Are CEE rounds smaller than in W. Europe?
They ask for larger rounds. 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. Western Europe is shown above. We show each country with enough applicants; smaller countries count only 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 what your own costs need. Lower salaries in CEE mean the same milestone costs less; a smaller round can buy the same runway.
- Set your price for 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.
Related questions
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
- 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, "Are CEE rounds smaller than in W. Europe?", updated 27 September 2026. https://badideas.fund/answers/cee-vs-western-europe-round-size
Read next
- How much do pre-seed startups in CEE raise?
- Do CEE startups with revenue raise more?
- How many CEE startups raise pre-revenue?
- How much runway should a CEE pre-seed buy?
- Should CEE startups sell at home or abroad?
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.