Between January and July 2026, the 15 largest funding rounds involving CEE-connected startups brought in nearly €1 billion. However, the capital continued to flow selectively: the five biggest deals — Mews, Preply, Oxylabs, Fonoa Technologies, and Viktor — alone accounted for roughly two-thirds of the total.
AI is a common thread across most of the headline-making rounds, although not every company on the list is a pure AI startup. Some, including Viktor, Cyber Swarm, and Turbine, are developing AI-native products or infrastructure. Others, such as Mews, Preply, Fonoa, Ominimo, and HOLYWATER, plan to use the newly raised capital to add AI capabilities to established platforms.
When it comes to geography, Estonia continues to cement its position as a deeptech and defence innovation hub, represented by Skeleton Technologies and Frankenburg Technologies. Ukrainian-founded companies — Preply, Uforce, and HOLYWATER — also demonstrate the strength of the country’s startup ecosystem, with major rounds spanning edtech, defense, and entertainment. Lithuania and Hungary are represented by two companies each, while Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Poland, Croatia, and Czechia also appear in the ranking.
At the same time, many of the region’s most successful scaleups are following a familiar path: keeping their founding, engineering, R&D, or production roots in CEE while relocating commercial headquarters closer to global customers and growth capital. Mews, Preply, Fonoa, Uforce, Cyber Swarm, and Alcatraz AI all reflect different versions of this cross-border model.
Investor participation is similarly diverse, spanning publicly backed institutions, regional VCs, and major global funds. Repeat investors include EBRD, SmartCap, Taiwania Capital, Horizon Capital, and Accel, alongside global players such as EQT Growth, Warburg Pincus, WestCap, Headline, Lakestar, and Plural.
Below, we take a closer look at the largest funding rounds announced across Central and Eastern Europe through July 2026 and the trends shaping where investors are placing their bets.
The 15 largest funding rounds in CEE in 2026 (so far)
Mews, $300M in Series D
Announced: January 2026
CEE connection: Czech-founded, headquartered in Amsterdam
Funding source: Tiger Global Management, Kinnevik, HarbourVest Partners, EQT Growth, Battery Ventures, Atomica
Total funding received: $817.3M
Mews is a cloud-based hospitality platform that streamlines operations for hotels, hostels, and serviced apartments worldwide. The company will use the recent funding to accelerate investment in AI and agent-driven automation across its platform, expand Mews Payments and fintech infrastructure, and support continued international growth across North America, Europe, and new markets.
Preply, $150M in Series D
Announced: January 2026
CEE connection: Ukrainian-founded, headquartered in the US
Funding source: WestCap, Indico Capital Partners, Hoxton Ventures, Horizon Capital, EBRD, Educapital
Total funding received: $320.1M
Preply runs a global marketplace connecting learners with independent tutors for one-to-one online lessons across 90+ languages, with over 100,000 tutors serving users in 180 countries. Founded in 2012, the company's Series D valued it at $1.2 billion, giving it unicorn status. The funding will support AI tools for lesson planning and homework, better learner–tutor matching, and scaling its personalized, human-led tutoring model.
Oxylabs, $130M in Series A
Announced: July 2026
CEE connection: HQ in Vilnius, Lithuania
Funding source: Warburg Pincus
Total funding received: $130M
Oxylabs provides web intelligence infrastructure that enables companies and AI systems to access real-time public web data. The newly raised capital will support the company's global expansion, strengthen its data collection network, and accelerate the development of products for AI agents, including its web index and headless browser.
Fonoa Technologies, $110M in Series C
Announced: May 2026
CEE connection: Croatian-founded, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland
Funding source: Headline, Eurazeo, Forestay Capital, Index Ventures, OMERS, Coatue, Dawn Capital
Total funding received: ~$185M
Fonoa provides an AI-powered tax operating system for global digital businesses, automating tax determination, ID validation, e-invoicing, and reporting across more than 190 jurisdictions. Alongside the raise, the company acquired PwC's Indirect Tax Edge platform, extending its coverage of the full indirect tax lifecycle. The funding will support integration of the acquired platform and continued expansion of Fonoa's AI infrastructure.
Viktor, $75M in Series A
Announced: May 2026
CEE connection: Warsaw, Poland and Munich, Germany dual-headquartered
Funding source: Accel, Tenacity Capital, Oxford Seed Fund, Leonis Capital, Kaya VC, Inovo.vc, Bek Ventures, and angels including Harry Stebbings, Mati Staniszewski, Nico Rosberg
Total funding received: $75M
Viktor develops an AI coworker that operates inside Slack and Microsoft Teams and integrates with more than 3,000 workplace tools. The fresh capital will enable the company to scale its AI employee platform, expand product capabilities, and accelerate adoption across more teams and businesses globally.
Uforce, $50M in a seed round
Announced: March 2026
CEE connection: Ukrainian-founded, headquartered in London, UK
Funding source: Lakestar, Shield Capital, Ballistic Ventures, Iron Wolf Capital
Total funding received: $50M
Uforce develops unmanned systems for air, land, and sea operations that have been deployed extensively by Ukraine's armed forces. The firm plans to use the fresh capital to expand manufacturing into multiple allied countries and increase output of its combat-proven defence systems, including counter-drone technology, autonomous vehicles, and battlefield management software. The round values the company at over $1 billion, making it the first Ukrainian-founded defence tech unicorn.
