How big a market do founders in CEE claim in their pitch decks?
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, and each country with enough applicants to show. Countries with fewer applicants are still counted 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.
Also answers
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
- 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: 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 founders in CEE claim in their pitch decks?", updated 27 September 2026. https://badideas.fund/answers/market-size-in-pitch-deck-cee
Read next
- What tools do founders in CEE make their pitch decks with?
- What slides do founders in CEE put in a pre-seed pitch deck?
- How many competitors do founders in CEE name in their pitch deck?
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