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How AI Is Transforming Industries: A Map of
100+ Startups, 10+ Verticals in SEE

Deeply seeded into our society and economy, AI is transforming the world, one industry at a time. From identifying early signs of cancer to self-driving cars and many other AI applications, the power of artificial intelligence to make optimal, real-time decisions is mapping the way to a more effective world where humans are effectively assisted in decision making and resource use. Today, we explore how AI is particularly benefitting different industries, with insights from local tech ecosystem leaders and examples of AI startups and solutions from Southeast Europe. We include startups and companies either founded in the region or with substantial local teams.

This list is not exhaustive, and is only the beginning of mapping out AI startups in Southeast Europe. Please feel free to contact The Recursive Newsroom with updates or names we can add to the list → [email protected].

AI startups in key industries

AI in Enterprise Technology

AI in enterprise technology
“As organizations face the urgent need to build new skills for the digital environment and enhance new types of leadership, making data-driven decisions enhanced by intelligent algorithms capable of understanding behaviors, developing patterns and turning them into actionable insights becomes critical.”
How AI Is Transforming Industries: A Map With 100+ Startups, 10+ Verticals in SEE, TheRecursive.com
Bogdan Apostol
CEO of Nestor

When it comes to improving enterprise processes, companies in the region offer solutions in areas ranging from revenue management, to customer service, employee communication, team productivity, and HR management. 

“With the increased disconnect generated by the hybrid work, overseeing employee management based on continuous feedback plays a central role in HR strategies as part of retention and growth plans. But making decisions with regards to each individual (Ed.note especially in larger companies) would be almost impossible with no extra help from a predictive system. Predictive systems are able to collect, organize and correlate data coming from multiple sources and present them back so that anyone can understand them. The result is that HR becomes a strategic partner and is able to address almost real-time competency gaps, turnover risks, and business opportunities,” Bogdan Apostol adds.

To improve decision-making, AI was introduced next to RPA by one of the global RPA leaders, Romanian-American company UiPath. “When software robots can reason over data and use artificial intelligence to make decisions, you unlock new possibilities that transform RPA – and entire industries. You can reach new levels of productivity and expand automation into all sorts of new areas. We believe in the power of AI to transform,” the company says.

Nestor, based in California, US, with Romanian team: The Nestor AI coach assistant helps organizations to nurture a coaching culture through AI technology, coaching knowledge and leadership tools.

Co-founders: Bogdan Apostol , Raluca Apostol

Latest: The company raised a $2M round at the end of 2022.

Flowx.AI, based in San Francisco, with Romanian team: A development platform that allows financial institutions and other enterprises to build  digital apps in just 10 weeks, while reviving their legacy infrastructure, without deep code expertise.

Co-founders : Ioan Jacob , Serban Chiricescu , Radu Cautis

Latest: They raised a €7.4M seed round in November 2021.

Cube RM, based in Athens, Greece: An AI revenue management software that aims to simplify processes for global pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies.

Co-founders : Costas Economopoulos , George Boretos , Philip Kytinos

Latest: They raised an $8M Series A to scale the solution globally, targeting industries like manufacturing, hi-tech, and chemicals.

EmailTree AI, based in Luxembourg, with Romanian team: Automates the work of the customer service departments to increase productivity.

Co-founders: Casius Morea, Xavier Buck

Latest: The team has raised a €2.5M seed round to develop their solution, integrate CRM and email applications, among others, and to increase sales and marketing efforts.

Druid AI, based in Bucharest, Romania: An intelligent chat bot that helps employees, customers and partners to digitally communicate with the business and enterprise systems in an efficient and human-like way.

Co-founders: Andreea Plesea, Daniel Balaceanu, Liviu Dragan

Latest: Received a €2M Series A investment at the beginning of 2021 to expand internationally.

Umni, based in Sofia, Bulgaria: A conversational AI digital assistant that helps companies by automating up to 75% of customers questions and inquiries.

