The Venture in Eastern Europe Report 2024, presented by How to Web and Infobip, reveals a growing venture capital landscape across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The report showcases a dynamic market, demonstrating breakthrough despite the backdrop of global economic uncertainty.

Total venture investment in the region reached an impressive €3.89 billion across 1,286 deals, marking a 16x increase compared to 2017. This surge highlights the maturing ecosystem in CEE, driven predominantly by late-stage investments (Series A-C), which accounted for over 63% of the total investment volume.

“Companies like UiPath, Bolt, and Infobip have already demonstrated the region’s potential, and with initiatives like Infobip Startup Tribe and Infobip Shift, the ecosystem is stronger than ever. As the region’s startups and scaleups embrace ambition over modesty, they attract unprecedented investment and redefine Europe’s role in global innovation. The time to invest in and collaborate with this thriving ecosystem is now. Eastern Europe is no longer just an emerging market—it is a force shaping the future of technology,” said Ivan Ostojić, Chief Business Officer at Infobip.

Romania’s consistent growth attracts global attention

Romania continues to shine as a leading venture hub, achieving its fourth consecutive year of surpassing the €100 million investment mark, reaching €130.7 million in 2024. This sustained success is attracting substantial international capital while simultaneously boosting local investor confidence.

The deep dive into Romanian venture deals shows consistent growth, with the country maintaining its position among the top investment destinations in the region. The increase from €129.6 million in 2023 to €130.7 million in 2024 reflects a stable and robust investment environment.

Nicoleta Pirvu and Alexandru Agatinei (How to Web), two co-authors of the report, and Bogdan Lordache (Underline Ventures), Carmen Dibus (BCR Seed Starter Romania), and Nicoleta Cherciu (Cherciu&Co), three key contributors to the report, shared their insights into the data, showing how the Eastern European venture landscape is both stable and changing. 

“What 2024 showed is that the industry is experiencing a cycle turn—a focus on frugality, dedication, and grinding with all forces to solve really hard problems using technology. In order to bring hard things to life, grit and endurance are essential. The brutality of the market is a normal thing. It always has been so in the early stages of startups. Because of last year’s hype, both founders and investors lost some discipline. But we can now see that the focus turned back on metrics and capital efficiency. The best companies always have an amazing work ethic. Startups are hard and require this intensity to survive and thrive.” says Alexandru Agatinei, CEO of How to Web.

Key insights: Eastern European venture deals

The report highlights several key findings:

• A total of 1,286 venture deals accumulated to €3.89 billion.
• Eight countries surpassed the €100 million investment mark: Turkey, Poland, Greece, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, and Slovakia.
• These eight countries accounted for over 90% of the total investment volume in the region, contributing €3.54 billion out of the €3.89 billion total.

Top investment volumes by country:

• Turkey: €1,012.2 million
• Poland: €592.1 million
• Greece: €536.6 million
• Czech Republic: €426 million
• Lithuania: €367 million
• Estonia: €342.3 million
• Romania: €130.7 million
• Slovakia: €129.8 million

In 2024, late-stage investments dominated the CEE venture landscape, with Series A to C rounds accounting for €2.44 billion or over 63% of the total investment volume. Breaking down the numbers:

• Series A: €633.7 million
• Series B: €609.6 million
• Series C: €1,192 million

The strong focus on late-stage funding is attributed to Western investors seeking stability and attractive valuations in Eastern Europe, where a wealth of talent and less inflated deals offer compelling opportunities.

Top deals registered in North Macedonia feature:

• Native teams (€6.2M, seed, investors: Begin Capital, MFG Invest)
• EarthCare (€350K, seed, investors: SouthCentral Ventures, Zephyr Angels)
• Finqup (€90K, pre-seed, investors: Keiretsu Forum SEE, Angels)

Seed-stage investments kept pace with Series A deals, reaching €634 million, demonstrating continued interest in early-stage startups. However, pre-seed investments remained sluggish, totaling just €104.6 million.

The report also highlights the distribution of investment volume by country and investment type. Notably, countries like Turkey, Poland, Greece, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia, and Romania exhibited diverse deal flows ranging from pre-seed to Series A and beyond. Meanwhile, countries such as Serbia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, and Albania saw most of their activity in pre-seed and seed rounds.

Several high-profile later-stage rounds underscored the region’s growth trajectory, including:

• Poland’s ElevenLabs raised over €160 million in a Series C round, tripling its valuation to over €3 billion.
• Romania’s FintechOS secured €54 million in a Series C round, reflecting the continued expansion of the fintech sector in Eastern Europe.

Follow-on rounds were a major driving force behind the total investment volume, accounting for more than 90% of all funding. Eight countries – Turkey, Poland, Greece, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia, and Romania – contributed significantly to this trend, reaching a combined €3.34 billion or 92.6% of the total follow-on investment volume.

Breakdown of follow-on deals by country:

• Turkey: €916.5 million
• Poland: €588.8 million
• Greece: €535.9 million
• Czech Republic: €399.4 million
• Lithuania: €358.9 million
• Estonia: €317.9 million
• Slovakia: €125.5 million
• Romania: €96.1 million

Backed by meticulous data collection and validation, integrating publicly available data with insights from stakeholders, the report provides a comprehensive view of the venture capital market. This collaborative approach ensures a high level of accuracy and a holistic view of the venture capital market, the authors or the report note.

The full report, including its interactive data sets, is available at https://www.howtoweb.co/venture-in-eastern-europe-report-2024/

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