#9
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!
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π’ TL;DR
Top stories this week: βπ» Startup Hungary dropped Hungarian Startup Report 2023, its fresh analysis on the state of the local startup ecosystem βπ» Apify (π¨πΏ), ForActive (π΅π±) and Langtail (π¨πΏ) have all received πΆ βπ» Slovakiaβs Daitable aims to help manufacturers better manage electricity consumption βπ» Open roles at startups, some good reads, including an interview with TamΓ‘s KΓ‘dΓ‘r (SEON)
π¨ Intro
It is that time of year⦠no, not Christmas, of course, but almost as exciting for us Hungarian startup enthusiasts, the period when the fresh edition of the Hungarian Startup Report is published by the good folks over at Startup Hungary. Here it is.
But if you do not have time to go through it, here are some findings:
Local scene saw a sharp decline in investments in 2023 (-60% vs 2022).
Startup creation decreased further, but the number of βrising starsβ increased.
SaaS is still the dominant business model, but AI / Deep Tech gaining ground.
Majority of startups struggle to go international, mostly due to lack of talent.
More than half of startups moved their legal HQ elsewhere or planning to.
πΆ Funding corner
ππ» Apify, a data startup from π¨πΏ, snatched β¬2.8M led by J&T Ventures, with participation from Reflex Capital, both of them local VCs. The fresh financing will aim at expanding its team, boost marketing, and widen its developer base.
Founded: 2016; HQ: Prague; Founder(s): Jan Δurn, Jakub Balada; Total funding (until now): ca. β¬3.2M
ππ» ForActive, a payments-cum-communication startup from π΅π±, bagged β¬1.5M led by ff Venture Capital (πΊπΈ) and Movens Capital (π΅π±), along with business angels. The fresh financing will aim at further developing its product and growth.
Founded: 2023; HQ: Warsaw; Founder(s): Maciej BiegaΕski; Funding: This was its first official raise (i.e. pre-seed round)
ππ» Langtail, an AI-enablement startup from π¨πΏ, landed β¬1M from ZdenΔk Cendra and Budeto, a local startup studio, that also happens to be behind the startup; weird, yeah, at first it might be, but Budeto has an intriguing business model whereby they generate cutting-edge business ideas, ensemble the founding team and provide them with pre-seed financing from a selected set of investors. The financing will aim at scaling and further development of its product, team.
Founded: 2023; HQ: Prague; Founder(s): Petr Brzek, Martin ΔuriΕ‘, TomΓ‘Ε‘ Rychlik; Funding: This ticket is the first, so far
π₯ to all founders and teams on the fresh raises!
π In focus
This weekβs profile is on Daitable, a freshly funded (β¬40k from Czech Founders VC) startup from πΈπ°, that offers manufacturers a tool with which they are able to track and manage their electricity consumption in a digital and efficient way. According to the companyβs website, by harnessing the power of AI, their platform is also capable of making βvalue predictions and predictive diagnostics (or preventive maintenance) to predict and analyse the monitored and gathered dataβ.
Currently, they provide 4 solutions to clients:
Daitameter, for measuring consumption by machine or section.
Daitaplan, for predicting consumption with high accuracy.
Daitaguard, for guarding against certain limits.
Daitanalytics, for malfunction detection.
The Trnava-based startup was founded by Ε imon StaΕo, Jakub PeriΔka and Dominik HornΓ‘Δek in 2023. And as a plus, here is quick intro from them, directly:
π Role play
Apify has 12 open positions
π Outro
And before bidding farewell, some yummy reads and news to check:
Interview with TamΓ‘s KΓ‘dΓ‘r, co-founder and CEO of SEON, the most valuable Hungarian startup at the moment - more via Forbes.hu (ππΊ)
bValue, an equity firm, has announced the closure of a new β¬90 million fund focused on investments in Polish and CEE scaleups - more via AIN.Capital
Interview with Pawel Bochniarz, General Partner at Radix Ventures, a Deep Tech focused specialist VC fund from Poland - more via The Recursive
Polandβs HugeThing has announced its 8-week pre-accelerator program (funded by VISA Foundation) dedicated to Polish and Ukranian female entrepreneurs; application is open until 31 May - more via HugeThing
That is it, see you all on 13 May!