New VC Funds
- NY-based growth equity firm General Atlantic announces a final close of a $3.5Bn BeyondNetZero climate fund. The VC will invest in growth-stage companies across the topics of decarbonization, energy efficiency, resource conservation, and emissions management.
- Blockchain platform Venom Foundation and Iceberg Capital team up in launching a $1B-large Venom Ventures. The firm will focus on pre-seed to Series A rounds for web3 protocols and dApps.
- La French Tech Kyiv announces the creation of the Ukrainian Phoenix Tech Fund. The firm will back local pre-seed to seed stage startups with €100K to €400K investments.
- Web3-focused Smape Capital announces the first closing of its next fund. The firm will focus on Web3, token-first investments in pre-seed and seed-stage startups.
- Latvian equity firm Merito Partners has announced the first, €17M closing of its next fund. The firm plans to invest from €500K to €5M in startups and companies from the New Nordics (Scandinavia and Baltics).
CEE Startup Funding Rounds & Acquisitions
- Romanian-found cloud veterinary platform Digitail closes $11M series A to scale up across the US and Canada. The round was led by Atomico.
- Polish healthtech Docplanner Group buys out local startup MyDr owning several digital health brands. The size of the transaction remains undisclosed.
- ORLEN VC invests in French transportation visibility startup Shippeo to help startups’ product development and business expansion across North America and Asia. The size of the transaction remains undisclosed.
- AI platform for retail industry Occubee raises 20M PLN for further product development. The round was led by Warsaw Equity Group and joined by Cezary Smorszczewski.
- Romanian-found customer experience automation startup NLX raises €4.2M seed II round to power up company's expansion. The round was led by IAG Capital Partners, followed by JetBlue Ventures and Flying Fish Ventures.
- Beauty booking platform Watalook raises €3M seed round. The round was led by byFounders and joined by Practica Capital.
- Czech traffic data analysis platform GoodVision raises 66M Kč to expand the team and invest in product development. The round was co-led by Lead Ventures, Credo Ventures and Sofia Angels Ventures.
- Polish Property Group buys out a majority stake in a real-estate platform Platforma Mieszkaniowa to streamline their client's home purchasing journey.
- Bulgarian hydrogen generation startup Hydrogenera closes €2M round to expand its production capacities and grow the team. The round was co-led by IMPETUS Capital and MFG Invest, joined by several angel investors.
- Czech mental health app Vos.Health raises €1.5M for further product development and team expansion. The round was co-led by Soulmates Ventures and Purple Ventures.
- American fitness app iFIT invests $1M in a Polish metaverse building startup Immersion to help further the company's development.
- Lithuanian payment processor Cardinity gets acquired by NomuPay to support the company's international expansion. The size of the acquisitions is reported to be around €3M.
- Producer of pet GPS trackers Petgram finalizes its crowdfunding campaign for product development. The company raised 1M PLN in total.
- Cloud hosting service company Hivelocity acquires network infrastructure company HEFICED meanwhile announcing the creation of a new company - IP monetization and lease platform IPXO.
- Romanian speech recognition startup Vatis Tech closes a €650K-round to expand across France, Germany and Spain. The investment was joined by the company's previous investors: Early Game Venture, Sparking Capital, Mălin Ștefănescu and several of other business angels.
- Crypto tax automation platform Cryptiony closes a €500K pre-seed to expand throughout the UK and further build up the product. The round was led by ff Venture Capital with Pointer.Capital and Marcin Wenus.
- Hemp product company Biotecus obtains an investment from Tesonet to build up a huge R&D centre and enter Germany/US. The size of the transaction remains undisclosed.
- Booking platform for tattoo studios INKsearch obtains a €200K to expand throughout Italy. The investment was co-led by EKIPA Investments and Startup Wise Guys.
- Romanian crypto investing automation platform Vestinda enters Techstars Boston Accelerator.
- Grupa Żabka and Kozminski Business Hub announce the winners of a Startup Impact Program. The first winner is E-ice developing a sustainable, electricity-free way of cooling drinks, zero-waste packaging Seasoil and a producer of food waste composter Vermico.
Startup Calls/Events
- EU-Startups Summit invites startups to apply for a pitch competition in Barcelona, occurring between April 20-21. The prize package for the winning startup will count more than €100K-worth of prizes and consist of investment from APX, as well as credits for various business applications. Registration is open till the 15th of February.
- Croatian insurance provider LAQO hosts a sustainability hackathon for local startups. The three winners of the challenge will get €10K, €5K and €3K in cash prizes. The registration deadline is set for the 22nd of January.
Related Posts:
VC & Startup News From CEE, December 24 - January 6, 2023 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
VC & Startup Weekly News From CEE, December 17 - 23, 2022 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
VC & Startup Weekly News From CEE, December 10 - 16, 2022 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
