In recent years, local initiatives aimed at promoting the Ukrainian language and the arts have gained particular popularity. Festivals, exhibitions, and educational events that bring together young people and experienced artists are held in many cities. Such projects contribute not only to cultural development but also create new opportunities for creative collaboration.

Technological progress also affects how information and creativity are distributed. Online platforms allow creators to share their works with a wide audience, and readers can quickly access new materials. This creates a unique space for the development of contemporary Ukrainian journalism, literature, and digital art.

Despite all the challenges, Ukrainian society continues to demonstrate resilience and a drive for development. People actively support educational projects, volunteer initiatives, and cultural events. It is thanks to this activity that a new vision of the future is taking shape — one that combines traditions, innovation, and openness to the world.

An average workday lasts 8 hours. Most of the time we spend it on plans, calls, endless tasks, communications between people, trying to meet the set KPIs and even exceed them. But how often do our eyes light up with satisfaction from this work? 

For Valentine’s Day, together with Everstar we invite you to find your perfect match — a profession in the language of your love that will significantly influence important processes and the lives of other people.

What makes your heart beat faster

What drives you forward when youre looking for a new job? Maybe its a big goal, a friendly team, the companys reputation, working conditions, or the salary.

And what if you enhanced your skills with meaning, depth, and interesting tasks, and gave them a shared purpose — work to protect your country?

In the article below — a list of current roles in MilTech by love languages: acts of service, words of affirmation, finding talent as a gift, product interaction, and attention to detail.

Choose yours to add more meaning to what you do every day.

Your love language — acts of service — managers 

Managers in MilTech are the drivers of the entire ecosystem, where technologies become the answer to complex challenges, and every participant feels like part of a large and valuable goal. You are the one who moves all the processes to bring to life the product an entire team is working on.

https://staging.ain.ua/2026/05/05/its-a-match-iak-znaiti-profesiiu-v-miltech-za-svojeiu-movoiu-liubovi/

See more

Our recruitment center

I went through the testing flow you described and didnt encounter any errors.

https://staging.ain.ua/analytics/

Analytics

https://staging.ain.ua/2025/07/13/stattia-v-analitici/

This was reported by Ukraine's Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko.

The supervisory board of NEC «Укренерго» approved three state representatives — Yurii Boiko, Mykola Brusenko and Yehor Perelyhin.

Anton Bendyk was appointed to the supervisory board of Оператора ГТС.

The candidates were submitted by the Nomination Committee — the body responsible for selecting independent and state representatives to supervisory bodies of state-owned companies.

Separately, the government announced the launch of a new competition for the supervisory board of «Укргідроенерго».

The reason is the expiration of the terms of most of its members. The Ministry of Economy was tasked with conducting the selection together with the company.

What preceded

After operation «Midas», which was carried out by NABU and SAP, the government terminated the powers of the supervisory board of «Енергоатом».
https://staging.ain.ua/2025/10/06/testing-sqs-2/

The Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture had to submit a new composition of the supervisory board for government approval within a week, in consultations with international partners.

The new board's tasks are to restart management, conduct an audit and cooperate with the investigation.

https://staging.ain.ua/2026/05/14/uriad-onovliuje-nagliadovi-radi-energokompanii-novi-priznacennia-v-ukrenergo-ta-operator-gts/

https://staging.ain.ua/2026/01/28/xto-takii-menedzer-produktu-shho-maje-znati-upravlinec-na-cii-posadi-eduard-malcev-kmbs/

https://staging.ain.ua/2026/01/28/xto-takii-menedzer-produktu-shho-maje-znati-upravlinec-na-cii-posadi-eduard-malcev-kmbs/

On November 16, 2025, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyi announced changes in the leadership of ARMA, the State Property Fund and energy institutions (including НКРЕКП and the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate). 

The next day, November 17, the Cabinet of Ministers approved a plan to reboot management in the energy sector. The government endorsed measures to renew the composition of supervisory boards and executive bodies of state companies in the fuel and energy sector.

At the beginning of December, after a meeting with government officials, the president announced the dismissal of a significant number of members of the supervisory boards of state energy companies. At the same time, the Ministry of Economy received instructions to inform international partners about steps to strengthen trust in Ukrainian institutions.

On December 15 the Cabinet of Ministers launched the selection of candidates for the supervisory boards of a number of strategic energy enterprises. This concerned the following companies:\

Read more

• JSC «Укренерго»;
• NAEC «Енергоатом»;
• JSC «Укргідроенерго»;
• LLC «Оператор газотранспортної системи України» (ОГТСУ);
• PJSC «Центренерго»;
• JSC «Українські розподільні мережі»;
• JSC «Оператор ринку»;
• JSC «Енергетична компанія України».
• https://staging.ain.ua/2025/07/13/stattia-v-analitici/
• https://staging.ain.ua/2025/07/13/stattia-v-analitici/

Read also: The government appointed a new composition of the supervisory board of «Нафтогаз». Who joined it?

Local residents are already actively using the new location, noting its comfort and accessibility. Plans include hosting cultural events, fairs — and open lectures. The project's initiators hope the space will become an important hub for community interaction and will contribute to the city's development.

AIN.Capital shares the key notes of the study.

VC investment in the Americas were higher than in Asia and Europe:

The US-backed companies attracted the largest share of VC investment globally in Q1’24, about $38.2 billion across 3,205 deals, including:

• a $4 billion raise by Anthropica;
• $704 million raise by battery materials company Ascend Elements;
• a $675 million raise by Figure AI;
• a $425 million raise by asthma-focused biotech Areteia Therapeutics;
• a $400 million raise by Mirador Therapeutics.

Asia attracted the second highest level of VC investment this quarter — $18.9 billion across 2,305 deals, led by three big raises in China:

• a $1.1 billion raise by EV company IM Motors;
• a $1 billion raise by AI-focused YueZhiAnMian;
• a $940 million raise by Yuanxin Satellite.

Europe saw VC investment increase slightly, reaching $17.9 billion across 1,798 deals. The largest deals in the region included:

• the $5.2 billion raise by Sweden-based green infrastructure company H2 Green Steel;
• a $431 million raise by UK-based neobank Monzo;
• a $415 million raise by Mistral AI in France, a $389 million raise by Netherlands-based grocery e-commerce company Picnic;
• a $334 million raise by France-based EV firm Electra.

Top areas for investments in Q1 2024:

• Generative AI remained a particularly hot area of interest for VC investors, both in terms of large language model driven solutions and solutions aimed at building generative AI capabilities into business verticals in order to drive real results and efficiencies. Ten of the world’s new unicorns in Q1 2024 were AI-focused startups.
• After dropping in late 2022 and 2023, investor interest in crypto and blockchain solutions globally increased again in Q1’24. As a part of this, VC firms have focused more due diligence on crypto and blockchain transactions and staffed up to ensure they fully understand potential opportunities.
• Due to global geopolitical tensions, interest in defense-focused technologies has continued to grow, particularly in areas like drone technologies, satellite technologies, and tech-based software solutions.

Europe showed small growth

• VC investment in Europe rose from $15.1 billilon in Q4’23 to $17.9 billion in Q1’24;
• The number of VC deals dropped considerably in Europe, faling from 2,419 deais in Q4’23 to 1,798 deals in Q1’24;

• The geographic diversity of VC investments also held strong during the quarter attracting, with 8 jurisdictions in the region, attracting at least one $100 million+ funding round in Q1’24, including Netherlands, France, Germany the UK, Spain, Israel, and Italy;
• The VC market in Austria continued to evolve in Q1’24, with a growing number of VC deals and increasing deal sizes compared to Q4’23, for example, during the quarter, Silotech raised a $20 million Series A round.

• The first branch office was opened in Barcelona at the address C/Gran de Sant Andreu, 413, Sant Andreu, 08030. According to the CEO of Nova Post in Spain, Oleksandr Pavlovsky, two more branches are planned to be opened later: one more in Barcelona and another one in Madrid.

And over the course of the year, we will actively develop the network of parcel delivery service points together with our partners. We plan to open five or six delivery points in each city along the coast: from Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, to Murcia, Malaga, and Estepona, as well as in Madrid,

Oleksandr Pavlovsky said.

