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 news & deals
Greek founded, London-based Dex, an AI-powered recruitment platform, has raised €4.52 million ($5.3 million) in a seed funding round led by Notion Capital, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz’s Speedrun programme, Concept Ventures, and angel investors including individuals from OpenAI and other organisations.
The Austrian-based, Albanian-founded startup Synaps announced a €3.06 million ($3.6 million) pre-seed round from US accelerator Plug and Play and Zagreb-based Fil Rouge Capital. Synaps is building an AI-native design platform to challenge industry giants like Autodesk, using a browser-based canvas and natural language prompts to accelerate architectural drawing. Despite being in beta, the tool has already amassed 60,000 users and hundreds of paying customers.
Estonian-Dutch startup Spiral Hydrogen raised a combined €2.7 million in pre-seed equity and grants from byFounders, Norrsken Evolve, and Superangel. The company has designed a rotating electrolyser that eliminates bubble formation on electrode surfaces, a common problem in green hydrogen production.
Founded by Emil Kostadinov and Sabtain Ahmad, London-based ManaMind has raised €1.2 million ($1.5 million) in a pre-seed funding round to advance its AI-driven game testing platform. The round was led by Sure Valley Ventures, with participation from EWOR, Ascension, SyndicateRoom, and Heartfelt.
Prague-based payments infrastructure startup Tapaya has raised €1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Passion Capital, with co-lead participation from Depo Ventures and follow-on investment from BADideas.fund.
Polish startup BliskoMed, offering professional home doctor’s appointments, announced a €707,000 (3 million PLN) seed round from the 24Ventures fund. The company, which is a registered medical entity, intends to create a new standard of health care.
Romanian venture fund Early Game Ventures announced a €510,000 ($600,000 ) pre-seed investment in the gaming startup Tryll. The company is developing a system that allows AI models to run directly on a player’s computer using its graphics card. This approach eliminates the need for costly cloud services for AI in gaming.
Other Ecosystem News
While direct investments were the focus, other ecosystem-building activities also took place. In Moldova, the Startup Moldova Summit resulted in strategic partnerships with Unicorn Factory Lisbon, SeedBlink, and the Ukrainian Startup Fund to connect local founders with European networks. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the EBRD and EU announced a €20 million risk-sharing facility to support lending to small and medium-sized enterprises.
