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.
This week’s tech news brought some headline-grabbing moves even though its summer. Not our usual CEE perimeter, but we could not skip that Turkey’s Midas closed a record-breaking $80M Series B. The broader region and diaspora had a few notable seed rounds and acquisitions, while Romanian-cofounded Databricks is closing in on a staggering valuation.
Dropla Tech, a Danish-Ukrainian company, has raised €2.4 million in funding from the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO), Maj Invest, and Final Frontier to provide Ukrainian and European forces with enhanced explosive threat detection and force protection capabilities utilizing the Company’s edge AI technologies.
BetterPic, an Estonian AI startup specializing in AI imaging, announced a $2.5 million seed funding round. The round was led by MOC Capital and Shilling VC, with participation from several tech and fashion leaders, ArcticStartup reports.
Fluence Technology, founded by four Polish physicists, has raised €6.6 million (PLN 28.1 million) in a seed investment round to accelerate the international expansion of its advanced laser systems. The funding includes PLN 19 million from Vinci S.A., PLN 3 million from Radix Ventures, and contributions from returning investors JR Holding, Altamira, Vigo Ventures, Bitspiration Booster, as well as private investors such as Zbigniew Łukasiak.
Ukrainian Startup Fund (USF) has invested a total of $475,000 in 13 Ukrainian pre-seed and seed startups. The final pitch days were held on August 4, 5, and 6 as part of the USF program, supported by the UMAEF grant initiative. Funded projects include SYLA, JobAtlas, Embraces, Josti, and Dots Platform.
Midas, Turkey’s leading investment platform, has raised $80 million in Series B funding, the largest investment ever secured by a Turkish fintech company.
US-based Databricks, co-founded by Romanian CTO, is finalizing a funding round that would value it at $100 billion, reported Wall Street Journal. That would be a 61% increase from its last funding round in December. A source familiar with the deal told TechCrunch that the new round is about $1 billion and was wildly oversubscribed.
Bulgarian SessionStack, an AI-powered e-commerce analytics platform, has been acquired by a New York-based leader in the UX research space, shared CEO Alexander Zlatkov on LinkedIN. As part of this transaction, the acquirer will not be opening an office in Sofia, Bulgaria.
In a major agreement for the cybersecurity industry, global giant Accenture has acquired the CyberCX, the largest company in the sector in Australia. Behind the impressive run of CyberCX, which was valued at about $1 billion, is a homogeneous, its CEO, John Paitaridis, who managed within five years to create an undisputed leader in the ocean line market. John Paitaridis, born in Sydney, Australia to Greek parents, is one of the most recognized names in the country’s technology and telecommunications space. His career is intertwined with leadership roles in some of the largest companies in the region.
The Polish technology group Euvic SA is entering the stock exchange with a valuation close to PLN 700 million (€164.3M), becoming one of the largest players on the NewConnect market. This is the beginning of a new stage in which the company announces further consolidation of the market, strengthening internal relations and subsequent acquisitions.