• The delivery time from Ukraine is from 8 days. You can send parcels, documents, cargo up to 1000 kilograms. The post office will work every day.
  • Documents up to 1 kg — UAH 1,000;
  • Parcels up to 2 kg — UAH 1,050;
  • Parcels up to 10 kg — UAH 1,700;
  • Parcels up to 30 kg — UAH 3,000;
  • Cargo from 30 to 1,000 kg — UAH 120 per kg.

Since May, a courier delivery to any address will also become available. An additional payment of UAH 100 will be required for shipments of up to 30 kg, or UAH +120 for every 100 kg.

AIN reminds our readers that Nova Post has opened 89 branch offices in Estonia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Romania, Germany, Slovakia, Italy, Hungary, and Moldova.

• Founded in 2020 by Yaron Raz and Asher Hazanchuk, Neuronix AI Labs offers a solution that focuses on lowering computer vision AI cost and power consumption. Based in Sunnyvale, California, the company aims to reduce costs in sectors such as semiconductors, security technologies, and smart cities.
• According to the company, it enables the increase of hardware computing capacity to keep up with advancements in artificial intelligence. Currently, Neuronix boasts several patents and over two decades of industry experience among its team members.

• Initially, it was discovered by Depo Ventures and later nurtured to success with the strategic partnership of Tensor Ventures. Apart from the funds, Neuronix AI previously attracted investments from Frontures and Alchemist Accelerator.

Our involvement began when Yaron approached me as a mentor during the winter cohort of the Alchemist Accelerator in 2021. I immediately knew we had to seize the opportunity to invest. Despite being perceived as ‘too deep tech’ by many Silicon Valley funds at the time, I reached out to Tensor Ventures to join us. This American-Israeli-Czech collaboration has been instrumental in the startup’s journey, playing a strategic role in the success of Yaron and his team. It proves that investments in cutting-edge technology are worthwhile. I thank Yaron and Asher for their dedication and hard work, and wish them continued success under the umbrella of Microchip Technology,

Michal Ciffra from Depo Ventures commented.

• The exact amount of the deal was left undisclosed. The buyer, Microchip Technology, the leading semiconductor supplier of smart, connected and secure embedded control solutions, has a market cap of around $46 billion.

The sale of our stake in Neuronix is quite extraordinary given the fiercely competitive market in Israel. The success of this transaction is closely tied to the direct involvement of Tensor Ventures in the M&A process, and our extensive experience in the semiconductor industry, particularly insights from Intel,

Petr Ulvr, co-founder of Tensor Ventures, commented.

The transaction marks the second exit in Tensor Ventures’ portfolio, which held the largest share in the startup.

• Interactive Venture Partners is a US-based fund and fund management company, complemented by a Budapest-based team. Interactive Venture Partners provides early-stage investments in companies across industries in CEE, preferring some technology-based differentiation.
• The initial capital commitment of the fund is €50 million. For now, the fund has already made 6 investments, two of which were already announced: Mitzu.io and Captiwate. The fund will announce further investments soon.

We offer entrepreneurs US family office style investing with founder-friendly terms, mentoring, a long-term view, quick decision making, deep financial capacity for follow-on funding (if appropriate), as well as an international network,

Laszlo Czirjak, Managing Partner, Interactive Venture Partners, stated.

• According to Interactive Venture Partners, it supports startups seeking to grow by gaining access to larger markets and to a broader network. Additionally, Interactive Venture Partners is an affiliate of the Interactive Brokers Group of Companies, and its managed fund is supported by entrepreneur Thomas Peterffy, founder and Chairman of Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. 

The team of Interactive Venture Partners also claims that their mission is to create entrepreneurial wealth in the region, encourage more serial entrepreneurship, attract more institutional investment, and thereby bolster and grow the CEE startup ecosystem.

AIN shares the key details of the study, as well as shares insights on the CEE region.

Global trends in global usage of mobile data

• Singapore has the most affordable mobile data in the world, while Guinea has the least affordable data in the world.
• The United States of America sit at the 35th place out of 179 countries.
• Europe has the most affordable mobile data in the world, on average costing $21.96, equivalent to 1.37% of an average salary.
• The continent of South America has the cheapest mobile in the world ($16,90) but the lowest average salaries in the world, meaning the purchasing power of its residents is reduced.
• The sub-continent of Central Asia has the cheapest mobile data ($8,88).
• G7 countries (developed economies): United Kingdom (5th), Germany (13th), Italy (20th), United States (35th), Japan (41st), France (44th), and Canada (62nd) have mobile data more affordable than the global average.

It should be no surprise to see many European countries at the top of the study. These countries benefit from having a competitive mobile market which drives down prices for consumers. Coupled with having the highest wages in the world, almost more than double any other continent, means it is ahead of the competition when it comes to mobile data affordability,

Alex Tofts, telecoms expert at Broadband Genie, commented.

Eastern Europe

The region is the fourth cheapest for mobile plans. Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Moldova all have average data plans under $10,00. But because of lower wages than other parts of Europe, Poland is the only country in the region in the top ten for affordability.

• Mobile data as a percentage of salary: the average of 1.65%.
• Average phone plan cost: $14,95.
• Countries tested: 10.
• Total tariffs measured: 7,538.

Romania is ranked 27th (with only 0.95% of their salary spent on mobile data), Finland — 28th (1%), Lithuania — 34th (1.12%), Estonia — 47th (1.29%). Ukraine ranked 52nd in the worldwide ranking (out of the 179 countries included in the research). On average, residents of Ukraine spend 1.37% of their salary on mobile data, succeded by Moldova, Latvia, and Belarus.

Most non-profitable companies reflexively start investing in marketing and focus all efforts on it. Unfortunately, it’s a monkey job. When a company’s processes are not ready for scaling and cannot meet the needs of current clients, how can one expect this to change with new customers? This is where I start conversations with businesses that are hiring me as an advisor at Wiseboard.

To achieve all three pillars of success, effective delivery processes, a strong matrix organizational structure, and clear and standardized efficiency metrics are needed. Last year at Yalantis, we discovered that 65% of our new clients came from referrals. They came to us through recommendations from our existing clients, with whom we had actively expanded our collaboration. Our delivery and account management generate 70-80% of revenue. This is an achievable KPI that technological businesses should be aiming for. Here’s where to start to achieve this.

Check if your company is ready for scaling: main blockers and solutions

In the Ukrainian IT landscape, there are several typical obstacles to company growth. Here’s what these symptoms are and how to spot them in your business:

Blocker #1: The company isn’t making a profit due to low-margin projects and unnecessary expenses.

Projects usually become low-profitable, when they involve senior-level developers with a fair compensation level. While the client is satisfied with the quality, the profit margin remains low. This can happen when an employee’s grade has grown during the project, but their rate changes haven’t been negotiated with the client.

Solution: Clean the landscape – eliminate unnecessary tasks and optimize priority processes.

Analyze the market conditions, your employees’ grades and rates, as well as project margins. This will enable you to have a meaningful discussion with the client about raising rates or replacing seniors with mid-level developers. A common practice is to review rates with clients annually, typically by 2-3%.

The next step is to conduct an audit and identify, what wastes developers’ time but doesn’t generate profit or additional value. It usually might be internal developments lacking a clear monetization strategy or reputational value. Keep a cool head while analyzing each project: some might not be profitable but contribute significantly to your reputation, provide high-quality referrals, or help you enter a new niche and gain expertise. If not, get rid of them and focus your efforts on other developments.

Blocker #2: Absence of business development function

Without business development, a company doesn’t understand its customers, doesn’t measure if they are satisfied with the service, doesn’t know how their business is structured and what touchpoints may arise in the future, doesn’t work with the customer’s network and generate referrals. If there’s no consistent communication or dedicated business developers, if data isn’t organized systematically, clients will start leaving after 1-2 months of collaboration or unexpectedly terminate long-term contracts.

Solution: Establish a business development department and designate employees responsible for it.

You can only manage what you can measure. Therefore, building a business development direction should start with understanding what “effective work” means for your client and which metrics can evaluate it. Formulate these metrics into an internal standard and appoint team members responsible for communication and gathering feedback from clients.

In a small company, business development can even be handled by one person, as long as they have clear KPIs and responsibilities: stakeholder communication, risk assessment, satisfaction level evaluation, and finding ways to scale. This function can be integrated into different roles: delivery manager, account manager, or client success manager.

