At Croatia's Nuqleus Liftoff, EIB and EIC officials outlined a strategic push into deep tech. Backed by new capital to bridge early-stage funding gaps, the focus is on utilizing scientific excellence to drive industrial scale. Can the region help Europe build a deep tech moat?
Warsaw-based edge AI startup CTHINGS.CO secured over €1.8 million from Navivo Capital, the new fund's first investment, to accelerate its North American expansion, grow sales, and scale its Orchestra platform for managing IoT, edge, and AI infrastructure.
This is the story of how Facilization helped turn a vision into reality in record time for the banking sector.
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.
Ten startups from Poland to Greece are quietly rebuilding how Europe's €1.8 trillion travel industry works — from accessible booking and parametric insurance to hotel analytics and urban gaming. Here are the early-stage CEE companies worth watching.
In this interview, entrepreneur and CPA Australia Michal Wasserbauer draws on more than 15 years of experience building businesses across Southeast Asia to explain why the Czech Republic has the foundations for a thriving innovation ecosystem.
Orbit Capital has secured €107 million for the second closing of its Growth Debt Fund II, surpassing its initial target as institutional investors increase their exposure to venture debt.
A Prague-based AI lab founded by three former DeepMind researchers who built a poker-beating algorithm has raised the largest single investment Creandum has ever made, valuing the trading startup at over €438M($500M).
The Croatian startup plans to double its team, expand internationally, and further develop its AI platform after securing a €6.3 million Series A round led by AYMO Ventures.
The funding backs an AI platform that generates production-ready code from plain-language software specifications.
At Techsylvania in Cluj-Napoca, the CEO of SPARK, Sharjah's Research, Technology and Innovation park, made the case for partnership over competition, explained the role of government vision for attracting world-class talent, and was candid about what European founders get wrong about the Gulf.
Ivan Maltsev has spent a decade building and investing in crypto across three continents. His read on 2026: the UAE leads on regulation and ecosystem, the US still owns the venture capital, and Europe is maturing, just more slowly.
Organized in partnership with Plug and Play, the event created a platform for high-impact discussions, meaningful networking, and cross-border collaboration between Europe’s innovation ecosystem and the rapidly growing markets of Azerbaijan, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and beyond.
"I found someone who was a better entrepreneur than me, who was more visionary… I was like, man, I would love to work for you.” The story of how Gabriel Dymowski left his company to build AI hardware startup Pocket, which just raised €9.65M ($11M) led by Accel.
Czech startup Wultra has raised a new funding round to expand its post-quantum digital identity platform globally as demand for next-generation cybersecurity solutions continues to grow.
Asternova Vest, developed by a Romanian-French consortium of Aster Capital Partners, Iceberg+, and Venture Booster, targets €37M to back 18+ Seed and Series A startups from Western Romania, the region that produced Movidius, Tazz, and 123FormBuilder.
While messy code slows your product, "culture debt" quietly stalls execution as you scale. Here is how founders can build organizational clarity before implicit habits slow the team and company.
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.
As AI arms global hackers, the EU's NIS2 fines have sparked a massive cybersecurity gold rush. While total funding hits records, Central & Eastern European startups are quietly leading the charge against digital threats.
The Series A round brings Almetra's total funding to €20.8 million and will support the company's expansion into the US as demand for AI-powered industrial inspection grows.
Deep tech investor Constructor Capital co-led the round alongside Greencode Ventures and XISTA Science Ventures to back a startup that compresses AI models by up to 80%, cutting inference costs for companies deploying AI at scale.
Three guests, three very different jobs, one thing in common: they're all in their twenties and already taking on a level of responsibility that usually comes later in a career.
In this episode of The Recursive Roundtable, we talk with Viktoriya Markileva (Head of Space Services at EnduroSat), Georgi Nichev (Marketing Specialist at Helios Marine, Co-Founder of Scylla), and Maria Nikolova (Strategic Partnerships Development Manager at BESCO) about what it's actually like to be trusted with real responsibility this early — what makes someone trust you with it, how they handle it, and whether a career needs to follow a clear path at all.
In this episode, we explore:
🟣 How Gen Zs think about failure,
🟣 what hustle culture looks like from the inside,
🟣 what progress actually means to them,
🟣 and whether they'd be willing to wait years for the next step in their career.
💡 This conversation is essential for entrepreneurs looking to hire young talent, and for any Gen Z professionals wondering if they are ready to take the leap into a leadership role.
In this episode of The Recursive Podcast, we sit down with Rakuten Viber CEO Ofir Eyal to discuss how the company is evolving beyond messaging through its partnership with OpenAI, the rise of AI-powered communication, and the long-term vision behind building a "super app."
The conversation explores how the company approaches privacy and responsible AI adoption, and why Europe has yet to embrace the super app model seen across Asia.
Ofir also reflects on his own journey from product manager to CEO, the leadership lessons he learned while navigating one of Viber's most challenging periods after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
In this episode:
☑️ Why Viber partnered with OpenAI
☑️ The future of AI inside messaging apps
☑️ Can Europe build a successful super app?
☑️ Privacy, security, and responsible AI adoption
☑️ How Viber makes money beyond messaging
☑️ Leadership lessons from scaling a global platform
☑️ Rebuilding after losing 40% of the business overnight
🎙️ Subscribe to The Recursive Podcast for conversations with the founders, investors, and technology leaders shaping the future of innovation across Central and Eastern Europe and beyond.
AI can generate logos, colors, taglines, and entire visual identities in seconds. But can it build a brand people actually remember?
In this episode of The Recursive Roundtable, we explore one of the biggest questions facing founders, marketers, and designers today: what does branding look like in the age of AI?
Joining us are three branding experts with decades of experience building companies across technology, consumer products, and global markets:
• Zlatina Petrova — Founder & Creative Director, Brandly
• Plamen Motev — Creative & Operational Director, Fontfabric
• Kiril Hadjidinev — Brand Strategist & Marketing Advisor
The episode is hosted by Etien Yovchev, Co-founder and CGO, The Recursive.
☑️ Why the strongest brands shape identity, not just recognition
☑️ How design, typography, and marketing create emotional connection
☑️ Why AI-generated brands often struggle to build authenticity
☑️ What happens to local brands in a world shaped by global AI models
☑️ How founders can preserve cultural identity while building for global markets
☑️ Whether AI can truly understand local language, heritage, and aesthetics
☑️ What remains of a brand when customers discover products through AI assistants
Whether you're building a startup, launching a product, working in marketing, or simply curious about how AI is changing creative work, this conversation offers practical insights into what still requires human judgment, and why great brands are built through relationships, not prompts.
