June, the last month of Q2 2021, was much less generous in terms of the amount of financing secured on the market than we experienced in the previous month. The most striking is the fact that the disclosed funding in CEE exceeded €120M, which is nearly 3 times lower than in May. At the same time, this month there have been recorded two highly distinguished investments into Estonian Skeleton Technologies and Croatian Gideon Brothers, whose funding rounds reached €29M and €26.3M respectively. Among the top areas that attracted investors’ attention were energy, AI, automotive, robotics, and e-commerce.
Now, let’s have a look into TOP June startup funding rounds in CEE!
Skeleton Technologies
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Launch date: 2009
Funding Round: Series D extension €29M (total amount of Series D round €70.4M)
Funding Source: Harju Elekter Group, Marubeni, MM Grupp.
Total funding received: €168M
Tallinn-based, Skeleton Technologies is the global technology leader in ultracapacitor energy storage in automotive, transportation, grid and industrial applications. Many companies working in the energy industry are concentrating on incremental improvements of li-ion battery technology, while Skeleton Technologies has chosen to differentiate itself by focusing on materials technology, having created the patented Curved Graphene material. Recently secured series D funding in the amount of €29M (extension of November 2020 round) was led by Harju Elekter Group, Marubeni and MM Grupp. The proceeds will be spent on scaling up operations and supporting growth in customer demand.
Booste
Location: Szczecin, Poland
Launch date: 2020
Funding Round: Series A €12M
Funding Source: DialCom24
Total funding received: €12M and undisclosed amount of seed funding
Szczecin-based Booste, founded in 2020, is a fintech startup that offers revenue-based financing to e-commerce companies making the whole process flexible and fast. Provided funding is typically used by companies to finance marketing campaigns and inventory. Booste has recently raised €12M in a series A round from DialCom24, a Poland-based online payments provider. Secured funds will be used for financing the entry into Irish market.
Gideon Brothers
Location: Zagreb, Croatia
Launch date: 2017
Funding Round: Series A €26.3M
Funding Source: DB Schenker, HCVC, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Pentland Ventures, Prologis Ventures, Rite-Hite
Total funding received: €31M
Croatian Gideon Brothers is a robotics and AI solutions company that makes robots powered by AI & 3D vision and the accompanying software platform specializing in handling processes for logistics, warehousing, manufacturing and retail businesses. Gideon Brothers has recently secured series A round in the amount of €26.3M and among investors participating in the round were DB Schenker, HCVC, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Pentland Ventures, Prologis Ventures, Rite-Hite and many business angels. Raised funds will be allocated to accelerating the development of robots and expanding activities in EU as well as US markets.
Rezuro
Location: Warsaw, Poland
Launch date: 2020
Funding Round: Seed €450K
Funding Source: Next Road Ventures, Smok Ventures, Corvus Ventures
Total funding received: €500K
Polish Rezuro, founded in 2020, is a startup that develops a marketplace platform for renting rooms and apartments online. It connects verified tenants with property owners or managers. The startup offers its users flexibility in terms of medium-term rental, with the possibility of weekly billing making the rental market better adjusted to tenants' needs. Rezuro has recently secured €450K in a seed round from Next Road Ventures and Corvus Ventures with participation of its previous investor - Smok Ventures. Secured funds will help a startup with expansion to other major cities in Poland.
Time is Ltd.
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Launch date: 2017
Funding Round: Seed €4.6M
Funding Source: Mike Chalfen (Chalfen Ventures), Accel, Acequia Capital (AceCap), Illuminate Financial
Total funding received: €7.6M
Founded in 2017, Czech Time is Ltd., is a collaboration analytics platform that improves productivity and company culture through meetings, emails and IM analytics. The tool integrates with Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, Salesforce, Webex, and Zoom, giving its users insights into team productivity. This data allows managers to understand how effective collaboration tools are, and increase productivity & engagement in departments. Recently secured funds during a seed round in the amount of €4.6M led by angel investor Mike Chalfen of London’s Chalfen Ventures and accompanied by Accel, Acequia Capital (AceCap), Illuminate Financial, will be allocated to product development and international expansion.