Blocker #3. Lack of internal standards and policies, leading to resource dependency

A common mistake is the absence of precise internal standards in project management, testing, business development, HR, etc. These documents may seem to be an unnecessary bureaucracy, but in fact, they are the shortest path to building human-independent systems.

Standardized processes help onboard new employees and avoid becoming dependent on highly skilled professionals. People may leave, get sick, go on vacations, or switch to other projects. If a company lacks internal standards for their roles, it will spend an incredible amount of time on hiring, or compromise against the business interests. As a result, there may be “broken” gross and net margin metrics.

Solution: Standardize the delivery processes

The company should have clear and precise technical and organizational documentation that describes all processes and requirements in delivery. It should be approved at the C-level, understandable, and accessible to the entire team.

Blocker #4. Weak motivation system

Motivation and development are essential parts of corporate culture. From my observations, financial motivation works for a maximum of two months; after that, this stimulus loses its effectiveness. When a company has a proper and transparent motivational system that engages all team members equally, people find it interesting for long-term cooperation, even working on the same project.

Solution: Find the optimal motivation for your team

Develop a value proposition for employees, that goes beyond financial bonuses: career growth, learning opportunities, involvement in an important mission, etc.

Blocker #5. Absence of delivery-centered organizational structure

A company with up to 100 employees can be driven by the founder’s enthusiasm. Beyond that, it’s necessary to build a strong matrix structure and processes that will work effectively for 200 or 500 employees, considering the interests of all parties (teams, clients, and the company itself).

Solution: Build an organizational structure with delivery and business development at its core

Build the organizational structure based on delivery and business development as the main sources of revenue. They are responsible for stakeholder communication, risk assessment, and scalability. These departments should be served by others — such as recruiting one. Other departments transform into service structures that help delivery generate more revenue.

Getting rid of all these blockers will be the beginning of effective business scaling. A healthy delivery can be recognized by the following signs:

• You know your client, their problems, and growth potential.
• You are aware of your client’s plans and goals and know how you can help them achieve them.
• You regularly measure NPS and consistently improve collaboration.
• The company has at least a 45-50% gross margin.
• Margins do not fall below 10-15%.

Last, but not least. Company transformation takes time and can be painful. Some team members may not be ready for scaling and growing their competencies. Along with the implementation of changes in the company, you may have to part with those team members who are not ready to align with the business goals. These are inevitable losses, but through them, you will find change agents and build a team, motivated to grow and drive the company’s development.

Author: Denis Rudenko, advisor on Operations and Delivery at Wiseboard and CEO of Yalantis.

• Purple Ventures’ Fund I was launched in 2018 by Jan Staněk. Currently, its total funding amount is €15 million. Purple Ventures is focused on backing startups in the pre-seed and seed stage. The fund has supported over twenty companies in six years. A few of them are CEE startups such as Hedepy, Tatum, Choice, and Kardi AI.

About Fund II

The second fund will be open to external investors. It will focus on startups from the CEE region with teams in the EU. The ticket size will be from €250,000 to 750,000.

The fund plans to invest in various emerging segments such as:

• Digital Health;
• SaaS;
• EnergyTech;
• Creator Economy;
• Security;
• EdTech;
• E-commerce;
• Deep Tech;
• IoT.

In the past six years, we have been able to identify a number of interesting companies. However, we can clearly see that the potential of the market is many times greater and that with the help of external finance we can achieve many more interesting opportunities,

Jan Staněk, co-founder and Managing Partner of Purple Ventures, commented.

Purple Ventures plans to invest the first €14 million this year, while the rest is going to be collected within the next two years. In addition to the funding, Purple Ventures will continue offering guidance to the startup founders, acting as mentors and advisors. The first exits are planned after 2028. 

We recognize the need for representation for women in this industry. Many women possess knowledge and skills in investing, but they may not have had all the opportunities to fully explore this field. Others have the very relevant technology and scientifical background but were never introduced to the investment arena as a professional opportunity.

That’s why SUPERNOVAS was established — to prioritize the interests of women and provide them with a platform to thrive. The modern investment industry requires the inclusion of women, and we have tailored our program to be inviting and inclusive.

Gender disparities persist in the investment sector, and women deserve to have their voices heard and their potential shown. This industry is constantly evolving and full of innovation, and women from technology have a vital role to play in shaping the future of investment. Therefore, it is crucial to reduce the gender gap in entrepreneurship and the investment ecosystem.

The Essence of SUPERNOVAS and the Activities Within It

Now, what is the essence of SUPERNOVAS? It is a large-scale, innovative programme for women that supports their growth in the field of investments in startups. It has several initiatives included. From networking opportunities to professional growth, these activities will represent your potential and will allow you to make a giant step forward.

Some key activities:

• Women Investment Network

Networking allows women in the finance field to feel more comfortable, connected, and empowered. And networking is especially important for women in need of an open and empathetic professional environment. Participation in the Women Investment Network will help women around the globe get the most out of this amazing professional opportunity.

• Rocket Up

This programme provides expert support to women-led startups to achieve successful international expansion in Europe. With Rocket Up, you will be able to develop your expansion strategy and enter the European market.

• Women2Invest

This programme facilitates women with a background in STEM to break into the investment ecosystem. Women2Invest is a training program on investment and offers networking opportunities, as well as the chance to get an internship or full-time job in top European investment funds. 

• Data Room

Data Room is a tool that gathers updated data on female-led startups supported by EIT with the goal of increasing the availability of pipelines for investors conscious of gender aspects.

• Women Leadership Programme

The Women Leadership programme is created to inspire and enhance the leadership skills of female entrepreneurs. The world needs more female stars in the entrepreneurial field, and with training and networking events available within this programme, you will feel empowered and ready to reach new horizons. In addition, the business coaching and mentoring opportunities for career development will provide you with more advanced knowledge in the field.

The entrepreneurship and investment ecosystem of tomorrow will be driven by women. With more talented, experienced, and educated female professionals, there will be more opportunities for innovation and growth. SUPERNOVAS is the launching pad to impulse these women to shine.

There is a gender diversity gap in the investment industry and tech startup arena. Only 15% of tech startups are founded or co-founded by women. Women-led startups raise less funding than their male counterparts, with only 2% of venture capital going to all-female teams in Europe and around 5% to mixed teams. 

SUPERNOVAS goes beyond simply including women in the ecosystem. It is a platform that offers empowerment, freedom, and inspiration to women. That is why it is crucial to take advantage of opportunities like SUPERNOVAS.

For more information and to get involved, we invite you to visit the SUPERNOVAS website and register today. The modern investment industry requires the inclusion of women, and we have tailored our program so that it would be inviting and inclusive.

AIN shares the list of these key factors that investors prioritize when evaluating startups for investment written by Yordan Zarev, Partner at New Vision 3 Fund. You can read the insights into what makes a startup truly stand out in the eyes of investors in the original publication here.

1. Unique Value Proposition:

Startups with a unique value proposition that solves a real problem for customers and offers a clear competitive advantage are more likely to attract investment. According to a study by CB Insights, 42% of startups fail due to a lack of market need. Investors look for startups with innovative products or services that differentiate them from competitors.

2. Strong Team & Founder Commitment:

Investors often prioritize startups with a talented and experienced team capable of executing the business plan. According to research by Harvard Business Review, 23% of startup failures can be attributed to team-related issues. A strong and resilient team with a track record of success, relevant industry expertise, and complementary skills is a positive sign for investors. Investors evaluate the commitment and vision of the founders or founding team. Startups with passionate founders who are fully committed to the success of the venture and have a clear vision for the future are more appealing to investors. Founders with a clear mentality of scaling teams by hiring top talents at key positions and delegating key processes to them (instead of micro-managing their business) are also critically assessed by VCs. 

3. Market Opportunity and Demand:

Investors are interested in startups addressing large and growing markets with significant potential for disruption or innovation. According to Statista, global venture capital investment reached $300 billion in 2020, with a significant portion allocated to startups in high-growth sectors. Startups that can demonstrate a deep understanding of their target market and a clear strategy for capturing market share are more attractive to investors. Scalability is a factor too, meaning the ability to expand into new markets, serve a large customer base, and increase revenue without proportional increases in costs.

