On November 6, 2026, Romania announced the launch of Dublat.com, a new travel booking platform that offers travelers free hotel stays during the off-season, provided they book a trip in December. The project was developed by the Romanian startup Novi Labs, which aims to increase occupancy rates at hotels, guesthouses, and vacation cottages during periods of low demand.
As reported by the Romanian business publication Economedia on November 5, the new platform uses a model whereby tourists pay standard rates for accommodations during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays and, in return, receive additional free nights at the same property during the following months.
Specifically, for every two paid nights in December 2026, a tourist can receive one free night between January and May 2027.
Thus, booking four nights for Christmas or New Year’s could include two additional free nights for a return stay in the spring.
An important condition of the new program is that free nights can only be used at the same hotel, resort, or other tourist facility where the original reservation was made.
The dates of the return stay are determined at the time of the initial reservation. Hotel owners independently determine the list of rooms available under the program, as well as the dates covered by the promotion.
In particular, periods of high tourist demand, including the Easter holidays, may be excluded from the offer.
Thus, the program does not automatically provide free nights at any hotel in Romania. Its terms depend on the specific accommodation facility and room availability.
According to Adrian Oros, the founder of Dublat.com, the main idea is to create added value for tourists without having to lower accommodation rates during periods of peak demand.
“We don’t ask owners to lower prices; instead, we offer real added value. For every two paid nights in December, a guest can receive one night’s stay in the spring at the same location,” Oros noted.
Another distinctive feature of Dublat.com is its financial model for partnering with owners of vacation properties. According to the developers, the platform charges a commission of 5% of the booking price.
At the same time, there are no monthly subscription fees, listing fees, or hidden charges.
By comparison: according to the project’s initiators, commissions charged by major international travel booking platforms can range from 15% to 18% of the booking cost.
Thus, Dublat.com aims to offer owners of small hotels, guesthouses, and vacation cottages an alternative sales channel with lower intermediary service costs.
At the same time, free nights can encourage repeat visits by tourists during periods when demand for accommodations traditionally declines.
For the hospitality industry, this creates opportunities to generate additional revenue from food, tourist services, and other amenities, even when the room itself is provided free of charge.
The platform’s launch comes amid a relatively low level of utilization of Romania’s tourism infrastructure.
According to data from the National Institute of Statistics of Romania (INS), the average occupancy rate for tourist facilities in 2025 was 29.8%, which is 1.1 percentage points lower than in 2024.
Thus, more than 70% of available capacity remained unused on average throughout the year.
In 2025, Romania’s tourism facilities welcomed approximately 13.9 million guests, a 2.4% decrease compared to the previous year.
The total number of overnight stays was 29.685 million, down 1.7%.
At the same time, the average length of stay for tourists in the country was only 2.1 days.
Domestic tourists make up the majority of guests at Romanian hotels and guesthouses. In 2025, Romanian citizens accounted for 81.4% of all arrivals, while foreign visitors accounted for 18.6%.
The uneven distribution of tourist demand creates additional challenges for the hotel industry, particularly in mountainous and rural tourist regions.
During the Christmas holidays, New Year’s break, and summer vacations, many establishments experience high occupancy rates. At the same time, from January through May, some hotels and guesthouses face a significant drop in the number of visitors.
Meanwhile, owners continue to incur ongoing expenses for building maintenance, staff salaries, utilities, and taxes.
This new booking model is designed specifically to address this problem.
The business model proposed by Novi Labs combines high-season bookings with repeat visits to tourist destinations during periods of lower demand.
For tourists, the advantage is the opportunity to enjoy additional nights of vacation without paying for accommodation.
For hotel owners, this system can ensure more even utilization of their room inventory throughout the year and increase the number of repeat guests.
This model may be particularly relevant for small hotels, family-run guesthouses, vacation cottages, and rural tourism facilities, which are heavily dependent on seasonal demand.
At the same time, the actual effectiveness of the new service will depend on the number of hotels that join the platform, the availability of promotional dates, and tourists’ interest in repeat trips.
Dublat.com is a Romanian digital project in the field of travel reservations, created by the startup Novi Labs. The platform is focused on developing domestic tourism, supporting small accommodations, and increasing the utilization of tourism infrastructure during the off-season.
