Natalie Novakova
THE BALTICS
🤖 Danish Fund Acquired Stake in Estonian Cleveron Robots
Nordic secondary fund (NSF), a Danish fund investing in Nordic and Baltic companies that have completed series A, acquired a $3.7M (€3.5M) stake in Estonia’s Cleveron Robots. The Tallian-based startup, which offers robotics-based parcel terminals and click-and-collect pick-up solutions, has major clients including Zara, H&M, UPS and DHL. [Source: BalticVC]
💻 Estonian NortalGlobal Acquires London-based Development Company
Nortal Global, an Estonian tech company providing services of digital transformation, bought Questers, a London-based software development company with global clients. Nortal plans to merge Questers with its daughter company pwrteams, which aids IT and engineering Eastern European organizations in building cross-border teams. With the acquisition, Nortal hopes to strengthen its position in the U.S. and the U.K. [Source: BalticVC]
📈 Estonian Risk Management Platform Raised $365K in Pre-Seed Round
Complok, an Estonian compliance risk management platform for fintech and banks, raised $365K (€345K) in a pre-seed round from Estonian Change Ventures and other angel investors including Taavi Tamkivi, Andres Mellik, and Triin Kask. The startup also secured $120K from Techstars, a US-based accelerator. In the future, Complok plans to start the seed round to enter Amsterdam and UK markets with its new business model. [Source: BalticVC]
💵 Estonian Superangel Opened Office in Sweden
Superangel, a Tallinn-based pre-seed and seed investment firm funding Baltic and Nordic startups, opened an office in Stockholm to invest in Swedish startups. In 2023, the firm aims to make five to eight investments in Nordic startups, with a significant portion dedicated to Swedish ventures, following the closure of its €50M fund in 2022, supported by investors including Estonian SmartCap Venture Capital Fund and LHV pension funds. [Source: BalticVC]
💰Lithuanian Accelerator Firstpick To Invest In Five Startups
Firstpick, a Lithuanian accelerator and venture capital firm, is looking to invest in five startups during its third 14-week acceleration program, providing them with investments ranging from $52-105K (€50-100K). The program will offer support in areas such as increasing traction, revenue growth, and talent acquisition. Firstpick aims to support 45 startups over the next three years with a $21.2M (€20M) fund and initial investments ranging from $52-211K (€50-200K). [Source: BalticVC]
💲Estonian Currynomics Labs Secured $423K
Currynomics Labs, an Estonian startup that creates real estate-backed digital currency Redcurry, has secured $423K (€400K) in funding from a group of investors, including Ecosh Life, Impulse Generator Fund, angel investor Pasipohjala, Aleksander Denisoff, and Markus Pejacsevich of Salamantex. Redcurry is designed to combat inflation by being backed by income from rented commercial properties, making it a non-inflationary and user-governed decentralized currency set to launch globally in 2024, with a focus on serving the unbanked and underbanked populations. [Source: BalticVC]
👛 AskToSell Raised $105K From Estonian Accelerator and Venture Capital Firm
AskToSell, a Vilnius-based sales automation platform, secured $105K (€100K) in funding from Estonian accelerator Startup Wise Guys and venture capital firm Specialist VC. AskToSell, founded in 2023, offers an automation solution for small deals, allowing businesses to automate repetitive sales tasks and reduce costs, while human workers can focus on larger deals. [Source: BalticVC]
💵 Micapass Secured $180K From Lithuanian Innovation Lab
Micapass, a Lithuanian reg-tech startup specializing in crypto market anti-money laundering solutions, has raised $180K (€170K) in funding from Vilnius-based innovation lab Super How? as part of a $254 (€240K) round. Micapass offers ongoing anti-money laundering screening and monitoring for decentralized crypto markets and is preparing for the impending MiCA regulation in the European Union, which will necessitate compliance and anti-money laundering tools for the crypto assets market. [Source: BalticVC]
🚗 Latvia To Expel Cars Under Russian and Belarusian Registration
The Latvian government is in the process of preparing a bill that would prevent cars with Russian and Belarussian registration from staying in the country. The owners will have a period of three months to take the cars out of the country if the bill is approved and if they fail to do so the cars will be confiscated. Latvia would become the fifth EU country, alongside Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, and Finland, to prohibit cars under Russian registration on their territory. [Source: The Kyiv Independent]
UKRAINE
🤝 A Cyber Coalition Launches Following a Meeting in Germany
Estonia, Luxembourg, Ukraine, Belgium, Denmark, Lithuania, and Latvia formed a new IT coalition that supports the Armed Forces in the cybersphere, following their meeting in Germany. The main aim of the organization is to create a single digital ecosystem to support the Defense Forces of Ukraine. Primary attention will be paid to air defense, artillery, aviation, the navy and armored vehicles. [Source: Dou.ua]
☁️ Deskree Raised $1.5M from Forum Ventures and Other Investors
Deskree, a Ukrainian Cloud service startup founded by Dmitry Grechko, raised $1.5M from investors including Forum Ventures, Hustle Fund, N49P, Flair Ventures, ZAKA VC, League of Innovators, AAI VC, Flyer One Ventures and Vesna Capital. The Deskree solution targets small, medium, and large businesses helping them to simplify the creation of server infrastructure and reducing expanses spent on DevOps specialists. The startup intends to use the new investment to expand its current number of users from 10 thousand mostly from North and South America to a more global audience, develop new products as well and partnering with cloud providers like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.