4. Business Model & Traction:

Investors assess the viability and sustainability of the startup’s business model, including revenue streams, pricing strategy, and customer acquisition and retention strategies. According to PitchBook, startups that successfully raise Series A funding typically have an average revenue run rate of $1.5 million. Investors want to see evidence of traction and progress, such as user growth, revenue generation, partnerships, or product development milestones. Startups that have achieved meaningful milestones demonstrate validation of their business model and potential for future success.

5. Intellectual Property:

Startups with proprietary technology, patents, or other forms of intellectual property protection may have a competitive advantage and be more attractive to investors. According to WIPO, global patent applications reached 3.3 million in 2018, highlighting the importance of intellectual property in today’s innovation-driven economy. Investors look for startups with defensible intellectual property rights that provide a barrier to entry for competitors.

6. Fit with Investor’s Portfolio:

Finally, investors consider how well the startup fits with the VC model, their investment thesis, portfolio strategy, and risk appetite. Startups that align with an investor’s areas of interest, expertise, and investment criteria are more likely to receive funding.

Securing investment is a critical milestone for startups looking to scale and succeed in today’s dynamic business landscape. By understanding and emphasizing these key factors—ranging from a compelling value proposition to a strong team and strategic market positioning—startups can enhance their attractiveness to investors and pave the way for long-term growth and success. With the right combination of innovation, execution, and alignment with investor preferences, startups can unlock the support they need to realize their vision and make a lasting impact in the market.

About New Vision 3

New Vision 3 is one of the most active VC funds across the CEE region, particularly in Bulgaria. NV3 invests in early-stage technology companies in fintech, AI, blockchain, shared economy, e-commerce tech, green energy, frontier tech. The fund’s commitments amount to €22.3 million. Throughout 2023, the fund managed to secure several big deals in the market. You can read the details in our interview with Zlatolina Mukova, Managing Partner at New Vision 3, here.

AIN had the opportunity to interview Zlatolina Mukova, Managing Partner at New Vision 3, discussing the fund’s activities in 2023 and plans for 2024, as well as talking about the CEE and Bulgarian markets.

Tell us about New Vision 3.

New Vision 3, as you might guess from the name, is founded by veterans in the VC industry in Bulgaria. Myself, a team manager at the Bulgarian Post-privatization fund back in 1999, joined by Konstantin Petrov, a start-up founder at investee company at that time, and both of us partners at Neveq1 ( 2007 ) and Neveq2 (2012) funds, Jordan Zarev  and Alexander Terziyski, investment professionals at Neveq2, and Jordan Stoyanov and Filip Genov, bringing solid banking VC experience from the largest Bulgarian bank. NV3 operates from Sofia, Bulgaria, and invests in fast-growing tech companies, which aspire for the leading position in their domains on the local and/or global markets. 

NV3 invests in early-stage technology companies in fintech, AI, blockchain, shared economy, e-commerce tech, green energy, frontier tech. To 100 years of joint experience in venture capital, €50 million investments in local start-ups, three VC funds, over €50 million co-investments, the team adds a success record of 7 exits to multinational players, mostly listed on the West European and US stock exchanges. The fund manager is a proven partner of visionary entrepreneurs creating new global technology solutions and business models from East Europe. 

NV3 fund commitments amount to €22.3 million, where the leading co-investor is the Fund of Funds in Bulgaria with a commitment of €19.1 million provided by the operational program Innovation and Competitiveness 2014 – 2020, co-financed by the European Structural and Investment Funds.

2023 seemed like quite a busy year for NV3, with nearly a dozen new investments announced only in Autumn. What is the exact number of closed deals in 2023, and how did you manage to do it?

We invested in 18 companies in 2023, which was the last year of our investment period. But the preparation of the deal pipeline started in previous years. And most of the deals come from our network of contacts. As we are so long on the market we are very well connected, moreover some of the founders from our previous funds are already investors themselves bringing a lot of contacts, but also knowledge in the tech space which helps to validate the hypothesis of candidates for investment. Our rich experience also helps to close deals faster.

Can you tell us more about the recently announced Autumn batch of 7 startups?

• QuarkXR is a company we have been following for a few years. It develops a Next Gen compression and streaming Technology, an ultra-fast software solution that provides low-latency wireless transmission.
• CoLumbo reads spine MRI scans better and faster than humans. The software has a CE mark, FDA 510(K), and TGA clearance. The key novelty of CoLumbo lies in the unique machine learning algorithm, based on fully convolutional neural networks combined with medical domain knowledge. Health tech is one of our target sectors and we are very happy to have been able to invest in such a promising company.
• 365 Data Science provides a holistic data science and AI training, including the technical expertise and soft skills needed to ensure long-term success in a dynamic job market. Its courses and projects are based on real-life use cases people can expect when they get hired. Job candidates can verify their data and AI skills with industry-recognized certificates and get a desired job.
• AdScout is an ecommerce tech company that builds a network of trusted recommendations, connecting satisfied users with popular brands. This is our second investment in this sector, and we believe it will be a game changer in the way people make buying decisions.
• Vibejobs is a job platform in Viber that enables companies to find and attract Blue-Collar Workers utilising a chatbot-based solution for communication and recruitment automation. The platform is making digital hiring accessible to all people looking for jobs which are currently underserved.
• Bronia is a deep tech company specialized in next-gen intelligent & autonomous security solutions. Its AI-based acoustics signal processing platform leverages state-of-the-art proprietary technology to identify sounds of interest, locate their sources and act smartly across a variety of industry and security scenarios.
• eLando is a professional services company that provides innovative technology solutions using top notch delivery methodologies. The high level of technical expertise, complemented by break-through thinking and creativity are the key to their success.

What usually makes you think “We need to invest in this startup”?

It’s a difficult question, but I would say we are not making emotional investments. We are analyzing every aspect of the business – market, product, team – before making any decision.

From your experience, can you tell us what differentiates Bulgarian startups from others in Europe?

I wouldn’t say there is much difference especially with the ones in Eastern Europe. Compared to Western European ones the difference is, surely, the lower amount of available capital, as well as weaker connections with the large markets in the EU and the US. Thus, startup founders in the region more frequently resort to bootstrapping strategies compared to their western counterparts.

Can you walk us through the specifics of the Bulgarian Startup and VC ecosystem? How is the ecosystem faring recently?

I believe the Bulgarian startup and VC ecosystem is one of the most developed ones in the region. Important driver for this development was the specialization of Bulgaria in the IT sector in the socialist past. Then, the successful programmes of the European Investment Fund aiming at building of professional fund managers and attracting private capital alongside EIF. Despite the overall VC funding downtrend, the ecosystem is faring quite well in Bulgaria.

Are there any notable changes between the ecosystem in 2019, when you started, and now?

NV3 started in 2019 together with a bunch of other VC funds targeting companies from the seed to growth stage. As of today, all 2019 vintage funds are beyond their investment period and one can feel the lack of capital on the market. Nevertheless, the Fund of Funds and the EIF are in the process of selection of fund managers for new funds and we hope they will be operational early next year at the latest. It is still very difficult to raise funds in Bulgaria without those two important players.

As regards investment proposals, we are evidencing a larger number of quality deep tech projects.

What are your general predictions on the market in 2024?

The market is recovering from the 2022 capital crisis. Still, the recovery is not as fast as we would like it to be. No doubt, AI will continue to be a bright spot for investors.

Can you share some of your plans for the future?

As you know, VC fund managers are in the startup mode themselves. Thus, our team is also looking into raising its next fund.

Years of IT sector development have led both company owners and investors to believe that this trend will continue for the next decade – the sector will steadily grow, and valuations and demand will remain consistently high. However, the development of any sector is cyclical, and IT is no exception. In recent years, there has been a general international decrease in demand for IT products and, consequently, a correction in the value of IT companies.

The Ukrainian IT sector has demonstrated continuous growth, even in the first year of the full-scale war, along with the export of IT services, which has set new records annually over the last decade.

The sharp decline in Ukrainian IT exports by 8.5% in 2023 marked a turning point: the profitability of IT companies is decreasing, and the share prices of some giants have halved (for example, EPAM’s shares dropped from $670 in 2021 to $309 in 2024, ENDAVA’s shares even more—from $167 to $37, and the valuation of private companies has been significantly adjusted. It is primarily due to the decline in profitability due to decreased demand for IT services not only in Ukraine but worldwide.

