🌍 Eastern Europe Startup Ecosystem Guide 2025
Everything founders need to know — region-wide + country spotlights, backed with data and insight.
👋🏽 Intro
Hey friends! Lolita Taub here from Ganas Ventures, continuing our Ganas Global Tour in Eastern Europe. This is a community‑built guide, shaped by early insights from GITA, Poland’s VC networks, The Recursive, and other regional ecosystem leaders. As we meet more founders, investors, and ecosystem builders on the ground, this guide will continue to grow.
Why Eastern Europe? Eastern Europe is buzzing with over 26,000 startups and 52 unicorns, with Poland, Estonia, and Czechia leading the pack. In early 2025, startups raised around €700 million across 121 deals. The region has 1.3 million+ software developers and much lower labor costs than Western Europe — think €9/hr vs. €32/hr. Poland’s VC scene is booming, raising €2.3 billion in 2024 alone. Plus, Georgia’s pro-startup policies make it even more attractive. For investors and founders, it’s a sweet spot: strong tech talent, lean startups, and plenty of room to grow globally. (EU VC, Vestbee,Trade)
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🧭 How to Use This Guide
- Founders: Find VCs, accelerators, coworking spaces, and peer communities
- Investors: Discover rising startups, valuation arbitrage, and fundable trends
- Ecosystem Builders: Learn where to build bridges whether via corporate pilots or hyper-local innovation hubs.
🌍 Region-Wide Analysis
- 📈 Funding & Resilience: Central & Eastern Europe’s (CEE) funding fell just 15% in 2023, compared to a 35% drop in Western Europe, showing the region’s resilience. (EU VC)
- 💶 Market Size & Depth: CEE now holds 26,000+ active startups, with ecosystem worth reaching €243B in Q1 2025. (11 VC)
- 🦄 Unicorn Count: 52 unicorns emerged across the region. (Vestbee)
- 💼 Exits & Capital: 2024 saw 56% growth with 76 exits and €3.89B funding spread across stages. (Recursive)
- 🌍 Global Standing: Estonia leads Eastern Europe’s startup ecosystems (ranked 1st in the region and 11th globally) with Lithuania, Poland, and Czechia also in the regional top tier. (Starblink)
💡 POV: Eastern Europe’s startup ecosystem is worth €243B with 3,800+ startups and 57 unicorns. VC funding hit €2.3B in 2024, growing faster than Western Europe. The region is booming outpacing Western Europe’s growth. Smart capital, public support, and global links are fueling broad, real growth across the region.
🏙️ Country Spotlights
🇬🇪 Georgia — The Rising Crossroads
- Ranks 17th in Eastern Europe, 71st globally. (Startupblink)
- GITA launched regional tech initiatives and roadshows; Batumi’s Startup Forum drew 1,800+ participants. (Georgia Today)
💡 POV: Georgia’s startup ecosystem is fast-growing and agile, ranking 17th in Eastern Europe and 71st globally. Early-stage funding is mostly grants — GITA leads with programs and roadshows, and events like Batumi’s Startup Forum drew over 1,800 participants in 2024, showing strong momentum despite limited VC and angel activity. (Startupblink, ADB)
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🇵🇱 Poland — Safeguard & Scale
- Raised €2.3B in 2024 (+30% YoY); €442M in Q1 2025 already. (Trade)
- Robust VC base and public sector support. (Recursive)
- Google-Poland AI Partnership: Established in 2025 to accelerate AI adoption in Poland across sectors such as energy, cybersecurity and various other areas.
- Polish Development Fund (PFR): A state-owned investment body providing capital, loans, export support, advisory services and much more. The subsidiary PFR Ventures invests in VC & PE funds to catalyze startup funding in their ecosystem.
💡 POV: Poland’s startup scene is scaling fast — raising €2.3B in 2024 (up 30% year-over-year) and €442M in just Q1 2025. With new €90M growth funds and more late-stage deals, Poland is combining big VC moves and Western-style sophistication with strong local and public sector support.
🇪🇪 Estonia — Defense & Deeptech
- In Q1 2025, €93M was raised by Estonian startups.
- Estonia is a key participant in the €1 billion NATO Innovation Fund with 100+ defense and dual-use tech startups. (Reuters)
- There are 10 unicorns; legacy unicorns like Bolt, Wise create reinvestment capital.
💡 POV: Estonia shows the power of “patriotic capital” — founding on homeland values yields global edge.
🇱🇹 Lithuania — Cybersecurity Powerhouse
- Thrust forward by startups like Nord Security, Tesonet group ($1.6B unicorn), CyberCity tech campus in Vilnius. (Techcrunch, Unicorns Lithuania)
💡 POV: Lithuania’s cyber roots and reclamation of industrial spaces set the stage for B2B/AI depth plays.
🇷🇴 Romania — The CEE Engineering Hub
- The ecosystem is heavily focused on deeptech, cybersecurity, SaaS, and software development, with Bucharest as the central tech hub.