Co-founders: Elitza (Elly) Stoilova, Trayko Stoilov

Latest: They were among the 7 finalists in the Daring Competition of Bloomberg TV Bulgaria.

CodeWell, based in New Jersey, US: The North Macedonia-originating company builds digital assistants that help automate entire departments and improve the customer experience.

Co-founders: Nino KarasMartin Ancevski

Latest: They raised a €480K seed round on SeedBlink.

UiPath, based in New York, US, with Romanian team: Offers an end-to-end platform for automation, combining the leading Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution with technologies such as AI, process mining, and cloud.

Co-founders: Daniel Dines, Marius Tirca, Prabhdeep Singh

Latest: After becoming the first unicorn emerging from Romania, UiPath was listed on the NY Stock Exchange in April 2021. 

Pliant, based in the US, with Bulgarian team: A unified platform for infrastructure automation, which simplifies how ITOps, DevOps and SecOps teams develop and deploy workflow automation. Transforms API code into low-code building blocks.

Co-founders : Vess Bakalov , Dimitar Blagoev

Latest: They closed a $10M Series A round to boost sales and marketing efforts.

Softbinator, based in Bucharest, Romania: They deliver solutions in fintech, education, healthcare, e-commerce, IoT, AI/robotics, and blockchain, supporting the global product development market.

CEO: Daniel Ilinca

Latest: Raised a €1.2M VC round in 2021.

Other companies in the space: software solution for workflow planning Shiftin by Htss, Munich-based AI platform for workplace collaboration Mentessa, recruitment marketing automation platform SmartDreamers, RPA consulting, a provider of cross-platform RPA, Tailent, another provider of scalable robotic process automation, Soleadify, offering business data enrichment with coverage of SMEs, and ThinkOut, helping entrepreneurs analyze and forecast receipts and payments based on their banking history.

AI in Healthcare & Bioscience

AI in healthcare
The potential of AI to make decision-making more effective is particularly beneficial in the healthcare sector, where precision and fast time to respond are essential. Using AI tools can help healthcare professionals provide more effective services, cut down costs, as well as improve the experience for patients.

AI has vast applications in healthcare, from an assistant in consumer health applications, to enabling early and accurate detection of diseases such as cancer, enhancing diagnosis with machine learning and systems neuroscience, using pattern recognition to identify the risk of developing a condition, coordinate care plans better over long period, as well as assisting drug research and discovery.

CoLumbo, based in Varna, Bulgaria: A software for analysis of lumbar spine images obtained with MRI, aimed to help radiologists worldwide provide patients with reliable and low-cost diagnosis of back pain problems. Developed by Smart Soft Healthcare.

CEO: Nedelcho Georgiev 

Latest: Closed a €2.1M seed round in February 2022 to further develop the product and expand into new markets.

.lumen, based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania: A research startup that uses AI, robotics and neuroscience technologies to empower the blind.

CEO & Founder : Cornel Amariei

Latest: They received €9M from the European Innovation Council to develop assistive technology for the blind.

Kelvin Health, based in Sofia, Bulgaria: A non-invasive, intelligent solution for detection and monitoring of medical abnormalities, such as cancer, using thermal imaging AI.

CEO & Founder: Georgi Kadrev

Latest: In 2022, they won the Health Tech Innovation of the Year award by MedTech World,  as well as Roche’s HealthCare Lab challenge in the Screening and Early Diagnostics track, and were a global top-8 finalist in the UN’s Extreme Tech Challenge – Digital Health. 

Causaly, based in London, UK, with a team in Greece: An AI and ML-based tool that goes through existing scientific literature and clinical trial documents, to shorten and simplify the R&D process of finding new drugs.

Co-founders: Yiannis KiachopoulosArtur Saudabayev

Latest: The team raised a $17M Series A round to help medical experts get through mountains of data.

XVision, based in Timisoara, Romania: A medical platform that targets radiologists with products that use AI algorithms to analyze complex medical images and identify anomalies.

