During the past few years, Southeast Europe is quietly fostering a cluster of startups that are making waves across various tech sectors. From cybersecurity to workflow optimization, these startups are steadily gaining traction and could be the ones to watch in 2024.
In this article, we showcase 10+ standout startups from the SEE region, active in developing industry segments such as cybersecurity, the streamlining of business processes, or the transformative potential of blockchain and API operations, and aiming to position themselves as key players in addressing various industry challenges.
Disclaimer: The list is a mix of established regional startups and companies, as well as rising stars that we have identified as promising. Our list isn’t exhaustive though so feel free to suggest additions at [email protected].
Trickest is a Belgrade-based startup building a workflow automation and orchestration tool for bug bounty hunters, penetration testers, and enterprise security teams. Established in 2020, the company aims to make advanced cybersecurity tools accessible to a wider range of users, including academia, security researchers, educators, and bug bounty hunters. Trickest secured a €1.4 million seed round in 2021, and a subsequent funding round at the end of 2023 brought the company’s total funding to $3 million.
Modeliks is a business and financial planning tool for small and medium enterprises and startups. The tool lets users make a complete business financial plan, ready to be presented to investors. In addition to creating business plans, Modeliks can also be used to monitor the progress of the plan through automated dashboards. The startup is also the most-funded Macedonian early-stage startup, with an investment of €1 million.
Aqtos, coming from North Macedonia, is a business OS platform tool designed to streamline and enhance the way companies operate. Positioned as a comprehensive Business Operating System as a Service (BOSS), Aqtos serves as a centralized platform – an all-in-one or super-app.
The solution eliminates the need for businesses to navigate through multiple applications by seamlessly integrating project management, company chat, HR functions, invoicing, expense tracking, people analytics, and website monitoring all under one roof.
Collabwriting is a Serbia-based platform that simplifies content sharing, commenting, and collaboration on online discoveries through its browser extension. The startup recently secured €1.1 million in funding, which they plan on using to fuel the enhancement of Collabwriting for Teams, the introduction of new AI features, team expansion, and user base growth.
Initially conceived as a tool for information collection, the team behind Collabwriting, Sandra Idjoski and Ivan Ralic soon recognized its broader potential during testing and marketing efforts.
Collabwriting quickly gained traction across various professions, including law, consultancy, and R&D, currently boasting over 1,700 weekly active users. The team is now gearing up for the launch of a new team version to further expand its reach.
OTA Sync is a full property management system with an integrated channel manager and booking engine system. Founded by entrepreneurs Djordje Jevtic and Ilija Milovic, the proptech focuses on hotels and helps owners and operators manage their businesses from a single place. Last year, the company raised €1.3 million in a seed round.
With over 2,000 users across 17 markets, OTA Sync offers a full property management system, including an integrated channel manager and booking engine.
Vaunt is a digital management platform designed to streamline the residential property selling process from building permit receipt to handover. With over 50 real estate agencies and developers in Romania utilizing the platform, VAUNT has uploaded projects valued at over €2 billion, with transactions surpassing €760 million.
Founded by Romanian entrepreneurs Irina Constantin and Razvan Mitre, VAUNT aims to digitally facilitate the entire real estate residential sales process by providing user-friendly sales and marketing modules to contribute to partners’ business growth.
Treblle is an all-in-one platform for the entire API lifecycle. Founded in early 2020 by mobile app and website developers Vedran Cindrić and Darko Blaževic, Treblle helps engineering and DevOps teams build, ship, and maintain REST-based APIs faster. In the following years the company grew its portfolio of products and managed to raise $7 million at the end of 2022.
Since its establishment, the startup has amassed a user base of over 15,000 individuals worldwide. Treblle processes more than 1.5B API calls monthly and is employed across 5,000 distinct API services.
Nullius in Verba is an Albanian startup focused on providing AI-based solutions. Founded by entrepreneurs Maris Basha and Ergys Malo, NIV aims to contribute to Albania’s growing AI sector.
NIV’s AI solution, Neura, encompasses accurate, fast, and efficient Text-to-Speech and Speech-to-Text tools for the Albanian language worldwide. The startup prioritizes innovative design and forward-thinking ideas, blending advanced technology with intuitive design to craft impactful and visually appealing software solutions.
Fynt AI is an autonomous planning and action system for operational data in critical industries, starting with fast moving consumer goods. The platform unifies organisational data in a digital twin where its AI agents can think, predict, and act to answer “what if” scenarios focused on revenue optimisation.
Pythagora AI a Croatian AI developer that creates apps via natural language interaction. Harnessing the power of Large Language Models (LLMs) and sophisticated machine learning algorithms, Pythagora enables users to express their app concepts conversationally. The tool automates developer workflows, streamlining tasks from debugging and refactoring to code commits and bug fixes.
This month, Pythagora raised a $4 million funding round, which it’ll use to scaling up its research and development efforts, as well as driving growth and expanding user adoption in the coming years.
HeyReach is an agency-first LinkedIn outreach tool, focused on scaling the whole outreach game by introducing the concept of multi-account outreach.
The startup behind HeyReach, Howitzer, is a team of young engineers, initially gained attention in the Macedonian startup scene with their automated Reddit marketing tool, securing a $500K investment in 2022. However, due to Reddit’s strict policies against such tools, including enforcement measures and API restrictions, Howitzer shifted focus to platforms like LinkedIn.