Updated on 5.11.2020
> Number of funding rounds: 134
> The biggest investment round: Veriff - convertible note - €13.8M, InoBat - debt financing - €10M, Cosmose - series A - €12.6M
> Total value of disclosed funding in CEE: over €125M**
> Countries with the majority of funding rounds: Poland - 86 rounds, Estonia - 20 rounds
> The most active VC fund: Lemonade Stand, Shape VC, Icebreaker.vc, SATUS Starter, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Contrarian Ventures, InnoEnergy, Presto Ventures, Gapminder VC, Iron Wolf Capital, Movens Capital and TDJ Pitango Ventures.
> The most appreciated industries: Healthcare, Security, FinTech, AI and Energy Efficiency solutions
* In this report we have included the disclosed VC rounds that have been made public before the end of the quarter. It does not include grants. Additionally, although we’re always happy to see a CEE element in successful companies around the world, we have decided to focus only on companies which originated in the CEE region.
**14 rounds undisclosed in terms of the transaction value
The 3rd quarter of 2020, 134 investment rounds were secured in Central and Eastern Europe, while only 64 were fully disclosed in terms of amount, month, participating investors, startup name. According to available data, 23 of funding rounds took place in July, 13 in August and 28 in September. Lower number of investments in August, was a result of COVID19 and holidays, which postponed or even stopped some fundraising rounds. We started the quarter with a strong July with its total funding of over €42M, went through a less active August which was related to the holidays and the period of stagnation on the VC market, to finally end with an interesting September, in which startups secured more than €30M in 28 funding rounds. The total value of investments (including the value of undisclosed ones) reached over €125M.
The most active countries in terms of the majority of funding rounds in 3Q were Poland and Estonia, which secured 86 and 20 rounds respectively. The first one, as the biggest VC ecosystem in CEE, with many active funds and private investors reached an astonishing number of investments compared to other countries. Startups from Poland and Estonia also received the largest fundings each month: Estonian Veriff - €13.8M in July, Polish Cosmose - €12.6M in August and Estonian Klaus - €4.6M in September, while among other popular countries were Romania, Hungary and Lithuania.
Taking a look at sectors, in the third quarter funds were mainly invested into Healthcare, Security, FinTech, AI and Energy and the most active investors were Lemonade Stand, Shape VC, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Contrarian Ventures, Icebreaker.vc, SATUS Starter, InnoEnergy, Presto Ventures, Gapminder VC, Iron Wolf Capital, Movens Capital, TDJ Pitango Ventures and Fil Rouge.
But what are the prospects for the near future?
“Increased activity of VC funds reported during the last months indicates there should be a busy quarter ahead of us. On the other hand, there is still much ambiguity around potential countermeasures taken by governments in relation to the recent surge in COVID cases. Should we brace for another lockdown? The next 30 days will set the tone for the rest of the quarter.” - underlines Ewa Chronowska, Vestbee Founder and Partner at Next Road Ventures, early stage VC fund.
Following startup funding rounds will be covered in the next Vestbee report so stay tuned and in the meantime, let’s dig deeper into the startup and VC market in CEE in the 3Q 2020.
Now let’s move to an overview of monthly analysis. The summary information was prepared based on fully disclosed investment rounds (startup name, month of investment closure, amount, participating investors).
> Number of funding rounds: 28
> The biggest investment rounds: Klaus - Series A - €4.6M, Elaphe Propulsion Technologies - Series A - €4.2M, HomeDoctor - Series A - €3.7M
>Total value of funding secured in CEE: over €30M*
> Countries with the majority of funding rounds: Estonia - 11 rounds, Poland - 7 rounds
> The most active VC fund: Lemonade Stand, Shape VC, Icebreaker.vc, SATUS Starter
> The most appreciated industries: Healthcare, Customer Service, Big Data, Automotive
*6 rounds undisclosed in terms of the transaction value
September was interesting in terms of both the number of investments and the variety of industries that attracted investors. The total value of funding secured in September by CEE startups was over €30M with Estonia leading the amount of closed rounds (11), followed by Poland (9). The biggest investment rounds were secured by Klaus, Elaphe Propulsion Technologies and HomeDoctor, which attracted €4.6M, €4.2M and €3.7M, respectively. The most active VC funds were Estonian Lemonade Stand, Finnish Icebreaker.vc and Polish SATUS Starter and Shape VC, whereas among the top areas that attracted investors’ attention were Customer Service, Healthcare, Big Data, and Automotive.
Find out more: TOP CEE Funding Rounds Closed In September
> Number of funding rounds: 13
> The biggest investment round: Cosmose - Series A - €12.6M, Infermedica - series A - €8.6M, So.Fa.Dog - early investment round - €600K
> Total value of funding secured this in CEE: over €24M*
> Countries with the majority of funding rounds: Estonia - 4 rounds, Lithuania - 3 rounds
> The most active VC fund: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Contrarian Ventures
> The most appreciated industries: Energy, Energy Efficiency, Healthcare, AI
*4 rounds undisclosed in terms of the transaction value
August as the last month of the summer holidays was the least active in terms of startup funding rounds within the CEE region. The total investment was valued at approximately €11M and the biggests funding rounds were secured by Polish Cosmose with Series A round of €12.6M, Polish Infermedica with its series A of €8.6M and Estonian So.Fa.Dog with €600K seed round. Estonia also showed its capabilities to fueling startups by securing 4 out of 12 investment rounds this month. The second country worth noticing is Lithuania with 3 funding rounds. The most active VC funds were European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Lithuanian Contrarian Ventures while the most appreciated industries were Healthcare, Energy and AI.
Find out more: TOP CEE Funding Rounds Closed In August
> Number of funding rounds: 23
> The biggest investment round: Veriff - convertible note - €13.8M, InoBat - debt financing - €10M, Nasekomo - seed - €4M
> Total value of funding secured in CEE: over €42M*
> Countries with the majority of funding rounds: Estonia - 5 rounds, Poland - 5 rounds
> The most active VC fund: Movens Capital as the most active fund and NordicNinja VC, IPM Group, New Vision 3 as funds leading the investment rounds of Veriff, InoBat and Nasekomo respectively.
> The most appreciated industries: IT, Security, FinTech, Financial Services
*4 rounds undisclosed in terms of the transaction value
July was the most abundant month in the 3rd quarter in terms of the total value of funding which exceeded €42M. Top investment rounds were secured by Veriff - €13.8M, InoBat with its debt financing of €10M and Nasekomo with its seed round of €4M. Estonian and Polish startups secured 5 rounds each while Security, IT, FinTech and Financial Services were the most popular courses of investment in July. Movens Capital was the most active fund, but VC funds generally maintained a similar level of activity, while NordicNinja VC, IPM Group and New Vision 3 are worth distinguishing due to their leading position in investments into companies securing biggest rounds.
Find out more: TOP CEE Funding Rounds Closed In July
Want to explore funded startups? Let’s take a look at a quick overview of CEE startups that had their funding rounds closed between July and September!
CEE startup funding rounds closed in September:
CEE startup funding rounds closed in August:
CEE startup funding rounds closed in July:
*We are aware no report is perfect, so if you have any insights, drop me a line! We’ll keep this one updated!
Want to get the more detailed view on the CEE Startup & VC Scene in 3Q 2020?
Discover our monthly reports:
TOP CEE Funding Rounds Closed In July
TOP CEE Funding Rounds Closed In August
TOP CEE Funding Rounds Closed In September
Sources: Vestbee VC & startup community, startup press releases, web & social media monitoring, Crunchbase, PFR (Polish Development Fund).
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