March, the last month of Q1 2021, despite a relatively small number of disclosed investment rounds, turned out to be very abundant in terms of the amount of financing secured and thus guaranteed a compelling end of the first quarter. Disclosed funding in CEE exceeded €300M, mainly thanks to the biggest investment of the month - Czech Rohlik, which series C funding reached €190M while among the top areas that attracted investors’ attention were e-commerce, big data, delivery services, education services and financial technology.
Now, let’s have a look into TOP March startup funding rounds in CEE!
Rohlik
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Launch date: 2014
Funding Round: Series B €190M
Funding Source: Partech, EBRD (Investment Firm), ENERN Investments, Index Ventures, J&T Finance Group, Quadrille Capital, R2G
Total funding received: €220M
Prague-based, Rohlik is an online grocery startup, allowing customers to order a broad selection of food, beverages and other ingredients that are delivered within 2 hours. The company has recently secured €190M in the March series B round and the proceeds will be spent on entering German and other European markets. The investment round was led by Partech, and among other investors participating in the round were EBRD, ENERN Investments, Index Ventures, J&T Finance Group, Quadrille Capital and R2G.
Tylko
Location: Warsaw, Poland
Launch date: 2014
Funding Round: Series C €22M
Funding Source: Evli Growth Partners, Experior Venture Fund, Mark Williamson, Pitango Venture Capital, TDJ Pitango Ventures, Brian C. Walker
Total funding received: €33.3M
Warsaw-based Tylko is a direct-to-consumer furniture startup that allows its clients to order shelves based on mass customization. Consumers can adjust color, style or even size to get as personalized design as possible. Tylko also offers an AR-powered mobile application for its users to see furniture in their home environment before deciding to buy it. The startup has recently secured a series C round in the amount of €22M led by Evli Growth Partners and Pitango Venture Capital and accompanied by Experior Venture Fund, Mark Williamson, TDJ Pitango Ventures and Brian C. Walker. The proceeds will be used for boosting the expansion into new markets and further solution development.
Psibufet
Location: Warsaw, Poland
Launch date: 2016
Funding Round: Seed €1.1M
Funding Source: Kogito Ventures, Butternut Box, Amadeusz Król, Chris Guzowski, Karol Milewski
Total funding received: €1.5M
Founded in 2016, Polish Psibufet is a startup producing individually tailored meals for dogs depending on their preferable diet and health condition. Meals are cooked with fresh and natural ingredients so it is an ideal proposition for anyone who wants to provide their dogs with healthy meals. Recently, the startup’s efforts have been noticed by Kogito Ventures, Butternut Box and business angels - Amadeusz Król, Chris Guzowski and Karol Milewski, who participated in a seed investment round in the amount of €1.1M. Secured funds will be used for scaling the business and also team and product offer expansion.
SEON. Fraud Fighters
Location: Budapest, Hungary
Launch date: 2017
Funding Round: Series A €10M
Funding Source: Creandum, PortfoLion Capital Partners, Charles Delingpole, Eamon Jubbawy, Jan Deepen, Laurence Krieger, Leo Nilsson, Maximilian Tayenthal, Peter O' Higgins, Stefan Jeschonnek, Valentin Stalf
Total funding received: €11.6M
Hungarian SEON. Fraud Fighters, founded in 2017, is a fraud prevention platform providing companies with a tool for, among others, fighting fake accounts and cutting chargebacks. As a result, customers - whether they are big corporations or small e-commerce startups - can reduce time and costs while simplifying the fraud management process. The startup has recently secured €10M in a series A round and the obtained financing will be allocated to boosting growth and expanding services into Europe. The latest investment round was led by Creandum and was accompanied by PortfoLion Capital Partners and various business angels like Revolut ex-CFO - Peter O’Higgins, N26 founders - Maximilian Tayenthal and Valentin Stalf, Tide CEO - Laurence Krieger and many others.