SonarHome
Location: Warsaw, Poland
Launch date: 2018
Funding Round: Seed €5.6M
Funding Source: Kogito Ventures, Market One Capital
Total funding received: €440K
Polish SonarHome, founded in 2018, is a startup offering a solution called iBuying that enables the quick and safe sale of an apartment directly to the company. How does it work? SonarHome buys your property on its own behalf, which ensures immediate sale and timely payment. Then these flats can be bought by interested people looking for their own place. SonarHome potential has recently been appreciated by Kogito Ventures, Market One Capital and various business angels who participated in the seed round in the amount of €5.6M. The secured funds will be allocated for further developing its automated real estate valuation technology powered by AI and ML and also expanding activities to other cities in the CEE region such as Budapest and Prague.
Recart
Location: Budapest, Hungary
Launch date: 2015
Funding Round: Seed €2.8M
Funding Source: Day One Capital, Lead Ventures, Oktogon Ventures
Total funding received: €4M
Budapest-based Recart has a goal to help companies with selling more via their e-commerce stores. Startup assists online stores in full marketing automation, so they can stay in touch with their customers in a more effective way by sending messages. Recart brings what works best in messenger marketing - abandoned cart reminders, shipping and delivery information, welcome messages, product reviews and many more. Thanks to that, the startup allows companies to generate additional revenues. The recently secured funding from a Seed round in the amount of €2.8M led by Lead Ventures and accompanied by Oktogon Ventures and Day One Capital will be allocated to support product development, boosting sales and increasing the presence in the US.
Ramp
Location: Warsaw, Poland
Launch date: 2017
Funding Round: Seed €8.5M
Funding Source: Firstminute Capital, Galaxy Digital, Mozilla, NFX, Seedcamp
Total funding received: €9.5M
Founded in 2017, Polish startup Ramp connects blockchain with banks using open banking APIs. The solution allows users to buy crypto without leaving dApp or a wallet and therefore making the whole process more smooth and efficient. Recently, the startup has secured a seed round in the amount of €8.5M from Firstminute Capital, Galaxy Digital, Mozilla, NFX, Seedcamp and various business angels. Acquired financing will help Ramp with further development of the solution.
Nordigen
Location: Riga, Latvia
Launch date: 2016
Funding Round: Seed €2.1M
Funding Source: Black Pearls VC, Calchas Holding, Highgoal Capital, ID4 Ventures, Inventure, Superangel, business angels
Total funding received: €3.5M
Riga-based Nordigen, founded in 2016, is a startup providing all-in-one banking data API for building powerful banking, lending and finance apps. The startup allows fintechs, banks, and lenders to get account information by connecting to major European bank APIs with a single integration, categorize raw data into 140+ income and expense categories, and get valuable insights. Nordigen has recently closed the seed round in the amount of €2.1M from Black Pearls VC, Calchas Holding, Highgoal Capital, ID4 Ventures, Inventure, Superangel, and various business angels. Secured funds will be used to improve API platform and acquire new clients.
Smabbler
Location: Wroclaw, Poland
Launch date: 2014
Funding Round: Undisclosed
Funding Source: Undisclosed
Total funding received: Undisclosed
Smabbler is a Polish startup that makes machines understand humans. The company is developing a horizontal language engine built to interpret, generalize and infer from unstructured text. Smabbler’s goal is to bring machine speed and human-level skills to work seamlessly with text information and therefore improve access to information, business performance and optimize costs. The startup has recently secured an undisclosed round of funding which will be used for further solution development.
Sources: Vestbee VC & startup community, startup press releases, web & social media monitoring, Crunchbase
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TOP CEE Funding Rounds Closed In April 2021 (by Konrad Koncerewicz, Community Builder, Vestbee)
TOP CEE Funding Rounds Closed In March 2021 (by Konrad Koncerewicz, Community Builder, Vestbee)
