Do founders in Western Europe raise more than founders in CEE?
They ask for larger ones. Founders from Western Europe raising pre-seed who applied to BADideas in 2025 and 2026 so far asked for a median of €580,000, against €400,000 for founders from Central and Eastern Europe. At seed the gap was €1.3 million against €1 million.
The figures
| Median round asked, 2025 to 2026 (to date) | CEE | Western Europe |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-seed | €400,000 | €580,000 |
| Seed | €1 million | €1.3 million |
In BADideas application data, the gap is widest at pre-seed, where founders from Western Europe ask for about 1.5 times as much.
What is changing
Founders from Western Europe are a smaller group in this data, so the comparison pools 2025 and 2026. Few founders state a valuation, so the valuation comparison below is indicative only.
Across CEE
CEE founders raising pre-seed who applied in 2025 and 2026 so far, and each country with enough applicants to show. Western Europe is shown above. Countries with fewer applicants are still counted in the CEE row.
| Where the founder is based | Median pre-seed round asked |
|---|---|
| All of CEE | €400,000 |
| Baltics | €400,000 |
| Latvia | €300,000 |
| Estonia | €450,000 |
| Lithuania | €350,000 |
| Poland | €400,000 |
Median pre-seed round asked: highest in Estonia (€450,000), lowest in Latvia (€300,000).
What it means for you
- Raise for your costs, not your neighbours'. Lower salaries in CEE mean the same milestone costs less; a smaller round can buy the same runway.
- Price against the investors you pitch. If you raise from Western European funds, expect their benchmarks, and show why your cost base is an advantage.
- Do not relabel your company to raise more. Investors look at where the team and customers are.
Also answers
Do Western European startups raise larger seed rounds than CEE startups?
They ask for more: a median of €1.3 million against €1 million for CEE founders raising seed.
Are seed valuations higher in Western Europe than in CEE?
Only slightly, among founders who stated one: a median pre-money valuation of €5.4 million for founders from Western Europe raising seed, against €5 million for CEE founders. The larger difference is in how much they raise, not what they say the company is worth.
How we measured it
- Source: applications founders sent to BADideas, enriched with publicly available information where applicable.
- Limits: these are CEE only and early-stage companies.
- On this page: Western Europe here is Germany, the UK, France, the Benelux, the Nordics, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland and Portugal, by the founder's country. These are founders who applied to one CEE fund, so founders from Western Europe are a self-selected group.
- Updated: 27 September 2026.
BADideas.fund, "Do founders in Western Europe raise more than founders in CEE?", updated 27 September 2026. https://badideas.fund/answers/cee-vs-western-europe-round-size
Read next
- How much are pre-seed startups in Central and Eastern Europe raising?
- Do startups in CEE sell at home first, or go straight to Western Europe or the US?
- How much do startups in CEE raise at MVP stage compared with once they have revenue?
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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.
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