Co-founders: Stefan Iarca, Tenescu Andrei

Latest: The team raised €1M to expand in Western Europe and enter the US.

Woom, based in Madrid, Spain, with a tech team in Bulgaria: A women health app that covers all different cycles and stages of women’s reproductive life, offering fertility calendars and other tools.

Co-founders: Clelia Morales, Laurence Fontinoy

Latest: They were acquired by Apricity in May 2022.

Lifebit, based in London, UK, with a team in Greece: A cloud software genomics platform for unified, secure research over distributed big data, democratizing access to biomedical data for governments, healthcare providers, and research teams.

Co-founders: Maria Chatzou Dunford, Pablo Prieto Barja

Latest: In September 2021, the team raised ~€52M to continue expanding its global presence and growing the team.

VoxiKids, based in Bucharest, Romania: A digital clinic offering tools for speech therapy for children, to prepare them for pre-school and school environments.

Co-founders : AnaMaria Onica , Cristian Baita

Latest: They received €100K in a bridge financing round to be invested in sales, communication, and marketing.

Synaptiq, based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania: Offers AI-based contouring for radiotherapy, separating cancerous tumors and organs at risk with the help of AI.

Co-founders : Dragos Duse , Mihai Cata , Diana Andritchi

Latest: In October 2021, they raised a €250K round to continue their R&D activity and finalize the Mediq platform.

Medicai, headquartered in Delaware, US, with offices in Bucharest, Romania: An AI-powered medical imaging platform that facilitates communication between doctors, patients, and multidisciplinary teams.

Co-founders : Mircea Popa , Andrei Blaj , Alexandru Artimon

Latest: They raised two bridge rounds in 2021, bringing the company’s total funding to €1.2 million.

AiGIA Health, headquartered in Delaware, US, with offices in Bucharest, Romania: A Web3 health data infrastructure that combines medical expertise with cutting-edge technology, blockchain, and AI. Empowers health stakeholders (patients, medical providers, pharma companies, CROs, payers) to securely collect, understand and exchange health data, deliver medical services and carry out research studies.
 
 
Latest: They raised over $700K through bootstrapping.
Healee, based in Sofia, Bulgaria: They help digital health innovators implement unique virtual care models with advanced technology adaptable to any use case.
 
 
Latest: They raised a $2M seed round in August 2022.

Other companies in the space: oncology data research platform OncoChain, wearable device for children with ADHD Tully, children nutrition app Wello, AIMINDED, an AI-automation software for high-precision radiotherapy, and MediNav, the medical assistant that learns and reduces the patient documentation time. For more healthcare startups in Romania, many which are using AI at the core of their solutions, check out this local map by Activize and FreshBlood.

AI in Education & Lifelong learning

AI for Education
The education sector is also preparing for the future with the help of AI. The pandemic has accelerated the shift towards digital learning, paving the way for more AI adoption. AI can make a significant impact on the learning experiences through personalization and AI tutoring, while it can further help teachers improve their classes and automate administrative work.

In Southeast Europe, Romanian startup Code of Talent, for instance, is planning to add automation to assist trainers, L&D specialists, and HR managers in automatically generating learning sequences based on any existing content. Machine learning modules will further improve student experience and training effectiveness.

Deepstash, based in Delaware, US, with a Romanian team: A learning-aimed app with community-curated short and meaningful ideas, extracted from books, websites, and videos.

Co-founders: Vladimir Oane, Cristian Mezei, Dan Ciotu

Latest: Deepstash raised €3M in a seed round in 2020.

Code of Talent, based in Bucharest, Romania: A SaaS platform dedicated for employee training that uses microlearning, personalized learning experiences, and gamification.

Founder: Vlad Grigoriu

Latest: They raised a €1.7M Series A round to expand in other key markets, and enhance the platform with machine learning modules and automation

Photomath, based in Zagreb, Croatia: Their app uses the smartphone camera to scan, solve, and intuitively explain math problems using advanced AI technology.

