In this report, we have included the disclosed VC rounds that have been made public before the end of the 1Q 2022 or provided by our VC & startup community. It does not include grants and transactions below €50k. Additionally, although we’re always happy to see startups operating in CEE, we have decided to focus only on companies that originate from CEE, self-identify as CEE companies or there is a significant presence of the CEE founder. Please also be informed that the report is focused on the standard understanding of the CEE region (e.g. Turkey is not included).
Sources: Vestbee VC & startup community, startup press releases, web & social media monitoring, Crunchbase, PFR (Polish Development Fund).
Startup investment rounds in CEE in 1Q 2022
> Number of funding rounds: 233
> The biggest disclosed investment round: Bolt - Series F - €628M, ICEYE - Series D - €120M, ProductBoard - Series D - €110M, Veriff - Series D - €89M, Payhawk - Series B - €89M.
>Total value of funding closed in CEE: over €1.6B*
> Countries with the majority of funding rounds: Poland - 98 rounds, Estonia - 36 rounds, Romania - 16 rounds
> The most active VC fund: Startup Wise Guys, Early Game Ventures, Karma Ventures, Presto Ventures, Specialist VC (United Angels VC), Credo Ventures, Vitosha Venture Partners, Inovo Venture Partners, Accel, Earlybird Venture Capital.
> The most appreciated industries: Ecommerce, Fintech, Analytics, AI, SaaS, Advertising, Big Data.
*36 rounds undisclosed in terms of transaction value
In the 1st quarter of 2022, 233 investment rounds were closed in Central and Eastern Europe. However, only 170 were fully disclosed in terms of amount, month, participating investors, and company details. According to fully informed data, 63 funding rounds took place in January, 62 in February, and 43 in March. The total funding in Q1 exceeded €1.6B (compared to €1B in Q4). It’s too early to see the immediate impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the significant depreciation of public tech stocks.
Nevertheless, the uncertainty regarding the current macroeconomic conditions and the potential slowdown can be felt in the CEE startup land as more and more GPs take a bearish stand. Undoubtedly data for Q2 should give us a better indication of where the industry is heading.
The number of investments in each month of the quarter remained at a similar level, only in March this statistics slightly decreased to 43 rounds. The most abundant month in terms of amounts of investment present on the market was January, when startups collectively reached more than €1B in funding, equating to almost two-thirds of total financing in Q1. However, the main reason for this is the mega-round of the Estonian Bolt. During the remaining months, i.e., in February and March, CEE startups secured over €350M and €250M, respectively.
When it comes to the biggest disclosed investment rounds, they belonged to Estonian Bolt (Series F - €628M), Polish/Finish ICEYE (Series D round - €120M), Bulgarian Payhawk (Series B round - €89M), and Estonian Veriff (Series C - €89M).
In the first quarter, Poland, Estonia, and Romania accounted for 98, 36, and 16 funding rounds, respectively. According to the data, Poland, Estonia, and the Czech Republic also topped the list of funding by recording the highest total investments exceeding €250M, €920M, and €160M, respectively. Lithuania and Bulgaria also attracted a large number of funding rounds. In Ukraine, entrepreneurs were able to secure 13 funding rounds despite the dangerous conditions resulting from the ongoing conflict, which is a positive indication of their capability to maintain their businesses.
When it comes to the most popular sectors, there was a shift of interest towards the Finance, Data & Analytics, and AI industries at the expense of the previous leader - Healthcare, which announced that the market is less committed to looking for solutions that were useful, in particular, in a pandemic.
Among the most active investors were Startup Wise Guys, Early Game Ventures, Karma Ventures, Presto Ventures, Specialist VC (United Angels VC), Credo Ventures, Vitosha Venture Partners, Inovo Venture Partners, Accel, and Earlybird Venture Capital.
Take a look at CEE startup and VC market analysis from 1Q 2022.
Now let’s move to an overview of monthly analysis. The summary was prepared based on fully disclosed investment rounds (startup name, month of investment closure, amount, participating investors).
Investment rounds in March
> Number of funding rounds: 43
> The biggest investment rounds: Payhawk - Series B - €89M, Glia - Series D - €41M, Tenderly - Series B - €36M
> Total value of funding secured in CEE: over €250M
> Countries with the majority of funding rounds: Estonia - 11, Poland - 8 rounds, Ukraine - 5, Hungary 5
> The most active VC fund: QED Investors, Sprints Capital, Jigsaw VC, HubSpot Ventures, Greenoaks Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, Earlybird Venture Capital thanks to participating in the biggest investment round this month.
> The most appreciated industries: Financial Services, AI, AR and Blockchain.
