CEE Tech News 005

Some big headlines around the region!

FUNDING ALERT! A $30M Series A round in Romania coming from a TOP Silicon Valley VC, and a new VC fund in Greece are just two of the headlines this time around, as the CEE startup ecosystem shows no signs of slowing down.

• UiPath, founded in Romania and headquartered in the US, raises $30M from Accel Partners. The company focuses on building software solutions for automation and robotics.
• South Central Ventures, a VC fundoperating in Serbia, Croatia and Macedonia invests in cloud-based software developer Alchemy. Having recently merged with Serbian startup and SCV portfolio company dryTools, Alchemy’s looks to leave its imprint in the chemical industry.
• Following an initial investment in Russian ZakaZaka, Mail.ru has now acquired the food delivery startup for an amount of $18 million, all cash. Last year, Delivery Club made an exit to the Russian Internet giant which was again aimed at establishing Mail.ru as a leader in the Russian online food delivery market.
• A collaboration between Slovenian Vendotel and Hrvatski Telekom made possible the installment of the first smart city kiosk in Zadar, Croatia. Such kiosks enable consumers to purchase a variety of products, ranging from mobile credit recharge to public transport tickets. The goal of the project is to put Zadar together with cities such as New York and London under the label of a ‘Smart City’.
• CESA, the Central European Startup Awards competition is now open for technology companies, no older than 5 years, in Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary. The competition will take part on a national and a regional level first before the grand winners are announced. The nominations are open until the end of may.
• VentureFriends, a leeding Greek VC, raised EUR 20M from all-private LPs, to invest in e-commerce, SaaS, AdTech and on-demand services. You can check VentureFriends investment criteria in their own Medium piece.

Let us know if we missed any major news splash over the last couple of weeks and stay tuned for our upcoming pieces on Medium and Facebook!