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Last updated: 29 July 2026
This document establishes the rules, rights and contractual obligations applicable to applicants selected to participate in the programs operationalized under the Business Acceleration Financial Instrument, financed from the West Regional Program 2021-2027 (SMIS Code: 358941).
The programs are structured into three distinct components, with legal, administrative and financial regimes differentiated depending on the stage of development, support mechanism and funding provision:
Pre-Acceleration Stage: The Pre-Acceleration Program is an intensive mentoring, training and early validation program, without direct capital funding, addressed to founding teams (individuals associated without the establishment of a commercial company or legal entities in their absolute debut) for the purpose of developing a business idea with potential up to the level of minimum viable product (Minimum Viable Product - MVP).
Acceleration Stage: The acceleration program is an advanced commercial development and scaling program, intended exclusively for legally established SMEs, directly associated with a capital/quasi-capital investment granted under the de minimis aid regime.
Seed financing stage: Direct equity/quasi-equity investment for SMEs for accelerated scaling, granted under the risk finance State aid scheme, in accordance with Article 21 of Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 (GBER), as subsequently amended and supplemented. This component can be accessed directly, without the mandatory passage through the acceleration programme.
called the Programs supported by Usaldusfond Wise Guys Romania Fund 1 (commercially called Vest Ventures).
This financial instrument is managed through Usaldusfond Wise Guys Romania Fund 1 (commercially called Vest Ventures / vestventures.vc), an investment fund registered in Estonia (code 17329661, headquartered at A. Lauteri 3, 10114, Tallinn), legally represented by the General Partner of Wise Guys Ventures OÜ, through Dag Ainsoo (Member of the Board of Directors).
The implementation is carried out by the Wise Grow Collective consortium, composed of:
Funding is provided from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and from the state budget, through the West Regional Program 2021–2027, under Policy Objective 1: "A more competitive and smarter Europe".
To be eligible to participate in the Usaldusfond Wise Guys Romania Fund 1 Programs, applicants must cumulatively meet the following conditions on the date of application submission or by the deadlines specified below:
The proposed business or project must fall within the smart specialization areas of the West Region (RIS3 Strategy), having a high potential for innovation, scalability and international expansion (e.g. Information and Communications Technology - ICT, Automotive, Advanced Manufacturing, Health, Sustainable Tourism, etc.).
In accordance with European rules and the clauses of the Financing Agreement, startups/individual applicants are not eligible and will be automatically rejected if they are involved in:
The investments made by the Fund Manager are made through the injection of capital or quasi-capital, in exchange for an equity participation (acquired at the time of signing the investment contract or which may be acquired at a later time) in companies, in strict compliance with the ceilings and state aid regimes:
If the Fund Manager decides to make an investment for the benefit of a startup, the respective startup will be obliged to accept the respective investment, under the contractual conditions that will be negotiated in good faith by the signatory parties. The documents regarding the investment (term sheet, convertible loan agreement and shareholders' agreement in case of equity) on which the discussions will be held (not having the character of acts of accession) are those that will be transmitted by Usaldusfond Wise Guys Romania Fund 1, except for specific cases in which the Fund Manager will accept the use of the documents made available by the startup. For the avoidance of doubt, it is expressly provided that the financing of startups does not represent a mandatory approach, but a decision left to the free discretion of the Fund Manager depending on each startup analyzed in detail.
If the private share is not covered by the pre-committed resources of the fund, a co-investment mechanism with external independent private investors (e.g. Business Angels) will be used.
The recruitment, assessment and selection of applicants within the Usaldusfond Wise Guys Romania Fund 1 Programs is carried out through a digitalized, transparent and multi-stage process, which combines the analysis of data from the platform carried out by the Fund Administrator's key experts with outsourced specialized human expertise (as appropriate), complemented, with a strictly indicative role, by an assessment based on an AI-type algorithm.
The identification of eligible SMEs and teams is achieved through a proactive recruitment ("sourcing") strategy, based on pillars such as:
The entire recruitment and assessment flow is digitally recorded, ensuring a complete history of each application submitted by applicants. Only applications with a complete data set (financial data, pitch deck, team profile) are admitted to the assessment stage, to ensure a uniform selection basis.
The selection process is structured progressively, on five successive levels of verification, aimed at early identification of potential risks or elements that could prevent the granting of financing:
Level 1 – Initial application qualification: each application is reviewed by the Usaldusfond Wise Guys Romania Fund 1 team from the perspective of the founders' identity to eliminate bot applications, the quality of the information submitted, and the applicants' ability to present their idea and objectives. If additional questions arise, additional documents may be requested.
The analysis is completed by an automatic scoring evaluation, carried out through the evaluation platform (with a strictly indicative role).