As early as 2022, American and European companies began reducing their workforce, although national companies experienced 2022 and 2023 relatively stable, showing slight profitability growth. However, by 2024, the overall downturn caught up with Ukraine, so almost the entire IT sector experienced a decline in revenue and profitability, resulting in a decrease in the valuation of companies.

The next few years will be particularly challenging for small companies with less than 200 employees. While market giants may survive the turbulent period due to long-term contracts and strong partnerships, small players should find a unique growing segment (such as robotics). With reduced demand for IT services, clients will primarily refrain from continuing support for the development of some products.

Shortly, it will not be about growth but more likely about the possibility of business preservation. Those owners who sold their companies in 2021 at the maximum price got a “winning ticket.” Today, large companies have decreased in value by 2–5 times; we have seen the shares of some firms drop by 20–30% in a day, with smaller IT companies experiencing even more declines.

The analysis of public deals in the IT market also shows a decline – previously at 7–8 EBITDA, today we only have 5–6. Business margins have significantly decreased, and this countertrend and market reshaping will persist in the coming years. 

With Capital Times’s presence in the markets of Poland, Romania, and Moldova, we see differences in company valuations. The most expensive companies in this sector are in Poland, where the valuation is at 7–9 EBITDA, while Romania is similar to Ukraine, and Moldova is even cheaper.

Experts at Capital Times see that today, the IT sector is more than ever willing to merge and acquire. Large IT companies will acquire small ones to consolidate expertise and expand client portfolios. At the same time, small firms will receive support for their business through M&A tools.

That’s why, today, it’s more important than ever to approach the valuation of companies intelligently, moving away from old, established methods. Previously, the valuation of IT businesses was essentially a valuation of the future. In the optimistic year of 2021, it seemed that “trees could grow to the sky,” so the values of some IT companies reached tens of millions. The global decline in demand and the war in Ukraine require different approaches to valuation, as Ukrainian companies face increased risk factors that affect the final value. 

For example, the first question clients ask – is the physical location of the development team. The presence of the development team in Ukraine in 2024 is a factor reducing demand.

So, let’s consider how to evaluate the value of an IT company. Two of the most common indicators for this assessment — EV/EBITDA and EV/Revenue. These are integral parts of analyzing companies’ financial health.

Indicator EV/EBITDA

EV/EBITDA is an indicator used to evaluate a company’s financial efficiency. It takes into account the overall value of the company, including debt and equity, compared to its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA).

The formula for calculating EV/EBITDA: Total company value / EBITDA.

• Total company value (EV) = Company’s market capitalization + Total debt — Cash and cash equivalents. 
• EBITDA = Earnings before taxes + Interest on loans + Depreciation + Amortization.

Indicator EV/Revenue

EV/Revenue is a financial metric used by investors and analysts to assess a company’s value compared to its revenue.

The formula for calculating EV/Revenue:

Total company value / Revenue

• Total company value (EV) = Company’s market capitalization + Total debt — Cash and cash equivalents.
• Revenue = Total income generated by the company from its core operations.

It is important to understand that the valuation of service-based and product-based IT companies is based on different principles. For IT service companies, it is essential to assess the business value considering profitability, often using the EV/EBITDA ratio. The applies to companies providing software development, consulting, technical support, and similar services. In these cases, the focus is on profitability, and the EV/EBITDA ratio allows us to compare the value of companies based on their potential to generate profits.

On the other hand, for early-stage IT product companies, where it is more important to assess the business value considering revenues from software sales or other products, the EV/Revenue ratio is often used. The indicated may relate to companies developing and selling software, games, web services, etc. In such cases, revenue reflects the volume of income the company generates from selling its products and allows us to evaluate the business value based on these revenues.

Therefore, the choice of valuation metric for an IT company depends on its specificity, business direction, and main sources of income.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The IT sector will remain the most active in terms of M&A, but the reasons for mergers and acquisitions have significantly changed. Now, it is a business support tool for small companies and expertise consolidation for large ones. Valuing an IT company will play a pivotal role in the decision-making process. It will help determine an objective price during the purchase or sale of a company, assess potential synergies and risks associated with business combinations, and prevent price dumping during market turbulence.

Author: Serge Hancharevich, Managing Partner of Capital Times

• Among its first three games to be released are: Queens, Inference, and Crossclimb. These games are based on puzzle nature. LinkedIn claims the approach to integrating games into its platform will help to unlock a bit of fun, deepen relationships, and hopefully spark the opportunity for conversations.
• The company has not announced the launch date yet, but confirmed that the project is in progress. The spokesperson confirmed the development to the news portal but did not comment on Microsoft’s involvement in it. He also added that the images shared by the researcher on X are not the latest versions.

We’re playing with adding puzzle-based games within the LinkedIn experience to unlock a bit of fun, deepen relationships, and hopefully spark the opportunity for conversations. Stay tuned for more!

the spokesperson said in a comment to TechCrunch.

About LinkedIn

LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft, which has its own gaming division, including Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax. In 2023, the company’s earnings in the games sector reached $7.1 billion, more than Microsoft made from Windows.

Earlier, LinkedIn tried out several different new features to boost the engagement of people in use of its platform. These features depended on efforts in online education and professional development, through to a publishing and news operation, bringing in more video tools and courting creators and influencers.

The field of AI is booming and becoming very profitable, but at the same time it raises concerns about biases, privacy, and even the future of humanity. Creators of the bill say that it will make the technology more human-centered.

Advanced position

• According to BBC, the law puts the EU at the forefront of global efforts to tackle the dangers of AI.
• China has already introduced a number of AI laws. In October 2023, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order requiring artificial intelligence (AI) developers to share security findings with the US government. But the EU went even further.
• The EU’s AI law is the world’s first and only set of mandatory requirements to mitigate risks, according to Enza Iannopollo, principal analyst at Forrester. She added that this would make the EU the “de facto” world standard for reliable AI, leaving all other regions, including the UK, to ” play catch-up”.
• The UK hosted an AI safety summit in November 2023, but is not planning legislation along the lines of the AI Act.

How the AI Act will work

• The main idea behind the law is to regulate AI based on its ability to harm society: the higher the risk, the stricter the rules.
• AI applications that pose a “clear risk to fundamental rights” will be banned, for example some of those that involve the processing of biometric data.
• AI systems considered as “high-risk”, such as those used in critical infrastructure, education, healthcare, law enforcement, border management or elections, must meet strict requirements.
• “Low-risk” services such as spam filters will face the lightest regulation – the EU expects most services to fall into this category.
• The law also creates provisions to combat the risks posed by the systems behind generative AI tools and chatbots, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
• This will require manufacturers of some so-called multi-purpose AI systems that can be used for multiple tasks to be open about the materials used to train their models and comply with EU copyright law.

Copyright laws

• The copyright provisions were one of the most lobbied parts of the bill.
• OpenAI, Stability AI, and GPU giant Nvidia are among a handful of AI companies facing lawsuits over their use of data to train generative models.
• Some artists, writers, and musicians argue that the process of “harvesting” vast amounts of data, potentially including their own work, from virtually all corners of the Internet violates copyright laws.
• The bill needs to go through several more stages before it officially becomes law.

Lawyer-linguists, whose job is to check and translate laws, will scour its text and the European Council — composed of representatives of EU member states — will also need to endorse it, though that is expected to be just a formality.

• In addition, the EU also lifted sanctions against Sergei Mndoyants, former vice-president of the russian business conglomerate AFK Sistema, as well as Jozef Hambalek, who heads the European branch of the pro-kremlin Night Wolves motorcycle club. The document does not specify the reasons for such a decision.
• Nine more people were also removed from the sanctions list due to their deaths, including Dmytro Utkin, the commander of Wagner PMK, who died together with Yevgeny Prigozhin during a plane crash in August 2023. At the same time, Prigozhin himself remains under sanctions.
• The decision to exclude these persons from the list comes into effect the day after its publication in the EU Journal.

What preceded this?

Arkady Volozh, was initially included on the EU sanctions list in June 2023. Soon after that, he left management positions at Yandex and the group’s international subsidiaries. 

In August 2023, for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale war, Volozh spoke out against russia’s actions in Ukraine, calling the full-scale invasion “barbaric.” Later, it became known that the businessman asked the European Union to remove sanctions from him.

Yandex is currently in the process of selling the russian part of the company. It is expected that a consortium of russian investors will gain control over the russian asset, and Arkady Volozh and foreign shareholders will share it in the Dutch company.

