Will an AI startup stand out to CEE VCs?
Yes, if the pitch deck shows what the AI does. At BADideas, CEE startups whose deck mentions AI reached our investment committee 56% of the time in 2025 and 2026 so far, against 33% for startups without AI. Decks that only name AI get less credit than they did: 54% of them reached the committee in 2025 and 47% in 2026, while decks built on AI stayed at about 62%.
The figures
| CEE applicants | 2025 | 2026 (to date) |
|---|---|---|
| Say AI is in the product | 71% | 78% |
| Product built on AI | 36% | 42% |
| AI as one feature | 14% | 17% |
| Only say AI | 21% | 19% |
| Reached our investment committee | 2025 | 2026 (to date) |
|---|---|---|
| Built on AI | 60% | 62% |
| AI as one feature | 48% | 48% |
| Only say AI | 54% | 47% |
| No AI | 37% | 28% |
In BADideas application data, decks built on AI reach the investment committee most often, and decks that only name AI are falling further behind them. Shares are of the applications whose pitch deck we read, not of every application we receive.
What is changing
| Quarter | Say AI is in the product | Built on AI |
|---|---|---|
| Q2 2025 | 68% | 36% |
| Q3 2025 | 69% | 31% |
| Q4 2025 | 77% | 39% |
| Q1 2026 | 77% | 39% |
| Q2 2026 | 80% | 44% |
| Q3 2026 | 77% | 42% |
Mentioning AI is now the norm: 78% of CEE applicants in 2026 so far, up from 71% in 2025. The share whose product is built on AI rose from 36% to 42%. The share whose deck only names AI fell from 21% to 19%. The word alone tells an investor less each year.
Across CEE
CEE founders who applied in 2025 and 2026 so far. We show each country with enough applicants; smaller countries count only in the CEE row.
| Where the founder is based | Built on AI | Say AI is in the product |
|---|---|---|
| All of CEE | 39% | 75% |
| Baltics | 36% | 71% |
| Latvia | 30% | 61% |
| Estonia | 42% | 79% |
| Lithuania | 37% | 75% |
| Poland | 43% | 78% |
| Ukraine | 34% | 75% |
| Romania | 44% | 89% |
| Czechia | 58% | 79% |
| Bulgaria | 23% | 73% |
Built on AI: highest in Czechia (58%), lowest in Bulgaria (23%).
What it means for you
- Show what the AI does. Name the task it does and for whom, and what it runs on: your own data, a model you trained, or a model from one of the big AI labs.
- Give one result, such as a customer, a time saved or an error rate. If the AI is still a plan, say that it is a plan.
- If AI is not part of your product, you do not need to add it. A clear problem, early customers and a team that can sell are still read on their own terms.
Related questions
How many startups raising in CEE are AI startups?
78% of CEE founders who applied to BADideas in 2026 so far say AI is in their product, and 42% build the product on it, against 71% and 36% in 2025.
How we measured it
- On this page: "Built on AI" means the deck shows what the AI does and the product depends on it: an agent, a product built on language or generative models, machine learning on its own data, or AI infrastructure. "AI as one feature" means the product works without it. "Only say AI" means the deck names AI but never says what it does, or the AI is only planned. "Reached the investment committee" means the application got past our first screen. Each deck is read against these definitions; a company whose deck only names AI may still have real AI it did not explain. Shares are of the applications whose pitch deck we read, not of every application we receive. The link between the deck and the outcome is an association, not a cause.
- Updated: 12 October 2026.
BADideas.fund, "Will an AI startup stand out to CEE VCs?", updated 12 October 2026. https://badideas.fund/answers/ai-startup-stand-out-cee
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- What are startups in CEE building right now?
Who we are
We are a pre-seed and seed fund for founders in Central and Eastern Europe. We have built and sold companies ourselves, and since 2022 we have backed more than 40.
We back founders who see something about their market that others do not see yet. They want to change how a whole industry works, and they start small.
Good founders rarely fail on the idea or the product. They fail on selling it. We give your company hands-on help from go-to-market operators who grew Zendesk, Square and Scale AI.