In March, the amount of financing obtained by CEE startups exceeded €250M secured during 41 funding rounds. Estonia led with its 11 investment rounds, followed by Poland where startups secured 8 funding rounds. However, Bulgaria secured the biggest funding this month thanks to Payhawk’s series B round. The previously mentioned Payhawk, Estonian Glia (Series D of €41M), and Serbian Tenderly (Series B of €36M) secured the biggest investment rounds. Among investors worth distinguishing in supporting the largest investment round this month were: QED Investors, Sprints Capital, Jigsaw VC, HubSpot Ventures, Greenoaks Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, and Earlybird Venture Capital.
Find out more: TOP CEE funding rounds closed in March
Investment rounds in February
> Number of funding rounds: 62
> The biggest investment round: ICEYE - Series D - €120M, Productboard - Series D - €110M, Silent Eight - Series B - €35M
> Total value of funding secured this in CEE: over €370M
> Countries with the majority of funding rounds: Poland - 18 rounds, Estonia - 12 rounds, Romania - 6 rounds
> The most active VC fund: Startup Wise Guys, Earlybird Venture Capital, Movens VC, Kogito, Iron Wolf Capital, Vitosha Venture Partners.
> The most appreciated industries: IT, Cyber-security, E-commerce, AI, Analytics.
In February, the value of secured funding reached over €370M raised during 62 funding rounds. The biggest investments were secured by Polish/Finish ICEYE (Series D of €120M), Czech Productboard (Series D of €110M), and Polish Silent Eight (Series B of €35M). This month, Poland led most funding rounds, followed closely by Estonia (18 and 12 rounds, respectively). Poland was also leading in terms of total funding present on the market by attracting over 50% of total funding this month (€200M). Among the most active investors were Startup Wise Guys, Earlybird Venture Capital, Movens VC, Kogito, Iron Wolf Capital, and Vitosha Venture Partners. Among the most appreciated industries were IT, Cyber-security, etc E-commerce, AI, and Analytics.
Find out more: TOP CEE funding rounds closed in February
Investment rounds in January
> Number of funding rounds: 63
> The biggest investment round: Bolt - Series F - €628M, Veriff - Series C - €89M, Skeleton Technologies - Series D - €37.6M
> Total value of funding secured in CEE: over €1B
> Countries with the majority of funding rounds: Estonia - 13 rounds, Poland - 7 rounds, Romania - 7
> The most active VC fund: Credo Ventures, Accel, Startup Wise Guys in terms of number of funding rounds secured D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity Management and Research Company, G Squared, Ghisallo Partners, Owl Rock Capital, Sequoia Capital, Tekne Capital, Whale Rock Capital Management thanks to participating in the biggest investment round this month.
> The most appreciated industries: Shared Services, Automotive, Healthcare, AI, Financial Services
January, the first month of Q1, turned out to be a solid beginning of the year for startups and the VC market in CEE. Startups this month secured 63 funding rounds, with the total amount reaching over €1B. The vast contribution of one of the most famous Estonian unicorns - Bolt made it possible. Estonian, Polish and Romanian ecosystems were leading in the number of secured funding rounds (by landing 13, 7, and 7 rounds, respectively). When it comes to the biggest investment rounds - Estonia ultimately disqualified its rivals. Bolt, Veriff, and Skeleton Technologies all together secured over €750M, which showed this country's unwavering strength and attractiveness. Taking a look at industries, Shared Services, Automotive, Healthcare, AI, and Financial Services were the most popular courses of investments in January, while among investors that are worth distinguishing were Credo Ventures, Accel, Startup Wise Guys. Also D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity Management and Research Company, G Squared, Ghisallo Partners, Owl Rock Capital, Sequoia Capital, Tekne Capital, Whale Rock Capital Management are worth distinguishing thanks to participating in the biggest investment round this month - Bolt's.
Find out more: TOP CEE funding rounds closed in January
Want to explore funded startups? Let’s take a look at a quick overview of Top 50 CEE startups that had their funding rounds closed between January and March!
Top 50 CEE startup funding rounds closed in 1Q 2022:
- Bolt - Estonian mobile app offering transportation and food delivery services.
- ICEYE - Polish startup revolutionizing satellite imaging by operating a synthetic-aperture radar satellite constellation designed to deliver monitoring capabilities for any location on earth.
- ProductBoard - Czech product management system that helps organizations get the right products to market faster.
- Veriff - Estonian online identity verification company that protects businesses and their customers from online identity fraud.
- Skeleton Technologies - Estonian manufacturer and developer of high energy and power density ultracapacitors.
- Tenderly - Serbian ethereum developer platform that enables users to build innovative blockchain products;
- SPARK Bulgaria - Bulgarian car rental agency that provides electric car-sharing services bringing future transportation to the cities.
