In this report, we have included the disclosed VC rounds that have been made public before the end of the 3Q 2021 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). Please note that the round based on media speculations of Polish Docplanner is also 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 3Q 2021
> Number of funding rounds: 193
> The biggest disclosed investment round: Bolt - Series E - €600M, eobuwie - Venture round - €110M, Printify - Series A - €38M, Novakid - Series B - €29.5M.
>Total value of funding closed in CEE: over €1B*
> Countries with the majority of funding rounds: Poland - 111 rounds, Estonia - 26 rounds, Lithuania - 13 rounds
> The most active VC fund: OTB Ventures, TMT Investments, Change Ventures, Movens Capital, Lemonade Stand, Startup Wise Guys, Fil Rouge Capital, Czysta3 VC, Day One Capital, Lighthouse Ventures, LT Capital.
> The most appreciated industries: Ecommerce, Food Delivery, AI, Fintech, Analytics, Cyber Security, Biotechnology.
*19 rounds undisclosed in terms of transaction value
In the 3rd quarter of 2021, 193 investment rounds were closed in Central and Eastern Europe, while only 115 were fully disclosed in terms of amount, month, participating investors and company details. According to fully disclosed data, 45 funding rounds took place in July, 41 in August and 29 in September and the total funding present on the market in 3Q reached an astonishing amount of over €1B like it did in Q1 2021. The number of investments in the first two months remained at a similar level, but it decreased in the last month of the quarter - September. The most abundant month in terms of amounts of investment present on the market was August where startups collectively reached more than €680M, however, it must be admitted that one of the most famous Estonian unicorns - Bolt - made a huge contribution into it by securing series E round in the outstanding amount of €600M. During the remaining months, i.e. July and September, startups secured over €175M and €145M respectively, and the biggest disclosed investment rounds belonged to Polish Eobuwie (Venture round - €110M), Latvian Printify (Series A - €38M) and Polish Novakid (Series B - €29M).
The most active countries in terms of the majority of funding rounds in Q3 were Poland and Estonia, which secured 111 and 26 rounds respectively and also these countries recorded the highest value of investment reaching over €640M in Estonia, and over €220M in Poland. Another country worth distinguishing is Latvia, where startups raised over €54M during 8 funding rounds.
When it comes to the most popular sectors, in the third quarter funds were mainly invested into Ecommerce, Food Delivery, AI, Fintech, Analytics, Cyber Security, and Biotechnology, while the most active investors were OTB Ventures, TMT Investments, Change Ventures, Movens Capital, Lemonade Stand, Startup Wise Guys, Fil Rouge Capital, Czysta3 VC, Day One Capital, Lighthouse Ventures, and LT Capital.
Take a look at CEE startup and VC market analysis from 3Q 2021.
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 September
> Number of funding rounds: 29
> The biggest investment rounds: FintechOS - Series B** - €51M, Printify - Series A - €38M, Vue Storefront - Series A - €15M
**FintechOS round although announced in Q2 and included in our Q2 report, according to data from investors, it was finalised in Q3
> Total value of funding secured in CEE: over €145M
> Countries with the majority of funding rounds: Poland - 8 rounds, Estonia - 7, Czech Republic - 4
> The most active VC fund: Lighthouse Ventures, OTB Ventures, Startup Wise Guys.
> The most appreciated industries: Fintech, E-commerce, Internet of Things, SaaS.
In September the amount of financing obtained by CEE startups exceeded the value of €140M secured during 29 funding rounds. Poland took the first place with 8 investment rounds, and was followed closely by Estonia where startups secured 7 out of 29 rounds. The biggest investment rounds were secured by Romanian - UK FintechOS (follow-on Series B round** of €51M), Latvian Printify (Series A of €38M), and Polish Vue Storefront (Series A of €15M). Among the most active VC funds were Lighthouse Ventures, OTB Ventures, and Startup Wise Guys, whereas among the top areas that attracted investors’ attention were Fintech, E-commerce, Internet of Things and SaaS.