- Emerging CVCs from major Romanian banks (e.g., Banca Transilvania’s investments) and telecom companies are becoming more active, seeking strategic synergies.
- UiPath, a leading Romanian RPA platform, helps organizations automate repetitive, rules-based tasks using software robots. Its IPO raised $1.34 billion, making it one of the largest global SaaS IPOs, with an initial valuation between $28–37 billion and shares peaking at $70.74 on the first day. (CNBC)
💡 POV: Romania is building a fast-scaling deeptech and software ecosystem with strong local talent and growing interest from international investors. The Bucharest and Cluj hubs are key for its regional leadership and future innovation trajectory.
🇭🇺 Hungary — The Regional Connector
- Budapest anchors the ecosystem, with strengths in SaaS, mobility, and healthtech. Its central location allows founders to plug into both CEE and Western Europe.
- Reports from Startup Hungary, StartupBlink, and Startup Genome highlight strong early-stage activity and a push toward international scaling.
- Events like Brain Bar, Internet Hungary, and Marketing Summit are shaping the discourse.
- Coworking hubs include KAPTÁR and L’Office.
💡 POV: Hungary is leveraging Budapest’s talent and EU connectivity to act as a regional bridge. While still early in exits, its founder community and event scene are putting it on the map as a CEE connector hub.
🇦🇹 Austria — Europe’s Gateway Hub
- Vienna positions itself as a bridge between Western Europe and CEE, with strengths in fintech, greentech, and enterprise SaaS.
- The Austrian Business Agency and Vienna Business Agency provide strong support for international startups entering the market.
- Success stories include Runtastic (acquired by Adidas) and Bitpanda (crypto unicorn).
- weXelerate is one of Europe’s largest startup and corporate innovation hubs.
💡 POV: Austria combines corporate engagement, capital access, and geographic positioning to serve as the natural entry point for CEE startups scaling into DACH and Western Europe.
🇺🇦 Ukraine — The Resilient Tech Powerhouse
- Ukraine has over 2,000 startups and produced unicorns like Grammarly, GitLab, Bitfury, and People.ai. Cities like Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, and Dnipro are key hubs, with UNIT.City as the largest innovation park in CEE.
- VC investment grew from $39M in 2014 → $509M in 2019. Today, Diia.City offers a favorable legal and tax regime, already attracting 1,600+ companies.
- Key accelerators: 1991 Open Data Incubator (govtech), YEP (500+ startups), ISE Group (female entrepreneurship), FeelGoodLabs (investor readiness), and D3 Defense Accelerator (cyber, AI, defense).
- Growth sectors: DefenseTech, Cybersecurity, GovTech, GreenTech, Biotech.
💡 POV: Even under war conditions, Ukraine’s ecosystem is scaling globally. Its resilience and leadership in defense and cyber innovation are reshaping its role as a future powerhouse in Europe.
🚨 Signals We’re Watching
- 🇪🇪 Estonia’s defence-tech boom — defense-focused startups growing with sovereign capital.
- 🇱🇹 Lithuania’s tech campus conversions — Vilnius transforms old factories into innovation hubs.
- 🇵🇱 Poland’s funding upturn — Poland’s Q1 funding nearly matches the full-year of 2024.
- Broader EIB/ EU scale-up fund may signal more late-stage capital inflow into CEE.
🌍 Why Eastern Europe Matters
- Resilience through downdrafts — stronger downturn performance than Western peers.
- Capital reinvestment from local unicorns — bootstrapped reinvestment loop.
- Rise of sovereign-backed tech, defense, cyber, and deeptech.
- Cost-efficient talent network across cross-border EU value chains.
- Untapped government accelerated points with scale potential.
👀 Founders & Startups to Watch
- Grammarly (Estonia): Premier writing assistant, valued at $13B, top-funded regional startup.
- Bolt (Estonia): The mobile mobility super-app that branched into delivery and other services.
- Tesonet (Lithuania): Cybersecurity and AI venture builder, backed Nord Security & Cast AI.
- Sun Finance (Latvia): Fintech lender, 6M users, crossed $1B in lending volume.
- InSoil (Lithuania): Agri-fintech startup moving €27M in regenerative agriculture loans.
- Turing College (Lithuania): AI-edtech Y Combinator alumnus with €2.5 M EIC grant.
- Awesomic (Ukraine): AI/digital agency ranked fastest-growing in 2024, YC-backed.
- Sintra (Lithuania): AI, Raised €17M
- AQ22 (Lithuania): AI platform for Credit Intelligence
- The Safe AI (Lithuania): AI Security Integration
- Erikas Mališauskas (Lithuania) — Serial Indie Hacker, 6 Figure MRR Bootstrapped
- Nexos AI (Lithuania): Vertical AI co-pilot for operations teams, rapidly scaling in the EU
- Hostinger(Lithuania): Global web hosting giant with 2M+ users, quietly powering digital SMBs.
