How many CEE startups raise a Series A?
Startups in Central and Eastern Europe closed 29 Series A rounds from January to September 2026, against 39 a year earlier, with a median round of €8 million. Baltic startups closed five of them, against 12 in the same months of 2025.
The figures
| Series A, January to September | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Rounds, CEE | 39 | 29 |
| Capital raised, CEE | €382 million | €365 million |
| Rounds, Baltics | 12 | 5 |
| Capital raised, Baltics | €79 million | €73 million |
In the BADideas funding report, Series A rounds got fewer and the largest got larger. Half of this year's Series A rounds closed between €6 million and €15.2 million. The top quarter starts at €15.2 million, against €10 million in 2025. The largest are Viktor (€68 million), Cyber Swarm (€46 million) and Frankenburg Technologies (€30 million).
What is changing
| Calendar year | Series A rounds | Capital raised | Median round | Top quarter from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 40 | €229 million | €6.1 million | €8.7 million |
| 2025 | 50 | €463 million | €7.8 million | €10 million |
| 2026, January to September | 29 | €365 million | €8 million | €15.2 million |
| Series A rounds with known investors that included a fund based outside CEE | Share |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 66% |
| 2025 | 77% |
| 2026, January to September | 92% |
From Series A on, nearly every round includes money from outside the region. At pre-seed the share has held at about two in five every year.
Across CEE
| Series A, January to September 2026 | Rounds | Capital raised |
|---|---|---|
| Poland | 6 | €125 million |
| Romania | 2 | €64 million |
| Estonia | 3 | €47 million |
| Ukraine | 7 | €46 million |
| Lithuania | 2 | €26 million |
| Czechia | 4 | €21 million |
| Slovakia | 2 | €14 million |
| Hungary | 2 | €13 million |
| Bulgaria | 1 | €9 million |
| Latvia | 0 | - |
In the Baltics, Frankenburg Technologies (€30 million) and Saltz App (€20 million) are the largest Series A rounds this year.
What it means for you
- Plan for a Series A from investors outside the region. 23 of 25 Series A rounds with known investors this year included one.
- €8 million is the middle of the market. Half of Series A rounds closed between €6 million and €15.2 million.
- Fewer companies get there. Series A rounds fell to 29 from 39, while seed rounds fell only to 156 from 166.
Related questions
Is it harder to raise a Series A in CEE in 2026?
Fewer startups did it: 29 Series A rounds from January to September 2026, against 39 in the same months of 2025. Those that did raised more: the median round is €8 million and the top quarter starts at €15.2 million.
Do CEE Series A rounds need foreign investors?
Nearly all include one. In the BADideas funding report, 92% of Series A rounds with known investors in 2026 so far included a fund based outside the ten countries, up from 77% in 2025 and 66% in 2024.
How many Baltic startups raised a Series A in 2026?
Five Series A rounds from January to September 2026: three in Estonia, two in Lithuania and none in Latvia, raising €73 million together. In the same months of 2025 there were 12.
How we measured it
- On this page: Series A is the label the company announced or the source assigned; a round is placed by its size only where the label clearly does not fit. Round sizes are of rounds with a disclosed amount, in euros at about 1.10 US dollars to the euro. The foreign-fund share counts rounds with known investors where at least one investor is headquartered outside the ten countries. 2024 and 2025 are full calendar years in the table of years; 2026 runs to 30 September 2026. This is the Q3 2026 edition. Full method: CEE startup funding report.
- Updated: 14 October 2026.
BADideas.fund, "How many CEE startups raise a Series A?", updated 14 October 2026. https://badideas.fund/answers/series-a-rounds-cee
Read next
- How big are closed rounds in CEE by stage?
- How much did CEE startups raise in 2026?
- Which CEE country raises the most VC?
- How much ARR do you need for seed in CEE?
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.