CEO & Founder: Damir Sabol

Latest: They raised a $23M Series B at the beginning of 2021.

AI in Marketing, Media, and Sales

AI for Marketing
"The use cases for AI technology in marketing and sales are limitless. With advanced technology, companies can use AI tools, such as synthetic media, to analyze and generate voice and images when interacting with customers, assess user behavior and sentiment, in order to generate more relevant offers or personalize the experience of using a product or service. It is proven that personalization increases conversion in commerce, so the integration of AI can make a huge impact on the business results of marketing and sales.”
Bart Veenman
Bart Veenman
CEO of Tovid.ai, part of Humans.ai

In Southeast Europe, we’ve further seen applications of AI and machine learning, from providing sales intelligence to automating marketing campaigns and content generation.

AdScanner, based in Zagreb, Croatia: They have developed a proprietary video recognition for the automated detection and analysis of TV ads and content, which enables them to give give unique quantitative and qualitative insights into the performances of TV campaigns and TV content .

CEO & Co-Founder: Marin Ćurković

Latest: They raised a €5M Series A in October 2022.

Humans, based in Bucharest, Romania: Offers a platform for AI and blockchain ethical creation of synthetic media with various applications. One solution, Tovid.ai, allows transforming anything into video through a SaaS platform that produces high-quality video content at scale.

CEO & Founder: Sabin Dima

Latest: They launched a public token sale on Polkastarter in December 2021 aiming to raise €1M, after previously raising €7.6 million in crypto.

Cognism, based in London, UK, with North Macedonian team: Sales intelligence provider that provides premium company and contact information, including firmographics, technographics, and sales trigger events.

Co-founders : Stjepan Buljat , James Isilay

Latest: The team raised a $87.5M Series C investment round to expand across Europe and strengthen its position in the US.

Identrics, based in Sofia, Bulgaria: An artificial intelligence startup focused on data science, part of Updata One community.

CEO: Vladimir Petkov

Latest: Identrics’ Abstractive summarisation technology won a Gold Stevie Award in the Content Management Solution category.

MorphL, based in Bucharest, Romania: An AI-based solution to help online stores increase sales and optimize product metrics.

Co-founders : Ciprian Borodescu , Alexandra Anghel

Latest: The startup was acquired by French software company Algolia in 2021.

AI in Retail & eCommerce

AI in retail & eCommerce
“Over the past few years, AI has been widely adopted across the retail and eCommerce sector, helping companies improve efficiency and increase sales. In this dynamic environment, retailers require AI solutions to monitor everything from supply chain and order management to deliveries, inventory, and customer service. In eCommerce, which is predicted to be the first sector in which the completely digital economy will surpass the $1 trillion mark, there is a significant reliance on delivery companies.”
Viorela Lucescu
Viorela Lucescu
Head of Marketing and Growth at Innoship.

Innoship, based in Bucharest, Romania: A multi-carrier and delivery software that helps retail and ecommerce businesses select a suitable courier for each delivery, and further manage, track, monitor, and analyze the shippings.

Co-founders : Andrei Paul , Daniel Nicolae, Robert Tanase, Dan Ungureanu.

Latest: They were acquired by Alsendo in 2022.

Frisbo, based in Bucharest, Romania: An e-fulfillment startup that matches online stores with a network of fulfillment operators and smart logistics providers.

Co-founders: Bogdan Colceriu, Laura Frincu

Latest: In December 2021, they raised a $2M investment round to expand its European fulfillment network and help more regional stores to scale online

PriceFlux, based in London, UK, with Romanian team: An online price monitoring and reporting tool for online retailers to better track, analyze pricing data and reprice products.