We would like to know: “What do you read here?” and “What would you like to read more about?”

Please fill in this short survey (1-2 minutes) and share your experience with AIN so that we can become an even better media. We will make sure every answer counts!

• The company was accused of preventing Spotify and other music streaming services from informing users of alternative payment methods besides the App Store. The fine consists of two parts: a basic amount of €40 million and an additional €1.8 billion, which will serve as a deterrent. The total fine of €1.84 billion, which is 0.5% of Apple’s global turnover.
• Apple criticized the EU’s decision, saying it would challenge it in court. The decision of the court in Luxembourg, the second most important court in Europe, is expected to take several years to process the complaint. Until then, Apple will have to pay the fine and comply with the EU order.

• The European Commission’s decision was based on a complaint by the Swedish music streaming service Spotify in 2019. The complaint was filed because of restrictions imposed by Apple and the App Store’s 30% commission. The EU regulator also said Apple’s restrictions create unfair trading conditions.

Details of investigation:

The European Commission opened a formal investigation into Apple’s rules for app developers in June 2020. These rules apply to the distribution of applications through the App Store. Margrethe Vestager, the European Competition Commissioner, said it was the first time the commission had added an additional amount to an antitrust fine as a deterrent.

Millions of European music streaming users are left in the dark about all the options available. In addition, Apple’s anti-stealth rules have forced consumers to pay more for such services due to the high fees imposed on developers and passed on to consumers,

the EU Commission explained.

Apple said Spotify doesn’t pay Apple a fee because it sells its subscriptions from its website, not the App Store. Spotify, in its part, welcomed the EU’s decision, but said there were other problems in other areas.

This course targets IT students with a foundation in programming basics, algorithmization, and OOP comprehension, yet it’s open to motivated and talented  learners regardless of their background. The selected students started their studies on 22 February. This marks the third launch of the program. In the previous year, Empat saw the graduation of 20 students from the Flutter Fundamentals program, focusing primarily on Flutter technology. Collaboration opportunities were extended to seven of them by the company.

“We have a strong technical team and more than ten years of experience working with startups – I think we should share this. In addition, we’ve had some great and talented engineers join us from previous recruitments,” says Nazar Gulyk, founder of Empat.

Empat boasts a diverse technical team with over a decade of experience in startup environments. The team is strongly committed to sharing their expertise with eager students. 

The comprehensive three-month program includes online lectures, weekly mentorship sessions across various disciplines, and independent assignments. Mentors provide crucial support, offering feedback and guidance to students on a weekly basis. Upon completion, participants will showcase their skills through the execution of an individual project.

This year, Empat School introduces two new programs: Web Development and Mobile Application Development. These tracks offer hands-on experience in creating websites and mobile apps, emphasizing practical skills and real-world projects to prepare graduates for successful careers in tech. Additionally, students will have the chance to join Empat as trainees, further enhancing their professional journey.

Empat is a Ukrainian startup studio with more than 10 years of experience in the Ukrainian and global markets. Over 300 successfully implemented commercial projects. Participation in more than 10 non-commercial Ukrainian projects.

Empat School is a school founded by the Ukrainian startup studio Empat. It offers free education for students in technical fields from the 2nd year onwards. The program is founded on lectures delivered by Serhii Tytenko, CTO at Empat, who conducts these lectures at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and is integrated into the real cases of a modern IT company. After completing the course, students receive a certificate from Empat, and selected individuals have the opportunity for employment in the company.

Tech startups are invited to apply to the Spring Accelerator 2024 that starts on March 21 and ends with a pitch event – Demo Day – at the end of May.

What can the startups get?

• As starting a technology company is a difficult challenge, AceON team set for themselves the goal to bring an international 2-month intensive program to founders, which is full of lectures with experts, on valuation, finance, developing MVP, pitching tips, term sheet, marketing, ESOP, and more.
• Furthermore, participants will have an opportunity to ask mentors for advice regarding, for example, software development, financial planning, fundraising, etc.
• AceON Accelerator is also an investor and can offer money to the best who will finish the program and meet the accelerator’s criteria. The amount of this investment is undisclosed, but the Autumn program offered up to €70,000 for startups.

Who can apply?

AceON seeks to support startup founders who aren’t afraid of challenges and hard work, are flexible,
and understand that to build a successful startup they need to find out what their customers really
want and accept the fact that the market changes constantly. What they look for:

• teams from Czechia, Slovakia, or Romania,
• committed teams or solo founders hungry for success,
• software or non-software solutions with a strong problem proposition,
• a scalable product with the potential for rapid growth in the global market,
• startups mainly in the pre-seed stage, but also idea-stage startups with a proven
  concept.

About the program

• D2SCALE is a transformative EU-funded project that aims to establish a sustainable scaling program, with a focus on deep tech and digital ventures in 10 market opportunities. The consortium recognizes the key challenges faced by ventures in their path to scale up and make an impact.
• Thus, the program will help companies address such challenges as access to pan-European growth funding, markets and internationalization, connecting to lead customers and procurers in both corporate and public sectors, team management assessment, etc.

The first open calls for startups, ventures, and stakeholders will start March 11, 2024. Before that the consortium is planning to announce the first 5 of market opportunities it will focus on.

Who is behind D2SCALE?

D2SCALE is launched by a consortium of 13 partners from all over Europe: Tech Tour, BRYCK, Maritime Street, NürnbergMesse, UNIMOS, Corporate Ventures Advisory, Zaz Ventures, AnyChange, The Recursive, Aalto University School of Business, Athens University of Economics and Business, as well as Miles Ahead.

AIN.Capital publishes the discussion transcript which the ZAKA VC family office shared with us.

The year 2023 in venture capital marked a significant change for investors

Global venture investment volume has declined rapidly since its peak in 2021 — by approximately 50% last year. However, this was more of a decline in capital invested than the number of companies backed. In Europe, the situation was very similar to the rest of the world, although even in Europe, the number of deals did not fall as much as the size of investments. The decline was felt mainly by growth-stage startups but did not significantly impact early-stage startups, which continued to attract the attention of investors.

Some of the larger foreign funds with a focus on multiple investment phases have focused a bit more on the early stage, where they have seen more opportunities, due to the problems of falling valuations in the late stage and also due to the virtual freeze of IPOs (initial public offerings on the stock market). Among other things, the currently favorable valuations in the early stages and the fact that the founders put more emphasis on financial sustainability rather than rapid growth and scaling while burning much money have contributed to this,

Andrej Petrus, CIO of ZAKA VC, explains.

The past year has also affected investment opportunities. There was less competition on the VC fund side as some funds could not raise new money to invest and focused more on supporting already invested companies and less on new investments.

Over the last period, we have seen much more focus on funds to assist and invest in existing portfolio companies that have not been able to raise additional funding from other funds at later stages. We’ve also seen many bridge rounds. There is less capital in the market compared to 2019-2021. However, less competition between funds creates room for more detailed analysis of potential investments and longer discussions on investment strategies overall,

Andrej Petrus adds.

The highest investment activity in VC in 2020 and 2021 resulted in very high startup valuations. This is a classic effect of high capital supply and lower demand. However, this has changed since the end of 2022, and valuations are now more normalized, even from the pre-Covid period.

• On the one hand, there is less capital, but on the other hand, many new companies and founders are still working on new propositions with high potential.
• Development in artificial intelligence has also brought about new technological and commercial opportunities.
• Both large corporates and small startup teams, which are much faster and more agile, are trying to jump on this technological trend.

For these reasons, the current period is perfect for investing in early-stage startups. Like the entire financial world, venture capital operates in cycles, dependent on new technological advances and innovations, public stock market activity, and the valuations at which companies are entered at each stage, determining future investment profitability. The current period in this cycle is very interesting for venture capital funds in the early investment stages.

The cost of creating a software product is steadily decreasing, and competition is increasing, which impacts the investment focus of funds.

The development of technology also affects the change of investment strategy or sector focus of individual funds. Creating a software product today is easier, cheaper and faster than ever. The arrival of cloud servers from Amazon Web Services in 2006 drastically reduced the cost of setting up a startup, where companies no longer had to buy their servers but used cloud servers from other providers. It triggered an extreme growth of new startups in the market.