- Glia - Estonian digital customer service provider connecting online retailers with customers through voice, video, and collaborative browsing.
- Tuum - Estonian cloud-native banking platform that allows businesses to establish a new banking business or digitally transform an existing one.
- Stonly - Polish software company that helps improve user satisfaction, activation, and retention while reducing support costs.
- Workee - Ukrainian/Lithuanian back-office platform for freelancers that helps with appointing led professionals (such as coaches, health experts, tutors, lawyers) to manage their accounting, invoices, client and work management in one place.
- Binalyze - Estonian digital forensic tools for enterprises that help in understanding the full extent of a cyber breach.
- LIV - Czech startup creating technology to share Virtual Reality experiences.
- mediately - Slovenian platform, making information about drugs more accessible for doctors.
- Sounder - Serbian platform that helps audio creators manage, market, and measure their audio content.
- eAgronom - Estonian startup aiming toward carbon-free agriculture with AI Consulting.
- MyCointainer - Estonian “piggy bank” platform, using blockchain and crypto to generate incomes.
- Omnipack - Polish full-stack fulfillment platform for eCommerce.
- CybExer Technologies - Estonian cybersecurity startup working on specific cyber security platforms and exercises.
- uPacjenta - Polish healthcare startup with a goal to popularize preventive laboratory tests.
- Wert - Estonian top-up module, that can be integrated to any website or mobile app and enables seamless purchasing of crypto.
- Linker Cloud Fulfillment Network -Polish tech startup that connects local 3PL players to the international e-commerce business, providing transparent fulfillment services in the whole of Europe.
- Spellfire - Lithuanian card-based NFT game powered by Ethereum.
- Salesbook - Polish sales acceleration platform operating in the SaaS model, which supports and automates the work of sales representatives increasing their efficiency.
- FoodDocs - Estonian platform that helps to create and maintain food safety management systems more easily.
- Ogre AI - Romanian data science company specializing in machine learning and artificial intelligence solutions.
- EyeVi Technologies - Estonian provider of road network intelligence with AI-powered on-demand mapping technologies.
- Secfense - Polish provider of advanced authentication technology.
- MX Labs - Estonian camera-based platform for acquisition and analysis of vital signs.
- Amano - Polish startup improving consumer-merchant communication.
- Naco - Latvian provider of parts for hydrogen production.
- Pointee - Czech startup for automated analyses of RPA processes.
- Finmap - Ukrainian financial management tool that allows business owners to see the condition of their firm without having any financial expertise.
- Monq Lab - Latvian AIOps incident control and automation platform.
- CENOS - Latvian platform for computer modeling that redefines engineering simulation software category for mass adoption.
- XVision - Romanian automated x-ray analysis application that assists radiologists by providing accurate interpretations of medical images.
- Deligo Vision - Hungarian application for self-checkout restaurants.
- Bonapp.eco - Romanian company offering an app that allows retailers to sell their goods nearing the expiration date to consumers.
- SessionStack - Bulgarian interactive co-browsing, session replay, reporting, and analytics tool for support teams.
- Alpha AR - Estonian company creating 3D models for AR, VR, NFTs, Games, and marketing.
- Hyperhuman - Romanian omnichannel video content platform for the health & fitness industry.
- PixBlocks - Polish education app that teaches coding to individuals of all ages.
- Scramjet - Polish serverless cloud computing service provider.
- SpotBrowser - Polish startup using virtual walks and built-in communication tools to present real-estate.
- Cloudcart - Bulgarian All-in-One SaaS eCommerce platform to create and launch an online store in no time.
- Payhawk - Bulgarian financial company that integrates credit cards, payments, expenses, and cash into one experience.
- Nethansa - Polish AI-driven platform that boosts profits and sales on Amazon.
- Silent Eight - Polish technology company leveraging AI to create custom compliance models for the world's leading financial institutions.
- Deepnote - Czech data science notebook built for better collaboration.
- Zowie - Polish developer of chatbots for eCommerce companies.
If you have some insights about the report, drop me a line!
Want to get a more detailed view on the CEE Startup & VC Scene in 1Q 2022?
Discover our monthly reports:
TOP CEE funding rounds closed in January
TOP CEE funding rounds closed in February
TOP CEE funding rounds closed in March
Sources: Vestbee VC & startup community, startup press releases, web & social media monitoring, Crunchbase, PFR (Polish Development Fund)
Related Posts:
VC Transactions In CEE Report - 2021 (by Konrad Koncerewicz, Head Of VC & Startups, Vestbee)
VC Funding in CEE Report - 4Q 2021 (by Konrad Koncerewicz, Head Of VC & Startups, Vestbee)
VC Funding in CEE Report - 3Q 2021 (by Konrad Koncerewicz, Head Of VC & Startups, Vestbee)