Co-founders: Vladimir Calatoiu, Peter Lupu-Volcinschi , Sorin Cristea

AI in Energy & Industrial

AI in Energy & Industrial
“With massive improvements in storage systems, processing speeds, and analytic techniques, AI algorithms are capable of tremendous sophistication in analysis and decision making. Due to the digitalization of the industrial and energy sectors, companies are faced with numerous new IT systems and huge amounts of data from which to extract intelligence for decision making purposes."
Cristian Munteanu Early Games Ventures
Cristian Munteanu
Managing Partner at Early Game Ventures

He goes on to add: “The transition to low-carbon energy systems is driving the rapid growth of distributed power generation, distributed storage and advanced demand-response capabilities, which need to be orchestrated and integrated through more networked, transactional power grids. Even though these trends present a huge strategic and operational challenge to the energy system and to energy-intensive industries, this is where AI comes into play: by creating an intelligent coordination layer across the generation, transmission and use of energy, AI can help energy-system stakeholders identify patterns and insights in data, learn from experience, improve system performance over time, as well as predict and model possible outcomes of complex, multivariate situations.”

Ogre AI, based in Bucharest, Romania: Automated B2B platform that uses AI and machine learning to help energy and utility businesses digitalize operations, forecast, and plan effectively.

Founder & CEO: Matei Stratan

Latest: They raised a €2M seed round to finish the development of a forecast system and scale globally.

KFactory, based in Bucharest, Romania: Designs, produces, and distributes smart technology software used to enhance the manufacturing process.

Co-founders: Adrian Dima, Vlad Cazan

Latest: They recently raised €600K to scale their sustainability solution to the DACH market.

Amygda, based in London, UK, with Bulgarian team: Uses AI and ML to find insights that can predict and even prevent issues in aerospace, railway, and industrial operations.

Co-founders: Faizan Patankar, Shaheryar Khan

Latest: They joined the UK accelerator Aerospace Xelerated led by Boeing, and raised a pre-seed round from Aerospace Xelerated in 2022.

Perceptual Robotics, based in Bristol, UK, with a team in Greece: They provide autonomous drone inspection for wind turbines.

Co-founders: Kostas Karachalios, Dimitris Nikolaidis, Kevin Lind

Latest: They raised a new funding round in January 2023 to expand its products and explore new markets.

Other companies in the space: AMSIMCEL, aiming to deliver the next generation of electronic design automation tools.

AI in Logistics & Transportation

AI in logistics
AI is a game-changer in the logistics and transportation sectors. Large companies, especially, require fast and advanced logistics. Here, AI is praised for the ability to enrich data quality with natural language processing and machine learning, plan operations with predictive analytics, provide faster demand forecasting, which allows for better transportation routing, and optimize linehaul and last mile planning. 

Another use case are autonomous vehicles. In the logistics industry, AI helps automate vehicles for transporting goods and performing single tasks. Meanwhile, on the roads, vehicle automation is believed to have the potential to help reduce the number of accidents.

Gideon Brothers, based in Zagreb, Croatia: AI-based mobile robots that rely on 3D cameras and utilize deep learning algorithms to gather data about the environment and self-localize, naviate, and perform simple tasks, which makes them useful in logistics. Co-founders: Edin Kočo, Josip Ćesić, Kruno Stražanac, Matija Kopić

Latest: They raised a $31 million Series A to expand across key markets in the EU and US, and grow the team.

DeepSea, based in London, UK, and Athens, Greece: Specializes in bringing user-friendly solutions powered by deep learning to the shipping sector.

Co-founders: Roberto Coustas , Kostantinos Kyriakopoulos

Latest: They raised a $5.9M early VC round in 2021.

AirportLabs, based in London, UK, with Romanian team: Combines airport knowledge, science, design, technology, and engineering to craft cloud solutions that consistently improve the performance in airport operations.

Founding Director: Ligiu Uiorean

Latest: Works with big airports around the world that make up 20% of all global air traffic. The team is working on a new generation of products and expanding the team.

Machine Can See, based in Novi Sad, Serbia: Developing a surveillance camera technology that relies on AI to make smart predictions and generate data analytics for use cases such as safety and parking.

Co-founders: Vladan Damjanovic, Srdjan Vukmirovic

Latest: The company’s plans include launching a surveillance camera prototype, installing their first pilot, and starting fundraising in the US.