Find out more: TOP CEE Funding Rounds Closed in September
Investment rounds in August
> Number of funding rounds: 41
> The biggest investment round: Bolt - Series E - €600M, Novakid - Series B - €29M, Proteon Pharmaceuticals - Venture round - €21M
> Total value of funding secured this in CEE: over €680M
> Countries with the majority of funding rounds: Estonia - 11 rounds, Poland - 10 rounds, Lithuania - 9 rounds
> The most active VC fund: D1 Capital Partners, G Squared, Ghisallo Partners, Naya Capital, Sequoia Capital, Tekne Capital - in terms of participating in the biggest investment round (Bolt’s).
> The most appreciated industries: Food delivery, Artificial Intelligence, Analytics, Biotechnology, Education.
The number of funding rounds secured in the first two months of the quarter remained at a similar level, however, it was August when startups raised the most money - over €680M. The biggest funding rounds were secured by Estonian Bolt (Series E of €600M), Polish Novakid (Series B of €29M), and Polish Proteon Pharmeceuticals (Venture round of €21M). This time, Estonia was leading in terms of the majority of funding rounds as well as amount of secured funding by landing 11 out of 41 in the amount of over €600M in total, thanks to Bolt's Series E round. Basically, the VC funds activity was similar in terms of number of the rounds but D1 Capital Partners, G Squared, Ghisallo Partners, Naya Capital, Sequoia Capital and Tekne Capital should be singled out due to their contribution in the biggest round this month. Among the most appreciated industries were Food delivery, Artificial Intelligence, Analytics, Biotechnology and Education.
Find out more: TOP CEE Funding Rounds Closed in August
Investment rounds in July
> Number of funding rounds: 45
> The biggest investment round: Eobuwie - Venture round - €111M, Tenderly - Series A - €13M, Single.Earth - Seed - €6.8M
> Total value of funding secured in CEE: over €175M
> Countries with the majority of funding rounds: Poland - 14, Estonia - 8 rounds, Romania - 5 rounds
> The most active VC fund: Movens Capital, Lighthouse Ventures, TMT Investments, Change Ventures, Lemonade Stand, Fil Rouge Capital, LT Capital, Inovo Venture Partners - in terms of number of funding rounds and Softbank Vision Fund - in terms of participating in the biggest investment round (Eobuwie’s).
> The most appreciated industries: AI, E-commerce, Fintech, Analytics, Advertising.
July, the first month of 3Q 2021, was the most active month in terms of the number of investment rounds (45), but the funding amount secured this month reached the level of over €175M, which was close to the one in September. This situation can be explained by the typical for the holiday season, investment market slowdown. Polish, Estonian and Romanian ecosystems were leading in terms of the number of secured funding rounds by landing 14, 8 and 5 rounds respectively, and top investment rounds were allocated to Polish Eobuwie (Venture round of €111M), Serbian Tenderly (Series A of €13M) and Estonian Single.Earth (Seed round of €6.8M). Taking a look at industries, AI, E-commerce, Fintech, Analytics and Advertising were the most popular courses of investments in July. Among the most active investors were Movens Capital, Lighthouse Ventures, TMT Investments, Change Ventures, Lemonade Stand, Fil Rouge Capital, Inovo Venture Partners and Softbank Vision Fund due to participating in the biggest round of the month - Eobuwie’s.
Find out more: TOP CEE Funding Rounds Closed in July
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 July and September!
Top 50 CEE startup funding rounds closed in 3Q 2021:
- Bolt - Estonian transportation platform providing ride-hailing, micromobility, and food delivery services.
- Vue Storefront - Polish eCommerce frontend platform that allows its users to build super-fast eCommerce websites and apps without changing the backend platform.
- eobuwie.pl - Polish online shop with footwear and accessories that implements ambitious projects, among others introducing a breakthrough service esize.me, which, based on a 3D scan, recommends properly fitted shoes.
- Printify - Latvian marketplace, instantly connecting online merchants to major print-on-demand & dropshipping manufacturers worldwide.
- Novakid - Polish edtech platform dedicated to children who want to learn English
- Proteon Pharmaceuticals - Polish biotech company that uses precision biology for microbiome protection to improve animal and human health.
- FintechOS - Romanian/UK startup working technology that empowers banks and insurance companies to adapt to rapidly changing customer expectations.
- Tenderly - Serbian developer platform for real-time monitoring, alerting, debugging, and simulating Smart Contracts.
- Talkin’ Things - Polish developer of full RFID IoT ecosystem with a goal to bring trillions of off-line objects on-line.
- Fractory - Estonian provider of a one-stop-shop for on-demand manufacturing services.
