Online Stores (ARMO) • Entrepreneurship, Innovation and New Business Ventures Professor, Maastricht School of Management EMBA program • Co-organizer Schoolforstartups Romania, the first SE European entrepreneurship school • Author of “Entrepreneurship”, the first Romanian book on entrepreneurship and TV dragon in the Romanian Dragons’ Den
- Total investments:
- 14
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 64%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Marius Ghenea invests in
Stages Marius Ghenea invests in
Countries Marius Ghenea invests in
Round sizes
Contacts
| Type | Contact | Validation |
|---|---|---|
| Work email | ||
| Personal email | ||
| Work phone | ||
| Personal phone | ||
| Socials |
Round size
- Seed
- $784k–$1.1M
- Series A
- $569k–$3.7M
- Venture - Series Unknown
- $1.1M–$5M
Investment Focus
Industry
- Software 8 (57%)
- SaaS 3 (21%)
- FinTech 3 (21%)
- Retail 2 (14%)
- Internet 2 (14%)
Stage
- Series A 5 (36%)
- Venture - Series Unknown 5 (36%)
- Seed 2 (14%)
- Series B 1 (7%)
- Funding Round 1 (7%)
Country
- Romania 9 (64%)
- United Kingdom 2 (14%)
- Serbia 1 (7%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Media Powered by AI That Understands Why People Buy. Connected to Real Shopper Purchases. Footprints AI is the most advanced platform to buy or sell retail ads - in stores and online - with precise targeting across the largest retail media ecosystem. | $2.4M / Venture - Series Unknown / Feb 25, 2025 | ||
| dotLumen is a research startup that uses AI, robotics, and neuroscience to empower the blind. dotLumen was founded in 2020 and was headquartered in Cluj, Romania. | $4.1M / Jan 14, 2025 | ||
| Leanpay is an omni-channel POS financing company that aims to disrupt consumer loans segment, and help consumers buy products they need. Existing BNPL players are financing average basket size of around 150 EUR. Leanpay is focused on segment of bigger purchases up to 5.000 EURm, with average basket size 4x bigger compered to BNPLs. Today, thatsegment is mostly covered with traditional consumer loans provided by banks. Leanpay is able to disrupt the segment because it is regulated credit company with high competencies in providing in-dept credit analysis for its clients, preventing over-indebtedness and assuring Leanpay position as responsible lender. Leanpay has focus on markets in CEE region. | $10.8M / Series B / Jul 30, 2024 | ||
| ESX operates as a fitness subscription startup. | $2.2M / Venture - Series Unknown / Jun 20, 2023 | ||
| Hunch empowers global e-commerce companies to dominate social commerce with performance driven creatives. Founded by a small group of creative technology pioneers in LA and Belgrade, Hunch has become a global leader in AI driven dynamic creative solutions for social commerce marketing. With Hunch, global brands across Europe, US, LATAM, and Asiafuel their growth online using data-driven, contextualized, and automated customer journeys at scale. | $4.3M / Venture - Series Unknown / May 31, 2022 | ||
| Seedblink is Europe’s fastest growing investing platform specialized in sourcing, vetting, financing and scaling tech start-ups. We leverage software, capital and an exclusive industry community to lower barriers to accessing VC level opportunities for both investors and founders. | $3.7M / Series A / May 27, 2021 | ||
| SmartDreamers is a business application platform that acts as a center point solution for recruitment marketing automation. With SmartDreamers, companies become employers of choice, hiring faster, better and cost-effective. | $768K / Series A / Sep 06, 2016 | ||
| SmartDreamers is a business application platform that acts as a center point solution for recruitment marketing automation. With SmartDreamers, companies become employers of choice, hiring faster, better and cost-effective. | $783.7K / Seed / Sep 01, 2016 | ||
| Marketizator is a 3 in 1 conversion rate optimization platform, the first one specifically built for e-commerce and SaaS websites. It covers 3 key areas:- Surveys: to get precious insights about what keeps specific segments of visitors to conver. A/B Testing with a WYSISYG editor - change any text, image, or colours without technical skills.Real time interactions: prompt the visitors with persuasive messages in key-moments (when they start leaving the website) in order to make them convert. Based on their insights with the first 300 accounts, they are focusing on providing ready2use widgets in order to use the power of web personalization without any technical and design efforts. | $1.1M / Venture - Series Unknown / Apr 05, 2016 | ||
| Founded in 2007, Smart Bill is a Romanian FinTech startup that offers billing solutions and SaaS-based services. It also provides small- and medium-sized businesses with invoicing and inventory management software. It offers Smart Bill Cloud, an online billing program which can be accessed from anywhere, from any internet-connected device. Thecompany is headquartered in Sibiu, Romania. | $1.1M / Seed / Mar 09, 2016 | ||
| See all 14 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
About Catalyst Romania
Catalyst Romania is a private equity and venture capital fund platform.
Catalyst Romania Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Alina Georgescu
Investment Manager
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Alin V. Stanciu
Partner
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Marius Ghenea
Managing Partner
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Sever Totia
Partner
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FAQ
What does Marius Ghenea invest in?
Marius Ghenea invests primarily in Software, SaaS and FinTech startups, most often at Series A and Venture - Series Unknown stage. Most of the 14 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Romania. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
What round sizes does Marius Ghenea invest in?
Marius Ghenea typically joins rounds of $784k–$1.1M at Seed, $569k–$3.7M at Series A and $1.1M–$5M at Venture - Series Unknown. These are whole funding-round sizes, not Marius Ghenea's own check, which is rarely disclosed: the 10th–90th percentile of the confirmed public funding rounds Marius Ghenea took part in.
How do I contact Marius Ghenea?
Public channels for Marius Ghenea include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
When did Marius Ghenea last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Marius Ghenea closed in Feb 2025. Shizune tracks 14 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Oct 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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