New VC Funds
- BlackRock announces plans to launch two new PE funds focused on Europe. The firms will focus on three core trends - digitalization, decarbonization, and decentralization.
- London-based One Peak raises its third, $1B-large growth fund. The firm will invest in European and Israeli B2B software companies, putting anywhere between $15M to $100M in each startup.
- Cavalry Ventures announces a close of its new, €160M fund to invest in European early-stage startups. The firm will focus on seed and pre-seed consumer and enterprise segments while putting between €500k to €2M in each opportunity.
- French VC IRIS finalizes the first close of its 4th, €150M fund. The firm will focus on seed and series A startups from France and Germany, as well as other European countries.
- Partech announces the close of its 4th, €120M-big seed and pre-seed fund. The firm will put between €300k to €3M across sectors in industries throughout Europe and sometimes in the US and Southeast Asia.
- SquareOne (previously known as Paua Ventures) kicks off a new €100M early-stage fund. The firm will invest in European startups building B2B Enterprise Software/SaaS, with a particular interest in areas like climate tech, open source, and supply chain/procurement.
- Famous angel investor Robin Haak launches a solo fund, Robin Capital. The firm will primarily back European angel to Series A startups, irrespective of the company's vertical or sector.
CEE Startup Funding Rounds & Acquisitions
- Bulgarian-founded funding marketplace Tapline raises combined €31.7M in its pre-seed debt and equity round to accelerate product and business development. The €30M debt round was raised through Fasanara Capital, while €1.7M equity round was joined by V# Venture Studio. The equity round is also joined by Antler, Impetus Capital, Black Pearls VC, 365 fintech, Depo Ventures, and a number of business angels.
- Autonomous negotiation startup Pactum grabs a $20M round to further expand in the US and Europe. The round was led by 3VC, with participation from new investors NordicNinja and Maersk Growth, together with the existing investors: Atomico, Project A, Metaplanet, and Taavet+Sten.
- Polish-found data analysis startup Pathway raises $4.5M pre-seed round. The round was led by Inovo and followed by Market One Capital together with former CEO of DHL Roger Crook.
- Energy management startup Fusebox gets €2.5M investment to enter Nordic and Western European markets. The round was raised from energy corporation Eneco and the biggest Polish bank, PKO.
- Personalised nutrition company bioniq acquires Romanian interactive fitness mirror producer Vaha to expand its offerings. The size of the transaction remains undisclosed.
- Romanian HR platform Nestor takes a $2M seed check to further develop the product and expand across the US and Latin America. The round was led by Eleven Ventures and joined by Underline Ventures.
- Alteryx Ventures makes strategic investment into a Czech data lineage company MANTA. The size of the transaction is undisclosed.
- Industrial femtosecond laser product Fluence Technology obtains €2M investment to expand globally. The investment was made by JR HOLDING.
- A startup Study.ua helping Ukrainian teens and kids to study receives an investment to scale its business. The investment was made by JKR Investment Group and the size of the transaction remains undisclosed.
- AI error detection startup for the automotive industry 24 Vision receives 37.5M Kč investment. The round was led by Y Soft Ventures and followed by Nation1 and the QPAG Group.
- Visual AI for the fasion industry Pixyle AI raises €1M seed round to scale up abroad. The round was led by South Central Ventures.
- Project management startup acreom gets 15M Kč to further develop the product and expand across the US. The round was co-led by Nation1 and Expedite Ventures.
- Polish biotech company Biotts obtains 134k PLN in grant after winning the pitching competition on the 5th Forum of Contemporary Diabetology.
- Second edition of ING Grant Program announces 3 winners: a coffee waste recycling startup Ecobean, recyclable packaging company ZNIKA and an alternative-leather producer Bio2Materials.
- Mother and Child Startup Challenge announced two winners of the competition: 3D imaging system CarnaLife Holo and a medical guidance platform Infermedica.
- QR-code ordering system Qrunch raises €30k crowdfunding round to kickstart the company. The round was raised on Decamel.
- Latvian Idea Cup competition announces the winners - an autonomous railway inspection platform Suhona AI, privacy policy generator Ligalio and a number of others.
Startup Calls
- Venture builders Acceler8 and Anthology Ventures team up in launching a deeptech venture studio for CEE - Ventures Thrive. Those accepted into the program will get enrolled in an 8-month-long acceleration, up to €100k equity-free grant, with a possibility of investing up to €1.5M in total afterwards.
- Tartu Startup Pitching Day is gathering applications for its 2023 event. The event will see 40 teams competing for investments ranging from €10k to €200k in size from EstBAN, Cocoon Ventures or Swedbank. The registrations for the event are open till the 5th of February.
- Huge Thing and PFR Ventures releases the report on Polish corporate-startup cooperation programs and initiatives. The material details the main players active in the ecosystem, their ways of cooperating with the startup ecosystem and more!
Related Posts:
VC & Startup Weekly News From CEE, November 26 - December 2, 2022 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
VC & Startup Weekly News From CEE, November 19 - 25, 2022 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
VC & Startup News From CEE, November 12 - 18, 2022 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
