New Report Tracks Tech/Seed Investment in Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is becoming something of a tech hub, here’s a recap on the investment during 2022;

More than €100 billion has been invested in European tech startups so far in 2022, for the second year in a row, despite the recession, high inflation and decline of fundraising rounds, according to SeedBlink’s Annual Report realized in collaboration with Horvath Consulting.

The report analyses market trends, key players, and SeedBlink’s impact in CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) and Europe in general. The post-pandemic values are much higher than those of 2019 & 2020, showing that VCs are investing even in uncertain times. Starting this year, 35% of European VCs focus more on social and environmental impact. 11 impact startups have become unicorns in 2022 out of a total 31 up to now with UK, France, Sweden and Germany being home to 60% of all.

Currently, first-time unicorns are driving the success of the CEE ecosystems as they emerge in local startup communities and contribute to the public validation of the regional potential and founders willing to build something that matters. CEE is one of Europe’s fastest-growing regions for venture capital funding, regardless of the challenges the region has recently faced.

“Europe is undergoing an accelerating digital transformation across all industries in all Euro-pean countries. In this changing context, we are building a well-informed pan-European community around technology innovators. People want to know how the world will evolve in the next ten years – an hour ahead of everyone else, if possible – and to be part of this change. We see a growing interest in cross-border investment. European investors want ge-ographic diversification, and we want to create a platform to help them do that”, says Carmen Sebe, CEO of SeedBlink.

The most important investment trends in CEE:

• Despite the lower number of financing rounds raised at regional level (606 rounds at the end of October 2022 compared to 816 in 2021), the volume of funding remains at the same level: €6.9bn forecast for 2022;

• The level of funding for Pre-Seed rounds has decreased over the years, but there is a steady increase in Seed and Series A rounds.

• A four-fold increase in funding volume between 2021 and 2022 in the security industry, de-spite a decrease in the number of rounds;

• More than €1.3 billion in funding is expected to be raised by FinTech startups by the end of this year;

• Investments of around €443 million are expected this year for the Food Tech industry. Food Tech is one of the few industries to see a steady increase in funding volume and rounds every year;

• 59% less funding is expected for the Enterprise Software industry, ending the year with significantly less funding than in 2021.

Read the full report here for more information on the European tech startup ecosystem.

The biggest rounds raised this year on SeedBlink included Druid, Brio, Finqware from Ro-mania, and CEE startups such as Alcatraz AI (Bulgaria), Brainhero (Austria), Hunch (Ser-bia), PD Neurotechnologies (Greece). In 2022, SeedBlink consolidated its infrastructure and expanded its presence in Central and Eastern Europe (opened offices in Bulgaria, and Greece) and Benelux (through the acquisition of Symbid). SeedBlink mobilized €16.8 million in Greece, while in Bulgaria, the amount is €2.69 million.