💰 Who’s Investing in Eastern Europe
- TA Ventures / IClub (Ukraine + region): Angel syndicate with $35M+ deployed, ~109 deals.
- Startup Wise Guys (Estonia): B2B SaaS accelerator with €100K cheques, ~46 portfolio firms.
- Open Circle Capital (Lithuania): Early-stage VC backing deeptech and IT startups from Baltics with €20M+ AUM.
- Practica Capital (Lithuania): Sector-agnostic early-stage fund with €80M+ under management and strong Baltics focus.
- Plural (Estonia): Supporting defense-tech and AI ventures.
- Flyer One Ventures (CEE): Capitalized alongside VC Summit network, replicated across region.
- YY Founders, Karma Ventures: Active CEE VCs (via Sifted’s list).
- NordicNinja (Nordic + Baltic): early-stage VC powering founders across the New Nordics & Baltics.
- Specialist VC (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Ukraine, Belarus): Baltic-region tech fund backing founders from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Ukraine, and Belarus.
- BSV (Lithuania): Lithuanian deep-tech VC investing in early-stage R&D teams solving complex problems.
- Bad Ideas Fund (Latvia): Latvia-based CEE VC backing bold pre-seed founders in B2B and marketplaces.
🚀 Accelerators + Ecosystem Builders
- Startup Wise Guys: Leading CEE seed accelerator (202+ companies trained).
- Founder Institute Eastern Europe: Pre-seed accelerator with entrepreneur network.
- Tech Zity / Cyber City (Vilnius): Tech hub built from Soviet factory into a unicorn campus.
- GITA (Georgia): National innovation agency building tech infrastructure.
- Tehnopol Startup Incubator (Estonia): Estonia’s top zero-fee incubator helping startups grow, fundraise, and scale globally.
- DIANA Accelarator ( (Estonia): NATO’s deep-tech accelerator in Tallinn, unlocking dual-use innovation for defence and civilian realms.
💬 Events & Communities
- How to Web Conference (Romania): 3,000+ participants including 600 startups & 200 investors
- CEE VC Summit (Warsaw): Premier investor-only event, attended by 200+ GPs
- TechChill (Riga): Annual regional tech gathering
- EU-Startups Summit, Slush (Helsinki), sTARTUp Day (Estonia): Regular CEE-wide startup events
- Latitude59 (Estonia): The Baltic’s boutique startup festival in Tallinn with 3.5K founders, 800+ investors
- Brain Bar (Budapest): Europe’s biggest “future festival”
- Internet Hungary: National digital business & media conference
- Marketing Summit Hungary: CEE’s largest marketing and growth-focused founder gathering
- Infoshare (Gdańsk, Poland): Poland’s largest tech and startup conference (6,000+ attendees)
🏢 Co-Working & Founder Hubs
- Tallinn: Lift99, Tehnopol Startup Incubator
- Vilnius: Tech Zity, Rockit Vilnius, Based Space
- Riga: Startup House Riga
- Kyiv: Creative State, 1991 Open Data Incubator
- Tbilisi: Fabrika, Generator 9.8
- Bucharest: 360hub
- Budapest: KAPTÁR, L’Office
- Vienna: weXelerate, L’Office (also in Budapest)
- Warsaw: Google for Startups Campus, ReaktorX
🔥 Ganas Ventures POV + Local Takes
“Eastern Europe’s showing real grit — defense tech, cyber, and SaaS startups are staying strong. In 2024, CEE defense tech raised $30.7M in VC funding (compared to $1.3B for the UK), but the region continues to grow thanks to top talent and fast-moving founders. Startups here bounce back faster than most, even with less capital.” — Lolita Taub, Ganas Ventures
📚 Further Reading & Resources
☕ Next Moves
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🙌🏽 Community Contributors
This guide was built with early input from Paolo Ottaviani and Meetash “Max” Narayan (Ganas Ventures), Karin Künnapas (Tera Ventures and EastBAN), Antanas Bernatonis (WhyAI), Josh Taub (TIA), Kristians Jenciuss (Startup House), Ryan Hennesy (Bandera AI), Péter Szántó (reel8), and more!
🦄 About
Ganas Global Tour: The Ganas Global Tour is our boots-on-the-ground initiative to connect with local startup ecosystems, amplify underrepresented voices, and co-create the future of venture — one region at a time. From founder coffees to ecosystem guides, we’re building the relationships that will shape the Ganas Global Fund. Learn more here and join the Ganas Global Community!
Ganas Ventures & Lolita Taub: Ganas Ventures is a Latina-led VC investing in early-stage software startups across the U.S. and LATAM. Led by Lolita Taub — a Silicon Valley veteran with 100+ investments, $70M+ in tech sales, and multiple exits — we back underestimated founders building category-defining companies. Recognized by Forbes, Nasdaq, LAVCA and more. Learn more about Ganas and Lolita at ganas.vc.