Level 2 – Documentation review and first meeting: applicants who pass the first level complete, within the application platform (section dedicated to additional compliance questions), a form on compliance and absence of conflict of interest, followed by a first check of the legal situation, any previously obtained de minimis aid and the entity's risk report. Depending on the result, the team members may decide to continue the discussions by requesting additional documents or redirecting the applicant to another component of the Programs (e.g. acceleration without investment or pre-acceleration).
Level 3 – Transaction Analysis: consists of direct interviews with team members, followed by a final decision.
Level 4 – Due Diligence: involves due diligence statements and in-depth AML (Anti-Money Laundering) and KYC (Know Your Customer) checks, including analysis of requested documents.
To optimize resources and accelerate decision-making, the Due Diligence process is a progressive one, focused on the early identification of critical factors ("yellow flags", "red flags", eliminatory elements).
Applicants who have passed the first 3 levels will be provided with the set of applicable standard documents (Main Terms and Conditions/Term Sheet, Convertible Loan Agreement or Equity Participation Agreement – CLA or SHA, Service Agreement, as well as declarations of conformity), so that the founders know in advance the content of the documents they are about to sign.
Level 5 – Final Integrity Validation (post-Due Diligence): if the interval between the completion of Due Diligence and the signing of the Investment Agreement exceeds 30 days, the Fund Manager performs a Bring-Down Analysis to confirm that no adverse changes have occurred in the applicant's corporate structure, legal status or financial situation.
The complete submission of the documents below is mandatory; the absence of a document or its presentation in an incorrect form may lead to the suspension or impossibility of continuing the evaluation process.
Documents issued by the competent authorities must be no more than 30 days old from the date of issue to the time of transmission and must be translated into Romanian by an authorized translator (or must be notarized and apostilled if Romanian legislation provides for such additional mandatory formalities):
At Usaldusfond Wise Guys Romania Fund 1, integrity and transparency are the pillars of our partnership with startups. To ensure a fair and equitable environment, we provide two distinct reporting methods, both of which benefit from a rigorous analysis within 5 business days.
Use this channel for anything related to the recruitment process, assessment, or current interaction with our team.
This channel is dedicated to reporting serious irregularities, unethical behavior or violations of the law (e.g. fraud, corruption, undeclared conflicts of interest).
! Important note: You will only receive a response/update on the status of your complaint if you have provided an email address in the questionnaire. In the absence of a contact address, the complaint will be processed internally, but we will not be able to communicate the status or outcome of the analysis to you.
Once a project is selected, participation in the Usaldusfond Wise Guys Romania Fund 1 Program is no longer optional, but represents a firm and assumed contractual commitment on the part of the founders/applicants who applied.
Failure to comply with this obligation of active involvement will result in immediate removal from the Program.
The central goal of this phase is to transform an idea or early technological project into a tested Minimum Viable Product (MVP), focusing on theoretical training, market mapping, and team building, without direct capital funding.
This phase is exclusively aimed at legally incorporated SMEs that already have a developed MVP and have demonstrated initial traction. The activities are directly correlated to the potential receipt of a capital investment (de minimis aid) and aim at accelerated commercial growth.
The Fund Manager operates under a strict government mandate. He bears full legal and financial responsibility to AM PR Vest and ADR Vest for any non-compliance. Since unjustified abandonment or fraud of a startup can generate major financial corrections applied directly to the Fund Manager, the control and presence rules have zero tolerance.
All investment beneficiaries (Acceleration and Seed) have a legal obligation to allow the Fund Administrator team, official representatives of ADR Vest, the control structures of the Ministry of Investments and European Projects (MIPE) and authorized audit bodies to conduct on-site visits (announced or unannounced). They will verify the compliance of the use of funds, bank statements and the actual technical progress of the startup, as well as the fact that the company has a real physical and operational activity in the Western Region of Romania, and that all operational and strategic decisions regarding the eligible activity are taken in this region (it has at least one director/administrator who actually carries out activities in the Western Region) throughout the implementation.
The financed enterprises have a strict legal obligation to keep in good condition, in original, in a separate dedicated file for the financed operation, all supporting documents (invoices, bank statements, activity reports, technical deliverables) for a minimum period of 5 years and up to 10 years (depending on the European rules specific to financial instruments and state aid rules) in order to ensure a complete audit trail. The destruction, loss or failure to maintain these documents automatically leads to measures for the full recovery of the invested funds.
Situations such as:
may lead to the Fund Administrator's decision to immediately exclude from the Program, terminate mentoring and immediately, fully and unconditionally refund the amounts invested and the earnings achieved by the startup as a result of the respective financing, including the value of all acceleration and support services unduly received, plus the related late payment interest/penalties.
