Europe possesses world-class research institutions and scientists, and Central & Eastern Europe is no exception to that. For that matter, the European market already treats this sector like a safe harbor. Deep Tech acted as a powerful hedge against recent volatility, attracting €15.1 billion in 2024. While the regular tech market saw a dramatic 60% cut in funding, Deep Tech only dipped by a milder 28%, now making up an impressive one-third of all European VC investment.
However, as this year’s European Deep Tech Report states, Deep Tech is often misunderstood. It encompasses different fields (from medical and biotechnology to robotics and quantum), and focuses on applying scientific and engineering breakthroughs to products for the first time. Unlike traditional tech, deep tech startups also require more initial capital to build truly defensible intellectual property (IP) moats, and they typically face longer timelines before generating significant revenue.
No wonder deep tech startups face various challenges on their journey, and many of them need additional support. We can offer them a bit more visibility at least, so we picked out a few newer players from the region (majority not more than 5 years old), which are still in pre-seed/seed stage, that are showing great potential: in their technology, its aplication, and the team behind them.
This listicle was done with the support of the Dealigence platform. If you see any discrepancy in data, or if you would like to recommend a startup to be included, feel free to reach out at [email protected].
CEE’s Deep Tech Startups You Should Watch
Adapta Robotics
About: They are designing, building, and customizing robots for various automation needs across industries, enhancing efficiency and productivity in tasks. Key products include a device testing robot and a retail scanner that address specific operational challenges.
Country: Romania
Founding Year: 2018
Founder(s): Mihai Crăciunescu, Constantin Iftime
Total Funding: €1.91M
Investors: Catalyst Romania; WIT Angels Club
Arkensight
About: Transforms distributed visual data from various sources into real-time actionable intelligence for critical infrastructure, utilizing AI for automated inspection, object detection, geolocation, and change tracking through natural language processing.
Country: Croatia
Founding Year: 2024
Founder(s): Domagoj Ćorić, Bruno Ćorić
Total Funding: €586K
Investors: Silicon Gardens
AutonomyNow
About: Develops autonomous systems aimed at enhancing safety within the automotive industry.
Country: Poland
Founding Year: 2019
Founder(s): Konrad Sloniewski
Total Funding: ~€200K (Pre-Seed)
Investors: N/A
Cytocast
Research-focused techbio company providing a cell simulation platform for drug discovery and development, aimed at personalizing patient treatment through tools like simulated cells and digital twins.
Country: Hungary
Founding Year: 2019
Founder(s): Attila Csikász-Nag, Erzsébet Fichó, Bence Keömley-Huszár
Total Funding: N/A (Seed)
Investors: Creative Accelerator, Bonitás Asset Management PLC, Futurmed, KDT Holding, FastVentures, and Zoiros Ventures. + EIT Health (support program)
EPIX.AI
About: Utilizes epigenetics to deliver personalized health scores, enabling individuals to make informed health decisions and enhance their healthspan through advanced technology and research.
Country: Bulgaria
Founding Year: 2022
Founder(s): Ivan Vankata Tsenov, Dr. Andrey Bachvarov, and Milena Georgieva, PhD
Total Funding: N/A
Investors: N/A
Cracking the Code of Life With Prof. Milena Georgieva From EPIX.AI
ExploRNA Therapeutics
About: Innovations in mRNA technology are developed and applied to create groundbreaking therapeutic platforms and programs aimed at improving healthcare and disease prevention, specifically targeting pharmaceutical partners.
Country: Poland
Founding Year: 2019
Founder(s): Jacek Jemielity, Dominika Nowis
Total Funding: €699K (Grant)
Investors: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
GlucoActive
About: Provides a wearable device that non-invasively measures blood glucose levels using spectrophotometric methods, aimed at diabetes management and sports applications.
Country: Poland
Founding Year: 2019
Founder(s): Robert Stachurski, Maciej Wysocki
Total Funding: €721K
Investors: Akcelerator Technologiczny Gliwice; FundingBox Deep Tech Fund
hylosense (ex. EarthCare.ai)
About: Converts complex climate and weather data into actionable, data-driven insights and analytics for decision-makers, enterprises, and operations planning.
