How big are CEE teams when they raise?
A small team. CEE founders raising pre-seed who applied to BADideas in 2026 so far and stated their team size had a median of 3 people; those raising seed had 7. The round typically pays for 3 more hires.
The figures
| Team size, CEE, 2026 (to date) | Bottom quarter up to | Median | Top quarter from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raising pre-seed | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| Raising seed | 5 | 7 | 12 |
In BADideas application data, the median team is 5 people across all stages, against 6 in 2025.
What is changing
| Quarter | CEE applicants, median team size |
|---|---|
| Q2 2025 | 6 |
| Q3 2025 | 5 |
| Q4 2025 | 6 |
| Q1 2026 | 6 |
| Q2 2026 | 4 |
| Q3 2026 | 4 |
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 team size |
|---|---|
| All of CEE | 5 |
| Baltics | 5 |
| Latvia | 4 |
| Estonia | 6 |
| Lithuania | 5 |
| Poland | 6 |
Median team size: highest in Poland (6), lowest in Latvia (4).
What it means for you
- A small team is normal at pre-seed. Investors expect the round to pay for the first hires.
- Name the hires the round pays for. Roles and timing tell investors how the money turns into progress.
- Count people honestly. Say who is full-time, who is part-time and who is a contractor.
- Hire for the milestone. The first hires should be the ones that move the metric your next investor will look at.
Related questions
How many people does a startup hire with a pre-seed round?
CEE founders planned a median of 3 hires with the round in 2026 so far.
How many people does a seed-stage startup in CEE have?
A median of 7, with half between 5 and 12, among CEE founders raising seed in 2026 so far.
How we measured it
- On this page: Team size is the number of people the founder says work at the company, founders included. Founders who do not state a team size are left out.
- Updated: 27 September 2026.
BADideas.fund, "How big are CEE teams when they raise?", updated 27 September 2026. https://badideas.fund/answers/team-size-at-pre-seed-cee
Read next
- How many CEE teams have a technical founder?
- What backgrounds do CEE founders have?
- How much do pre-seed startups in CEE raise?
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.