Today, we are counting +350 venture capital funds across Central and Eastern Europe, and even more other angel investors, accelerators, startup programs, and ecosystem players nurturing the startup community.

But the beginning of this journey wasn’t an easy one. The region needed time, resources, and a lot of patience to achieve this wave

The evolution of the SEE region

Venture capital activity in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has experienced significant growth over the past three decades, driven by a combination of factors, including economic transformation, privatization, and the emergence of successful startup companies.

The region is no longer just an outsourcing hub but a dynamic and innovative ecosystem, attracting increasing attention from local and international investors. The decade of the 2020s has witnessed the flywheel effect in SEE's venture capital landscape, with a surge in investment, diversification of portfolio sectors, and a growing presence of both local and foreign VC firms.

Today, we want to introduce you to our new SEE VC Network list covering all the region’s venture capital funds and take you on a comprehensive historical journey. We’ll look at how the evolution of the major countries, what the fundraising landscape looks like right now, and what local investors think about the recent economic development.

The 2000s — early beginnings of the ecosystem

The 20th century marked the beginning of venture capital activity across many European countries. After the fall of the Soviet Union, most countries in the region went through a period of immense change and transformation.

One of the most significant economic shifts in the region was the privatization of state-owned enterprises. Governments in countries like Poland, Romania, Hungary, and the Czech Republic embarked on ambitious plans to transfer the ownership of large, state-run industries to private hands.

Source: Dealroom CEE Report 2021

Investors from both local and the West saw a golden opportunity in these privatization initiatives. They brought the much-needed capital and expertise to overhaul and modernize these former state enterprises. At the same time, people started showing signs of courage and taking baby steps toward building their first businesses.

The 2010s — laying the groundwork for future performance

This decade marked a significant uptick in VC activity in CEE.

There was a notable increase in local VC firms, and the region started to gain recognition as a hub for tech innovation. Countries like Poland, Estonia, and the Czech Republic emerged as leaders, fostering successful startups. The success stories of companies like Skype (Estonia) and Avast (Czech Republic) played a crucial role in putting CEE on the global VC map.

Additionally, EU funding and initiatives provided a much-needed boost, helping to mitigate the risks associated with early-stage investing.

Source: Dealroom CEE Report 2021

“The borders in Eastern European countries are a nuisance. Because they were impenetrable until recently - they still play a huge role. Bulgaria and Romania have very similar cultures; even if we have different influences on food and language, you can still find similar traits in people.

I’m not originally from Bulgaria, but this is my home country. From the beginning, I was fortunate to be part of the local ecosystem, and I could see people building it. Today, I’m amazed by how big it’s becoming.”

Says Max Gurvits, Partner at Vitosha Venture Partners.

The 2020s — the flywheel effect is here.

The current decade is witnessing the rapid development of the VC ecosystem in CEE.

Source: Dealroom CEE Report 2021

The region is no longer just an outsourcing destination but a cradle of innovation with a strong focus on sectors like Fintech, HealthTech, and GreenTech. More local funds are emerging, and there's an increased participation from cross-border investing.

There's also a visible trend towards portfolio diversification regarding the industries receiving investments and the stages of business development VCs are willing to fund. This reflects a deeper understanding of the local markets and a willingness to engage with more complex and varied investment scenarios.

Source: Dealroom CEE Report 2021

Why do local investors believe in the power of SEE?

“What we see today is the result of a very long process that started with big companies that succeeded in our country in the 2000s. They created job opportunities, supported the economy, and showed what we could achieve for our ecosystem."

Says Borys Musielak, Managing Partner at SMOK Ventures.

“The venture landscape shifted in the last two years while everybody held their breath for as long as possible.

The active venture funds continued to invest or at least deploy capital in their portfolio. Founders tried to raise money for their startups and, if they did not succeed, restructured, raised bridge rounds, and hoped for a better future.”

Says Bogdan Iordache, General Partner at Underline Ventures.

“The main ingredients empowering Eastern Europe are based on our hunger. Our societies are developing earlier, and there is room for technological disruption.

