The local start-up ecosystem is still in a construction phase, and acceleration and incubation initiatives are essential to support the development of Romanian companies, believes Vlad Panait, founding managing partner of Sparking Capital. Programs like MoonShotX, developed by Raiffeisen Bank and InnovX, bring value to an entrepreneurial environment that has not yet reached maturity, he points out. «It is certainly needed and, unfortunately, they are not enough, because we do not have a mature ecosystem, it is still in formation, and then the type of acceleration or incubation program depends on the stage in which the start-ups are. The program is welcome and brings added value to the market. I have interacted with InnovX for several years in a row, so I am not in the first edition. What I notice is that the quality of the founding teams and the quality of the program increases from year to year and it is one thing gratifying», said Vlad Panait in an interview within the MoonShotX program. The MoonShotX program is an initiative of Raiffeisen Bank Romania, in partnership with InnovX, and is aimed at Romanian companies with turnover between 5 and 50 million euros, which are preparing for international expansion. The second edition of the program was launched in October 2025 and will run over eight months, including visits and learning sessions in key markets such as the United States, Austria, the United Kingdom and Japan. One of the main messages sent by Vlad Panait to companies in the MoonShotX program concerns the complexity of the scaling process. «One of the messages is that scaling must be prepared, and scaling does not necessarily mean hiring more people or increasing a team, but requires a certain preparation in identifying the markets in which companies want to scale, an analysis of them from the perspective of market size, from the perspective of market growth, from the perspective of the competitive environment, distribution channels, their ability to attract talent from the respective markets, to employ people in processes and tools that they can use until I make the activity more efficient. One of the changes that scaling implies is that it transforms the organization into a much larger one. And this is not only from the perspective of the increase in the number of employees, but also from the perspective of the new skills that the founding team or the teams have to acquire», says the representative of Sparking Capital. In practice, scaling transforms the organization in depth. Not only the personnel structure changes, but also the internal processes, the tools used and the competences of the team of founders, he explains. «So the process is much more complex than it can be understood in a first instance. Beyond financing and access to financing that facilitates scaling, because it has to be financed, access to talent is one of the biggest problems that start-ups or companies in the scaling stage encounter. Access to talent is very difficult these days, because they don't have competition from companies similar to theirs, but they also have competition from bigger companies, they have the competition of other start-ups that come in the same market where they want to scale and then access to talent does not happen so easily.» Beyond funding, access to talent represents one of the biggest challenges for start-ups in the growth stage. Young companies compete not only with similar companies, but also with big players or with other start-ups entering the same markets. «The advice we give to founders is to prepare this talent acquisition or talent recruitment ahead of time, to think about the key positions they want to recruit in a certain market, to identify the people who would be suitable for those positions, to start establishing some connections with them, to build a relationship, because good people or not succeed in being hired when you want, but when they want and consider that they want to do that. Without building this kind of relationship and interaction, you won't find it at the right time, when you want it. This is one of the directions we recommend to start-ups», adds Vlad Panait. Another essential message sent to entrepreneurs concerns the relationship with investors. Even after closing a funding round, the dialogue must not be interrupted. «The second is related to financing, that access to financing or investor pitching must not be stopped. They must continue to do this, even if in the respective round they closed it perhaps not with the same intensity, but they must build a network of investors with whom they must stay in touch, give them updates, updates on their business situation, possibly ask for some advice», says the representative of Sparking Capital. In his view, entrepreneurs must always have the following steps in mind: expanding to new markets, attracting capital and strengthening the team. «This work must be done continuously, it must not be interrupted, so that the need becomes imminent not to start from scratch and to already have some interactions, an engagement, some built relationships that they can call on much more easily, to keep the lines of communication. They must always have this in mind, what is the next step they must take? And the next steps refer to the market, refer to financing and refer to the people I have to bring into the team.» Sparking Capital is a venture capital fund that is the second investment fund in Romania and mainly invests in very early stage technology start-ups. «We want to be among the first institutional investors of a company, of a start-up, with the objective of helping them grow and scale. Before Sparking Capital, I had a corporate experience, I worked in different countries, continents, I worked in Romania, in Serbia, in Africa, I worked in Germany, especially in commercial marketing and sales areas.» Vlad Panait says that, before launching the fund, he identified a clear need in the market: operational support for business founders who want to scale their business. «Before starting Sparking Capital, we saw in the market a very great need for founders to scale or to help scale. I mean, we have very good technical skills in the market, many founders, graduates of technical, polytechnic, cybernetics faculties, who know how to develop products or services, but have a challenge when they start to commercialize these products, either on the Romanian market, but even more so on markets outside Romania. We thought that here we can bring value added, both I and my partners have operational and entrepreneurial experience and we try to use this experience to help the companies in the portfolio», he detailed.