New VC Funds
- Global multi-stage VC Cathay Innovation closes its $1Bn-big fund. The firm will consider startups from all sectors and industries while putting $5M to $80M into each opportunity.
- French VC Elaia announces its 2nd €77M fund for Europe’s deep tech. The firm plans to back 30-40 pre-seed and seed startups through €200k to €2M-big investment checks.
- Tech and crypto newsletter The Generalist launches its first $12.25M fund to fund companies working in crypto, fintech and emerging markets. Most of the funds (75%) will be dedicated to early-stage while the rest will go to later-stage bids “that are too exceptional to ignore”.
- A new space VC: German Einstein Industries Ventures racks up its debut €300M vehicle. The firm will back European startups working in the space industry and give special preference to those building anything satellite-related.
- Konvoy Ventures raises its 3rd $150M fund to back innovation in the world of gaming. The fund will continue betting on early-stage startups all over the globe.
- Paris-based Quantonation closes €91M fund to back Europe’s quantum innovation. The firm will consider any early-stage startups developing quantum-related technology.
CEE Startup Funding Rounds & Acquisitions
- Ukrainian language-learning marketplace Preply picks up $50M series C for its further expansion across the US and Europe. The rounds were led by Owl Ventures and followed by its previous investors among Diligent Capital Partners, Hoxton Ventures, Educapital, Evil Growth Partners together with a couple of new ones - Swisscom Ventures and Oribt Capital.
- Brno-based CMS provider Kontet.ai splits up from Kentico and lands its first $40M investment to expand globally. The round was funded by Expedition Growth Capital.
- Estonian investment app Lightyear grabs a $25M series A for further growth across Europe. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and backed by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, the round was also followed by the company’s seed investors among Mosaic Ventures, Taavet+Sten and Metaplanet.
- A German e-bike renting startup GetHenry raises €16.5M investment for its European expansion. The round was led by LocalGlobe and followed by SpeedUP Energy Innovation, Visionaries Club, APX, Founder Collective, EnBW New Ventures, GreenPoint Partners and Third Sphere.
- EV charging network ElintaCharge raises €7M to develop its products and market expansion. The investment was made by AVIA Capital and Litcapital.
- Bulgarian platform for remote software professionals Remote Motion Software got acquired by Exadel. The transaction will be used to fuel Exadel’s growth in Europe and its size remains undisclosed.
- Dutch-Ukrainian print cloud and API service Cloudprinter picks up €7M seed round to grow its sales/marketing team. The round was led by Capital Mills and joined by Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij.
- First Croatian unicorn Infobip buyout local tech media Netokracija to join company’s developer experience department. The size of the acquisition remains undisclosed.
- Croatian digital fashion studio Tribute Brand raises a $4.5M seed round to materialize the designs in the real world. The investment was made by Collab+Currency.
- A startup helping valuate NFTs DeepNFTValue gets a $4M investment to further develop its network on estimating even more NFT collections. The round was led by Rockaway Blockchain Fund.
- Social media monitoring platform YouScan wraps up a $2M investment to fuel its sales/marketing hiring and market expansion. The investment were follow-on investments from Kinnevik and VNV Global.
- Psychometric HR platform Staffly raises 2M PLN to produce a wider set of offerings and growth of its customer base. The round was co-led by Freya Capital and ProtosNext.
- HR management platform for SMBs Sloneek raises its second investment to double down on their sales/marketing efforts across Europe. The round was funded by Presto Ventures and Vision Ventures.
- Crypto trading and liquidity provider Gravity Team backs a decentralized game distribution platform HashUp. The size of transaction remains undisclosed.
- Romanian beauty salon booking platform Glow2Go raises €190K to scale up the company’s expansion. The funding was made by a recently-announced Bravva Angels.
Startup Calls
- Rzeszów-based Carpathian Startup Fest continues accepting applications for the event. Those who win the pitching competition may earn up to 100k PLN worth of rewards and participation in InCredibles program. The applications for the event close on the 12th of August.
Other:
- re:Inforce Security & Compliance Competition announces its winners!
The main prize - trip to a security conference Boston goes to Entitle and distributed cloud storage TransferChain and a cloud access platform Entitle.
Related Posts:
VC & Startup Weekly News From CEE, July 2 - 8, 2022 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
VC & Startup News From CEE, June 25- July 1, 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).