These countries are part of the European Union, they start to have a good development process, and you have the guarantee that the next decades will be great from that point of view. At the same time, nothing is done from the founder's perspective, and you can develop very different solutions across multiple industries. Innovations are needed.

Countries not part of the European Union have a more difficult time, such as Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, or Giorgia. The recent development of Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Slovenia shows the region's untapped potential and how much more it can grow unless the apocalypse happens.

Fast forward thirty years from now, we’ll see pure growth in the region, just like Spain, Portugal, or Greece are seeing right now.“

Says Max Gurvits, Partner at Vitosha Venture Partners.

“There is a new trend — angel investors are now very attracted by cross-border investments. Angel investors can invest abroad in startups from all over the world."

Says Milen Ivanov, Managing Partner at Sofia Angel Ventures.

“The venture capital companies we have in Greece have already raised a second or a third fund, thus contributing to the ecosystem growth with higher expertise than before. Their maturity is visible in the new deals they close and how they work with the founders. The system is slowly building up and generating some good models to follow.

I think there is good capital coverage in the country right now, including in the pre-seed stage with Genesis Ventures, and that's expanding more and more. People have the best environment to start a business right now, and founders have many opportunities to replace what’s not working with new and better options or ideas.”

Says Stergios Anastasiadis, General Partner at Genesis Ventures.

“Five and six years after, between 2015-2016, the new generation of startups started to flourish, and since then, we have more and more companies coming out.

2016 was also the year when we launched VentureFriends, and this way, we also contributed to funding the new wave of companies.

Today, more than five years from 2016, we have 30+ companies that have crossed the Series A stage, have international ambitions, and have raised significant capital to work on these ambitions. Also, we have our first unicorns: Viva and Blueground, a startup we funded six years ago and now valued at the unicorn level.”

Says Apostolos Apostolakis, Partner & co-founder at VentureFriends.

Bulgaria

Bulgaria has the potential to become a regional tech hub in Southeast Europe. The country earned a notable reputation as a software producer during a transformative period when previously state-owned ICT and hardware companies became unviable.

Source: Mapping Sofia Tech Sector - Endeavor Insights Report

"Bulgaria had a head start compared to other countries in the region because they dared to launch something earlier; the other reason is that we invested a lot in early-stage companies. This created a network effect in the upcoming years.

Although not all these companies were successful, the founders gained experience, started developing new ideas, and worked together on joint efforts.”

Says Ivaylo Simov, Managing Partner at Eleven Ventures.

The Bulgarian startup ecosystem is a growing and dynamic community home to several innovative and successful companies.

Additionally, we see +20 local venture capital funds supporting entrepreneurship endeavors with the so-needed capital. The country is one of the most developed ecosystems in the Central and Eastern European region, adding the right tools and frameworks for companies to grow.

Some of the local venture capital funds are:

• Eleven Capital
• Vitosha Venture Partners
• Silver Line Capital
• Launchub Ventures
• HR Capital
• New Vision 3 Fund
• Innovation Capital
• Brightcap Ventures
• Neo Ventures
• Urban Impact Ventures

The complete list of local venture capital funds in Romania is available here.

SeedBlink in Bulgaria

SeedBlink opened its office in Bulgaria and, in 2023, mobilized €30M, representing 14% of the total amount mobilized.

Out of the total investment mobilized in Romania, Greece, and Bulgaria, 7% was raised through SeedBlink’s investors out of the total mobilized for Bulgaria.

“Bulgaria is very well plugged into the international ecosystem.

Startups like Rush got the attention of international investors. Additionally, we have players from the United States, such as Cavalry Ventures, Y Combinator, Speedinvest, and Sequoia, who have invested in local startups. Still, those are just some of the significant names." says Elena Nikolova.

We need more success stories to show the younger entrepreneurs and those already growing their startups that there is hope and proof that anything is possible. You can have the next unicorn right in Bulgaria, not just Silicon Valley.”

