October was quite a dynamic month for the SEE ecosystem. With more than €250M in total raised capital, regional startups showed steep traction after the more steady-and-slow summer season. Have a look at the numbers, investments, and trends yourself.
Innovation-enabling policies
At the beginning of this month, we saw that Romania made a step towards introducing a digital nomad visa program in the country. If the draft law gets parliamentary approval, Romania could have a legal instrument to attract resources, promote the country internationally, and develop the economy. With this, the country would join the club of other European countries that have launched visas for remote working such as Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, and Norway.
This advancement in the innovation regulatory environment was followed by the move of North Macedonia to deploy a nation-wide digital identity solution. The country became one of the first Balkan states which have started offering various digital public services to its citizens.
The end of the month marked a historic moment for the development of the NorthMacedoan startup ecosystem. The government approved the 2022-2026 Accelerated Economic Growth Plan, which includes a €27M hybrid investment fund focused on startups and innovative companies. The main contributor to the fund is the North Macedonian state which will participate with €10M, while the remaining €17M will be from private capital and international financial institutions, including the World Bank.
Proptech, biotech, diaspora successes, and new unicorns
- The biggest investments this month were that of the Romanian-founded Proportunity which nabbed more than €130M to merge propetch and fintech, and that of the biotech AI platform Lifebit which raised €5M to accelerate biomedical research and innovation.
- A good number of the rounds were made in startups with founders who are part of the SEE diaspora community.
- The month marked the emergence of possibly the first Greek unicorn – PeopleCert, which hit the $1B valuation after acquiring AXELOS for €450M.
SEE deals and investments
| Company name | Country | Stage | Investment size (in millions) |
| Proportunity | Romania | Private equity and debt financing | €130.0 |
| Lifebit | Greece | Series B | €60.0 |
| TileDB | Greece | Series B | undisclosed but more than €13.0 |
| Plum | Greece | Series A | €12.0 |
| OfficeRnD | Bulgaria | Series A | €10.0 |
| Memgraph | Croatia | seed | €8.0 |
| Bob Concierge | Romania | seed | €6.0 |
| Seafair | Greece | seed | €5.0 |
| Orgnostic | Serbia | seed | €5.0 |
| Pop Market | Greece | seed | €3.0 |
| Ariadne Maps | Greece | seed | €2.0 |
| Kinderpedia | Romania | seed | €1.8 |
| Wasp | Croatia | seed | €1.3 |
| ZenART | Bulgaria | seed | €1.0 |
And the deals…
| Company name | Country | Deal |
| PubGalaxy | Bulgaria | gets acquired by Azerion |
| SumUp | Bulgaria (R&D team) | acquires a Silicon Valley-based startup for $317M |
| Everli | Romania | Enters the local market |
| Webrazzi | Turkey | Acquired Tech.eu |
| PeopleCert | Greece | Acquired AXELOS for €450M, reaches unicorn status |
| Lenses | Greece | Gets acquired by Celonis |
+++ In case we missed a round larger than $500K, please let us know at [email protected] and we’ll update the list. +++
