Let’s have a look at the monthly overview of the most interesting VC rounds closed in June 2020. Today’s list is dominated by the FinTech startups from the CEE region accompanied by medtech, SaaS and other solutions. Among the investment leaders is Symmetrical Labs, with the seed round of €5.6M.
Symmetrical Labs
Location: Warsaw, Poland
Launch date: 2019
Funding Round: Seed €5.6M
Funding Source: Global Founders Capital, Partech, Finch Capital, Plug and Play, Market One Capital
Total funding received: €7.3M
Polish-British startup Symmetrical Labs has secured a €5.6M seed round from top-tier VCs for the further development of its Symmetrical.ai fintech solution. The company develops a tool aimed at securing the employees’ financial care and wellbeing providing the on-demand salary service, thanks to which employees can withdraw the funds earned before the payday and have immediate access to money whenever in need. This way employers can maintain their engagement and attract best talents with an incentive the Symmetrical app is providing. The recently announced seed round combined elements of the equity and debt funding. The funds will be used on the further development of the tool and its features.
CloudCart
Location: Sofia, Bulgaria
Launch date: 2016
Funding Round: Pre-series A €1.2M
Funding Source: New Vision 3, Sportal Media Group, ITA Group Bulgaria
Total funding received: €1.2M
Sofia-based CloudCart is an e-commerce platform allowing customers to simplify the process of building and managing the online store which can be integrated with over 1 thousand applications like Facebook Pixel, Mailchimp, or Google Analytics. Instead of spending money on software to set up their own online store, young companies can invest it in marketing to reach the first customers! CloudCart’s features also include perks like fast checkout, chatbot, marketing tools, and upselling & cross-selling services.
At the beginning of June, the startup has secured a pre-series A round in the amount of €640K led by New Vision 3, and just after three weeks, CloudCart has announced another investment led by Sportal Media Group. Acquired funds will be allocated to expansion into new markets, further product development enabling deeper integration with partners like Facebook and Google, and building new features in the form of AI e-commerce digital assistants.
EstateGuru
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Launch date: 2013
Funding Round: Series A €880K (part of the series A €5M round)
Funding Source: Seedrs
Total funding received: €6.3M
Tallinn-based startup EstateGuru secured €880K via Seedrs platform, as a part of a total of €5M series A round. EstateGuru delivers a marketplace platform for property-backed loans, which matches investors with the borrowers searching for funding for real estate development. The pool of investors gathers almost 52 000 real-estate focused investors willing to invest in the pre-eliminated projects. The minimum investment amount starts with 50 EUR and the average return amounts up to 12% per year. All of the projects are secured through mortgages. The funds from the investment will be allocated on expansion, technology development and capital markets area development. The company aims at securing the title of the biggest real estate financing platform in Europe by 2025.
Barion Payment
Location: Budapest, Hungary
Launch date: 2015
Funding Round: Series B €2M
Funding Source: Financial Services Capital Partners
Total funding received: €4.5M
Budapest-based fintech Barion Payment develops a gateway payment solution and virtual wallet solutions for online merchants. Additionally, the company works on C2C and token payments facilitating the clients' payment experience. So far over 1 000 000 of users and 5 000 of merchants have been using Barion. The unique points of the tool include among others, low fees and simple & intuitive process of implementation. In June the company has secured a €2M series B round from Financial Services Capital Partners, a London-based Private Equity company. The round will be spent on further expansion in Central and Eastern Europe and the development of additional financial services. For the time being, Barion is the leading Hungarian startup which operates in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany and Slovakia.
Aether biomedical
Location: Poznan, Poland
Launch date: 2017
Funding Round: Seed €750K
Funding Source: Sunfish Partners, Chiratae Ventures, Joyance Partners
Total funding received: €420K
Poznan-based startup Aether Biomedical develops a data-driven bionic limb named Zeus. It is specifically designed for the upper body amputees and aims to make everyday tasks unproblematic. The combination of the highest grip force on the market, elegant design and affordable price separates Zeus from the competition. The team behind the project consists of 12 members, including two founders originally from India Dhruv Agrawal and Dr Faith Jiwakhan. The medical robotics startup has secured a €750K seed round from Sunfish Partners, Chiratae Ventures and Joyance Partners for the further development and product commercialisation. The Zeus bionic limb will be soon available on the Polish and Indian market.