Says Elena Nikolova, Community Manager at CEO Angels Club.

“There are more and more people becoming interested in angel investing. If we compare the numbers from when we started six years ago and today, we see that interest has tripled.

However, there is also an important difference in the type of angel investors. Previously, they were high-net-worth individuals with significant amounts of money to invest in different assets.

Today, that is not the case. Now, they are mid-level professionals with the means to invest and the desire to do it because they have seen what’s possible. Some of them are entrepreneurs that launched their own business and now have the power to invest.”

Says Milen Ivanov, Managing Partner at Sofia Angel Ventures.

Expectations for 2024

"A mere pitch deck is no longer sufficient; founders should have a comprehensive financial model and secure letters of intent from potential customers or partners. Being fully prepared with tangible evidence of market interest and viability will greatly enhance their chances of capturing investors' attention successfully.

In these cautious times, demonstrating dedication and readiness is crucial for founders to stand out and secure the much-needed funding for their startups.”

Says Yavor Gochev, Investment Manager at Innovation Capital.

“A calmer environment compared to the peak of the wave shows an opportune time to enter the market and explore the startup ecosystem.

With relatively lower valuations, it allows for a deeper understanding of the industry, its players, and the emerging trends, particularly in AI. It’s an ideal moment to identify promising teams and markets that align with one's beliefs and leverage the potential of AI.

However, do your due diligence and diversify your portfolio — You know, don’t put all your eggs in the same basket. — So, you’ll better understand the dynamics by watching multiple companies."

Says Hristo Borisov, Founder of HR Capital and CEO of Darik Radio.

Read the full ecosystem overview

Check out the local VC network

Romania

Romania, or the roaring tiger of Europe, as mentioned by start-up.ro in their recent documentary about the local ecosystem, is one of the leading countries showing signs of fast growth since 2017 in different respects.

Romania is home to one of the most well-known IPOs in the region (UiPath), three successful unicorns (UiPath, Bitdefender, Elrond), and a new wave of startups awaiting to take off (Fintech OS, Soleadify, eMag, Tokinomo, Flowx AI.), counting up to +2500 startups actively operating across diverse industries, ranging from education and healthcare to fintech.

Source: Dealroom CEE Report 2021

"The local startup investment ecosystem has improved dramatically in recent years, with the frequency, scale, and volume of deals generally increasing. Founders have become more ambitious and often start regional or global companies from the beginning rather than purely local ones. Repeat founders are increasingly common.

This IPO of Romanian-founded UIPath on the NYSE at a valuation of over $30 billion was a landmark transaction for the region. As a result, we also see Romania getting more attention from cross-border investors."

Says Andrei Dudoiu, Managing Partner at SeedBlink.

The level of startup funding in 2023 has reached €66.8M from 50 fundraising rounds.

Source: Overview on Startup Venture Capital Funding in Romania – 2023

The graphic does not include DRUID’s ~€27.4M ($30M) round and FlowX.AI’s ~€32M ($35M) round due to the desire of ActivizeTech to present a realistic situation of the general funding trends in Romania, as these rounds are typically outliers.

Source: Overview on Startup Venture Capital Funding in Romania – 2023

Some of the local venture capital funds are:

• Catalyst Romania
• Gapminder Ventures
• Sparking Capital
• Underline Ventures
• Simple Capital
• EarlyGame Ventures
• Cleverage VC
• Founders Bridge
• Fortech Investments

The complete list of local venture capital funds in Romania is available here.

SeedBlink in Romania

SeedBlink has been active in Romania since early 2020 as the first crowd-investing platform in CEE.

In 2023, we mobilized €74M, representing 34% of the total amount mobilized. Out of the total investment mobilized in Romania, Greece, and Bulgaria, 6% was raised through SeedBlink’s investors out of the total mobilized for Romania.

“Romania has already proven that it has the potential to produce world-class technology companies if the right founders and visionary investors come, both from Romania and other regions, especially when we talk about larger investment rounds."

Says Alina Georgescu, Investment Manager at Catalyst Romania.

