Only have 1 minute? Read our 3 takeaways:
- Top 10 climate tech deals in Central and Eastern Europe in H1 2023 sum up to €112 million, without including the 3 acquisitions we traced in the space.
- Out of these 10 deals, the majority (60%) took place at the later stages – Series A and exits.
- The highest number of deals took place in the mobility sector, while the largest disclosed investment came from agriculture. Estonia and Greece startups closed the most deals in top 10 funding rounds.
With a wealth of talent and passion for addressing sustainable development challenges, especially among the younger generations, Central and Eastern Europe is an emerging source of climate tech solutions. Recent partnerships and investments in the field, especially at later stages, are a testimony to the maturation of the ecosystem. Below, we selected the top 10 largest, or most important (in the case of undisclosed acquisition amounts, ed.note) deals in climate tech from CEE in the first half of 2023.
Top climate tech deals from Central and Eastern Europe in H1 2023
Augmenta – ~€101 million – Acquisition
Country: Greece
Founders: George Varvarelis
Sector: Agriculture
Solution: Precision agriculture technology, using edge computing, multispectral computer vision, and AI to help farmers gain an accurate perception of the farming environment and automate tasks.
About the deal: Augmenta’s acquisition by CNH Industrial marks the largest exit in Greece in 2023 to this date, and a key milestone for the regional climate tech, deep tech and agtech verticals.
Greyp Bikes – Acquisition, amount undisclosed
CEO: Krešimir Hlede (now Managing Director of Porsche eBike Performance)
Country: Croatia
Sector: Mobility
Solution: Develops and produces electric bicycles, applying AI, data gathering and augmented reality to its products.
About the deal: Porsche acquired a majority stake in Greyp Bikes through its venture arm. Greyp Bikes is the sister company of Rimac Automobili and thus this deal solidified Porsche’s collaboration with Rimac Group.
Ampler – Acquisition, amount undisclosed
Founders: Ardo Kaurit, Hannes Laar, Rait Udumäe
Country: Estonia
Sector: Mobility
Solution: Produces light electric bicycles for the urban commuters.
About the deal: Kõu Mobility Group acquired Ampler by taking over 51% of the company. They joined the group business units Comodule, a software and IoT solutions for light electric vehicles provider, e-scooter maker Äike, and Tuul, a rental service for electric scooters.
Instacar – €55 million Series A
Founders: Antonis Zois, Antonis Samothrakis
Country: Greece
Sector: Mobility
Solution: The leading car subscription service in Greece, aiming to offer an alternative to car ownership via a shared mobility service.
About the deal: The Greek startup raised a €55 million Series A round led by investors such as Velocity Partners, Autohellas/Vasilakis Group and the Olympia Group, to expand operations in Greece and other European markets.
Woltair – €20.5 million Series A
Founders: Daniel Helcl, Karel Náprstek, Jiří Švéda
Country: Czech Republic
Sector: Energy
Solution: They specialize in selling, installing, and servicing power and heat solutions across Europe, including heat pumps and photovoltaics.
About the deal: Woltair raised a €20.5 million Series A round, co-led by Westly Group and Fifth Wall, to expand its operations in Germany.
Contec – €15 million, series unknown
Founders: Krzysztof Wróblewski
Country: Poland
Sector: Tire industry, Circular economy
Solution: The company specializes in the processing of end-of-life tires, transforming them into circular rubber and plastic raw materials for the manufacturing industry, such as recovered Carbon Black, recovered Tire Pyrolysis Oil, and recovered Steel.
About the deal: The company raised €15M from VINCI, Warsaw Equity Group, and Blachy Pruszyński, to triple its sustainable raw materials production capacity in Szczecin, Poland, and expand to Europe.
Ampeco – ~€12 million Series A
Founders: Orlin Radev
Country: Bulgaria
Sector: Mobility
Solution: Ampeco offers EV charging and energy management software as a white label solution.
About the deal: The company raised a $13M Series A from BMW iVentures and LAUNCHub Ventures to further expand into North America, as well as develop the product.
Roofit.Solar – €6.45 million early VC round
Founders: Andri Jagomägi, Andres Anijalg, Raimond Russak
Country: Estonia
Sector: Energy
Solution: They produce fully integrated solar roofs that combine the traditional Nordic metal roof design with progressive solar technology.
About the deal: They raised a €6.45 million round from BayWa r.e. Energy Ventures and EdgeCap Partners, to accelerate expansion plans beyond its home markets of Germany, Estonia, Sweden.
Sensoneo – €6.2 million Series A
Founders: Andrea Basilova, Martin Basila
Country: Slovakia
Sector: Waste management, Circular economy
Solution: They offer enterprise-grade smart waste management solutions, such as smart sensors that monitor waste in real-time with advanced tracing and monitoring equipment and data analytics software.
About the deal: The Bratislava-based startup raised a €6.2M Series A funding led by Taiwania Capital and supported by Czech and Slovak funds and the EIC Fund to expand its solution to other regions, including APAC.
EAgronom – €5.5 million, early vc stage and grant
Founders: Robin Saluoks, Kristjan Luha, Stenver Jerkku
Country: Estonia
Sector: Agriculture
Solution: eAgronom’s 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺 helps farmers get paid for creating carbon credits, while improving the quality of their soil and getting access to better financing terms.
About the deal: They raised $5.5 million in funding from Icos Capital, Soulmates Ventures and SmartCap Green Fund, as well as through a grant from Enterprise Estonia.
