Raluca Epureanu, a Romanian woman from Constanța active in the London hospitality market, has received GBP 500,000 in pre-seed funding for FlairMakers, the startup she founded, according to a RePatriot press release sent on Monday, August 17.
The funding was led by SFC Capital, one of the most active seed investors in the UK, alongside angel investors. The money raised will support product and technology development, as well as the expansion of the FlairMakers network in the UK. The company is already active in Romania and recently entered into a partnership with the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Epureanu’s alma mater.
The startup helps a hotel or restaurant quickly find the right people when it needs them, while allowing professionals to turn their experience into a more flexible career and multiple sources of income. A hotel may need a chef for a busy weekend, a restaurant may need a sommelier, an event may require additional staff, and a company may temporarily need an experienced manager.
Instead of traditional recruitment or informal referral networks, FlairMakers creates a digital system in which companies can access verified independent professionals. The platform integrates verification, training, compliance, contracting, payments, and quality control.
“Hospitality has always operated on the assumption that there are only two ways to work: employment or agencies. There is a third, and the best professionals in the industry are already living it: the same sommelier works shifts at three venues, holds tasting courses and provides consulting for wine lists. One set of skills, multiple sources of income,” said Raluca Epureanu.
This is the idea behind what the company calls “portfolio career,” a career in which a professional can leverage the same skill in multiple contexts, for multiple clients and through multiple sources of income.
FlairMakers is already active in both the UK and Romania, being named Hospitality, Tourism & Events StartUp of the Year at the London UK StartUp Awards 2026.
RePatriot, the Romanian Business Leaders initiative that seeks to reconnect Romania to its entrepreneur diaspora, noted in a press release that FlairMakers is a concrete example of how the diaspora can transform international experience into capital, technology, know-how and networks.
“Raluca Epureanu is a remarkable example of a generation of Romanians who should no longer be viewed through the paradigm of leaving and returning. She shows that there is something much more powerful: connection. You can leave Constanța, build an extraordinary international career, learn in the world’s major centers, and then build a global company that also operates in Romania,” said Marius Bostan, initiator of RePatriot.
Raluca Epureanu has approximately 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry, built across four continents and in 30 countries. She graduated from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, then completed an Executive MBA at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, becoming the first Romanian woman to receive a Forté scholarship for women as part of an EMBA program. In 2022, she was included by Poets & Quants in the “The Best & Brightest Executive MBAs” ranking.
For more than 15 years, Raluca worked for Marriott International, where she progressed from an internship in the United States to the position of Senior Director of Events for the Asia-Pacific region, based in Hong Kong. In this role, she coordinated an organization covering 750 hotels, 23 brands in 24 countries, and a team of 175,000 people. In 2023, Raluca Epureanu was included in the Top 100 Romanians Abroad, the RePatriot initiative that annually recognizes the achievements of Romanian professionals and entrepreneurs in the diaspora.
(Photo source: press release)
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