New VC Funds
- One of the oldest firms, Bessemer Venture Partners, announces a $4.6Bn close across two funds. The firm is open to all sectors and geographies, The firm is open to all sectors and geographies but is especially interested in enterprise, deep tech, fintech, consumer, and healthcare startups
- European growth VC EQT Growth closes its €2.2Bn to invest in Europe and Israel. The firm will primarily focus on enterprise, con/prosumer, health, and climate innovation.
- London-based VC Northzone wraps up its 10th €1Bn fund. The firm will back early to growth stage companies across the US and Europe.
- Energy Impact Partners closes a €390M fund to support the path towards the carbon net zero. The firm will focus on backing European startups.
- A CVC of the Italian Intesa Sanpaolo Neva SGR wraps up its debut €250M fund. The firm will focus on Italian startups but is open to considering companies from all parts of Europe.
- New European climate VC Junction announces a €100M fund. The firm will invest €5M to €15M in energy innovation.
- Pan-European VC Concentric wraps the first close of its second fund. The firm will invest in the Seed+ stage across financial services, logistics, real estate, industrial software, and mobility.
- 500 Istanbul renames into 500 Emerging Europe and closes its next €70M fund. The firm will continue backing CEE startups.
- French VC Axeleo Capital raises a €50M early-stage fund to invest in France and beyond. The firm will put anywhere from €0.2M to €1.5M, mainly across enterprise software, B2B fintech, crypto/Web 3, cloud, and SaaS B2B solutions.
- Polish-American VC ffVC announces an establishment of a $50M, Ukraine-only fund Blue & Yellow.
- The new Pan-Baltic VC Baltic Sandbox Ventures debuts with the first deep tech and life-sciences fund. The firm will back pre-seed to seed stage startups.
CEE Startup Funding Rounds & Acquisitions
- Poland's biggest horizontal platform Wirtualna Polska acquires a Hungarian hotel booking platform Gruppa Szalas, effectively tripling the size of its own portal (Nocowanie.pl). The reported size of the transaction is claimed to be around €72M.
- Bulgarian-found access control startup Alcatraz AI raises a $25M series A to extend the team and further optimize the product. The round was led by Almaz Capital and followed by EBRD, Endeavor Catalyst, Silverline Capital, Golden Seeds, JCI Ventures, Ray Stata, LDV Partners, and a number of local business angels.
- Polish solar roof company SunRoof raises €15M round to expand across its core markets in Sweden, Germany and Poland. The round was led by Klima, Alantra with Inovo VC, SMOK Ventures, Alfabeat, Level2 Ventures, and a number of business angels.
- Ukrainian-found 3D printing startup ATLANT 3D Nanosystems picks up a $15M Series A for further product development. The investment was made by West Hill Capital, an unannounced Japanese corporate as well as existing investors.
- Estonian employee relocation platform Jobbatical grabs €11.6M series A to expand internationally. The round was led by Inventure VC and joined by Karma VC, Metaplanet, and existing investors among Union Square Ventures as well as Swiss Post.
- Polish e-signature platform Autenti raises the next €8.5M round to expand across Europe. The round was raised from 3TS Capital Partners and Elevator Ventures.
- A continued purchase spree: Wirtualna Polska acquires a computer/gaming portal Benchmark.pl to further strengthen its ecosystem. The size of the transaction is 14.M PLN.
- Polish smart aquarium startup Reef Factory raises 12M PLN to upscale its sales operations. The round was finalized with the help of Aper Ventures, Kap Holding, and business angels.
- An Estonian platform for earning carbon credits through forestry Arbonics picks up €1.8M pre-seed to launch the company. The round was led by Taavet Hinrikus and Plural.
- Disinfection robots from City Robotics get a €1M round to speed up R&D and market expansion. The investment was made by Azahar Global, Demium Capital, and a number of business angels.
- Indonesian digital career school JAYJAY raises $1M to develop new courses and expand geographically. The investment was made by the Ukrainian Jooble Venture Lab.
- E-commerce chatbot PerfectBot raises 2.52M PLN to speed up its US expansion. The capital round was raised from Tar Heel Capital and KnowledgeHub.
- Czech warranty repair startup Opvarna raises close to a €1M seed round. The round was raised from Purple Ventures, Tilia Impact Ventures, and Nation 1.
- An Estonian real estate management platform Bidrento raises €800k to speed up its European expansion. The round was made possible by Pipedrive's former CEO Timo Rein, Pipedrive's first investor Peep Vain and a number of other angel investors.
- Abris Capital Partners acquires the majority in a Czech package delivery startup Zaslat to support its portfolio company Alsendo. The size of the transaction remains undisclosed.
- A Polish startup creating a moduled training station for runners 1M TRACK raises 1M PLN. The investment was made after the demo day at Hub of Talents.
Startup Calls
- EIT Climate-KIC, in partnership with PKO Bank Polski and Accelpoint team up to launch Poland ClimAccelerator. Those accepted into the program will get a chance to have mentorship-heavy 5 months of acceleration, a chance of winning pilot financing, and an opportunity to pitch your startup in front of investors on a demo day. The applications for the program close on the 31st of October.
- PFR and OChK partner up with Google to launch a new e-commerce acceleration program FirmyJutra. Those accepted into the program will have a chance to train themselves (or their marketing department) on all aspects of digital marketing with the help of custom workshops and consultations with Google specialists. The applications close on the 28th of September.
- The registrations for FIRSTPICK‘s Baltic accelerator are open. Those accepted into the program will get €50k to €200k in funding and 4 months of mentorship and training sessions. The program starts in October, yet the deadline date is not stated.
Related Posts:
VC & Startup Weekly News From CEE, September 3 - 9, 2022 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
VC & Startup News From CEE, August 27 - September 2, 2022 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
VC & Startup Weekly News From CEE, August 20 - 26, 2022 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
