As of May 2024, there are over 1,200 unicorns worldwide. Companies rooted in Central and Eastern Europe contributed to this total with the emergence of four new unicorns in the first half of the year. Take a look at the mapping below.
Latest round: €80M
Stage: Series B
Total funding: €92M
Investors: Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel, Sequoia Capital, Credo Ventures, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, BroadLight Capital and Smash Capital
Founder: Piotr Dąbkowski and Mateusz Staniszewski
Vertical: AI
About: Text-to-speech and AI voice generator.
The company was founded in 2022 by two Polish childhood friends, Mati Staniszewski, a former Palantir deployment strategist, and Piotr Dabkowski, an ex-Google machine learning engineer. Both sharing a passion for technology, they were inspired to create voice cloning tools by poorly dubbed American films.
In January, ElevenLabs successfully closed a Series B funding round, bringing their total raised capital to $101 million, and achieving unicorn status.
Latest round: €100M
Stage: Series C
Total funding: €313M
Investors: Kinnevik, Notion Capital, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, RevaiaGS Growth Equity, LGVP
Founders: Richard Valtr and Matthijs Welle
Vertical: TravelTech
About: Mews is a property management system designed to simplify and automate all operations for modern hoteliers and their guests.
Mews was established in 2012 by former hotel manager Richard Valtr, who recognized the industry’s need for new technology. The company emerged from his experience managing a hotel in Prague, to transform hotel operations.
In March, Mews’ has gained the unicorn status, valuing the company at $1.2B.
Latest round: €42M
Stage: Series D
Total funding: €273M
Investors: Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, WestCap, Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and HSBC
Founder: Alexandros Chatzieleftheriou
Vertical: PropTech
About: Blueground offers fully-furnished homes with on-the-ground support for business travel needs.
In 2013, Alexandros Chatzieleftheriou launched Blueground, a platform enabling travelers to book flexible accommodations from a network of thousands of fully furnished, high-quality homes worldwide. Blueground places significant emphasis on the location of its apartments, prioritizing vibrant, well-connected neighborhoods as a key value proposition.
In March, the company secured Series D, reaching over $1B valuation.
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Creatio
Latest round: 179.3M€
Stage: N/A
Total funding: 240M€
Investors: Sapphire VenturesHorizon CapitalVolition CapitalStepStone Group
Founder: Katherine Kostereva
Vertical: CRM Tech
About: No-code CRM and workflow automation platform.
Creatio’s no-code platform allows businesses to create applications and automate processes without any programming knowledge. Ukrainian-rooted Creatio, founded in 2014, offers CRM solutions for marketing, sales, and service automation.
In June, Creatio announced that it has raised a $200M funding round at a $1.2B valuation.
