Romania hosts only four of the top 50 startup funding rounds closed in the Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) region in the second quarter of this year, according to the VC Funding In CEE Report - 2Q 2022 compiled by Vestbee, the leading platform for startups, VC funds, accelerators, and corporates in CEE.

In 2021, Romania ranked third by VC funding in CEE, with EUR 750 mln in a EUR 5.4 bln market, thanks to UiPath’s Series F (EUR 623 mln), after Estonia and Poland and ahead of the Czech Republic. In Q2 this year, however, none of the top 20 startup funding rounds took place in Romania.

The VC funding in Romania in Q2 (some EUR 30 mln) was worth roughly one-third of the funding in Estonia, Ukraine and Hungary - each of them with just over EUR 100 mln raised in the quarter. The market leaders were, however, Croatia (over EUR 620 mln) and the Czech Republic (over EUR 540 mln).

The most popular sectors that grabbed investors’ attention in Q2 were Automotive, Delivery Services, and E-commerce, however, Financial Services, AI, and Data & Analytics still remained in the investment circle.

Among the most active investors were Change Ventures, MITON, Geek Ventures, Hiventures, Movens Capital, Nation 1, Startup Wise Guys, Credo Ventures, DEPO Ventures, Early Game Ventures, EEC Ventures, Hoxton Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Presto Ventures, Purple Ventures, and SMOK Ventures. 

The largest VC deal in Q2 was that of Rimac Group - Croatian hypercars and high-performance electrification technologies producer.

The second and third largest deals took place in the Czech Republic: Rohlik - the grocery delivery company that offers a 90-minute same-day delivery service; and Ataccama - the software company delivering data quality, master data management, data governance, and big data technologies.

According to this quarterly overview, the total value of disclosed funding rounds closed in the CEE region exceeded EUR 2 bln. The number of VC transactions has doubled in comparison to the same quarter of last year. 

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Khwanchai Phanthong/Dreamstime.com)