In central eastern Europe’s young startup ecosystem, early-stage investments make up the vast majority of VC transactions. In 2023, 92% of the 818 deals closed in the region were at pre-seed (611) or seed (144), according to data platform Dealroom.
Europe’s economic downturn has hit the region hard — and 2023 saw startups raise less early-stage funding than 2022. In 2022, CEE startups raised €140m in pre-seed funding and €324m in seed funding; in 2023, that dropped to €99.8m at pre-seed and €278m at seed, according to Dealroom.
Local investors have been involved in most of those deals, with two Bulgarian VCs — Vitosha Venture Partners and Innovation Capital — doing more deals than any other investors in the region in the past 12 months.
Using data from Dealroom, Sifted has selected the CEE investors that did the most new (not follow-on) pre-seed and seed deals in the last 12 months. These VCs usually invest in the startups from the region — but sometimes they also do deals in other European countries or in the US (very often backing startups of CEE diaspora founders). Accelerators were not included. Sifted reached out to every firm to confirm the numbers but not every VC replied.
1/ Vitosha Venture Partners
HQ: Sofia
Fund focus: Vitosha Venture Partners invests in early-stage and growth stage companies based in, or related to, Bulgaria. It invests between €25k and €1m, and has a €26m fund.
Number of new deals in the last 12 months: 49 (confirmed)
Investments from the last 12 months:
- Sofia-based CloudCart, a platform for creating online stores
- Sofia-based Quendoo, a hotel booking platform
2/ Innovation Capital
HQ: Sofia
Fund focus: Innovation Capital invests out of a €21.1m fund into early-stage Bulgarian startups from a whole range of sectors, including B2B SaaS, ecommerce, foodtech, healthtech and cybersecurity. It invests between €25k to €1m.
Number of new deals in the last 12 months: 37 (unconfirmed)
Investments from the last 12 months:
- Sofia-based DNA report maker EvaGene
- Sofia-based scooter sharing company Shareascoot
3/ Baltic Sandbox Ventures
HQ: Vilnius
Fund focus: Baltic Sandbox invests in deeptech, life science and dual-use startups at pre-seed and seed. It can invest across the EU but mostly focuses on the Baltics and “new Nordics”. It’s currently raising a €15m fund, and invests between €20k to €500m.
Number of new deals in the last 12 months: 21 (confirmed)
Investments from the last 12 months:
- Vilnius-based Axiology, a startup that develops a blockchain-based tokenised securities depository
- Tartu, Estonia-based SKYCORP Technologies, which is developing an autonomous hydrogen-powered quadcopter
4/ Metaplanet
HQ: Tallinn
Fund focus: Metaplanet is the evergreen investment fund of Jaan Tallinn, one of the four founding engineers of Skype. It's a generalist fund, backing startups at pre-seed, seed and Series A. Its portfolio includes unicorns like Estonia’s identity verification tool Veriff, Finland’s health tracking ring Oura and the UK’s metaverse company Improbable.
Number of new deals in the last 12 months: 18 (unconfirmed)
Investments from the last 12 months:
- Tallinn-based Woola, which makes packaging from wool to reduce plastic waste
- Tallinn-based Beast, an app offering Tesla rentals
5/ SMOK Ventures
HQ: Warsaw
Fund focus: Polish-American SMOK has a $25m fund to invest in pre-seed and seed stage startups founded in CEE or by its diaspora, writing cheques of $100k-1m. It mostly invests in SaaS, gamedev and AI startups.
The number of new deals in the last 12 months: 18 (confirmed)
Investments from the last 12 months:
- San Francisco-headquartered Gemelo.ai, a tool that makes personalised videos for sales teams
- New York-headquartered 57hours, a platform for travelling adventures
6/ Specialist VC
HQ: Tallinn
Fund focus: Specialist VC invests in startups from pre-seed stage to Series A in the fields of B2B SaaS, fintech, platforms and deeptech, from the Baltics, Finland and Ukraine. It writes cheques from €250k to €3m from its €50m fund. Specialist VC is an early-backer of some of Estonia’s best-known success stories, such as mobility giant Bolt, Veriff and delivery robot startup Starship Technologies.
The number of new deals in the last 12 months: 17 (unconfirmed)
Examples of investments from the last 12 months:
- Tallinn-born DrHouse, a platform for on-demand online doctor visits and medication delivery
- Harju, Estonia-based dual-use intelligence management software SensusQ
7/ ZAKA VC
HQ: Prague
Fund focus: Until recently, ZAKA has been operating as a family office — but it’s now in the process of raising its first fund. It invests between €200k-€300k into SaaS, healthtech and biotech companies in the US and the EU.
The number of new deals in the last 12 months: 15 (confirmed)
Investments from the last 12 months:
- Prague-based SharpGrid, a data tool for hotel and restaurant industry market research
- Croatia’s SpectreXR, a startup developing extended reality solutions
8/ DEPO Ventures
HQ: Prague
Fund focus: DEPO Ventures is an angel network and a sector-agnostic VC focused on pre-seed and seed stage startups from CEE. Until recently DEPO was investing €3m a year, out of a rolling angel fund, writing €100k tickets. That fund is now closed and DEPO is currently raising a new €50m fund to invest over five years.
The number of new deals in the last 12 months: 14 (confirmed)
Investments from the last 12 months:
- Krakow, Poland-based Certifier, a digital credential platform
- Brno, Czech Republic-based Talsec, a mobile security startup
9/ Presto Ventures
HQ: Prague
Fund focus: Presto Ventures focuses on early-stage B2B software startups and online marketplaces from CEE. It invests from €200k up to €1.5m, from a €30m fund.
The number of new deals in the last 12 months: 13 (confirmed)
Investments from the last 12 months:
- Prague-based Elin.ai, a Gen Z mental health app
- Brno, Czech Republic-based Lakmoos, which makes software for market research
10/ Sofia Angels Ventures
HQ: Sofia
Fund focus: Sofia Angels Ventures is a €13m fund that backs early stage startups across different sectors, located in southern eastern Europe. Its ticket sizes range from €200k to €1m.
The number of new deals in the last 12 months: 13 (unconfirmed)
