Funding Rounds by Vestbee
09 November 2020·7 min read

Konrad Koncerewicz

Head of VC & Startups, Vestbee

TOP CEE Funding Rounds Closed In October 2020

October was not very abundant in terms of the number of financing rounds and the value of  funding secured this month in Central & Eastern Europe. This situation could have been influenced by the second wave of the coronavirus and the gradual cooling down of economies. In October, Poland was on the leading edge of the number of investment rounds, while Slovakian Vectary secured the biggest funding round, which reached €5.9M. Among the top areas that attracted investors’ attention are advertising, cyber-security, and artificial intelligence. 

Let’s have a look into our TOP October funding rounds in CEE!
 

Vectary

Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
Launch date: 2014
Funding Round: Seed  €5.9M
Funding Source: EQT Ventures, BlueYard Capital
Total funding received: €8.6M

Slovakian based, Vectary - is a 3D and augmented reality design platform providing customers with tools to accelerate and simplify the creation process. The startup has already gathered more than one million individual creators and over one thousand creative studios and digital agencies who provide users with 3D and AR content. Due to the pandemic, which forced entrepreneurs to use new methods of communication, Vectary recorded a 300% increase in AR views. The company has recently secured €5.9M in the October seed round to further develop the solution and expand on other markets. Among the seed investors participating in the round are names like EQT Ventures and BlueYard Capital.

edrone

Location: Krakow, Poland
Launch date: 2014
Funding Round: Series A €2.1M
Funding Source: PortfoLion
Total funding received: €5M

Polish edrone, founded in 2014, is a marketing technology startup building an e-commerce CRM platform providing customers with marketing automation tools like cross-selling, content personalization, cart recovery, customer intelligence, product recommendations, and much more. The startup has recently secured €2.1M in a series A round, and the proceeds will be used for further platform’s development as well as for the preparations for global expansion. The funding round was led by PortfoLion and it was the first VC round after many years of bootstrapping. 

Airly

Location: Krakow, Poland
Launch date: 2016
Funding Round: Pre-seed €1.7M
Funding Source: Giant Ventures, Konstantin von Unger, Martin Tajur, National Center for Research & Development, Piotr Jakubowski, Richard Branson, Ronald Cohen, Sophia Bendz
Total funding received: €2.6M

Poland - based Airly is a CleanTech startup whose goal is to empower people with knowledge about air quality. To do so, the company is building the biggest air monitoring system in the world providing its users with a real-time analytics platform allowing them to check the current state of air quality in a given region. In addition, the startup fights to increase social awareness and inspire behaviour change to provide future generations with the best possible quality of breathing. Airly has secured a pre-seed round in the amount of €1.7M in October. It was led by Giant Ventures and among others supported by well-recognized private investors like Richard Branson, Konstantin von Unger, Martin Tajur, and Sophia Bendz. The proceeds will be used for further expansion of the monitoring system.

Yieldigo

Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Launch date: 2016
Funding Round: Seed €2M
Funding Source: Alchemist Accelerator, J&T VENTURES, PortfoLion
Total funding received: €2M

Prague - located Yieldigo, founded in 2016, is an AI-powered pricing optimization platform allowing retailers to make strategic and operational pricing decisions based on AI predictions. Among features accessible on the platform are KPIs prediction, constrained optimization, what-if simulation, promotion insights, and omnichannel pricing solutions. The latest round in the amount of €2M was led by J&T Ventures and was accompanied by PorfoLion and Alchemist Accelerator. Funds provided by mentioned investors will be allocated to further solution development and expansion on other international markets. 

TAIA

Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Launch date: 2017
Funding Round: Series A €1.2M
Funding Source: Fil Rouge Capital (FRC)
Total funding received: €1.2M

Ljubljana - based TAIA, is a Slovenian AI-powered translation platform, which helps companies with the translation of their websites, documents, and other content. The tool allows translating data from over 95 languages and more than 60 file types with the use of top neural machine translation. Apart from that customers are also provided with a professional and certified translation service. TAIA has recently secured a series A round in the amount of €1.2M from Fil Rouge Capital, and the proceeds will be used for boosting the expansion and further development of deep learning algorithms.

