Budapest Letters #58
ππ» Hi All! Great to have you back. This is Budapest Letters, my newsletter covering startup and small business stories from the CEE region, or interesting developments that might have something to do with this part of Europe. Hope you will enjoy it!
Before we jump into edition #58, big shout out to our new subscribers, good to have you here. And one more thing before we roll, if you like what you read, subscribe + share ππ»
Cheers, Aron
π’ TL;DR
Top stories this week: βπ» Besides regional entrepreneurs, venture capital firms from CEE also started looking beyond there borders to grow βπ» Pactum, Pathway and Nestor raised πΆ βπ» Czechiaβs Digitoo aims to help people businesses and their accountants with AI automation βπ» The latest and best report on European startups is out, check βThe State of European Tech 2022β
π₯ Story of the Week
It is great that week and after week I am able to tell you about the successes of regional startups. Innovative ideas, cutting-edge technological developments, persistance, creativity and globe conquering mentality coming from CEE founders. Good stuff. But fortunately, not only entrepreneurs are slaying it.
Local venture capital firms are also moving beyond their borders and started financing deals that are out of their natural habitat. Of course, this is not totally new, but their number and size is. Here, few investments just from last week:
Berlin-based Tapline raised β¬31.7M co-led by Fasanara Capital (π¬π§) and V-Sharp Venture Studio (π¨πΏ) - more via Silicon Canals.
Amsterdam-based Pixyle.ai received β¬1M led by South Central Ventures, a Serbian VC firm - more via the startupsβs own site.
Oslo-based Speiz netted β¬1.3M led by F-LOG Ventures (π©πͺ), but also backed by Iron Wolf Capital and Business Angels Fund, both from π±πΉ - more via Tech.eu
Got to watch out people, CEE is coming π
Show Me Da πΆ
ππ» Pactum, a procurement startup from πͺπͺ, bagged β¬19M led by 3VC (π¦πΉ). The company, that provides large Corporate clients with an AI-driven automated negotiation solution that gets better prices on items without the need of human involvement, will use the fresh funding to expand in the US and Europe.
ππ» Pathway, a data startup from π«π· with a founder (Zuzanna Stamirowska) from π΅π±, nabbed ca. β¬4.2M co-led by Inovo and Market One Capital, two Polish VC firms. The company, that built a programming framework which handles streaming data updates, will use the fresh raise to accelerate product development.
ππ» Nestor, an HR-tech startup from π·π΄, received ca. β¬1.9M co-led by Eleven VC (π§π¬) and Underline Ventures (π·π΄). The startup, that provides business with an HR intelligence platform that helps retaining/engaging/developing talent, will use the money to boost sales and to expand, chiefly in the US and South America.
π₯ to all founders and teams on the fresh raises!
π¨ Startup Alert
This weekβs alert is on Digitoo, a bookeeping automation startup from π¨πΏ, that recently bagged β¬1.1M from local VCs (Nation 1 and Kaya) and Crowdberry, a Czech-Slovak investment platform. The company aims to help both business and its accountants with eliminating manual and repetative work, like data capture.
Digitoo, in sum, works as follows:
Receive, upload, digitize and send your invoice to the accounting system.
AI technology then reads invoice data and prepares it for approval; companies can also teach the system to assign orders, cost centres or other entry codes that the accountants would otherwise have to enter manually.
After this, Digitoo dashboard visualizes accounts payable and receivable directly in the app so that business will see their cash flow status and have a clear overview of costs and revenues. The startupβs solution integrates with bank accounts as well, so direct payments from the app are possible.
π§ Food
Atomicoβs βState of European Tech 2022β report came out, an analysis that is probably THE go to material to find out where European startupland is at.
TL;DR The year was not superb, there were lots of negative developments (e.g. receiving funding got harder, IPOs dissapeared, unicorn creation stalled). However, the European startup ecosystem is not in a bad shape, so no panic.
But for more, I recommend reading Kai Nicol-Schwarzβs overview from Sifted, it contains all the good and bad there is to be found in this very cool report.