In H1 2024, the ecosystem in the Western Balkans continued to develop compared to the H1 2023, reaching €11.3M, with Native Teams, a FinTech startup, leading the way and contributing €6.3M to the total funding rounds.
From an all-in-one platform offering global work solutions for freelancers, remote workers, and their employers, to a startup transforming data collection in the age of intellectual property, news, and social media by providing advanced solutions for due diligence, the first 4 players draw a 25% growth compared to last year’s top five players (meaning an increase of €2.3M).
In H1 2023, the top five players—Rolla, HireApp, Mily Technologies, HULI, and FinqUp—generated a total of €9M, and this year, we observe a continuing growth trend.
This article is part of the CEE milestones mapping series. More will follow soon. Discover the tech funding rounds in Western Balkans in H1 2024 up to date. Please, feel free to contact us with updates or investments we should add to the list: [email protected].
Below you can find all the funding rounds registered so far in Western Balkans for tech startups in H1 2024:
1. Native Teams – a startup based in North Macedonia
Latest round: €6.3M
Stage: Seed (Convertible)
Total funding: €8.4M
Investors: Eleven Ventures, Fil Rouge Capital (FRC), MFG Invest
Founders: Jack Thorogood and Alex Mitrevska
Vertical: FinTech
About: Native Teams is an all-in-one platform offering global work solutions for freelancers, remote workers, and their employers. Their platform combines simplified payments, legal employment, tax management, and global mobility solutions to provide a flexible suite of functionalities for successful global work.
2. Ahlan App – Bahrain startup located in Bosnia and Herzegovina with local investor
Latest round: €2.8M
Stage: Seed
Total funding: €2.8M
Investors: Hope Ventures, Al Rajhi Holding and other angel investors
Founders: Faisal Rashed
Vertical: Marketplace & Ecommerce
About: Ahlan App is a loyalty program and delivery platform that rewards its customers for their loyalty with cashback directly on the platform through its dine-in, pick-up, and home delivery services.
3. Collabwriting – a startup based in Serbia
Latest round: €1.4M
Stage: Seed
Total funding: €1.dM
Investors: €1.1M from Startup Wise Guys, Credo Ventures, Fiedler Capital, Xenia Muntean, How to Web, V7 Capital, Smok Ventures, Fortech Investments, Underline Ventures and a grant of €300K from Katapult Group
Founders:
Vertical: SaaS
About: Collabwriting makes online research collaborative, efficient, and traceable. Users can easily share, comment, and collaborate anywhere online with anyone they are working with.
4. Reputeo – a startup based in Serbia
Latest round: €750K
Stage: Early VC
Total funding: €750K
Investors: TS Ventures Fund
Founders: Ivan Kadic and Aleksa Vučković
Vertical: SaaS
About: Reputeo transforms data collecting in the age of intellectual property, news, and social media by providing advanced solutions for due diligence, KYC, reputation measurement, and tracking of both licensed and unlicensed data sales and distribution.
The Western Balkans tech sector also saw one notable M&A announcement:
March
A web services company, dev.al, acquired Rubicon, a FinTech startup in Albania known for providing financial solutions and developing a payment processing network. The acquisition amount remains undisclosed.
Here you can read about the Top 5 Funding Rounds in Western Balkans in 2023.
For this material we took in consideration during our research the tech companies with HQ located or founders born in Western Balkans (Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Bosnia & Herzegovina).