This trend of lowering the costs of creating a software product continues strongly because of open source, no-code and low-code tools, and other infrastructure and technology already in place for developers. The reduced cost of creating a new software product naturally increases competition, the barrier to entry is reduced, the number of startups is increasing, and investors are counting on this. Defensibility is an essential element in the investment decision.

Over the past period, we have seen investment changes in different sectors. Interest in biotech, clean tech, energy, deep tech and defense tech is also increasing because of these sectors’ difficulty, uniqueness and, thus, defensibility. Investors are interested in industries that are harder to innovate. Conversely, sectors where innovation has been more accessible — fintech, consumer, and SaaS — receive slightly less capital than in previous years.

Artificial intelligence

In addition, the massive onset of artificial intelligence is significantly impacting the consideration of new investments. New technological advances in this area are not only favorable for new startups entering the market but AI is also being used extensively by existing well-established companies. The year 2023 brought the advent of LLMs (large language models) technology, which has been noticed and used by perhaps everyone. The year 2024 will be all about the robust implementation of AI as a technology into existing company processes to reduce costs and increase efficiency. VC investors are also exploring the opportunities that AI brings for their needs.

We are already testing some tools to help us find suitable companies for our portfolio and analysis. However, VC is still true about personal relationships, intuition and experience. The evaluation of an investment cannot be shifted to artificial intelligence; it can be helpful, but the final decision will always be up to people,

Andrej Petrus says.

Potential Hidden in CEE

Geographically, Central and Eastern Europe is becoming increasingly attractive for investors. More and more professionals and experienced individuals are getting involved in the startup community here, contributing to the growth and development of new projects. Innovative startups are thus arising in the CEE region, while investors worldwide are becoming increasingly aware of their potential and are also impressed by the capital efficiency with which CEE startups operate.

CEE is one of the fastest growing VC regions. Between 2017 and 2022, it grew 7.6 times in invested capital, which is twice the EU average, but we also saw a sharper decline in invested capital here in 2023. According to Vestbee, it was around 75%. According to Crunchbase figures, the year-on-year decline in the Czech Republic was 75.5%. So, capital is still limited here compared to Western markets. However, it is a good opportunity for investors to invest in the early stage because teams in Central and Eastern Europe are more capital-efficient. Sometimes they can create the same product as a comparable team in the United States or Western Europe for half the capital, and the quality of technology talent is very comparable,

Andrej Petrus explains.

Good companies make other good companies and are the basis of the ecosystem. This trend is accelerating in Europe.

Europe has good conditions for founding new startups and for the growth of unicorns. The number of new startup founders is higher yearly in Europe than in the United States. And unicorns, successful technology companies with a valuation of over a billion euros, play an essential role in the ecosystem. According to the State of European Tech report, data shows that unicorns are producing many new companies. Because of their experience in fast-growing successful tech companies, former successful company employees become founders and later start working on their startups, which is vital for the development of the whole ecosystem and the economy.

The unicorns founded in Europe in the 1990s produced around 6,000 new founders who created new companies in the following years. Unicorns founded at the beginning of the millennium have produced 50 % more new founders in even less time. This accelerated transformation trend from employees to founders continues with unicorns founded in the 2010s. This is a very positive indicator for Europe.

About ZAKA VC

ZAKA VC is a Czech-Slovak family-owned venture capital company which was created by combining the investments of the Zálešák and Kasper families. Their investment focus is on early-stage technology startups, primarily in Central Europe, the Baltic States, the United Kingdom, the DACH region, and the United States. ZAKA has invested in a total of 47 companies, which makes it one of the most active family venture investors in Europe.

Microsoft, Snap, eBay, and PayPal have cut hundreds or thousands of job positions since the beginning of January, according to Layoffs.fyi, an analytics platform that tracks employee turnover in the industry. Overall, 138 tech companies have laid off staff this year.

These losses are lower than in early 2023. Throughout last year, 263,000 jobs were cut in the tech sector. However, a number of companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Spotify, have announced their plans for optimization this year.

Why does it happen?

Analysts comment that the latest wave of layoffs indicates that companies are reallocating their resources to invest in new areas, such as generative AI, and demonstrate to shareholders that they continue to adhere to cost discipline.

Last year, massive cost-cutting in tech companies occurred in tech companies after they realized that the transition to a digital lifestyle did not last longer than COVID-19. During the pandemic, these companies would actively hire employees, expecting that the change in people’s behavior would be permanent.

However, when life began returning to its previous form, it turned out that there was no longer any need for such large teams. Therefore, they had to cut costs in different ways, in particular by reducing staff numbers.

This year’s layoffs seem to be more strategic than seasonal, said Daniel Kim, associate professor of management at Columbia Business School. “In 2022 and 2023, there was “downsizing” of the staff after the pandemic, i.e., the reduction of jobs that were considered redundant. But this year’s cuts are happening simultaneously with “active hiring” in new areas.

This trend has not bypassed Ukraine either. Recently, Grammarly, a platform for improving written English, announced the layoffs of about 230 team members worldwide, with 37 being from Ukraine.

Expanding the language coverage of Gemini Pro

After the successful launch of Gemini Pro in English last December, Bard expands its functionality to over 40 languages and 230 countries. The entire list can be found at the link. Now, users from Ukraine can take advantage of Bard’s text understanding and processing capabilities, accelerating their productivity in many areas.

Checking answers in Ukrainian

Special attention is paid to checking the answers. Now, when users click on the G icon, Bard will evaluate whether there is content on the web that supports that response. If it can be evaluated, click on the highlighted phrases to view the corroborating or conflicting information found by the search.

Creating images in Bard

Bard also introduced a new imaging feature powered by generative AI. English users in most countries can now create visuals for free using the updated Imagen 2 template. Simply enter a description and Bard will create photorealistic images, helping you bring your ideas to life.

In addition, in July 2023, Bard became officially available in 27 European countries, including Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria, as well as others from the CEE region.

AIN.Capital talked with ZAKA VC’s Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Jan Kasper about the fund’s activities and success stories in 2023, as well as further plans and predictions for 2024.

You can read the interview below:

Tell us about ZAKA VC. Who do you invest in, how much, and at what stages?

ZAKA is one of the most active VC family offices in Europe. We have an agnostic approach, with strong focus on software solutions across multiple business sectors as well as on scalable health and biotech solutions.

Our primary focus is on pre-seed and seed, but we are always happy to assess startups even in the earlier stages. Geographically speaking, our portfolio startups are active on all continents, but our activity is oriented primarily on Czechia and Slovakia, the Baltic countries, and the UK.

In 2023, which was also ZAKA’s fourth year, you had closed 20 new investments. Can you tell us more about these deals?

With a strengthening network in the health & biotech sector, startups in this segment dominated our new investments in 2023. I will mention, for example, ExcepGen (where we became a co-investor together with Y Combinator, RA Capital Management, and Sam Altman’s Apollo Projects), Olio Labs, Medisearch (both also backed by Y Combinator), or Eigen Therapeutics (backed by First Round and Alumni Ventures).

Outside of biotech, there were, for example, Spanish-based Webel (service marketplace), Austrian-based Tripmakery (group booking platform), or the Czech startups Cruxo (retail media platform), and Sharpgrid (DataTech in On-Trade and Hospitality).

What startups in the 2023 batch impressed you the most so far, in regards to their team, product, or growth?

All of the startups in biotech sector have made some major progress since our investment – however, these are not measurable in MRR or CAC/LTV. All of the teams are working hard on proving their concept, IP registration, crucial partnerships, etc. Among the non-biotech startups, Webel and Tripmakery are proving on monthly basis that they “hit the nail on the head” and perceive a growing demand for their products. 

Can you share with us the proudest moments of 2023 that you’ve experienced at ZAKA VC?

We are very proud of the yearly progress that we have made – our know-how, energy, and investment opportunities get stronger every day.Not even once in the last year did we think about the fundraising crisis; we have rather perceived it as a stronger opportunity to invest.

Given you have a diverse geography portfolio, what did you find most challenging about the startup and VC market in 2023?

As mentioned earlier, where others see challenges, we see opportunities. Our independence and EU-wide activity allows us to perceive the situation on different markets which has led to a stronger focus on the Baltics and the UK. These are the countries where we see many success stories and a strong ecosystem development.

Did you face any challenges yourself?

One of the challenges is the precising of our assessment process – continuously shaped by tech innovation, market development, our network, and increasing knowledge.