Soleadify

Location: Bucharest, Romania
Launch date: 2019
Funding Round: Seed €1.2M
Funding Source: Day One Capital, Gapminder VC, Gecad Ventures, SeedBlink
Total funding received: €1.2M

Romanian Soleadify is a search engine solution simplifying the process of lead generation. The startup uses machine learning to track and update more than 40 million business’ profiles allowing its customers to perform up-to-date prospecting and find clients tailored to specific needs. Soleadify has recently secured €1.2M in a seed round from Venture Capital funds like Day One Capital, Gapminder VC, Gecad Ventures, and some private investors through SeedBlink - equity crowdfunding platform. Secured funds will be allocated to the further development of technology and marketing activities.

BotGuard

Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Launch date: 2019
Funding Round: Seed €500K
Funding Source: Hakan Saltin, Per Bjorklund, Stefan Lindeberg, Tera Ventures
Total funding received: €500K

Estonian BotGuard revolutionizes cyber-security by developing a cloud-based website security system. The startup provides customers with a solution to protect the website from bots, hackers attacks, and other malicious software with digital fingerprinting technology blocking in real-time traffic that can cause damage to the website. BotGuard has secured €500K in a seed round led by Tera Ventures with the participation of well-known private investors like Hakan Saltin, Per Bjorklund, Stefan Lindeberg, and the recent investment will be used for further tool improvement.

Zowie

Location: Warsaw, Poland
Launch date: 2019
Funding Round: Seed €510K
Funding Source: Inovo Venture Partners, Ariel Finkelstein
Total funding received: €510K

Formerly known as Chatbotize, Warsaw-based, Zowie develops an AI-powered customer support system allowing its customers to gather customer inquiries, respond to them with help of AI-based suggestions and build customizable chatbots providing clients with the response any time they need. Zowie has recently secured a seed round in the amount of €510K from Inovo Venture Partners supported by private investor Ariel Finkelstein that will be allocated to expansion on European and North American markets.

ICSEC

Location: Poznan, Poland
Launch date: 2018
Funding Round: Series B €650K
Funding Source: EEC Ventures
Total funding received: €6M

Founded in 2018, Polish ICSEC is a provider of industrial cyber-security solutions. The team consisting of experienced industrial cyber-security specialists works on the first Polish intrusion detection system named SCADVANCE XP, which allows detection of anomalies and cyber threats in industrial automation networks before they cause irreparable damage. After April’s series A round, the startup did not stop its development and in October it secured next €650K during series B investment round led by EEC Ventures. The raised amount will be spent on further solution development. 

Eziil

Location: Viljandi, Estonia
Launch date: 2016
Funding Round: Grant and Seed €1.2M
Funding Source: Lemonade Stand, Martin Henk, Taavi Tamkivi, Thorgate Ventures, Enterprise Estonia
Total funding received: €1.5M

Estonian Eziil is a software as a service developer for production and manufacturing companies. The company’s goal is to improve the manufacturing and production efficiency by providing customers with big - data analytics and automation of various processes like sales, inventory management, production, and purchase planning. The startup has attracted the attention of Lemonade Stand, which led the seed round of €350K and was supported by other VC fund Thorgate Ventures as well as private investors: Martin Henk, Taavi Tamkivi. Secured funds were part of a larger round of €1.2M including a grant from Enterprise Estonia - Estonian national foundation that aims to develop Estonia's economy.


In addition to those listed above, there was one more startup - MD Agency that closed an undisclosed round in October.


Sources: Vestbee VC & startup community, startup press releases, web & social media monitoring, Crunchbase

 

Related Posts:

10 TOP CEE Funding Rounds Closed In September 2020 (by Konrad Koncerewicz, Community Builder, Vestbee)

10 TOP CEE Funding Rounds Closed In August 2020 (by Konrad Koncerewicz, Community Builder, Vestbee)

10 TOP CEE Funding Rounds Closed In June 2020 (by Anna Kazmierczak, Analyst, Next Road Ventures)

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