New VC Funds
- UK's Amadeus Capital Partners and Austrian APEX Ventures announce the first €28M close of the €80M fund to invest in DACH startups. The firm will back seed/Series A companies across AI/ML, quantum technologies/photonics, mobility and space innovation, autonomous systems/robotics as well as other frontier technologies.
- Spanish healthcare VC Clave Capital reaches the first €50M close of its €65M fund. The firm will focus on Spanish and European startups, investing anywhere from €500K to €1M into each opportunity.
- Ocean14 Capital raises another €30M to close up its blue-economy-centred fund. The firm will put ⅔ of its future fund to support European growth-stage businesses, while reserving the rest for companies outside the region.
- Lithuanian climate VC Contrarian Ventures closes an additional €25M from EIB to finalize a raise of its next €100M fund.
CEE Startup Funding Rounds & Acquisitions
- Ukrainian-British car fintech Carmoola raises a combined £103.5M series A and debt round to scale up operations and grow the team. The £8.5M series A was led by QED Investors and joined by VentureFriends, InMotion Ventures, all the while obtaining £95M in debt capital from the Natwest funding round.
- Estonian-found rent-to-buy car subscription service Planet42 raises $100M equity and debt round to expand globally. The $15M equity round was co-led by Naspers Foundry and ARS Holdings, joined by Change Ventures and a $75M in debt capital from Rivonia Road Capital.
- Romanian B2B market research platform Veridion grabs $6M to fund its expansion across the US. The round was joined by LAUNCHub Ventures, OTB Ventures, Underline Ventures, Day One Capital, and GapMinder Venture Partners.
- Ukrainian logotype maker platform Logaster sells out the business to the American business management platform ZenBusiness. The size of the transaction remains undisclosed.
- Bulgarian logistics planning startup Transmetrics gets €2.5M investment to invest in product development and business expansion. The round was co-led by European Innovation Council and Impetus Capital.
- Polish e-commerce furniture brand noo.ma raises its first equity round to expand the business and grow throughout the US. The round was led by bValue.
- Bulgarian identity verification platform Evrotrust raises a €2.5M pre-Series A to grow throughout Europe. The round was led by the Bulgarian Development Bank Group's investment fund.
- Ukrainian robotic solution provider for warehouses, Deus Robotics, gets a $1.5M investment to facilitate the development of new robots and business growth. The round was led by SMRK.
- Moldovan online coding school for children Bloomcoding raises €1M in funding to expand throughout CEE/SEE, making senior hires as well as investment in product development. The round was joined by Inovo VC, Credo Ventures, and u.ventures.
- Czech DevOps automation platform Stacktape gets 12.5M Kč in funding to expand in US and Europe. The round was led by Tensor Ventures.
- https://cc.cz/pracuji-v-radu-hodin-misto-mesicu-slovaci-automatizuji-praci-vyvojaru-investuji-do-nich-cesi/
- Romania's business intelligence platform Termene acquires Confidas, a platform used for generating credit reports, to strengthen its market position after a period of rapid growth. The size of the transaction remains undisclosed.
- Ukrainian AI startup helping pick up the right tracks for a video, Harmix raises $500K to develop its MVP and start selling the solution to business customers. The investor remains undisclosed.
- Polish video game studio Sundog led by Nobel Prize winner in literature gets 1.48M PLN in funding. The investment will be used to release Ibru - a game based on “Anna in the Tombs of the World” by the year 2026.
- Polish mobile/web app developer Escola obtains 1M PLN in funding to develop an e-learning platform, Wellms. The investment was made by ERC.
- Ukrainian crypto payments platform GeekPay obtains an investment to expand the business. The round was led by Sigma Software Labs, yet the size of the transaction remains undisclosed.
Startup Calls & Events
- Viva Technology tech/startup conference invites European startups to partake in one of its startup challenges. The competitions will be a great way to showcase one's product/solutions to potential investors/customers, obtain free media coverage, and last but not least - get a free pass to the event. The closest registration deadline for one of the challenges is in 5 days yet all the dates vary, so it's best to check out the website personally.
- EEC Startup Challenge seeks startups to join its April competition. Participation in the event can provide valuable feedback, business contacts as well as media exposure. The challenge itself will occur between April 24-26 in Katowice and is open to startups operating within a broad (yet limited) set of industries. The call for applications will last until the 28th of February.
- Inovo VC invites aspiring founders for the next “Founder Wannabees” meetup to discuss how to generate/validate business ideas together with the second edition's special guest - Antler. The event will be useful for anyone thinking (or already kickstarting!) a startup, and could be a good place to meet a co-founder and/or learn the basics of startup building. The event will occur in Warsaw and the registrations are open till the 1st of March midnight.
Related Posts:
VC & Startup Weekly News From CEE, February 11 - 17, 2023 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
VC & Startup Weekly News From CEE, February 4 - 10, 2023 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
VC & Startup Weekly News From CEE, January 28 - February 3, 2023 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