Ondato
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
Launch date: 2016
Funding Round: Pre-seed €450K
Funding Source: Startup Wise Guys
Total funding received: €545K
Lithuanian startup Ondato provides a complete KYC (know your customers) solution for the verification of people and legal entities. Ondato system prevents frauds and ensures that risks of data being invalid are minimised. The recognition technology covers photo and video verification, as well as biometric and e-signature authentication. All of the tools can be managed from one management platform. Among the startup’s clients, there are big names like Swedbank, SEB or Luminor. Besides banks and FinTech institutions, Ondanto also aims at insurance companies and state institutions. The June pre-seed round of €450K by Startup Wise Guys will be allocated on the technology development and expansion to Germany and Poland.
Green Fox Academy
Location: Budapest, Hungary
Launch date: 2015
Funding Round: Seed €1.3M
Funding Source: Impact Ventures Hungary
Total funding received: €1.5M
The Budapest based startup Green Fox Academy develops a boot camp 4-months programmes for the junior developers aimed at attendees with no or minimal experience. After the course (full-time or part-time, online or offline) the Green Fox Academy Team supports candidates in finding the job in the area of IT interest (if the candidates do not find a job position within 6 months, they get a refund). The startup works with 90 hiring partners and has already educated over 620 graduates. The recent €1.3M round was pocketed from the Impact Ventures Hungary, one of the biggest social impact VCs in Europe. The funds will be spent on international expansion, implementation of a new post-payment package and formation of new partnerships.
Wearfits
Location: Krakow, Poland
Launch date: 2019
Funding Round: Seed €450K
Funding Source: BLDG Venture
Total funding received: -
Wearfits is a Polish startup working on a virtual fitting room backed by AR and 3D technology. The company introduces an innovative approach to the fashion industry enabling brands to provide their clients with the best shopping experience. Wearfits aims at apparel producers at the very beginning of the selling process, facilitating them with a tool for digitizing the collections and letting the customers see "hands-on" what they are buying. Later on, the Krakow-based startup plans to reverse the whole supply chain process of the brands, meaning that firstly the clients will buy the products based on the exact visualisation and only then they will be produced. The recent seed round secured from BLDG Venture will be spent on the automatisation of the shoe digitization processes.
NextRetreat
Location: Kosice, Slovakia
Launch date: 2020
Funding Round: Seed €600K
Funding Source: Vision Ventures
Total funding received: €600K
Slovakian startup NextRetreat is developing a platform for team travel organising and management. Despite the COVID effect on the travel industry, the company stays positive and works on building a tool, which will facilitate groups in planning the trips in specific team retreats, corporate events and business meetups. NextRetreat aims to provide business travellers with the top venues, excellent service and dedicated specialist, who would support the clients before and during the trip. So far the company is still very young, but the team onboard has been already engaged in the previous successful project, a coliving startup Wolfhouse. The funds pocketed from the Vision Ventures will be allocated to the building of the NextRetreat one-stop-shop team travel platform, new partnerships and expansion of the client base.
Moderan
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Launch date: 2015
Funding Round: Seed €270K
Funding Source: Lemonade Stand, Zenith Family
Total funding received: -
A proptech startup Moderan provides a lease and commercial estate management software for the property owners and real estate managers. The tool works within a subscription model based on the number of people using the platform. The software covers a wide range of management features such as the overview of the lease contracts in progress, reporting module, automated calculation of the incidental costs and key metrics analysis. In total over 350 buildings are being managed via the platform. After pocketing the seed round of €270K from the Lemonade Stand and Zenith Family, Moderan plans to expand to the German-speaking countries, as well as the Czech Republic and Russia.
StressLess
Location: Cluj, Romania
Launch date: 2017
Funding Round: Angel round €45K
Funding Source: Dragos Nicolaescu
Total funding received: €45K
StressLess works on the wearable device called Tully, targeted at children with ADHD. It aims at helping with keeping the emotional and behavioural balance as well as attention gathering. The sensors inbounded in the device measure the children’s activity which can be a great source of information about the current condition of a kid. The company is currently developing the first prototype of the product. Next fall StressLess is launching a crowdfunding to gather funds for the further development and commercialization of the Tully. The recent angel round secured from the well known Romanian business angel Dragos Nicolaescu will be spent on the prototyping of the product.
These are the chosen 10 startups from Central & Eastern Europe that successfully closed funding rounds in June. Stay tuned for the upcoming funding news!
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10 TOP CEE Funding Rounds Closed In April 2020 (by Anna Kazmierczak, Analyst, Next Road Ventures)
10 TOP CEE Funding Rounds Closed In May 2020 (by Anna Kazmierczak, Analyst, Next Road Ventures)
10 TOP CEE Funding Rounds Closed In July 2020 (by Anna Kazmierczak, Analyst, Next Road Ventures)