“I think startups in Romania are rather well consolidated in the product and technical area."

Says Malin Stefanescu, Ex-President of the Tech Angels Association.

Expectations for 2024

2024 is expected to be a positive year for tech startups due to a combination of factors, including new venture capital funds opening up and more capital available for startups, higher financial literacy, possible growth of the country’s GDP, and new startup success stories coming out.

With more rigorous due diligence, investors prioritize startups with strong traction and sustainability, setting the stage for a more balanced and mature startup landscape in 2024.

“We enter 2024 with an even greater focus on simplifying equity ownership and empowering everyone. Looking ahead to 2024, exciting things await.

This year is expected to be a better year for tech startups due to three core reasons: a growth rebound, potential increases in venture capital investment, and an optimistic IPO market."

Says Carmen Sebe, CEO of SeedBlink.

“From an investment perspective, 2023 was peculiar, especially compared to the past 2-3 years. Due diligence became more rigorous, and that made for fewer opportunities. But the ones that we had were definitely more qualitative, and it seems that founders did listen to the advice that everyone was giving at the beginning of last year – “traction and sustainability over growth”.

This leads me to think that 2024 will become more balanced – the start-ups are more mature, and investors will have to deploy, given their activity in the past two years.”

Says Valentin Filip, Managing Partner at Fortech Investments.

Read the full ecosystem overview

Check out the local VC network

Greece

Thanks to a supportive government, strategic location, and a skilled workforce, Greece's vibrant startup ecosystem is home to innovative fintech, ag-tech, and health tech companies. This dynamic community has produced several of the first unicorns and many growing companies, and we are excited to be part of this growing movement.

The Greek startup landscape has witnessed remarkable growth over the past half-decade, with a surge in investments and global expansion for numerous Greek ventures.

Source: Startups in Greece Report - 2023-2024

The local venture capital funds investing in startups have a total of €540 million in assets under management, and they invested in 62 startups in 2023. This represents about 85% of the total deals in the Greek startup ecosystem in 2023.

Some of the local venture capital funds are:

1. VentureFriends
2. Velocity.Partners
3. Uni.fund
4. BigPi Ventures
5. Genesis Ventures
6. Marathon Venture Capital
7. Metavallon VC
8. TECS Capital
9. L Stone Capital

The complete list of local venture capital funds in Greece is available here.

“Greece evolved tremendously, and we’ve seen a huge acceleration, especially in the last 5-6 years.

If we go back to see what everything looked like, it was only ten years ago that we first saw the emergence of a handful of tech startups with global ambitions. Taxibeat, Workable, and Pollfish are a few examples. Until then, we only had a few national champions like e-food, Skroutz, etc."

Says Apostolos Apostolakis, Partner & co-founder at VentureFriends.

SeedBlink in Greece

SeedBlink opened a local office in Greece in June 2022 and, in 2023, mobilized €2.6M, representing 1% of the total amount mobilized.

Out of the total investment mobilized in Romania, Greece, and Bulgaria, 12% was raised through SeedBlink’s investors out of the total mobilized for Greece.

“Our new wave of potential unicorns comes from founders with a deep passion for the domain they are working in and for which they have learned to overcome specific difficulties during the past two pandemic years.

What is evident is that these Greek founders have quickly become #1 in the Greek market and are now growing their business beyond the local market, or they plan to achieve this. It’s also nice to see founders considering building their business globally from day one.

So, it all boils down to strong founder principles, executing fast, product-market fit, and growing the business beyond the local borders. These are the characteristics of the startups I’ve been looking at as a GP with Genesis Ventures.“

Says Stergios Anastasiadis, General Partner at Genesis Ventures.

“In Greece, I believe we have a strong talent pool, like in every country in Central and Eastern Europe. But additionally, Greeks put a strong value on education. The number of Greeks who pursue postgraduate studies nationally and internationally is quite high.

We now have several successful examples of people with this high ambition who have created global companies. They showed others that it’s possible, and with those data points, more and more people are now willing to take this path.

