News

45% of investments made are failures or have low returns — new European VC report

Nearly half, 45%, of investments made by the European venture capitalists turn out to be failures or reach less than 2x of invested capital. This concludes a group of researchers from European business schools and universities in a new report

Finnish IoT company Haltian raises €22M for further expansion

The Oulu-based Haltian, a company that offers easy-to-use IoT software for commercial real estate needs, has announced a fresh €22 million investment. The round was led by Mandatum Asset Management Growth Equity II fund.  “The new funding enables us to

American Lyft lays off at least 1,200 people. Ukrainian office will be cut by 20%

The US-based service Lyft has announced a new wave of layoffs. We will remind, Lyft opened an office in Ukraine and started recruiting the team back in 2021. The Lyft service does not work in Ukraine, and its launch was

Starlink bans users who download illegally

SpaceX has started sending warnings to users who download (and, most importantly, share) unlicensed movies, TV shows, and other content using torrent trackers via Starlink terminals. According to the Народний Starlink group, the first warnings in Ukraine began to arrive

Ukrainian startup Effy was selected as the “Product of the day” on Product Hunt

Effy is a 360 assessment and performance review tool from Ukraine, has been featured as one of the top projects on Product Hunt. At present, there is a contest for the  monthly championship, giving users the opportunity to show their

European VC deal value falls 32.1% to €11.8M in Q1 2023 — Pitchbook report

In Q1 2023, European VC deal value and count fell to €11.8 billion (>32.1%) over 2,758 deals (>19.2%) amid a challenging deal making environment. European VC exit activity also deteriorated for 69.6%, as unfavourable macroeconomic conditions and weaker valuations dampened

Visa announces open-calls for a global innovation competition for fintech startups

Applications are now open for the 2023 edition of the Visa Everywhere Initiative 2023 (VEI), a global open innovation competition that sees startups pitch their solutions to solve payment and commerce challenges. VEI winners will get monetary prizes, as well as

How massive layoffs affect CEE big tech and startup ecosystem — overview

Global job cuts continue to reach new heights. The number of tech layoffs in Q1 2023 has already surpassed the whole of 2022, with 165,622 tech specialists fired globally and more than 40,000 in Europe. Due to economic and geopolitical

Czech AI Startup Incubator announces a new €20M fund, Look AI Ventures

Pragua-based AI Startup Incubator has announced the launch of Look AI Ventures, a €20 million fund aiming to invest in early-stage AI startup ecosystem. The fund plans to provide €250,000 to 35 startups. “Artificial intelligence is in a unique situation.

Ukrainian company Boosteroid launches in the US during the war

Before the full-scale war, Boosteroid, a Ukrainian company developing a cloud gaming platform, was planning to enter the United States and Latin America markets. When the war started, it had to evacuate its staff, and its two offices in Kyiv