New VC Funds
- Canadian fintech VC Portage Ventures closes its third $655M-large fund to back seed to series C startups. The fund will consider proposals from the US, Europe, and Canada.
- A co-fund of Boeing and AE Industrial Partners HorizonX hits the first closing of their next $250M fund. The firm will focus mainly (though not exclusively) on aerospace and defense startups across the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
- Spanish talent investor and incubator Demium announces the first closing of the next €40M Central Europe fund. The firm will back pre-seed and seed-stage companies.
CEE Startup Funding Rounds & Acquisitions
- Lithuanian secondhand marketplace Vinted is about to acquire a German luxury clothing marketplace Rebelle for €30.2M. If the offer is accepted, Vinted plans to keep the two companies operating while cementing its presence in luxury clothing.
- Loan management startup TurnKey raises $10M to take advantage of “new opportunities in embedded lending adoption macro trends” across North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia. The round was led by OTB Ventures and joined by DEG, and Vertex Ventures.
- Agricultural commodities marketplace Vosbor picks up a $7M seed round. The round was led by Lux Capital and joined by Market One Capital, FJ Labs, 7percent Ventures, Athos Capital, and Nucleus Capital.
- One of the biggest pre-seed rounds in Poland: venture builder More Growth picks up a $5M ticket to create and scale new consumer brands. The round was led by Inovo Venture Partners and joined by BValue and Market One Capital.
- Romanian videoconferencing platform Sessions nabs $4.5M seed round to fund its further growth. The round was led by Earlybird, Stride and LAUNCHub Ventures.
- Bulgarian DeFi ecosystem ChangeX completes a $2M ICO to develop its one-stop-shop for managing digital finance.
- Polish vaccine discovery startup Deepflare raises a 7M PLN pre-seed to further develop its AI/ML discovery features and to fund its international expansion. The round was led by Sunfish Partners and joined by Lemonade Stand as well as co-founders of Ramp.
- Belarusian text-to-speech startup Peech closes a $550k funding round to finance its expansion efforts. The investment was made by Flyer One Ventures and the founder of Belka Games Yury Mazanik.
- Ukrainian blockchain software house EvaCodes raises $500k to expand the business and build a larger team. The round was led by Hypra.
Startup Calls
- Meta announces a small business support program for Ukrainian entrepreneurs. The program features on-demand digital training, tools, and resources helpful in building and growing one’s business.
- Ethereum scaling platform Polygon and Techstars announce an accelerator for web3 startups. The startups who will be accepted to the program will have a chance to go through a 13-week acceleration program and get a small grant ($20k) to fund their trip and living expenses in London. The applications are open for startups from all parts of the globe.
- Startup Lithuania announces the next cohort of its equity-free pre-accelerator. Those accepted into the program will have a chance to join a 4-week online bootcamp to validate and kickstart their business. The applications are open till the 21st of August.
- Tech Hub Riga kicks off applications for its third “How to Startup” program. The course will provide the basics of startup creation and building and offer a chance to practice pitching skills and earn prizes from the program’s partners. The deadline for applications doesn’t seem to be defined, but the course itself starts on August 29 and runs until October 16.
Related Posts:
VC & Startup Weekly News From CEE, July 16 - 22, 2022 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
VC & Startup Weekly News From CEE, July 9 - 15, 2022 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
VC & Startup Weekly News From CEE, June 18-24, 2022 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