The Greek startup ecosystem has reached a flywheel effect, where many ambitious founders who scaled up and are now inspiring the new ones.”

Says Apostolos Apostolakis, Partner & co-founder at VentureFriends.

In 2023, we saw over €485M invested in over 70 Greek startups.

The Greek startup ecosystem experienced a quieter phase in 2023 due to a focus on launching successor funds. However, this lull should not be mistaken for stagnation, as a significant shift is anticipated in 2024 with the active deployment of capital.

Source: Startups in Greece Report - 2023-2024

Despite a projected 38% funding decline across Europe, Greek startup funding levels in 2023 saw a moderate decrease of 24.5%. This decline is significantly reduced to a 4.2% increase when debt funding is excluded.

This positive shift can be attributed to the surge in Series A+ investments and a decline in blended rounds that combine equity and debt financing.

Expectations for 2024

The Greek startup ecosystem is experiencing a period of cautious optimism as investors look to the future. While there are concerns about the broader economic environment, many investors believe Greece is well-positioned to benefit from its growing talent pool, supportive government policies, and increasing foreign investment.

Specifically, investors are excited about the potential for more efficient and technically adept startups to emerge from the Greek ecosystem. They are also optimistic about the increasing funding availability, thanks to the establishment of new VC funds and the growing number of angel investors.

Overall, investors believe 2024 will be a year of growth and innovation for the Greek startup ecosystem.

Source: Startups in Greece Report - 2023-2024

“The Greek ecosystem further matured in 2023, with several companies reaching the scale-up stage and several recalibrating their offering to adjust to new technology and market developments.

Early-stage risk capital remains available locally and looking for placement opportunities in companies tackling global issues from day one.

As the next 18 months are expected to be challenging worldwide from both a funding and demand perspective, Greek startups should capitalize on their resilience and remain focused on product, execution, and delivery.”

Says Myrto Papathanou, Partner at Metavallon VC.

Read the full ecosystem overview

Check out the local VC network

Poland

Poland is probably one of the most developed startup ecosystems in the SEE, home to over 3,000 startups, over 300 co-working spaces, and over 130 venture capital firms, along with a range of acceleration programs and tech conferences.

The Polish startup ecosystem faced a slowdown in 2023, mirroring the trend observed in other global VC markets. While the Polish market had initially remained resilient, investor sentiment gradually waned, resulting in a significant decline in venture capital funding.

Source: Polish Startups 2023

Despite the overall decline, the Polish VC market still managed to raise PLN 429 million from 69 funds in the second quarter of 2023, supporting the growth of 116 startups. However, this represents a significant drop from the PLN 936 million raised in the same quarter of 2022.

“At the same time, 2023 was still better than 2022. It was a period of great scrutiny in the venture capital market in Poland and the region.

Only the best survived, those who demonstrated through the results of their previous funds that there is a place for them in the market and managed to raise private funds for investments despite the unfavorable economic situation.”

Says Borys Musielak, Managing Partner at SMOK Ventures.

Poland's startup ecosystem remains resilient and poised for continued growth.

The country's strong talent pool, supportive government policies, and growing network of venture capital firms and accelerators provide a fertile environment for startups to thrive.

Read the full ecosystem overview

Expectations for 2024

“In the upcoming months, we should hear about rounds of startups that previously raised funding in 2021-2022.

The best founders of innovative companies will be able to convince investors and raise growth capital. The terms of the deal may be less satisfactory for them than 2-3 years ago, but they will certainly not be able to complain about a lack of capital.”

Says Maciej Ćwikiewicz, President of PFR Ventures.

“Global startup funding in 2023 declined by 38% year over year and 59% from the all-time high in 2021. Although we don’t have 2023 data for the CEE region yet, we should expect to see a similar decline. Looking forward, I expect global startup funding in 2024 to be on a similar level as in 2023 and further declined in the CEE region.

