UiPath's success fires up Romania's unicorn dreams

FILE PHOTO: Sergiu Negut, co-founder of Romanian start-up FintechOS, poses for a portrait at FintechOS headquarters, in Bucharest, Romania, January 18, 2022. Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea via REUTERS

BUCHAREST/PRAGUE (Reuters) - When Romanian software maker UiPath achieved unicorn status as a billion-dollar company in March 2018, Sergiu Negut knew immediately that the value of his own Bucharest-based start-up had just shot up as a result.

"We had discussions with investors about the Seed round. UiPath had just become a unicorn. I called Teo (co-founder Teodor Blidarus) to tell him our valuation probably grew by 30% overnight," said Negut, co-founder of FintechOS, which was set up in 2017 and builds digital tools for financial services firms.