Country: North Macedonia
Founding Year: 2023
Founder(s): Gorjan Jovanovski, Dragan Gelevski
Total Funding: €404K
Investors: South Central Ventures; Zephyr Angels
LynXes
About: Provides accessible, laboratory-sized material analyzers using high-energy-resolution X-ray spectroscopies for detailed material analysis, comparable to expensive large-scale facilities.
Country: Hungary
Founding Year: 2021
Founder(s): Zoltán Németh, György Vankó
Total Funding: €1.54M
Investors: EIC (Grant)
NaturalAntibody
About: Offers bioinformatics solutions that streamline the engineering of antibody-based therapeutics by collecting and integrating antibody data to enhance design processes for researchers in drug discovery.
Country: Poland
Founding Year: 2020
Founder(s): Konrad Krawczyk, Michał Krawczyk
Total Funding: €7.83M
Investors: Tar Heel Capital Pathfinder, other institutional and private investors
Pneuma Bio
About: Surface-applied living materials seeded with microalgae that perform photosynthesis to grow and sequester CO₂ into biomass. Designed for deployment on surfaces and environments where natural photosynthesis is not feasible.
Country: Bulgaria
Founding Year: 2021
Founder(s): Spas Kerimov, Deyan Georgiev
Total Funding: N/A
Investors: Andon Okapi, Indie Bio, SOSV
PREDICTO
About: Offers a plug and play predictive maintenance solution for continuous monitoring of critical and non-critical equipment, aimed at maximizing uptime, reducing health and safety risks, and lowering maintenance costs through advanced asset management and automated condition monitoring.
Country: Bulgaria
Founding Year: 2023
Founder(s): Radomir Rashkov, Viktor Todorov, Dimitar Dimitrov
Total Funding: €22K
Investors: Innovation Capital
Progressive Robotics
About: Designs and deploys robotic handling systems to automate material handling, assembly, and intralogistics for manufacturing and logistics operators.
Country: Greece
Founding Year: 2023
Founder(s): Fotis Dimeas, Marios Kiatos
Total Funding: €1.38M
Investors: Genesis Ventures; Marathon Venture Capital
purposeful
About: Utilizes advanced computational methods, including Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics, to identify alternative effects for existing drugs, aiming to reduce drug development costs and address the needs of overlooked patient groups.
Country: Greece
Founding Year: 2018
Founder(s): Charalampos Chomenidis, Georgios Drakakis, Georgia Tsiliki, Aristides Dokoumetzidis
Total Funding: N/A
Investors: Metavallon VC, PharOS
ReCatalyst
About: Develops and markets next-gen platinum-based catalyst composites for hydrogen fuel cells and other decarbonization applications in energy and transport sectors, utilizing advanced nanotechnology materials.
Country: Slovenia
Founding Year: 2021
Founder(s): Tomaz Bizjak
Total Funding: €1.61M
Investors: RUG Ventures; Xista Science Ventures; OCCIDENT – The Science Investor; High-Tech Gründerfonds.
Resquant
About: Provides a cryptography accelerator that protects electronic devices from quantum computer attacks using NIST-recommended post-quantum encryption standards. Key features include secure end-to-end encryption and crypto agility for diverse applications.
Country: Poland
Founding Year: 2020
Founder(s): Tomasz Szcześniak, Michal Andrzejczak
Total Funding: €378K
Investors: Lighthouse Ventures, Invento Capital
Synaptiq.io
About: Provides AI-driven software solutions that automate the contouring process in radiotherapy, significantly reducing the time required for tumor and organ delineation from hours to minutes, enhancing treatment efficiency and patient outcomes.
Country: Romania
Founding Year: 2020
Founder(s): Dragos Duse, Diana Andritchi | not active anymore: Mihai Cata, Roxana Sabau, Lucian Bicsi, Mohsin Raza
Total Funding: €600K (Seed)
Investors: Fortech Investments, Cleverage VC, GapMinder, SeedBlink
Tropic Square
About: A fabless chip company (Part of SatoshiLabs Group) develops security products utilizing open architecture, with a focus on a transparent and auditable secure element designed for IoT devices, crypto hardware wallets, M2M payments, and hardware authenticators.
Country: Czech Republic
Founding Year: 2020
Founder(s): Evzen Englberth, Pavol Stick Rusnak, Marek Palatinus
Total Funding: €4.6M (Seed)
Investors: Auzera