Transmetrics, based in Sofia, Bulgaria: Offers predictive optimization SaaS based on AI for the cargo transport industry, rationalizing capacity planning and making it predictive.

Founder: Asparuh Koev

Latest: Raised €4M from the European Innovation Council Fund in 2022.

Postis, based in Bucharest, Romania: The country’s first last mile platform that automates, optimizes, and unifies delivery processes, using AI.

Founder: Mircea Axente-Stan

Latest: They have brought several technological innovations in the logistics sector, including the CX Tracker, Parcely by Postis, and Click-to-Door. They achieved 1M euro ARR at the end of 2021, and are quickly expanding into Western and Central Europe.

AI in Food, Agriculture, and Waste management

AI in Agriculture
"AI can help solve the sustainability problem and drive the future of cleantech development. The adoption of emerging AI solutions in clean energy, agriculture and waste management is set to bring significant breakthroughs in how we produce, store and consume energy and water, in how we produce food with less land, water, energy and fertilizers, as well as in how we dispose of our waste and even reuse it to support a circular approach."
Alexandra Cernian
Alexandra Cernian
CEO of Recycllux

Waste Management AI startups in Southeast Europe

Recycllux, based in Brussels, Belgium, with Romanian team: The solution makes use of the collected satellite Earth Observation data and applies ML algorithms to identify the marine plastic litter problem spots, where actions need to be taken. 

CEO: Alexandra Cernian

Latest: It was recently recognized for its ambitious goals at Innovation Labs 2021 with three prizes and is working on finalizing their MVP.

PolyMore, based in Timisoara, Romania: A solution that automatically detects wrongly sorted waste, addressing the waste collection problem at the roots.

Co-founders: Cristian Pogan, Iohana Macesanu

Latest: They recently started the second pilot project in partnership with a waste management company in Sibiu.

Other companies in the space: Digital Dryads, based in Bucharest, Romania, which monitors forests and sends alerts of illegal deforestation.

Food & Agriculture AI startups in Southeast Europe

BibeCoffee, based in Athens, Greece: Offers IoT real-time monitoring solutions for the coffee industry, transforming coffee machines into smart connected terminals.

Co-founders: Kostas Sigalas , Vasilis Apostolopoulos , Panos Vrettos

Latest: Raised a €2.1M seed round in January 2023.

ONDO, based in Sofia, Bulgaria: They offer a remote 24/7 automation management system for irrigation, fertigation, and climate control for farms.

Co-founders: Ilia Iordanov , Ivaylo Enev , Ivan Dragoev 

Latest: They raised a €1M seed round in 2021.

AgrovarCC, based in Sofia, Bulgaria: They use AI technologies to help farmers improve soil health and output profitability.

Co-founders: Konstantin Haralampiev 

Latest: They raised a €200K angel round in 2021.

Ogor, based in Bucharest, Romania: Satellite-based field monitoring service for farmers to improve agricultural practices.

Co-founders: Andrei Duhnea, Dafina Maria Jeaca

Latest: They won in the Best Business Award category at the 2020 edition of Innovation Labs.

UrbiGo, based in Belgrade, Serbia: They use machine learning and gamification to transform urban gardening into a fun, learning and long-term activity.

Co-founders: Anja Varnicic , Aleksandar Varnicic, Milan Trajkovic

Latest: They raised a €170K angel round at the beginning of 2022.

Apiary Book, based in London, UK, with Romanian team: Solution for beekeepers for the management, monitoring and analysis of bee colonies data and environmental factors that affect their health.

Founder & CEO: Bogdan Iordache

Latest: Back in 2020, they raised €200K to develop a hive monitoring system to track bee health.

Agremo, based in Belgrade, Serbia: They offer a cloud-based software platform that uses AI to extract insights from aerial imagery and improve agricultural processes.

Founder and CEO: Milan Dobrota

Latest: They raised a €535K seed round in April 2022.

