Dutch startup Innercrowd raised €750k to help European festivals turn fans into marketers through a WhatsApp‑based ticket sales platform powered by AI agents, aiming to boost early ticket purchases and expand across Europe.
Launchub Ventures, a Bulgarian early‑stage VC, closed the first tranche of its new Fund III with €65 million, aiming to raise over €75 million to back pre‑seed and seed startups across Central and Eastern Europe and the diaspora.
Romanian startup TNX is opening local sales teams in Bulgaria, Germany and Hungary to help enterprise software vendors generate new business, targeting 30 new clients and €450‑500k annual recurring revenue by 2027.
Bulgaria’s first unicorn Payhawk wants to challenge local players Pleo and Mynt in Sweden with its expense services and corporate cards. The company opened an office in Stockholm, partly with help from its Swedish shareholders, and aims for a US listing in a few years. Its main goal is to reach $1 billion in revenue, says founder Hristo Borisov.
Shelly Group, a Sofia‑based provider of IoT and smart‑building solutions, is being acquired by French energy‑management giant Schneider Electric for about €1.2 billion. The deal, priced at €70 per share, aims to combine Shelly’s hardware‑software platform with Schneider’s global reach while preserving Shelly’s entrepreneurial culture.
Bulgarian spacetech startup EnduroSat raised $205 million (€178 million) in a round co‑led by Riot Ventures and Atreides Management, bringing its valuation above $1 billion and granting it unicorn status, with a broad syndicate of investors supporting its satellite fleet expansion.
Romanian fintech Finqware, founded in 2018, is expanding its Open Banking platform across Central and Eastern Europe, opening new hiring pipelines in Romania, Hungary and Croatia and extending its banking connectivity to several additional countries.
Self Inspection, a San Diego‑based AI startup founded by Bulgarian entrepreneur Vince Gaydarzhiev, closed a $10 million round led by Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners with participation from strategic automotive and financial investors. The funding will be used to build new products, grow its enterprise client base and launch operations in Europe.
Estel Technologies, a Bulgarian AI‑native sales platform for tech staffing firms, raised €270,000 in a pre‑seed round led by Vitosha Ventures, with participation from angel investor Kerem Basak, to enhance its demand verification and lead‑scoring technology and expand across Europe and into the US.
Strategic Development Fund and Dronamics agreed to establish a joint venture for drone manufacturing in Central and Eastern Europe.