The Recursive’s weekly roundup aims to cover key tech developments across Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the growing impact of CEE-born founders on the global stage. Take a look at the latest news in funding, startup milestones, and emerging trends tied to the region’s innovation potential.
CEE deals
Lithuanian MELP, the rapidly growing employee well-being platform, has raised a €1.25 million investment from Coinvest Capital and business angels. Since its previous round in January 2024, MELP has quadrupled its user base (from 16,000 to 68,000) and grown sales by 2.5 times.
Lithuanian startup Kashimi, which develops alternative payment infrastructure for regulated and licensed financial institutions globally, has secured a pre-seed investment of $1.36 (€1.16) million. The round was co-led by venture capital funds Coinvest Capital and US-based Impellent Ventures, joined by Plug and Play Tech Center and international business angels.
Offset Labs, a UK–Ukrainian startup specializing in AI solutions for defense and national security applications, has raised €600,000 in pre-seed funding to advance NATO-allied defense technologies. The round was led by Archangel, with participation from Amadeus Capital Partners and Seven Capital, EU-startups reports.
Czech fintech Eterny secures another €400,000 from JIC Ventures and Purple Ventures, bringing its funding to €800 to advance its aim to change asset insights and management. Globally, more than $300 billion is tied up in forgotten, duplicate, or outdated products.
Ukrainian defense technology company Falcons secures funding from the U.S.-based Green Flag Ventures to scale production of its combat-proven Radio Frequency (RF) direction finding system and advance it toward NATO certification. The amount of the investment remains undisclosed.
Innovation beyond borders
Prague-based Recombee has entered a strategic partnership with the UK The Telegraph to jointly advance media innovation. Recombee’s technology will power personalised content recommendations throughout The Telegraph’s website and app, surfacing the most relevant stories for each individual based on reading history, engagement patterns, and editorial goals. With this integration, The Telegraph aims to enrich the reader experience, boost engagement metrics, and provide a highly personalised content journey while staying true to its strong values.
Albania has become the first country to appoint an AI minister, not a minister for AI, but a virtual, AI-powered official. Named Diella (“sunshine” in Albanian), she will oversee all public procurement, Prime Minister Edi Rama announced on Thursday. Rama had floated the idea of a digital minister or even an AI prime minister over the summer, but few expected it to happen so soon.
Other updates
finmid, the embedded finance provider, today announces that its embedded lending infrastructure is now available in 30 European markets, transforming growth options for over 32 million SMES across the region. finmid has added Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Malta, Romania, Iceland and Switzerland to the list of countries it is serving.
MyRoboteam is launching its third batch of its acceleration program for tech startups at the end of September 2025. This program is free and designed for sole non-developers and even developers themselves who want to establish their own business but lack funding and co-founders. The first two batches helped 22 founders from 13 different countries to launch their ideas.
