Fab Lab Iași has started setting-up its second co-working location in Iași, in partnership with BCR and Modex. Located on the 7th floor of the Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR) building, in the Podu Roș area, this new space covers 250 square meters.
"Three years ago, in partnership with 'Gheorghe Asachi' Technical University Iasi, we started working on the first space in Iași affiliated to the international #FabLab co-working and makerspace network. Since then, our team has managed to bring the tech and creative communities from the region under one roof. With this second location, we are continuing, together with our partners from BCR and Modex, to position #FabLabIasi as an active hub in the region." Dan Zaharia, Fab Lab Iași Manager commented.
"The BCR-InnovX accelerator has helped us to become more agile, to learn how to digitize certain processes faster, and to be open to partnerships with start-ups. We strongly believe that in such periods of economic crisis we have to increase the number of partnerships that can stimulate innovation for tech entrepreneurs. We've joined forces with Modex, alumni of the accelerator's first group, and the Fab Lab Iași team, which hosts the BCR-InnovX incubator, in a project dedicated to the Iași IT community where we see a lot of growth potential in the coming years", stated Ionuț Stanimir, BCR Marketing Director and BCR-InnovX co-founder.
"Modex is a global company founded by Romanians. For a tech company like ours, we think that we have a real social responsibility to offer something back to the society that shaped us, hence we are continuing to invest in education for young people and students, but also in the growth of the entrepreneurial community. We were glad to receive an invite from our partners Fab Lab and BCR to join them and contribute to developing the new tech hub in Iași. Despite the crisis the world is currently facing, Modex wishes to convey a message of solidarity, hope, and faith in humanity and opening this co-working space when social distancing is a must represents another educational commitment we are making to the tech and entrepreneurial communities in Iași. Moreover, Fab Lab BCR powered by Modex becomes the first step towards the regional expansion of Modex." Alin Iftemi, Head of Business & Co-founder Modex.
The coworking phenomenon is a socio-professional link which prevents the isolation of those working from home and leads to an increase in the work quality. In addition, having both freelancers and entrepreneurs in the same shared space leads to stimulating the entrepreneurship concept through various sessions, events, and workshops on different topics with the aim to increase the information flow for those who want to develop and implement an idea.
The new Fab Lab space in Iași will be inaugurated in June 2020, offering flexible use scenarios (co-working areas, study and conference halls, dedicated offices), and will function as an independent platform meant to foster innovation and collaboration for the entrepreneurial community in Iași.
BCR supports the BCR-InnovX accelerator, a program dedicated to tech companies run in partnership with UiPath, Microsoft, Modex, EdX, Startup Grind, Mindspace, European Center for Services Investments and Financing (ECSIF) and MIT Enterprise Forum. This year, the accelerator has initiated an incubation program for Iași start-ups together with Fab Lab Iași and the IT Informal School.
Modex is a company specialized in blockchain which has developed the Blockchain Database (BCDB) software solution. Created by Romanian developers, Modex BCDB showcases a new technological perspective on how companies or institutions manage their own databases, bringing a new level of cybersecurity and several benefits specific to blockchain technology such as decentralization, transparency, immutability, and integrity.