AI in Cybersecurity

AI in Cybersecurity
Given the fast-evolving and rapid multiplication nature of cyberattacks today, cybersecurity efforts need to make use of the best technology available. Using sophisticated algorithms, AI can be used in spotting malware before it becomes a threat. AI has superior predictive intelligence using NLP, which helps it search through data, and can be trained to run pattern recognition and detect cyberthreats. AI can also predict how and where you are most likely to be compromised. On the other hand, there is also the risk of using the AI for malicious reasons.

Bitdefender, based in Bucharest, Romania: The company is a leader in the market of IT security products and services, using AI, deep learning and anomaly-based detection to ensure the accuracy of cyber defenses.

CEO & Founder: Florin Talpeș

Latest: They raised a $180M secondary round in 2017.

Coda Intelligence, Boston, US, with Romanian team: Automated cybersecurity solutions with proprietary technologies such as vulnerability management and contextual risk scoring for risk insights and remediation solutions.

CEO & Founder: Cristian Sandescu

Latest: Raised €800K in 2020 to expand in the US.

Cyscale, based in London, UK, with Romanian team: A platform for cloud asset management, security, and compliance.

CEO& Co-founder: Ovidiu Cical

Latest: The company raised a $3.5M seed round in 2022.

Arcanna.ai, based in Delaware, US, with Romanian team: A project by Siscale AI, designed and built to equip cybersecurity professionals with AI, enabling them to automate processes.

Co-founders: Calin Alexandru C., Cristian Ruta, Petrica R.

Latest: Raised a 800K seed round on SeedBlink in 2021.

LogSentinel, based in Sofia, Bulgaria: They create products that help organizations boost IT security processes by leveraging the latest technologies including blockchain and AI.

Co-founders: Bozhidar Bozhanov, Anton Gerunov 

Latest: Raised a €1M seed round in 2019.

Other companies in the space: managed detection and response company CyBourn, Cyber Swarm, specializing in developing meristor technology for AI and cybersecurity applications, and SecurifAI, delivering end-to-end AI-based systems to automate the processing of standard video CCTV streams.

AI in Gaming & Enterntainment

AI for gaming
“The entertainment industry is set to be transformed by AI by providing more personalized experiences to its audiences. Machine learning and deep learning technologies, like Hollywood Movies, Supercomputers and Mixed Reality, will take it in a new direction. In addition, AI is transforming content creators by allowing them to focus on creating higher quality content that generates more revenue for their business.”
How AI Is Transforming Industries: A Map With 100+ Startups, 10+ Verticals in SEE, TheRecursive.com
Max P. Maximilianos
CEO of Audiomodern

He goes on to explain that consumers can benefit from having extra time for critical thinking and creativity, as AI automates routine decision-making, while enjoying greater personalization. Furthermore, AI is increasingly integrated into content creation, allowing creators to focus on other parts of their work.

Sounder, based in New York, US, with Serbian team: A platform that uses AI, ML and Natural language processing (NLP) technologies to help audio creators manage, market, and measure their audio content.

Co-founders: Kal Amin, Dan Daugherty, Goran Krgovic

Latest: They raised a $7.7M Series A to build audio intelligence tools at scale.

Machinations.io, based in Luxembourg, with a team in Romania: With Machinations, game development studios can map any gameplay system using a Turing-complete language in an interactive diagram; then forecast the future using Monte Carlo simulations to predict emergence.

Co-founders: Mihai Gheza , Radu Craciun

Latest: They raised a $3.3M Series A in 2022.

Wappier, based in Athens, Greece: They provide intelligent revenue management solutions through optimization technology that tracks, models, predicts, and influences consumer behavior.

CEO & co-founder: Demetri Tsirlis

Latest: Raised a $4M seed round in 2019.

Audiomodern, based in Sofia, Bulgaria: Music software that is available in a wide range of formats and platforms and helps creatives like musicians, composers, and producers in working smarter.