For startups, it means that fundraising will be as difficult as in 2023, and investors will still be very selective, focusing on startups with great metrics/unit economics and on a clear path to be profitable in the foreseeable future.

I expect trends seen in 2023 to continue in 2024, especially the high interest of investors in startups from the AI sector, which was the largest sector to show an increase in the last year, and startups from the semiconductor and cleantech sectors.

Says Pawel Maj, Partner at Warsaw Equity Group.

"The vitality of a startup ecosystem cannot be sustained by the entrepreneurial spirit alone; it thrives on the constructive collaboration between startups, investors, academia, and government.

Poland’s venture into a collaborative framework sets the stage for a stronger, interconnected European startup ecosystem."

Says Arthur Jordao, Executive Director at ESNA Europe Startup Nations Alliance.

The next shining stars of SEE

Part of the SEE region, we also have countries like Albania, Cyprus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, and Moldova, for which you can find listed their local VC funds in the list.

Hungary

One of the next countries we have on our radar is Hungary. Despite the fact that local development has moved slowly compared to other ecosystems in the region, Budapest has become a beautiful international city where many international students and digital nomads are now choosing to live.

Additionally, the efforts of dedicated local actors to consolidate the local ecosystem, alongside new success stories, such as the example of Prezi, are slowly transforming Hungary into a startup ecosystem to keep an eye on in the upcoming years.

“Hungary is a few steps behind if you compare it with other regional hubs. Only a few private VCs make consistent efforts to build a network of international co-investors. Although many startups plan to raise money from international VCs, only the best can do that.

However, Budapest is a shiny destination, the country's capital, with beautiful places to visit. Still, few others know it also offers affordable living costs and other advantages for founders who can run a successful business here. We had people who decided to stay and take risks, and others who studied abroad launched a company there and came back to open development centers.

Our community of local investors actively engages with the local meetup and startup scene, facilitating various opportunities. For example, Startup Hungary — the local startup organization, is backed by some of the most successful private VCs and other ecosystem-builder entities, like Google, IVSZ, and Design Terminal.”

Says Veronika Pistyur, General Partner at Oktogon Ventures.

“We only dare to whisper it, but we very much hope we’ll avoid creating a real AI bubble, which in some cases already started with the advent of VC-backed GPT wrappers, and arriving at an equilibrium where the level of the valuations will match that of the innovation.

Apart from the AI trend, although in the past years defense was — and at most places still — a taboo topic, we see a growing number of CEE startups popping up or transferring into the defense sector with dual-use technologies catering more and more to defense use cases.

Overall, we don’t anticipate the first half of this year to be significantly different from the past two years. Nevertheless, we foresee a substantial divide between the best-performing companies, which can secure funding on their own terms, and those forced to struggle for survival."

Says György Simó, Managing Partner at Day One Capital.

Serbia

Serbia is one of the next ecosystems making solid steps toward becoming a robust regional ecosystem and producing local success stories.

Gaming, blockchain, and agriculture have been some of the leading industries performing well in Serbia in recent years, where we had Nordeus, UrbiGo, Fuller Vision, and B2BBEE proving everything is possible.

Until recently, opening a venture capital fund in Serbia was not possible, but the legal landscape has changed, and local startup organizations expect VCs to open their doors and deploy local capital in the upcoming years.

“Serbia is a country full of opportunities.

We are aware the country wasn’t an attractive destination to build a business early in the 2000s because of what happened in the 90s in the region.

However, let's look at the country right now. We find great engineering and innovation skills and big companies that opened a series of development centers, such as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Schneider & others.

There is a shift in the mindset of Serbian entrepreneurs. For a while, they built their companies and focused on doing business locally.

They now realize that the same business idea can respond to needs from other ecosystems, respectively drawing more investors' attention. Serbia has the potential to follow Israel and become a very innovative country from this point of view if founders are targeting global markets right from day one.

We need more local success stories to create that waterfall effect everyone talks about.”

Says Nicolas Rabrenovic, co-founder & CTO of Edda.

Explore the complete version of the SEE venture capital landscape.

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