The Central and Eastern Europe region is a fast-growing environment for thousands of startups with the worldwide growth potential. Despite the increased geopolitical tension and the economic problems caused by the full-scale war Russia launched in Ukraine on February 24, the volume of investments in the region is only increasing.

The Warsaw-based matchmaking platform for startups and investors, Vestbee, has prepared the CEE startups funding report for Q1 of 2022. AIN.Capital shares key points.

  • During the first quarter of 2022, a total of 233 funding rounds were closed (only 170 are fully disclosed in terms of amount, month, participating investors, and company details):
    • In January, the startups collectively reached more than €1 billion in funding over 63 rounds,
    • €350 million over 62 rounds in February,
    • €250 million over 43 rounds in March.
  • The total amount of financing raised in Q1 2022 reached €1.6 billion. It is €0.6 billion more than in Q4 of 2021.
Image: Vestbee
  • Among the countries to have received the majority of funding are:
    • Poland — closed 98 rounds with a total of €250 million in funding,
    • Estonia — closed 36 rounds with €920 million,
    • Romania — closed 16 rounds with €160 million.
  • Despite the war, Ukrainian entrepreneurs have managed to rank fourth with 13 financing rounds closed in Q1 2022.
  • The biggest investment rounds belong to:
    • €628M in Series F raised by Bolt, an Estonian transportation and food delivery service.
    • €120M in Series D closed by ICEYE, a Finnish spacetech developing and operating radar imaging satellites.
    • €110M in Series D secured by ProductBoard, a Czech product management system.
    • €89M in Series B raised by Payhawk, a Bulgarian financial company.
    • €89M in Series C secured by Veriff, an Estonian online identity verification company.
  • Among the most active investors were Startup Wise Guys, Early Game Ventures, Karma Ventures, Presto Ventures, and Specialist VC (United Angels VC). Followed by Credo Ventures, Vitosha Venture Partners, Inovo Venture Partners, Accel, and Earlybird Venture Capital.
  • During Q1 2022, the most appreciated industries were: e-commerce, FinTech, Data & Analytics, AI, SaaS, Advertising, and Big Data. The previous leader — Healthcare fell out of the top priorities this year.

More about the Baltic startup scene performance in the first four months of 2022 you can read in a report AIN.Capital published earlier:

Baltic startup scene report: €1.3B in funding and 3 unicorns in four months of 2022