Founder & CEO: Max P. Maximilianos

AI in Financial Services

AI in financial services
The financial sector has continuously adapted to new technologies available. AI is one for them and it is already revolutionizing how consumers and organizations manage their finances. McKinsey was estimating the potential annual value of AI and analytics in the global banking sector to $1 trillion. With AI, financial services are becoming more personalized, more intelligent and automated, and omnichannel. Furthermore, AI is used to improve security and transparency in payment, through fraud detection and prevention, as well as for identity verification.

Plum, based in London, UK, with a Greek team: A smart application that helps its users manage and save money with AI-based analytics.

Founder: Victor Trokoudes 

Latest: In 2021, Plum was securing €24 in a Series A funding, from VCs, as well as through a crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube.

TypingDNA, based in New York, with Romanian team: Solutions to protect user accounts with powerful typing biometrics analysis, accurately and passively, with a flexible API and low-code integration.

Co-founders: Raul Popa, Cristian Tamas, Adrian Gheara

Latest: They received a $7M Series A funding in 2020 to advance the R&D of innovative typing biometrics technology.

iFactor, based in Bucharest, Romania: An online platform that brings together liquidy-seeking SMEs and investors to finance the SMEs’ cash needs by buying their outstanding customer invoices. 

Founder & CEO : Cosmin Curticapean

Latest: They raised a $12M Series A in October 2022.

finloup, based in Athens, Greece: The company offers consumer tech leasing and BNPL services, powered by open banking.

Co-founders: Antonis Prentzas, Marios Noutsos

Latest: They raised a €1M seed round at the end of 2021.

Other companies in the space: secured digital payments app PaybyFace.

Industry-agnostic AI

LatticeFlow, based in Zurich, Switzerland, with a team in Bulgaria: A deep tech spin-off  from ETH Zurich and creator of the world’s first platform for robust and reliable AI models.

Co-founders: Martin Vechev, Petar Tsankov

Latest: Recently expanded to Bulgaria and plans to grow the local team, initially with engineering positions.

Mindsmiths, based in Zagreb, Croatia: The platform is used to make digital systems autonomous across industries, from healthcare to the banking sector.

Founder: Mislav Malenica

Latest: They raised €1.2M in a seed funding round in September 2021 to further expand the platform.

Neurolabs, based in Edinburgh, Scotland, with Romania team: The team develops Synthetic Computer Vision models that can accurately identify and classify objects of interest in a cheaper and faster way than traditional approaches.

Co-founders: Raul Pop, Remus Pop, Patric Fulop

Latest: They raised a €3.3M seed round in May 2022.

Vatis Tech, based in Bucharest, Romania: Provides an audio and video search and transcription infrastructure solution in the speech recognition market.

Co-founders : Adrian Ispas , Nazare Emanuel-Ioan , Alexandru Topala

Latest: They raised a €650K seed round in January 2023.

Tenyks, based in Cambridge, UK, with a team in Bulgaria: A MLOps monitoring and validation platform that helps machine learning engineers build better and safer AI.

Co-founders : Botty Dimanov , Dmitry Kazhdan , Maleakhi Wijaya

Latest: They recently raised a $3.4M seed round to double its software engineering team.

Lummetry.AI, based in Bucharest, Romania: A traditional software development company until 2015, they then specialized in AI powered predictive analytics and video analytics, with applications across industries, from retail, to healthcare, banking, and logistics.

Co-founders: Andrei Ionut Damian , Cosmin Mihai Marinescu

Latest: In September 2021, the company was acquired by GTS Global Intelligence to upgrade physical security products.

Childish, based in Sofia, Bulgaria: A software development company specializing in AI technology solutions and everything related to Python – data science, machine learning, computer vision, and bioinformatics.

CEO: Blagovesta Pugyova

Latest: They joined Dare to Scale, the growth accelerator program of Endeavor Bulgaria, and plan to expand to the US.

Other companies in the space: CountThings, the app that counts items from scanning photos and video, no-code and low-code web app development platform Plant an APP, and professional website builder for developers teleportHQ.