How big a market do CEE founders claim?
Most claim billions. CEE founders who applied to BADideas in 2026 so far and sized their market put the total at a median of €23 billion, with half between €4 billion and €103 billion. 24% built the number from the bottom up, from customers and prices, up from 14% in 2025.
The figures
| Total market claimed, CEE, 2026 (to date) | Bottom quarter up to | Median | Top quarter from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total addressable market | €4 billion | €23 billion | €103 billion |
| CEE applicants sizing their market | 2025 | 2026 (to date) |
|---|---|---|
| Median total market claimed | €35 billion | €23 billion |
| Built bottom-up | 14% | 24% |
In BADideas application data, a bottom-up market size is still the exception, though it is becoming more common.
What is changing
The median claim is lower than in 2025, and more founders build it from customers up. Market claims vary too widely to show by quarter.
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 | Median market claimed |
|---|---|
| All of CEE | €27 billion |
| Baltics | €27 billion |
| Latvia | €26 billion |
| Estonia | €28 billion |
| Lithuania | €31 billion |
| Poland | €23 billion |
| Ukraine | €21 billion |
| Romania | €17 billion |
| Czechia | €31 billion |
Median market claimed: highest in Czechia (€31 billion), lowest in Romania (€17 billion).
What it means for you
- Size the market you can reach first. A bottom-up number (customers you can sell to, times what they pay) convinces more than a global total.
- Show the path from there. Investors want to see how the first market grows into the large one.
- Cite the source of a top-down figure. A market report with a date beats a round number with none.
Related questions
Should a pre-seed deck use a top-down or bottom-up market size?
Bottom-up, if you can: only 24% of CEE founders did so in 2026 so far, so it stands out.
How we measured it
- On this page: The market is the total addressable market the founder states, converted to euros. Founders define their market very differently, so the range is wide.
- Updated: 27 September 2026.
BADideas.fund, "How big a market do CEE founders claim?", updated 27 September 2026. https://badideas.fund/answers/market-size-in-pitch-deck-cee
Read next
- What tools do CEE founders make decks with?
- What slides go in a CEE pre-seed deck?
- How many competitors do CEE decks name?
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.