Ukrainian medical startup CheckEye, which is developing an artificial intelligence system for the early detection of chronic diseases using retinal images, has received a $175,000 award at the international Healthy Longevity Global Competition organized by the US National Academy of Medicine (NAM). The company took second place in the final stage of the competition, NAM reported.
The award ceremony took place in Washington during the international NAM Global Innovator Summit. The Ukrainian team was represented by CheckEye co-founder Viktoriia Chuchyna, who was identified by the organizers as the leader of the competition project.
The Ukrainian company’s development, called AI-Powered Retinal Screening for Early Detection of Chronic Diseases, involves using artificial intelligence to analyze retinal images and identify signs of chronic diseases.
The technology allows examinations to be conducted without complex invasive procedures. According to the company, capturing an image of the fundus takes about three minutes, after which the image is analyzed by a cloud-based platform using artificial intelligence algorithms.
The examination can be conducted in primary healthcare facilities, pharmacies and specialized screening centers without the direct involvement of an ophthalmologist at the image acquisition stage.
Currently, the platform is primarily focused on detecting diabetic retinopathy and signs of vascular diseases, including arterial hypertension. In the future, the developers intend to expand the technology’s capabilities to assess the risks of more than 50 diseases.
According to the project description submitted to the competition organizers, CheckEye has already screened more than 15,000 people in five countries: Ukraine, Germany, Austria, Romania and the United Kingdom.
The company reports that its algorithms achieve a sensitivity of 93–95% in detecting diabetic retinopathy and a specificity of approximately 90%. These figures are presented in the competition documentation and represent the development results claimed by the team.
As part of a pilot program of Ukraine’s Ministry of Health, implemented from October 2024 to March 2025 in Odesa and Chernihiv regions, more than 870 patients with diabetes underwent screening. According to the project, approximately one-quarter of the participants were referred for treatment.
The company plans to use the $175,000 received from the competition to scale up the technology and further develop methods for the early diagnosis of chronic diseases.
“It is a great honor for us to represent and promote Ukrainian innovations around the world. This recognition at the global level confirms that our technology has the potential to change the approach to treating chronic diseases — from dealing with their consequences to early prevention,” CheckEye founder and CEO Kyrylo Honcharuk said in a company statement.
According to NAM, 147 applications from participants who had previously received support from the program were considered in the final stage of the Healthy Longevity Global Competition. Fourteen projects became winners in various categories, sharing $2 million in awards.
Two projects received the top prizes of $700,000 each, while two others, including Ukraine’s CheckEye, took second place and received $175,000 each. The third prize amounted to $125,000, and nine other projects received honorable mention awards.
In total, over the seven years of the international program, launched by NAM in 2019, its organizers and partners have supported more than 725 projects with over $38 million in funding. The program covered more than 50 countries and territories.
For CheckEye, the award marked another stage of international recognition. The Ukrainian startup previously received support from EIT Health, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Google for Startups, and also won the EIT Health InnoStars Awards 2024.
According to NAM, the total amount of support attracted by CheckEye before receiving the latest award exceeded $750,000.
CheckEye is a Ukrainian HealthTech company specializing in the development of medical screening technologies using artificial intelligence. Its platform is designed for the early detection of diseases based on retinal image analysis and for expanding access to preventive examinations. The company’s founder and CEO is Kyrylo Honcharuk.
artificial intelligence, CHECKEYE, INNOVATION, MEDICINE, STARTUP, UKRAINE
Ukrainian defense startup Swarmer, which went public on Nasdaq in March of this year (ticker SWMR), reported a net loss of $4.5 million for January–March 2026, compared to $0.7 million for the same period in 2025, according to a company statement.
“The increase (in the loss) was primarily due to higher costs for consulting and professional services related to becoming a public company, as well as increased investments in engineering and development initiatives,” Swarmer noted.
According to the data, revenue decreased to $20,300 from $110,700, while operating expenses rose to $4.5 million from $0.8 million.
It is noted that thanks to the IPO, cash and cash equivalents for the first quarter increased to $23.5 million from $9.3 million.
