Hi! Welcome to the place with the latest updates on CEE Startup & VC Scene. Here, exclusively for you, we are going to deliver a monthly overview of closed funding rounds, new VC funds and other interesting events from the region definitely worth your attention.

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Overview Of VC Transactions In 1Q 2021

The 1st quarter of 2021 was very abundant in terms of the amount of financing raised by startups in Central and Eastern Europe, which exceeded more than €1B with 160 funding rounds. Even without taking into account the Baltics region, funding in CEE still held at the level of over €1B, but the number of funding rounds decreased to 129, which showed that despite a relatively large number of transactions in this area, the most significant investments took place outside Baltics region. The majority of rounds took place in Poland (94), but it was Romania who achieved the highest value of funding which reached over €670M. The Czech Republic and Croatia are also worth distinguishing thanks to attracting an impressive amount of investments - €207M and €72M respectively. Among other popular countries were Hungary and Bulgaria. The biggest investments were secured by Romanian UiPath - €623M, Czech Rohlik - €190M, Croatian Rimac-Automobili - €70M, Bulgarian Gtmhub - €25M and Polish Tylko - €22M. When it comes to investment directions, the most popular ones were: Healthcare, Robotics, Advertising, AI, Cleantech, E-commerce, Delivery services, Automotive, Fintech and Security.

Learn more insights of 1Q 2021 in CEE in Vestbee's recent report.

Leading CEE Funding Rounds Closed In April

SunRoof - Polish-Swedish roof-tile and energy startup replacing traditional roofs to generate energy (Seed - €4.5M from Inovo Venture Partners, LT Capital, SMOK Ventures, KnowledgeHub, EIT InnoEnergy and FD Growth Capital).
Accomango - Czech B2B marketplace for worker accommodation providers, that allow companies to accommodate their employees ensuring the best possible customer service (Seed - €1.5M from Kaya and Purpose Ventures).
Sundose - Polish direct-to-consumer platform providing supplements tailored to each consument individual needs, health and lifestyle (Series A - €5M from ARIA Fund, Atmos Ventures, DX Ventures, Investible, KnowledgeHub and Polipo Ventures).
Avatao - Hungarian provider of job-related security training that generates real-life scenarios of security best practices for security and development teams, so that they can improve their coding skills and prevent common mistakes. ( Venture series - €1M from 212, 500 Startups,FastVentures, Speedinvest, business angels).
Spoko - Polish fintech specializing in international cash transfers that can be made to many countries without any commission and with very attractive exchange rates (Series A - €5M from Fintech Ventures).
Product Lead - Romanian marketing startup developing a content creation automation platform allowing customers to create meaningful customer journeys, boost sales and gain the knowledge of the market. (Seed - €600k from Eleven Ventures, Founders Bridge and Sparking Capital).
inSTREAMLY - Polish platform for streamers to manage their activities and monetize content in the way they want to (Seed - €1.1M from Colopl Next, PKO BP, PKO VC, SMOK Ventures and Supernode Global).
Pactum - Romanian startup developing an AI-powered tool for automated contract negotiations (Series A - €9M from Atomico, Project A Ventures and Metaplanet Holdings).
Craft - Hungarian software company developing a tool to create structured and linked content, share documents and collaborate with many users (Series A - €6.6M from Creandum and InReach Ventures).
meetgeek.ai - Romanian AI-powered smart meeting assistant that monitors and records all key aspects of meetings - takes notes, assigns tasks, maintains team engagement and many more (Pre-seed - €150K from Early Game Ventures).
MADMONQ - Czech startup working on health-conscious chewable supplement for games to increase their reaction time, stress control and overall performance (Seed - €500K from AdRock Ventures and business angels).
Mindgram - Polish platform and mobile application offering employees psychological support and the possibility of personal development (Pre-seed - €1.87M from Market One Capital and Pamoja Capital Group).

New VC Funds From CEE

Kaya.vc which evolved from Enern Investments, plans to invest €72M into startups from Poland and the entire CEE.
Flashpoint - Well-known VC firm Flashpoint is launching a new fund, targeting $200M to invest into later-stage tech companies with particular emphasis on Eastern Europe.
Pracuj VC - wants to take a closer look at the startups originating from Ukraine. Mykola Mykhaylov, ex-CEO of the Ukrainian job marketplace rabota.ua joins Pracuj VC’ team as the region's investment director.

Interesting Events In CEE

TechChill - Annual conference taking place on 7-21 May and gathering more than 2000 attendees including the fastest-growing startups, most innovative corporations, investors active in the region and talented tech enthusiasts.
Running Remote - Remote work conference taking place on 21st of May and prepared to teach actionable strategies and tactics that can be utilized the very next day to manage & grow remote teams.
Wayra - Telefónica’s open innovation hub is collecting applications for B2C Demo Day with the goal to present the solution and win Telefónica as a customer. The application process ends on the 21st of May.
Digitalk - is a Bulgarian conference with the goal to dig deeper into the digital future, explore coming trends, exchange ideas, and establish long-lasting partnerships. It will take place on 27-28 of May.
MIT Enterprise Forum - an equity-free startup acceleration program affiliated to the worldwide recognized Massachusetts Institute of Technology dedicated to innovative technological startups from CEE and beyond, has just closed applications and on 21st of June will announce the names of companies accepted to the program.
EIT Food Accelerator Network - connecting impactful agrifood startups with industry-leading corporate and research partners has just opened its next hub in one of the most innovative countries in the world - Finland.
Unicorn Battle - startup pitch contests taking place on a regular basis online and offline in all major locations around the world, has announced upcoming battles in Russia, Middle East & Africa, South East Asia and DACH (Germany, Switzerland, Austria).

Furthermore, worth your attention on CEE startup scene is Bolt a well-known Estonian Unicorn, already providing transport, food delivery and electric scooter rental services that has recently announced plans for launching a new car-sharing service, and Picodi.com - Polish online coupon platform, which shares have been acquired in 51.2% for approximately $20M by Méliuz, Brazilian cashback provider, after its IPO in November 2020.

Stay tuned for the next summary!

#1 CEE Startup & VC News - April 2021

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