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.
The new unicorn
This week, Ukrainian-founded Preply officially achieved unicorn status with a $1.2 billion valuation following a $150 million Series D. The round led by WestCap, a firm known for scaling major marketplaces like Airbnb. Allen Mask, a partner at WestCap and former Airbnb executive, is also joining Preply’s board, alongside other news.
CEE news & deals
Czech-founded Mews, a hospitality technology company, has secured a $300 million (€255.17 million) in fresh investment, pushing its valuation to $2.5 billion (approximately €2.13 billion). The Series D investment round was led by EQT Growth. New investors Atomico and HarbourVest Partners joined the round, alongside existing backers Kinnevik, Battery Ventures, and Tiger Global.
LatticeFlow AI, a Swiss deep-tech company with Bulgarian founder at the helm, specializing in evidence-based AI governance, announced at the World Economic Forum the acquisition of AI Sonar, a Dublin-based AI discovery platform and wholly owned subsidiary of CloudSphere.
Hungarian ABZ Innovation, a manufacturer of heavy-duty agricultural and industrial drones, announced it has closed a €7 million funding round led by Vsquared Ventures, with participation from Day One Capital and Assembly Ventures. The investment supports ABZ’s next growth phase: scaling production, speeding up product development, and expanding in key global markets with investors experienced in hardware and deep tech.
Greek Metavallon VC launches a new €5 million pre-seed fund, known for exporting its strongest engineering talent, can now attract that talent back or build deep-tech teams locally. The Brain Gain Fund launches with a clear objective: to invest early in deep-tech startups founded outside Greece or in Greek university spin-outs, provided they commit to building R&D or product teams within the country.
Greek-founded CLEAN i.T announced that it has secured €400,400 in funding from Investing For Purpose (IFP), along with an additional €12,600 from Envolve Entrepreneurship. This investment aims to support the further development of CLEAN iT. The startup’s platform enables users to easily and reliably book cleaning services from professionals who have been evaluated beforehand.
Czech startup Carta Genum, focused on spatial biology, has raised a €40,000 pre-seed investment from Czech Founders VC and joined its Sherpa accelerator program. The funding and support will be used to develop a unique tool described as a “virtual bioinformatician”, a platform that allows biologists to analyze complex scientific data using everyday scientific language.
Diaspora news
London-based Elyos AI, a startup with a Greek co-founder that builds AI agents for the trades and field services industry, announced it has raised €11.1 million in Series A funding to accelerate product development and support international expansion. Elyos AI was founded in 2023 by Adrian Johnston, Philippa Brown, and Panos Stravopodis as part of the Y Combinator programme.
London-based Allocation Strategy, a company building analytics tools for asset allocation and investment decisions, has raised approximately €1.85 million in a funding round led by Fuel Ventures, with participation from angel investors and industry experts. Pavol Povala, CEO and one of three co-founders of Allocation Strategy, is part of the Slovak diaspora.
Update on EU-INC
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the Commission would soon propose its “28th regime,” commonly referred to as EU-INC, naming it as one of the key priorities for building a “new Europe.”
She explained that the initiative aims to create a genuinely European company structure, allowing businesses to operate and raise financing across member states as easily as they can in more unified markets such as the US or China, ultimately supporting EU companies’ growth and attracting global investment.
Across the Atlantic
Blue Origin has announced TeraWave, a new satellite communications network offering speeds of up to 6 Tbit/s. The system will include 5,408 satellites in low and medium Earth orbit and aims to deliver multi-gigabit connectivity, especially to remote and underserved areas where fiber is impractical or costly.