- Simplicity - Slovakian platform built for cities to boost efficiency in communication with residents.
- Single.Earth - Estonian fintech startup tokenizing the world's nature to make it the new gold.
- Jutro Medical - Polish medical startup offering comprehensive medical care.
- EstateGuru - Estonian marketplace facilitating property-backed loans for SMEs and carefully selected investment opportunities.
- Nethone - Polish cybersecurity startup working on fraud detection solutions.
- Minterest - Estonian cross-chain decentralized money market lending protocol for decentralized finances.
- Sonarworks - Latvian audio technology startup that disrupts headphone and music delivery industries.
- Orbify - Polish tool that allows users to create their own applications and digital solutions without coding.
- Kernolab - Lithuanian IT company that specializes in crafting core solutions for financial service providers.
- Aether Biomedical - Polish robotics startup focused on building bionic limbs for upper limb amputees.
- Outvio - Estonian startup for ecommerce fulfilment from shipping automation and self-service returns to branded tracking and customer communication.
- Eurora - Estonian startup that develops an e-commerce suite of compliance tools.
- Ahoyconnect - Czech platform that enables organizations to understand, scale, automate, and derive value from their community.
- Montonio Finance - Estonian PoS financing aggregator which utilizes open banking to make payments more efficient and transparent.
- AdScanner - Croatian startup with a mission of empowering data-driven TV advertising to increase effectiveness, transparency.
- LiveKid - Polish system for managing nurseries and kindergartens.
- Bisly - Estonian startup developing intelligent building solutions.
- Cardiomatics - Polish startup that is working on AI solutions for cardiac diagnostic and treatment.
- DEIP - Estonian Web 3.0 protocol for tokenization and governance of high-value intangible assets..
- Trickest - Serbian startup that enables bug bounty hunters, penetration testers, and SecOps teams to build and automate workflows.
- Remato - Estonian B2B SaaS for small and medium construction companies.
- Jeff - Latvian broker of personalized loan products, connecting borrowers and lending institutions.
- Postoplan.app - Estonian provider of social media management tools for marketing automation.
- Lekta - Polish conversational AI platform used by Europe’s major banking, insurance and telecom enterprises.
- Treblle - Croatian startup that makes it super easy to understand what’s going on with your APIs and the apps that use them.
- SalesOn - Polish startup providing a sales force e-training system.
- Sky Engine AI - UK/Polish platform for building optimal, customised AI models from scratch and training them in Virtual Reality.
- Spaceit - Estonian startup that develops an end-to-end infrastructure for satellite operations.
- Kogena - Polish startup that develops the first vendor-independent AI-powered platform for monitoring collaborative robots (cobots).
- Turing College - Lithuanian online data science career school with ISAs.
- Watalook - Lithuanian beauty freelancers booking platform with SaaS and marketplace.
- Memby - Lithuania-based edtech startup that brings affordable online tutorship to high schoolers.
- Archbee - Romanian knowledge base platform for technical teams.
- VOS.health - Czech app helping with staying focused on personal growth and your inner self.
- Frontu - Lithuanian startup offering digital solutions for companies in heavy equipment, vending, facility management, utility, security, and HVAC industries.
- Hearme - Polish startup offering online psychological support from psychotherapists with a business background for employees.
- INKsearch - Polish platform connecting tattoo artists with clients by giving the possibility to book appointments online.
- Vatis Tech - Romanian startup that provides a speech recognition interface for multiple fields, in multiple languages.
- Staffly - Polish app for managing applications for jobs in high-rotation industries.
- Party.Space - Ukrainian startup working on developing 3D virtual spaces.
*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 3Q 2021?
Discover our monthly reports:
TOP CEE funding rounds closed in July
TOP CEE funding rounds closed in August
TOP CEE funding rounds closed in September
Sources: Vestbee VC & startup community, startup press releases, web & social media monitoring, Crunchbase, PFR (Polish Development Fund).
Related Posts:
VC Funding in CEE Report - 2Q 2020 (by Konrad Koncerewicz, Community Builder, Vestbee)
VC Funding in CEE Report - 1Q 2020 (by Konrad Koncerewicz, Community Builder, Vestbee)
VC Funding in CEE Report - 2020 (by Konrad Koncerewicz, Community Builder, Vestbee)
