#6
ππ» Hi All! Great to have you back. This is visegrad.now, my newsletter covering startup and small business stories from the Visegrad countries (π΅π±, π¨πΏ, πΈπ°, ππΊ). If you like what you read, do not forget to subscribe, share and recommend us to friends π Cheers!
PS: I am always open to new ideas and suggestions that could make this newsletter better, so DM me at hello.visegradnow@gmail.com, anytime.
π’ TL;DR
Top stories this week: βπ» Four startups from the Visegrad region made the annual soonicorn list of Viva Technology βπ» Mews (π¨πΏ), OpenMeter (ππΊ), Livespace (π΅π±) and Smartschool (π΅π±) have all received πΆ βπ» Czechiaβs Lakmoos aims to transform market research with its proprietory AI solution βπ» Open roles at startups, and some good reads, like one from Nicolas Colin
π¨ Intro
The people behind Viva Technology, a Paris-based annual technology conference, published their βTop 100 Next Unicornsβ ranking. The list, focused on the 100 most promising scale-ups in EuropeΒ with a potential to reach π¦ status, contains 4 startups from the Visegrad region, namely POL, HU and CZ:
Brainly, an edtech startup from π΅π±
Mews*, a hospitality startup from π¨πΏ
SEON, a fraud prevention startup from ππΊ
Bitrise, a mobile DevOps platform from ππΊ
*Since this ranking was published, Mews raised β¬101.3M, pushing its valuation to unicorn territory (β¬1.1B), so the people at Viva Tech sure know their game βΊοΈ
πΆ Funding corner
ππ» Mews, a hospitality startup from π¨πΏ but headquartered in the Netherlands, snatched a hefty β¬101.3M led by Kinnevik, a Swedish investment company, with participation from Revaia (π«π·), Goldman Sachs Asset Management (πΊπΈ), LGVP (πΊπΈ) and Notion Capital (π¬π§). The fresh financing will aim at boosting expansion.
Founded: 2012; HQ: Amsterdam; Founder(s): Richard Valtr; Total funding (until now): ca. β¬308M
ππ» OpenMeter, a B2B SaaS startup from ππΊ but headquarterd in the US, bagged ca. β¬2.7M led by Y Combinator, that also incubated the startup, with participation from Haystack and Sunflower Capital, all US investors. The fresh financing will aim at growth, particularly in the US, and further developing its product.
Founded: 2023; HQ: San Francisco; Founder(s): PΓ©ter MΓ‘rton and AndrΓ‘s TΓ³th; Funding: This was its first raised investment
ππ» Livespace, a CRM startup from π΅π±, landed β¬2.3M led by INventures, with participation from Aria Fund, both local investors. The financing will aim at international scaling and further development of its product.
Founded: 2013; HQ: Warsaw; Founder(s): Marcin Stanczak, Michal Skurowski and Michal Szkodzinski; Funding: ca. β¬3M
ππ» Smartschool, an edtech startup from π΅π± but headquartered in the US (yep, most of this editionβs startups are HQβd somewhere outside Visegrad), nabbed ca. β¬1.3M from Inovo VC (π΅π±), The Explorer Fund (πΊπΈ) and various business angels. The investment will fuel its growth, especially in the US, and product / content devop.
Founded: 2023; HQ: San Francisco; Founder(s): Matt Maslowski, Paul Burzynski and Agata Mroczkowska; Funding: This was its first outside investment
π₯ to all founders and teams on the fresh raises!
π In focus
This weekβs profile is on Lakmoos, an AI-driven marketing tech startup from π¨πΏ, that have raised β¬300k from Presto Ventures, a very active local VC firm. The startup builds AI-enabled data models that simulate how target groups of companies make decisions, making it clear how these clients would react to new products, services and for that matter, adverts. Folks, no shame in admitting, but I simply love what the 3 founders (Kamila Zahradnickova - CEO; Jan Polisensky - CTO; Roman Konecny - CSO) created with Lakmoos as it might save gazillions.
In time, in money, even in mental health. All companies, or at least the ones that take their clients seriously, utilizie market and client research continueously. But this process, chiefly for mid-to-large organizations, are a pain in the back. In comes Lakmoos, offering a solution that is said to solve all this. If true, pure joy.
PS: Go over to Startup Kitchen for a bit more on the Brno-based startup.
π Role play
Bitrise has 6 open positions
SEON has 8 open positions
Mews has 55 open positions
Brainly has 11 open positions
π Outro
And as always, before saying ta-ta, here are some worthy reads:
Nicolas Colin, co-founder of The Family and author of European Straits, has written an interesting piece on nine core ideas re: startups and the global state of innovation from the past 7 years and how these fair in 2024.
The Recursive, a Sofia-based online news outlet that is focused on the CEE / SEE startup scene, has published piece on the EUβs fresh AI legislation and its likely effect on the artifical intelligence ambitions of the old continent.
Startup Poland, the heart and soul of the Polish startup ecosystem, has dropped its annual startup report for 2023 - back in January, though βΊοΈ
That is it, see yβall on 2 April!