Airly
Location: Cracow, Poland
Launch date: 2016
Funding Round: Seed €2.7M
Funding Source: Firstminute Capital, Giant Ventures, Brent Hoberman, David Rowan, Garrett Camp, Markus Villig, Ragnar Sass, Ronald Cohen
Total funding received: €5.2M
Poland-based Airly is a CleanTech startup empowering people with knowledge about air quality by building the biggest air monitoring system in the world providing its users with a real-time analytics platform. Airly has recently secured a seed round in the amount of €2.7M led by Firstminute Capital and accompanied by Giant Ventures and private investors - Brent Hoberman, David Rowan, Garrett Camp, Markus Villig, Ragnar Sass, Ronald Cohen. The funds will be allocated to expanding staff count and opening offices in UK and US.
Jeff
Location: Riga, Latvia
Launch date: 2019
Funding Round: Seed €820K
Funding Source: EstBAN, Startup Wise Guys, Taavi Tamkivi
Total funding received: €1.1M
Latvian Jeff, founded in 2019, is a FinTech startup that connects borrowers and lending institutions making financing accessible for everyone. The startup has recently secured €820K in a seed round led by Estonian Business Angels Network accompanied by Startup Wise Guys. Jeff is currently offering its solution in Vietnam, but secured funds will be used to enter other markets like Indonesia and the Philippines, as well as to introduce new products - free credit score and insurance offers, digital discount coupons and mobile wallet cashback.
Saleor Commerce
Location: Wroclaw, Poland
Launch date: 2019
Funding Round: Seed €2M
Funding Source: Cherry Ventures, Chris Schagen, Guillermo Rauch, Kevin Mahaffey
Total funding received: €7.3M
Poland and US-based Saleor Commerce founded in 2019 is an open-source ecommerce platform focused on technical excellence and high quality to make it easier for developers to improve online shopping experience. The startup has recently closed the seed round in the amount of €2M led by Cherry Ventures and accompanied by various business angels like Chris Schagen, Guillermo Rauch and Kevin Mahaffey. Secured funds will be allocated to the platform development and launching of new products.
Bookee.ai
Location: Trnava, Slovakia
Launch date: 2021
Funding Round: Seed €500K
Funding Source: Vision Ventures
Total funding received: €505K
Founded in 2021, Slovakian Bookee.ai is an AI-powered service that makes book-keeping easier by predicting the accounts on the vendor bill lines based on the history of similar companies. Recently secured funds during a seed round in the amount of €500K led by Vision Ventures will be allocated to scale existing machine learning models provided as plugins for major SaaS book-keeping platforms in the EMEA region.
Codecool
Location: Budapest, Hungary
Launch date: 2014
Funding Round: Series C €7M
Funding Source: Integral Venture Partners, Lead Ventures, PortfoLion Capital Partners
Total funding received: €14M
Codecool is a Hungarian coding school offering programming courses for everyone. The startup already has more than 1 000 graduates and over 200 corporate partners. Codecool has recently secured €7M in a series C round led by Integral Venture Partners and accompanied by Lead Ventures and PortfoLion Capital Partners. The proceeds will be allocated to the further expansion into EU markets and opening new education hubs.
Alium Finance
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Launch date: 2021
Funding Round: Pre-seed €1.85M
Funding Source: Cryptomeria Capital, Jun Capital, Exnetwork Capital, Consensus Labs, BlockUnify
Total funding received: €2.1M
Estonian Alium Finance is a Decentralized AMM Exchange with multi-blockchain option and NFTs. The main goal of the project is to attract people's attention to new and promising technologies with a special focus on NFTs. Startup has recently secured €1.85M round from among others Cryptomeria Capital, Jun Capital, Exnetwork Capital, Consensus Labs and BlockUnify. Raised funds will be allocated to increasing the number of developers working on the technology stack and accelerating the launch of new products while ensuring the highest level of security for users of the platform.
Sources: Vestbee VC & startup community, startup press releases, web & social media monitoring, Crunchbase
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