Every month I’m gathering together some of the most interesting deals from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Often overlooked by big US and Western European investors, the region offers many good deals, at much cheaper valuations compared to the US market. This time for the month of May, I’ll focus more on the Balkans after my recent business trip to MonteNegro, south Serbia and Macedonia.
Croatia-based Oradian offers a cloud-based software for micro finance institutions (MFIs) in developing markets. The firm raised an undisclosed seed round to continue expansion across West Africa and to expand its team, both in Zagreb, Croatia, and Nigeria. The funding comes from Credo Ventures, the Prague-based venture capital firm that recently announced a new fund, as well as Playfair Capital, Day One Capital, Esther Dyson, Moaffak Ahmed and Africa Angels Network.
Romania-based SpherikAccelerator, which is run by my friend Jennifer Austin, recently demoed some cool startups, many of whom are seeking funding. Attendees also included Romanian Tech Angels, Mary Andronic (co-founder of VentureConnect), Dan Sturza (Fribourg Capital), among others.
Warsaw-based medical booking platform DocPlanner recently announced a $10 million Series B funding round. EU-Startups writer Marco Srsan wrote about this news at the beginning of May.
Macedonia is a cool country, and Skopje is a vibrant capital city. If you want to start investing there, check out NewMan’s business accelerator run by the energetic Irena. My friend Chris Burry was mentoring there recently.
Estonia-based Pipedrive, the SaaS startup designed to help small companies manage and increase sales, recently raised a $9 million Series A round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with the participation of Paua Ventures, along with existing investors, Rembrandt Venture Partners and AngelPad (the latter of which incubated Pipedrive). The firm is based in the US, as well as Estonia, where its development office is located.
Widerfi, the mobile internet for travellers, which was established in Lithuania and was formerly known as Cheap Data Communications, has joined MassChallenge, the World’s largest accelerator. The team will compete for £500K and $1 million prizes at the end of the year. Widerfi offers a new mobile internet model for travellers and is the first Lithuanian startup to participate in the accelerator, which will be held simultaneously in Boston and London.
Bulgaria-based ELEVEN is a cool accelerator venture fund, very active in the Balkan region (Update – July 2023: The accelerator seems to be no longer in business under this website, and we therefore deactivated the original link). Dronamics, one of its portfolio companies, just won the Pioneers Festival Challenge 2015, which is one of the biggest startup competitions in Europe! The team is part of Eleven’s seventh cohort, and just two weeks ago won another major competition, betapitch | Sofia. Are the Rangelov brothers (the two founders) following in the footsteps of the Wright brothers in revolutionising unmanned aircraft systems?
Czech entrepreneur and business angel Michal Illich has bought an 80% stake in the firm organising the country’s biggest startup event, WebExpo. Another cool conference called VentureDays will be held in Prague this July (Update – July 2023: The event seems to be no longer in business under this website, and we therefore deactivated the original link).
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