“The increase primarily reflects gross proceeds of approximately $17.3 million from the IPO, as well as approximately $3.5 million in gross proceeds from the sale of Series A-1 convertible preferred shares,” Swarmer clarified.
The company also announced a $2.8 million contract to supply more than 16,000 software licenses for SkyKnight bomber quadcopters and other drones.
Swarmer’s stock price fell 2.5% on Thursday to $29.53 per share, corresponding to a market capitalization of nearly $373 million. The company priced its IPO at $5. At its peak in early April, the stock rose to nearly $69.
The company’s core areas of activity include autonomous swarm coordination, integration of multi-domain unmanned systems, AI-based collaborative autonomy, and software for commanding and controlling distributed robotic operations, according to the press release. In addition, the company’s clients include drone manufacturers who license Swarmer’s software for integration with their hardware platforms.
The company was founded by Serhii Kuprienko and Alex Fink in May 2023. The company’s headquarters and marketing and sales office are located in Austin, Texas, while its engineering divisions are split between offices in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Warsaw, Poland. The company’s holding structure includes subsidiaries in Ukraine, Poland, and Estonia.
Prior to the IPO, Kuprienko owned 27.4%, Fink owned 15.1%, while other owners included Theseus Capital Partners—where board member Philip Wagenheim serves as managing partner—with 22%, D3 Fund (Evelin Buchatski) with 10.1%, RG.AI Technologies, led by Charles Eberle von Sexi, held 14%, Green Flag Fund I held 5.3%, and Radius Fund I held 6.9%
Swarmer’s revenue in 2025 fell to $0.31 million from $0.33 million a year earlier, while its net loss increased to $8.53 million from $2.07 million.
The European Commission (EC) has announced an increase in support for “Ukrainian innovators in the high-tech sector.”
“The European Commission has allocated €20 million to fund 41 cutting-edge Ukrainian startups and small and medium-sized enterprises through the European Innovation Council (EIC) competition to help them turn innovative ideas into real solutions,” according to an EC communiqué published on Wednesday.
“This funding will help integrate Ukrainian startups into the European innovation ecosystem, strengthening Ukraine’s long-term economic ties with the EU,” noted EC Commissioner for Startups, Research, and Innovation Katerina Zakharieva.
The statement notes that each company will receive between EUR300,000 and EUR500,000, as well as the opportunity for accelerated access to the EIC’s flagship funding program—the EIC Accelerator—which offers larger grants and equity investments through the EIC Fund.
Japanese startup JPYC has launched the world’s first stablecoin pegged to the yen, Reuters reports.
The stablecoin is also called JPYC and can be fully converted into yen. It is backed by internal cash reserves and Japanese government bonds.
The company intends to issue JPYC worth 10 trillion yen ($66 billion) over three years and ensure widespread use of this cryptocurrency abroad.
To stimulate its circulation, JPYC does not plan to charge transaction fees at the initial stage. It will generate income from interest payments on government bonds.
“We hope to stimulate innovation by enabling startups to pay low fees for transactions and settlements,” Chief Executive Officer Noritaka Okabe told reporters.
Blockchain-based stablecoins are usually pegged to fiat currencies, allowing for faster and cheaper payments.
More than 99% of stablecoins in the world are pegged to the US dollar, according to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
Nikkei reported in October that Japan’s three largest banks — Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, and Mizuho Financial Group — would jointly issue their own stablecoins.
In September, nine European banks, including UniCredit and Raiffeisen, announced similar plans.
Ukrainian startup 3D UTU has created Ukraine’s first 3D-printed house in Irpen, Kiev region, the house was given to the family of the fallen military man Yaroslav Berezov, whose housing was destroyed during the occupation of the city by Russian troops, Ukrainian Digital Transformation Minister Mikhail Fedorov said.
“New housing for the family of the defender was built with a 3D printer from Ukrainian startup 3D UTU. The 130 m² house was built in just 58 motor hours, which is about 2 days of printer work. Yesterday, my wife and children received the keys to the house for free,” the minister said in his Telegram channel.
Fedorov emphasized that such construction is not only speed and economy, such technology allows to build energy-efficient and more environmentally friendly houses.
Fedorov thanked entrepreneurs, technologists and engineers who are “making efforts to rebuild the country already now.”
