Below is a roundup of the most notable deals across Central and Eastern Europe in January.
Mews, €252M in Series D
Location: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Founded in: 2012
Total funding received: €689M
Recent funding sources: Tiger Global Management, Kinnevik, HarbourVest Partners, EQT Growth, Battery Ventures, Atomica
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, €126.5M in Series D
Location: Ukrainian-founded, based in the US
Founded in: 2012
Total funding received: €270M
Recent funding sources: WestCap, Indico Capital Partners, Hoxton Ventures, Horizon Capital, EBRD, Educapital
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. Its Series D round valued the company at $1.2 billion. The funding will support AI tools for lesson planning and homework, better learner–tutor matching, and scaling its personalized, human-led tutoring model.
HOLYWATER, €18.5M in Series A
Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
Founded in: 2020
Total funding received: €18.5M
Recent funding sources: Horizon Capital, Endevor Catalyst, Wheelhouse
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.
Nomagic, €8.4M in Series B
Location: Warsaw, Poland
Founded in: 2017
Total funding received: €71.3M
Recent funding sources: Cogito Capital Partners
Nomagic builds AI robots for warehouses that learn from millions of real tasks, allowing them to automate picking and other workflows reliably at scale. The investment will support Nomagic’s US expansion and further development of its visual-language-action (VLA) models.
ABZ Innovation, €7M
Location: Szentendre, Hungary
Founded in: 2021
Total funding received: €7M
Recent funding sources: Vsquared Ventures, Day One Capital, Assembly Ventures
ABZ Innovation designs and builds heavy-duty drones for agriculture and industry. Its agricultural drones operate autonomously on programmable routes, allowing precise work while reducing labor, water, and chemicals. The funding will enable the company to enhance drone performance and autonomy, expand manufacturing capacity, and equip partners with the tools and support needed to deploy drones efficiently in agricultural and industrial operations.
InsiderCX, €1.5M in a seed round
Location: Varazdin, Croatia
Founded in: 2020
Total funding received: €2.1M
Recent funding sources: Silicon Gardens, GapMinder VC
InsiderCX is an AI-powered patient experience platform that helps healthcare providers and insurers collect and act on feedback across the entire patient journey. Operating in six markets and serving hospitals, dental groups, insurers, and international healthcare chains, the new funding will support its European expansion, strengthen AI capabilities, and accelerate product development for healthcare clients.
Flashka, €1M in a pre-seed round
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Founded in: 2023
Total funding received: €1M
Recent funding sources: Outlast Fund, Vento, Ulixes Capital
Flashka is an edtech startup building an AI-powered study app that helps university students turn lecture notes and other materials into flashcards, quizzes and personalised learning tools to improve retention. It recently closed a €1 million pre-seed round, which will be used to grow the tech team, accelerate product development and expand across European markets.
Mos Health, €920k in a pre-seed round
Location: Poland, US
Founded in: 2024
Total funding received: €920k
Recent funding sources: SMOK Ventures and Movens Capital, with participation from angel investors
Mos Health develops a digital health platform that combines an AI-driven application with a line of supplements. The company will use the fresh funding to build its MVP and advance its personalized health protocols and supplementation platform, while also supporting its initial go-to-market efforts and first deployments in the US through employer partnerships.
Maxfusion, €500k in a pre-seed round
Location: Prague, the Czech Republic
Founded in: 2025
Total funding received: €500k
Recent funding sources: Czech Founders VC and angel investor Ory Weihs
Maxfusion is an AI-powered video ad creation platform that automates bulk video and creative production for brands, e-commerce companies and agencies. The startup recently closed a €500,000 pre-seed round that will be used to scale its product, grow sales and marketing, and build proprietary audio-guided AI models to expand its platform capabilities
Headway Inc, Series A extension
Location: Ukrainian-founded, based in US
Founded in: 2019
Recent funding sources: Endeavor Catalyst
Headway Inc develops subscription-based apps for learning, personal development, and cognitive training. As of now, it serves over 150 million users in more than 170 countries, with top revenue markets in the US, the UK, and Canada. The recent investment from Endeavor Catalyst marks the fund's first-ever investment in a company with Ukrainian roots.
Sky Hunter, a pre-seed round
Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
Founded in: 2025
Total funding received: €
Recent funding sources: Front Ventures, Hede Capital Partners, and a third investor under NDA
Sky Hunter develops an application to guide interceptor drones toward aerial targets. The system primarily focuses on Shahed-type attack drones and reconnaissance UAVs, using real-time radar data to direct strike drones toward enemy UAVs, automating the interception process. The startup plans to use the pre-seed investment to expand its engineering team and to refine interceptor drone application based on feedback from special forces units already using the system.