By way of example, we mention:
disrespect towards the Usaldusfond Wise Guys Romania Fund 1 team, mentors or other participants in the Program, verbal aggression, repeated absences or delays in mandatory sessions, providing false information regarding progress or manipulating the results presented so that they do not reflect reality, failure to comply with applicable rules and deadlines, harassment, exclusion, manipulation, initiating disputes that degenerate into public or unprofessional arguments, sabotage or unethical competitiveness, unapproved use or theft of another team's ideas or content, disclosure of confidential information, violation of intellectual property rights, publishing/supporting inappropriate or misleading posts on social networks related to the Program/Usaldusfond Wise Guys Romania Fund 1, consumption of illegal substances during Program hours or at events, involvement in contexts that violate any prohibition indicated in this document.
The refund will be made within 15 days from the date of the written notification sent by the Fund Administrator, under penalty of a late payment penalty of 0.5% per day, calculated on the amount due, without this being capped at the level of the principal debt. The Fund Administrator will be able to take all necessary steps to cover the aforementioned claim, its decision being based on objective reasons, being assumed by the company in question.
If a situation such as those indicated above occurs during the Program, this fact constitutes grounds for immediate exclusion from the Program of the entire team/company or only the guilty members (if the other members decide to continue participation without them, and the Fund Administrator agrees to this).
The Fund Administrator, with prior information from the AM PR Vest and the ADR Vest, may decide to suspend or terminate, in whole or in part, the Programs (or one of its components - pre-acceleration, acceleration, seed financing), before the full completion of the implementation, for reasons such as:
The decision to suspend or terminate will be publicly communicated by publishing an announcement on the official platform of Usaldusfond Wise Guys Romania Fund 1. In these situations, the Fund Administrator is no longer bound by any obligation towards the registered applicants/participants, including the obligation to continue financing, to pay the unpaid investment tranches or to provide mentoring/acceleration services not yet performed, and does not owe any compensation to them, without prejudice to the rights already acquired under an Investment Contract signed prior to the date of suspension/termination.
The applicant/participant may withdraw from the Program, for any reason, at any time, under the obligation to immediately inform the Fund Administrator of this decision, by written notification.
If the withdrawal is notified before receiving any amount from the Fund Manager (investment tranche or, as the case may be, other financial support), the applicant does not owe any refund, except where they have expressly agreed to the obligation to cover the evaluation and due diligence costs already incurred for their benefit.
If the withdrawal is notified after receiving one or more investment tranches or other forms of financial support, the applicant is obliged to refund to the Fund Administrator all amounts received up to that point, under the conditions and deadlines provided for in art. 6 letter D above (15 days from notification, under penalty of a late payment penalty of 0.5% per day).
In all cases, the applicant/participant who withdraws is obliged to hand over to the Fund Administrator all materials, access data and any resources made available during participation in the Program.
Although confidential commercial data, source code, technological secrets and intellectual property rights (IP) of startups are fully protected, elements regarding the use of public funds cannot be declared confidential. The identity of the beneficiaries (the official name of the SME), the logo or other branding elements created, the location of the project, the business idea of the participant within the Program and the amounts received (financing and the value of support services) will be mandatorily published in the Electronic State Aid Evidence System (RegAS), on the official website vestventures.vc and on the transparency platforms of ADR Vest.
From the moment of receiving the investment (or establishing the company in the case of pre-acceleration teams), beneficiaries have the legal obligation, according to the visual identity manuals of the European Union, to display at the registered office or at the project implementation site a poster in minimum A3 format or a panel in minimum A2 format highlighting the co-financing from the European Union and the West Regional Program.
Also, the communication, advertising and visibility rules related to De Minimis and GBER support assumed by Usaldusfond Wise Guys Romania Fund will be respected.
All participants expressly authorize Usaldusfond Wise Guys Romania Fund to take photo, video and audio materials during the Programs (mentoring sessions, workshops, Demo Day). These will be used free of charge and for a period at least equal to the archiving period, for the purpose of promotion, progress reporting to authorities, in presentations made and on the official media channels of Usaldusfond Wise Guys Romania Fund (with the commercial name Vest Ventures) and of the entities in the consortium as well as of ADR Vest (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, etc.).
All applicants must complete a declaration on their own responsibility regarding the absence of conflict of interest. There must be no family relationship, hidden affiliation or direct patrimonial interest between the management structure/associations of the startup and the Fund Administrator team or the partners in the management consortium. Any previous ownership of shares/stakes or equity options by members of the fund management team in the applicant startup will result in its absolute ineligibility.
Enrollment in the Programs does not result in the transfer to the Fund Administrator of copyrights/intellectual or industrial property rights relating to the business projects proposed within the Programs, nor of the intellectual property rights of the participants enrolled in the Programs.