Cyber Swarm, $50M in Series A
Announced: May 2026
CEE connection: Romanian-founded, headquartered in San Mateo, US
Funding source: Falanga Invest
Total funding received: ~$51M
Cyber Swarm develops neuromorphic hardware based on a memristor architecture that stores and processes information the way biological neurons do — chips the company describes as a "brain on a chip." The company holds over 30 patents and has spent roughly a decade developing the technology at its Ploiești and Bucharest engineering hubs. The Series A values the company at $250 million and will accelerate development of the architecture, expand engineering teams, strengthen industry partnerships, and support initial commercial deployments.
Alcatraz AI, $50M in Series B
Announced: April 2026
CEE connection: Bulgarian-founded, headquartered in Cupertino, California, with production facilities in Sofia, Bulgaria
Funding source: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Ray Stata, Taiwania Capital, Cogito Capital Partners
Total funding received: over $100M
Alcatraz AI develops the Rock, an anonymized facial-biometric access control system that replaces badges and legacy biometric readers at office and facility entrances. The Series B will support the company's expansion into new verticals, including data centers and airports, and international markets.
Skeleton Technologies, €33M (first close of a pre-IPO round)
Announced: May 2026
CEE connection: Estonian-founded, dual-based in Estonia and Germany
Funding source: Taiwania Capital Management Corporation, Axon Partners Group, SmartCap, and CBMM
Total funding received: €392M
Skeleton Technologies develops high-power energy storage systems based on supercapacitors and its proprietary Curved Graphene technology. The funding round will allow the company to scale its high-power energy storage solutions for AI data centers, expand manufacturing capacity in Europe and the United States, and prepare for a planned US IPO in 2027.
Frankenburg Technologies, €30M in Series A
Announced: February 2026
CEE connection: HQ in Tallinn, Estonia
Funding source: Plural, SmartCap
Total funding received: €40M
Frankenburg Technologies is a Tallinn-based defence tech startup building cost-efficient missile and air-defence systems tailored to Europe's evolving security needs. Founded in 2024, the company plans to use the fresh capital to scale manufacturing, expand its engineering team, and accelerate deployment of its interceptor technology across the region.
GA Drilling, $24.7M in late VC capital; $44.1M, if converted SAFE included
Announced: March 2026
CEE connection: HQ in Bratislava, Slovakia
Funding source: TomEnterprise (lead), Underground Ventures, Nabors Industries
Total funding received: ~$106M
GA Drilling develops non-contact plasma drilling technology for ultra-deep geothermal wells, aiming to unlock geothermal energy access anywhere in the world. The round comprises $24.7 million in new capital plus $19.4 million converted from a prior SAFE investment, and will move the company from advanced development into commercial validation of its drilling technology.
Turbine, $25M in Series B
Announced: February 2026
CEE connection: HQ in Budapest, Hungary
Funding source: Interactive Venture Partners (lead), Beiersdorf Venture Capital, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Mercia Ventures, Accel
Total funding received: $61.7M
Turbine is a Budapest-based biotech company developing AI-driven simulation technology to model how cancer cells respond to drugs. The Series B funding will support the expansion of its predictive platform beyond oncology into immunology, deepen pharmaceutical partnerships, and accelerate the development of data-driven therapies.
Ominimo, $22.5M in Series B at $1.6B valuation
Announced: July 2026
CEE connection: HQ in Budapest, Hungary
Funding source: the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
Total funding received: $33.8M
Ominimo develops AI-powered digital insurance solutions focused on motor insurance. The newly raised capital will support the company’s next phase of growth, including expanding into additional European markets, preparing for its planned US launch in 2027, developing new insurance products, and investing further in artificial intelligence and technology.
HOLYWATER, $22M in Series A
Announced: January 2026
CEE connection: HQ in Kyiv, Ukraine
Funding source: Horizon Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, Wheelhouse
Total funding received: $22M
HOLYWATER is a technology-driven entertainment company that builds tools and platforms for creators, allowing them to produce, distribute, and monetize short-form series, e-books, and interactive AI-powered content. The firm will use the fresh funding to expand its content production and IP incubation engine and develop new genres and formats, including AI-enabled comics and anime.
Saltz, €20M in Series A
Announced: March 2026
CEE connection: HQ in Vilnius, Lithuania
Funding source: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Inovo, Lifeline Ventures, Change Ventures, and business angels
Total funding received: €23M
Saltz is a digital marketplace linking professional kitchens with verified food suppliers. It unifies catalogues, ordering, payments, and logistics in one interface, enabling chefs to source fresh products from farms and regional producers across five European countries, as it expands globally.
Methodology
This ranking covers publicly disclosed rounds announced between 1 January and 31 July 2026. It includes the 15 largest transactions identified by Vestbee, with a lower threshold of approximately €20 million or the equivalent in another currency.
Companies are included based on a material CEE connection, such as being founded or headquartered in the region or maintaining significant engineering, R&D, or production operations there. Each company’s connection to CEE is stated separately to make cross-border cases transparent.
Rounds are ordered by their approximate euro value at the time of announcement. Because companies disclosed deals in different currencies and on different dates, euro equivalents and aggregate totals are approximate. For GA Drilling, the ranking uses the $24.7 million in new capital; the converted SAFE is disclosed separately.
This article will be updated as additional large CEE funding rounds are announced in 2026.
