Gecad Ventures has announced the sale of 100% of international ecommerce solutions provider Avangate to California based private equity firm Francisco Partners, for an undisclosed amount. Francisco Partners a leading private equity firm with more than USD 7 billion under management, intends to inject fresh growth capital in the business to fuel further expansion, product development and growth. Avangate was founded in 2006 by the prominent Romanian entrepreneur Radu Georgescu, who is also its majority shareholder through the Gecad Ventures fund.
Georgescu’s strategy to move the international headquarters of the company to Silicon Valley resulted in Avangate becoming a major ecommerce player in the North American market. The move also demonstrated the strong technical acumen of the Romanian technical and product development team.
As with other companies Radu has launched and exited, Avangate’s growth as a leading Romanian company and strong success on the global stage has provided new opportunities for the next generation of leaders to not only thrive in Romania but to build truly international businesses.
“As we all know, Romania has great technical talent, a very innovative mindset and is the perfect place to launch new businesses. Taking companies to Silicon Valley provides them with the ideal mix of great technology talent and visionary business skills. I hope I will be able to nurture more great companies and introduce them to the world through the Silicon Valley”, says Radu Georgescu, Founding Partner Gecad Ventures.
With over 20 years experience in building global technology businesses Radu Georgescu is Romania’s most successful serial entrepreneur and angel investor, and the leading figure behind the fund Gecad Ventures.
In 2003, Radu Georgescu brought Romania’s technology sector to global prominence by exiting his security software venture, ‘RAV Antivirus’ to Microsoft. This was followed by the acquisition of his second venture ‘ePayment’ in 2010 by Naspers Ltd., the global internet and entertainment group and one of the largest technology investors in the world. The exit of Avangate to Francisco Partners marks his third successful international exit in the last 10 years.
Gecad Ventures will continue its quest to support the Romanian entrepreneurial community and help them reach international markets not only through capital, but through the knowledge, experience and networking offered by its members.
Bucharest, October 5th, 2017. GECAD NET, one of the first entrepreneurial venture of Radu Georgescu has been acquired by Bittnet Systems, a Romanian company that focuses on IT trainings and delivering end-to-end IT infrastructure services, being also the first Romanian tech company listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. With over 25 years of experience in […]
London, November 25, 2015. Gecad Ventures has participated with an additional equity of USD $2 million in the recently concluded investment round of Vector Watch. Other investors in this USD $5 million funding include Catalyst Romania and a group of high net worth individuals. With this recent investment, Gecad Ventures remains the largest single shareholder of […]
Bucharest, March 11 2014. Gecad Ventures announces a new exit, the takeover of Axigen Messaging by a group of four Romanian entrepreneurs with investments in the local IT industry. The value of the transaction is confidential. Axigen was launched in 2004 with the aim of delivering top e-mail communication technology in Romania and abroad. The Axigen technology […]
Bucharest, August 12, 2015. Coinify announced the acquisition of Coinzone, a leading Bitcoin payment provider, marking Gecad Ventures fifth international exit. Coinzone was launched in 2014 as the first full stack European Bitcoin solution. By using Coinzone, users can buy, sell, trade and transact with Bitcoin. By integrating Coinzone’s technology, the new partnership between the two companies will result in a number of new opportunities […]
Bucharest, September 1, 2010. ePayment, the leading provider of integrated eCommerce solutions on the Romanian market, has divested majority control to the Allegro Group, part of the international internet and entertainment group Naspers Ltd. Allegro has become the major shareholder in ePayment. The transaction was completed in August 2010, for an undisclosed amount. Daniel Nicolescu has been named […]
Bucharest, June 10, 2003. Microsoft Corp. announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the intellectual property and technology assets of Gecad, a provider of antivirus technology based in Bucharest, Romania. Terms of the acquisition are confidential. Microsoft’s acquisition of Gecad’s technology will help secure customers by providing antivirus solutions for Microsoft® products and services. In […]
Bucharest, January 31st 2019. Gecad Ventures participated with a follow-on investment in the recently concluded investment round of TypingDNA. Romanian AI-based typing biometric secured $1.5M funding from several investors including GapMinder and other international investors. Multiple award-winner, TypingDNA became one of the most exciting players in the typing biometrics space, with one of the most […]
Bucharest, July 18, 2014. Vector Watch receives from GECAD Ventures an investment of 500,000 EUR for a non-disclosed equity. “We invest in companies that can disrupt their markets and we believe Vector is such a company”, explains Radu Georgescu, Founding Partner of Gecad Ventures. Andrei Pitiș, former CEO for IXIA Romania and Chairman of Romanian Software Asscociation, founded Vector during […]
Bucharest, October 27, 2016. Gecad Ventures has led the first seed investment round in TypingDNA, a Romanian behavioral biometrics cyber security startup based on artificial intelligence. For this round, Gecad Ventures has also syndicated a group of local business-angels, terms of the acquisition being confidential. TypingDNA is a cyber security SaaS that uses AI to identify […]
Bucharest, March 9, 2016. Smart Bill, Romanian provider of billing solutions and SaaS services, has secured a EUR 1 million investment from Gecad Ventures and Catalyst Romania. Smart Bill has been advised by Gecad since 2013 and the raised round will be used for the development of the company. “This investment gives the company the fuel it needs to […]
Bucharest, January 10, 2017. Gecad Ventures sells its majority stake in Vector Watch to Fitbit, marking one more important global exit for the investment fund. The terms of the transaction are confidential. Vector Watch, known for its innovative and cross-functional approach to design and development of wearable technology, has recently reached an agreement with Fitbit […]
Bucharest, February 28, 2017. Radu Georgescu, Founding Partner at Gecad Ventures, took the gong home for Business Leader Of The Year at this year’s Business Review Awards. On Monday evening, in an fairy-like atmosphere that would definitely compete with the Oscars, took place the 2017 Business Review Awards. 200 high-ranking representatives of the business environment, […]