Participants are responsible for the accuracy and correctness of the information provided during the Programs, including, but not limited to, creative ideas, suggestions and feedback/information regarding proposed products and services, market analyses, surveys, business plans, business forecasts, partnerships, know-how, etc. (hereinafter referred to as "Content"). Each of the participants in the Programs represents and warrants that he is the author and owner of the Content provided as a participant in the Program and/or that he is otherwise able to grant the Fund Manager the rights to use such Content for the purposes of the Programs.
Participants also declare that, by registering and participating in the Program, they do not violate, either directly or indirectly, any right of a third party (including, but not limited to, intellectual property rights, the right to activate a confidentiality or non-compete clause). Therefore, participants assume full responsibility for the Content and for the way in which they decide to develop it and are directly liable to third parties potentially affected. In this regard, neither the Fund Administrator nor its collaborators have and do not assume any liability, and cannot be held liable for any kind of damage that may result from accessing and/or processing any information, data, business initiatives/ideas or documents from the Content provided by participants in the Programs.
The methodologies, screening processes, course modules, logistical materials and training materials used during the programs represent the exclusive intellectual property of the entities forming the Wise Grow Collective consortium (depending on those agreed upon by them) and may not be multiplied, distributed or used in any way by participants for purposes other than to fulfill the requirements of the program they have enrolled in. The commercial data submitted by startups for evaluation (pitch decks, budgets, technical details protected by trade secrets) are strictly confidential and accessible only to the Usaldusfond Wise Guys Romania Fund team and AM PR Vest. However, participants understand and consent to the fact that part of the Content submitted, published, developed, created or presented during the Program may become accessible to other Program participants, Usaldusfond Wise Guys Romania Fund members, mentors and external partners or the general public at the Demo Day.
By applying to the Programs, the applicant confirms that he/she will acknowledge and assume the provisions of the Personal Data Processing Policy by checking the corresponding box at the end of the application form for the desired Program.
These Regulations are governed by Romanian law. Any dispute arising in connection with the interpretation or execution of obligations shall be resolved amicably as a priority. If an amicable solution is not possible, exclusive territorial jurisdiction shall lie with the competent courts of Timișoara.
Any notification sent to applicants/participants by the Fund Manager in relation to these Regulations shall be deemed to have been communicated, validly, as follows:
Verbal notifications will not be taken into account unless they are subsequently confirmed by one of the above methods.
The Fund Manager reserves the right to modify or update, at its own discretion and at any time, the content of this document, including as a result of legislative, jurisprudential or operational changes to the Programs. Any revision will be marked by updating the "Last updated" date on the official platform of www.vestventures.vc.
Continuing participation in the Program or taking any action (submitting the application, attending the interview, accepting the investment) after the publication of the updated version constitutes the applicant/participant's implicit acceptance of the new conditions.
Changes that significantly affect the rights of applicants will be additionally communicated, by posting on the official platform and/or by email to the contact addresses provided, at least 15 days before their entry into force. In any case, it remains the responsibility of the applicant/participant to periodically check the updated content of the Regulation.
The section titles of this document are strictly for guidance only and do not in any way affect the interpretation of their contents.
Applicants/participants may not assign the place obtained in the Programs nor the rights or obligations resulting from it without the prior and express consent of the Fund Administrator. The Fund Administrator may assign the capacity of organizer, as well as the related rights or obligations, to any third party, without the consent of the applicants/participants.
If any of the provisions of this document is declared null and void, in whole or in part, the other provisions remain valid and continue to produce their effects, and the affected provision will be replaced, as far as possible, with one having an effect equivalent to that originally intended.
Persons completing forms, participating in the Program, or submitting notifications on behalf of an applicant declare, on their own responsibility, that they are legally authorized to perform these actions and assume the related obligations.
The Fund Manager's waiver of applying a particular provision in a specific case does not constitute a general waiver of the right to apply it subsequently or in other situations.
By checking the option "I accept the Terms and Conditions" (of which this Regulation is an integral part) on the electronic platform or by formally signing the Participation Agreement, the Applicant confirms on his own responsibility that he has read, understood and fully understands the structure of the program, the differentiation of legal and state aid regimes, the public nature of the allocated European funds and the complete package of contractual obligations that are incumbent on him during the program, as well as in the post-implementation period.
Administrative recommendation: Assumption of the Regulation is a mandatory condition of compliance during the registration phase. Final selection in the Acceleration or Seed programs and the actual transfer of funds are strictly conditional on the negotiation and formal signing of a separate Investment Agreement, which will detail all rights, commercial obligations and clauses specific to the equity transaction.