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
Bulgarian-founded EnduroSat, a provider of software-defined satellites and space data solutions, announced the successful closing of a $104 (€90) million funding round to significantly expand its production capabilities and accelerate delivery timelines for advanced satellite constellations.
The round welcomes new investors Riot Ventures, Google Ventures (GV), Lux Capital, the European Innovation Council Fund, and Shrug Capital, all joining EnduroSat’s mission to streamline access to space data and empower organizations through scalable, modular satellite infrastructure.
DefenseTech startup SalesPatriot based in San Francisco, CA (USA) & Warsaw, Poland secures €4.3 million Seed funding. The round was led by CRV, with participation from Pear VC, Y Combinator, SV Angel, Liquid2 Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures and strategic angels including Paul Graham, Rich Miner, Mark Pincus, Steve Blank, and Mati Staniszewski.
Latvian-based Desktop Commander, the company behind the open source Desktop Commander MCP server, has raised a €1.1 million pre-seed round led by 42CAP, with participation from BADideas Fund to make coding and building local automations more accessible to non technical users.
BraveX Aero, a Romanian manufacturer of long-range fixed-wing drones, announces the signing of a strategic partnership with Uniq Things UG, a German technology company specializing in autonomous coordination and software for drone swarms.
Abingdon Software Group, a UK-headquartered global software group, announced the acquisition of 100% of Romanian dcs plus, one of the world’s leading providers of software solutions for the travel industry.
Backed by Abingdon Software Group, dcs plus will accelerate the deployment of AI across its platform to help travel agencies cut operating costs, unlock content, personalize offers at scale, and make faster, data-driven decisions.
Warsaw Equity Group has exited its investment in Oxla, a Polish developer of distributed query engine technology, following its acquisition by U.S. data infrastructure unicorn Redpanda. Oxla’s ultra-low-latency query engine will now serve as the foundation for Redpanda’s new Agentic Data Plane (ADP) — a secure, governed, and scalable data layer for AI agents in enterprise environments.
LynxPower, Tallinn-based cleantech firm, has raised €550,000 to accelerate the development of our AI-driven energy monitoring and management platform. The round was backed by Giga AS, Taavi Madiberk and Marko Virkebault.
On the other side of the Atlantic
American startup Fireworks AI, which helps developers use powerful artificial intelligence chips and work with AI models, has raised $250 (€216) million in a new round of Series C funding. The company is valued at $4 billion, Wall Street Journal reports. Among the co-founders of Fireworks AI are two Ukrainians, Dmytro Dzhulgakov and Dmytro Ivchenko.
OpenAI has finalized its shift to a for-profit structure controlled by a non-profit foundation, giving Microsoft a 27% stake worth about $135 billion while freeing the company to raise capital more flexibly from other investors.
Further on the OpenAI reorganization, Bloomberg reports that Microsoft will receive 20% of OpenAI’s revenue until 2032, and Sam Altman holds no stake in the newly formed for-profit entity.
