VC & Startup Weekly News From CEE, March 26- April 1, 2022

New VC Funds

Polish oil and petrol refiner giant Orlen starts a €100M fund Orlen VC to invest in early and growth-stage startups. The company will primarily focus on Polish and European/Israeli companies innovating within a wide range of groups’ target sectors.
Bulgaria’s crypto borrowing and exchange platform Nexo opens up a $150M venture arm to invest in early-stage projects in Web 3.0 and metaverse. Although the firm gives preference to local startups, it would consider proposals from other countries as well.
AlphaQ VC launches a $1B fund of funds to back tier-1 venture firms around the globe. The fund will focus on Israel and the US but will allocate more than half (€500M) towards European managers.
Japanese-American gumi Cryptos Capital closes a $110M crypto fund. The fund will put from $500k to $5M in pre-seed to seed-stage blockchain startups.

Polish caller intelligence startup Labelcall raises 1M PLN from Czysta3vc. The investment will be used to develop the app’s AI further and provide even more context to your incoming calls.
Industrial security and maintenance platform ReliabilitySolutions pick up €2M to launch a pilot with PGNiG Group. The investment ticket was led by PGNiG Ventures and PFR Ventures.
Serbian personal care startup Better & Better gets $4M in funding to develop new products. The investors included Fifth Quarter Ventures, Will Smith, Dreamers VC, Azure Capital Partners, and Alpaca Ventures
Polish cybersecurity startup CyberQuant receives €200k in pre-seed funding to help companies deal with the most common source of cyber threats - phishing attacks.
A startup helping climate-conscious companies measure their impact on ecology Connect Earth raises $1.8M to expand in Europe and the US. The round was led by Mustard Seed Maze, Market One Capital and D2 Fund.
Investor-relations management platform Irmatiq raises 2M PLN to scale its operations in Poland and beyond. The investment was led by Arkley Brinc.
Estonian P2P lending platform Income rases €1.3M to continue growing its customer base and develop the product. The round was led by Tolaram and joined by crowdsourcing platforms Seedrs and Seedblink

CEE Startup Challenge by Vestbee is calling for fundraising startups from Central & Eastern Europe! Teams can get 1M EUR investment, over 250k EUR for business tools and startup credits, access to wide newtork of leading VC funds, valuable discounts & dedicated support on business development. Applications are open till April 14 -
Google is launching a $5M Ukraine Support Fund to provide the country’s startups with up to $100k in non-equity grant, mentoring, as well as free cloud credits. To be eligible, businesses should’ve been based and founded in Ukraine before February 24, 2022 and be in a post-MVP stage. The applications will be considered on a rolling basis throughout the year 2022 and it will give preference to companies with a focus on positive impact.
Flashpoint VC invites SaaS startups to pitch and connect with investors during its 3rd Summer SaaS conference. The applications are open for founders from CEE, Baltics, Israel, and Finland. The event is expected to start on the 9th of July.
One of the biggest Czech banks Česká spořitelna is looking for idea-stage entrepreneurs thinking about starting a business. Before making a final decision, entrepreneurs are invited for a 2-day boot camp. The applications are open till 4th of April.

Polish software consulting company Netguru buys out a majority stakes in American innovation Studio Pilot44. With the new acquisition, Netuguru plans to enhance its strategic and digital consulting services around the globe.
Microsoft acquires Slovak RPA startup Minit to improve its proprietary automation services. The size of the deal remains undisclosed.
The EU rolls out digital product passports encouraging longer product lifespans, energy efficiency, and support for the growth of the circular economy. Find out more here.

VC & Startup News From CEE, March, 12-18 2022 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)

VC & Startup News, March 5-11, 2022 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)