Notable funding rounds across the EU:
- Swedish hybrid-electric aeroplane maker Heart Aerospace has raised $107 million in Series B funding from Danish Sagitta Ventures, Air Canada, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, EIF, and Y Combinator among others.
- Amsterdam-based auditing platform DataSnipper has secured $100 million Series B, led by the UK Index Ventures. The round pushed its valuation to $1 billion.
- London-based B2B payments fintech Kriya has raised a £50 million funding, provided by Viola Group, the Israeli tech investment group.
- German foodtech startup Planet A Foods has closed a $15.4 million Series A funding round led by Europe's leading climate venture fund, World Fund.
- French deeptech Greenerwave, a developer of electromagnetic wave control technology, has raised €15 million from the Defence Innovation Fund, Safran Corporate Ventures, Intelsat, BNP Paribas Développement, and Plastic Omnium.
- BlueLayes, Berlin-based developer of a carbon project development software, has raised $10 million. Seed investment round was led by Point Nine.
- Berlin-based digital healthcare startup Myosotis has closed an €8 million Series A financing round from TVM Capital Life Science. Existing investors including BonVenture, Axel Springer Plug & Play, Think Health, Mountain Partners also joined.
- German semiconductor tech company SEMRON has secured €7.3 million in seed funding led by Join Capital. New investors, including SquareOne and Polish OTB Ventures participated.
- Berlin-based procuretech startup akirolabs has raised $5 million in a seed funding round co-led by OTB Ventures, together with High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and D11Z.Ventures.
New venture funds:
- Vienna-headquartered venture capital firm Speedinvest has announced the final close of its latest fund at €350 million. It is €50 million above target. It will continue to invest in deeptech, fintech, health and techbio, marketplaces and consumer, climate and industrial tech, and SaaS and infrastructure early-stage startups.
- Lithuanian Practica Capital has closed its third and largest fund at €80 million. It will target seed-stage investments in tech startups in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, offering up to €3 million initially and ongoing support up to €8 million.
- Early-stage fund VIVES IUF has raised €38 million in capital, bringing its total funding to €70 million. It plans to invest up to €7 million per portfolio company, ranging from pre-seed to Series B, focusing on human health, agtech, and engineering projects from Belgium and neighboring countries.
- Poland’s SMOK Ventures has closed its second $25 million fund, with plans to support up to 35 pre-seed and seed startups from Central and Eastern Europe and the region’s founders abroad. The checks’ amounts that the VC usually writes range from $100,000 to $1 million.
CEE startup funding rounds & acquisitions:
- Polish martech startup, edrone, has raised $5 million (PLN 20 million) in a funding round led by INventures. Hungarian PortfoLion, German publisher Müller Medien, and Atmos Ventures also joined the round.
- Ukrainian-founded price optimization platform Competera has raised $3 million in a seed round. The investors include STRATMINDS, Flyer One Ventures, Verras Capital, SMRK Fund, and Transform Partners Fund.
- Slovak CloseRocket has closed a €1 million seed round from Vision Ventures and Czech investment firm Jinej fond.
- Proofcheck, a Vienna-based multilingual web app for content producers AI startup, has raised €500,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by 5502 Fund of BackBone Ventures.
- Polish startup Codejet.ai that develops a tool for software creation process acceleration has secured $500,000 from Berlin-based Sunfish Partners.
- Poland’s ZeroQs has raised €457,000 (PLN 2 million) from its existing backer Freya Capital as follow-on investment.
Startup calls:
- On June 5-6, the fourth edition of the Carpathian Startup Fest will take place. This annual event brings together startups, investors, and corporate partners and is organized by the Rzeszow Regional Development Agency and Podkarpackie Science and Technology Park Aeropolis. The prize pool for this edition has reached €30,000 (PLN 130,000), and the application process for the contest is now open.
Related Posts:
VC & Startup weekly news from CEE, January 20-26, 2024 (by Lisa Palchynska, Vestbee)
VC & Startup weekly news from CEE, January 13-19, 2024 (by Lisa Palchynska, Vestbee)
VC & Startup weekly news from CEE, January 6-12, 2024 (by Lisa Palchynska, Vestbee)
