New VC Funds
- One of the earliest investors in Spotify - Creandum raises a new $500M fund to back European seed and early-stage companies. With its new funds, the firm plans to expand into creator economy, Web3, the metaverse, and sustainability areas such as energy and climate tech.
- Western Balkan South Central Ventures picks up €70M to kickstart a new fund. The fund will continue investing in SEE’s most promising startups and will invest from €500K to €5M over their portfolio’s funding cycle.
- Commerzbank’s Venture arm raises its third €300M fund. The firm plans to invest tickets of €3M to €20M in Europe’s finest fintech and insurtech companies raising Series A and beyond.
- London’s Hiro Capital raises its second €300M fund to invest in the video games industry, metaverse, creator platforms, and gamified fitness. The fund invests in European and North American companies raising their seed - Series B rounds.
CEE Startup Funding Rounds
- Bulgaria welcomes its first unicorn-fintech Payhawk as it nabs its $100M Series B. The business-spend platform aims to use its latest funding round to expand globally.
- Serbian blockchain startup- Tenderly, which builds a development platform for Web 3.0, secures $40M Series B. The investment round was led by Spark Capital.
- The AI workplace startup Mentessa raised €1M to expand its Bulgarian team and scale internationally. The round was led by Eleven Ventures and a number of business angels.
- Polish logistics and fulfillment startup Omnipack raises €7.5M to expand in Europe. The round was led by Flashpoint.
- Health and wellness startup MX Labs nabs $2M in seed funding to further develop AI-powered technology helping measure heart rate/variability as well as blood pressure through analyzing facial patterns.
- One of Estonia’s largest startups, autonomous delivery company Starship Technologies raises another $42M, bringing the total investment round to the $100M mark.
- Polish Consumer Intelligence raises 1M PLN to enter new markets with its proprietary application improving the navigation in shopping malls. The investment was led by Spinaker Alfa.
- Polish e-commerce startup, Nethansa received €4M investment from Warsaw Equity Group to further develop its product helping companies automate their marketplace sales on Amazon or Kaufland.
- Latvian Welfio raises €185.000 investment to simplify the process of investing in loans. To enable it, the company offers solutions for analyzing and live-data scoring to speed up the decision process.
Open Calls For Startups
- Start it @ČSOB has opened an application period for their accelerator program, which focuses on supporting innovative startups in business development by providing access to a network of investors and experts ready to share their industry know-how, individual mentoring, and workshops. The application deadline is the 14th of April.
- Techcelerator, in partnership with EIT Digital, brings its pre-acceleration program to Romania and Bulgaria. The program seeks teams across Digital Industry, Digital Cities, Digital Wellbeing, Digital Tech, and Digital Finance and will grant €5.000 for those accepted to the program and €25.000 for the winners. The application deadline is the 8th of April.
- Romania’s Innovation Labs 2022 opens up applications for its pre-acceleration program for local university students wishing to validate and develop their business idea. The applications are open until the 11th of March for Cluj, Iasi, Sibiu, and Timisoara while those from Bucharest are welcome to register until the 18th of March.
Related Posts:
VC & Startup News February, 12-18 2022 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
VC & Startup News February, 19-25 2022 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