[Source: InVenture]💲Saldo Apps Raised $500K from Ukrainian Venture Fund
Saldo Apps, a Ukrainian-based startup developing financial accounting applications for small and medium businesses, raised $500K from hi5 Ventures and pre-seed round investor Leonid Podobedov. The startup, which reached the $1 million revenue mark last year, plans to use the investment to improve its product and unify its eight applications in one ecosystem.
[Source: InVenture]🌐 SoftServe Creates a New Generative AI Laboratory
Ukrainian SoftServe, a global IT company providing software development consulting services, launches a new Generative AI Lab to implement disruptive AI technology through the adoption of GenAI. As a part of the project, the company is looking to hire data science specialists from across the globe including Ukraine, Romania, Poland, Colombia, Spain, and Chile. The key focus areas of Gen AI Lab will include research and validation of AI applications (AI Discovery), experiments and testing (AI Launchpad), and rapid scaling and industrialization (AI Adoption). [Source: ain.capital]
🏢 Kharkiv Looks For Investment to Create an Industrial and Scientific Park
Igor Terekhov, the mayor of the second-largest Ukrainian city Kharkiv, announced his ambition to create several industrial and science parks. Despite the damage caused by the war in Ukraine, the city is looking to attract investment for its restoration and modernization in order for people to keep their jobs. The projects are ultimately aiming to reboot the city after it sustained destruction valued at $9.5B. [Source: Ukraine Business News]
📁 Ukrainian Selection for CES 2024 Begins
Consumer Electronics Show 2024, a global stage for innovation and technologies for over 120,000 attendees and 1,000+ startups, will take place from Jan. 9-12 in Las Vegas. Ukrainian Startup Fund, Ukrainian Venture and Private Capital Association (UVCA) alongside The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and with support from the USAID Program “Competitive Economy of Ukraine ” launched a selection program for Ukrainian startups to participate in the event. The submission deadline is on Sept. 29, 2023. [Source: InVenture]
🌱 Ukrainian Business Can Now Apply For “Climate Innovation Vouchers”
Ukrainian small and medium-sized enterprises developing environmentally friendly technologies have the opportunity to participate in the “Climate Innovation Vouchers” grant competition, with applications being accepted until Sept. 30, 2023. Successful applicants can receive grants of up to $52K (€50K) to support the development or implementation of technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance energy efficiency, thanks to a program initiated by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and financed by the European Union.
[Source: Tech Ukraine]
KAZAKHSTAN
💵 ProsperPay Startup Received $250K Investment From Angel Investors
Kazakhstan-based startup ProsperPay, a tech service for issuing daily advances for wages, received $250K from Kazakh angel investors with a project valuation of $3M. The main investors in this investment round included Murat Abdrakhmanov and Askar Dostiyarov. The startup plans to invest in new functionality and services to expand opportunities for users, while at the same time investing in marketing. [Source: Digital Business]
👥 TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 Conference Welcomes 14 Startups from Central Asia
The international conference TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 hosted in San Francisco brought together a variety of startups from Central Asia including from countries like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Mongolia presented by the Silkroad Innovation Hub. Six out of the 14 startups represented were from Kazakhstan including Citix, Cyborgbase, TengriLights, Falcon.ai, Scooter, and Rhinotales. [Source: Digital Business]
SLOVAKIA
🇸🇰 Slovak Blockmate Receives Investment From Latvian and Czech Firms
Blockmate, a Bratislava-based digital assets, and cryptocurrencies management application, received investment from BADideas.fund, a Latvian investment firm, and Seed Starter, a Czech VC during the $1.6M (€1.5M) funding round. Blockmate, founded by Andrej Coplák and Peter Lauber, offers an open-crypto API platform for tracking digital assets, and cryptocurrencies, and conducting anti-money laundering checks, connecting to a wide network of fintechs through open banking standards. [Source: BalticVC]
ISRAEL
🖥️ Cybersecurity Company Cato Raises $238M at $3B Valuation
Cato Networks, an Israeli-based cybersecurity company enabling customers to transform their digital business networking and security infrastructure, raised $238M from investors led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Adams Street Partners, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Sixty Degree Capital, and Singtel Innov8. After a sharp slowdown earlier this year, fundraising into Israeli tech startups has been improvising gradually. The cloud company will use the investment to expand its customer base and recruit more staff. [Source: InVenture]
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