With the arrival of 2024, what plans or expectations does ZAKA have for this year?

We want to continue growing and investing even more. We are eager to learn and to be better every day, which we are working hard for. We are also taking steps to prepare a new fund in 2024. With fund size between €12-15 million it will be based in Prague and focused on pre-seed and seed phase, active in the Baltic region, UK, and extended to the US.

This is the first time we are opening our investment instrument to other investors – our future Limited Partners.

By judging the market last year, can you share any predictions for the near future?

We are in the era of increasing implementation of artificial intelligence which has a massive influence on how people live and do business. Generation Z people think, act and work differently. All the startups which leverage these changes in business (sustainability, edtech, healthcare, biotech, mobility, etc.) gain a strategic advantage. We believe that VC activity will largely copy these trends.

What tips would you give promising startups in the region who want to raise capital from investors or, in particular, ZAKA VC?

• Keep yourself concentrated and motivated and also, keep your mind clear.
• Be ready to easily explain the problem you are solving as well as why your solution and your team are the best to solve it.
• When fundraising, do your math. Prepare your argumentation for the round size, valuation, market size, pricing strategy, and your unit economics.

What is known?

• White Stork, Beiru-based technology company that provides solutions for startups, enterprises, and organizations, including cloud services, block-chain development, enterprise development, app & web development, data analytics.
• The startup is named in honor of the white stork, the national bird of Ukraine. The startup plans to mass-produce cheap, potentially disposable kamikaze drones that use AI for visual guidance. Drones will be able to operate even when GPS is jammed, making communication impossible. These UAVs will also carry a small amount of explosives.
• According to Forbes, the business registration documents were filed last August using a number of LLCs.

Schmidt’s comments

Schmidt has been calling for an increase in the number of drones for the war again Ukraine since the White Stork filing. Eric also claimed that after a few months of training, soldiers can operate drones that fly at speeds that are very difficult to shoot down. Each drone costs about $400.

Schmidt wrote another column in Foreign Affairs entitled “Ukraine Loses Drone War”. He argues that Ukraine and its allies need to invest in developing and scaling technologies that can counter russia’s new drones. According to him, Ukraine will need at least 2 million drones in 2024, and only half of them will be produced domestically.

Where did Eric Schmidt also work?

After his time at Google, Schmidt advised the US government on technology issues. From 2016 to 2020, he was the first chairman of the newly created Defense Innovation Council, where he helped advise the Pentagon on new technologies. Then, he chaired the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, which was created to make recommendations to the president and Congress.

Who has already been affected by the wave of cuts?

• Last week, SAP announced the layoff of 8,000 employees;
• Microsoft has cut 1,900 jobs in its gaming division;
• US-based fintech startup Brex has laid off 20% of its staff;
• eBay has cut 1,000 jobs, representing 9% of its full-time workforce;
• Amazon has cut hundreds of jobs at its Prime Video, MGM Studios, Twitch and Audible divisions;
• Earlier this month, Google cut several hundred jobs from various teams;
• Unity has announced that it will cut about 25% of its staff;
• Discord is cutting 17% of its workforce due to rapid growth and operational inefficiencies;

Why do layoffs occur?

This trend follows mass layoffs in 2023, when more than 277 companies shed about 90,000 employees. Although the economic outlook is improving, companies continue to follow an austerity strategy.

We need to better organize teams to increase speed, allowing us to be more nimble, combine similar tasks and make decisions faster,

Jamie Iannone, eBay CEO, told in its company blog post.

Forecasts for 2024:

According to ResumeBuilder, 38% of CEOs surveyed expect further layoffs, and about half of them have suspended hiring due to fears of a possible recession and the impact of artificial intelligence.

The implementation of AI itself may be a significant factor, with 40% of respondents planning to lay off during its integration process, following the example of Dropbox, Google, and IBM.

The companies planning to lay off in 2024, according to Business Insider.

• Citigroup plans to cut 20,000 jobs as part of corporate restructuring;
• Nike implements a cost-cutting plan that could cost up to $2 billion and include severance pay;
• Intel plans more layoffs through 2024, after five rounds of cuts last year;
• BlackRock plans to cut staff by 3%;
• Rent the Runway cuts 10% of office jobs as part of restructuring;
• Unity Software cuts off 25% of workforce;
• Salesforce cuts off 700 employess;
• Flexport reports about 20% workforce reduction.

The changes include more than 600 new APIs and tools that will allow startups and developers to offer their apps for download from alternative stores.

Changes to iOS

• More Stores — developers will now be able to host iOS apps on alternative stores.
• Other browsers — users will be able to choose a default browser other than Safari.
• Alternative payment methods — developers will be able to use alternative payment methods in their applications, apart from the App Store purchase system, but users will be warned about the risks.

Apple states that these changes bring new risks to users, including fraud, viruses, illegal content, and privacy issues. Any alternative store must pass Apple’s verification process before it can be used for iPhone.

Security measures

• Notarization for iOS apps — a baseline review that applies to all apps, regardless of their distribution channel, focused on platform integrity and protecting users.
• App installation sheets — at-a-glance descriptions of apps and their functionality before download, including the developer, screenshots, and other essential information.
• Authorization for marketplace developers — to ensure marketplace developers commit to ongoing requirements that help protect users and developers.
• Additional malware protections — that prevent iOS apps from launching if they’re found to contain malware after being installed to a user’s device.

Developers can learn more about the changes on Apple’s developer support page and start testing the new features today in beta mode.

Why is it important?

Apple’s changes will be taking place ahead of March 7, which is the time by which the company must meet the requirements of the Digital Markets Act in the EU countries. These changes will affect iPhone users and dedicated applications developers from startups across 27 countries, including Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Czechia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Finland, and many others.

Already, the new changes entail that many applications and games will come back to iOS. For example, Fortnite, a very popular multiplayer game, announced it can be installed on iOS again, via the EpicGames Store.

• The median CEE revenue multiple at the end of 2023 amounted to 3,30x annualized revenue (which is down 40% from an all-time high 5,51x in December 2021), and down 27% from this year’s record of 4,55x in September.
• Market capitalization of the CEE companies remained stable at €1.75 billion. The numbers are staying at this level since Q2 of this year.
• The most active period of 2023 was during the summer, as investors, both in the CEE and the US were mostly optimistic during this time.
  • The US revenue multiple was the highest in July (7,83x), while the CEE SaaS Index reached 4,55x in August.
  • The lowest multiples in the CEE and the US were in November (3,05x) and April (5,63x) respectively.

• For most of the year revenue multiples in the CEE were about 40% lower than in the US, but in the last two months of 2023 the gap increased to 50%.

Why is this important?

According to Crunchbase, global VC funding in 2023 reached $285 billion, the lowest level since 2017. All the while, European Ecosystem accounted for less than 20% of global VC funding in the past year ($52 billion). The data in Vestbee’s CEE SaaS Index only confirms the global tendencies where the market continues to slow down, following the activity boom during the last couple of years.

This is stated in the Pitchbook report on the global state of the VC industry in 2023. AIN.Capital shares key points of the report.

Global state of venture capital industry

• VC industry declined globally last year. Around the world, investors put $345.7 billion into startups, down 35% from what they spent last year and the lowest outlay since 2017. Mostly, investors put money into artificial intelligence startups.
• Fundraising for VCs also fell last year. Money raised by US venture investors declined by almost half globally, and globally funds raised $160.9 billion.
• The decline for the fourth quarter was less than for the whole year, reflecting trouble that started in late 2022. Globally, venture deals totaled $76.6 billion in the quarter, down from $94 billion a year earlier.

The US VC activity and its indicators compared to 2022

• The value of venture capital deals in the US last year fell to the level of 2019. According to a recent report by research firm Pitchbook, venture capitalists invested $170.6 billion in the US in 2023, over an estimated roughly 15,000 deals.
• US venture funds raised in 2023 $66.9 billion, declined by almost two-thirds from 2022. For the fourth quarter, US venture deals totaled $37.5 billion, down slightly from $39.8 billion a year earlier.
• However, while deal value fell to $4 billion in Latin America, more than half from the previous year, VC fundraising rose by more than 40% to reach $2 billion.

The Pitchbook report was recently criticized because Ukraine and several other European countries were omitted there. In addition, Pitchbook decided to highlight the terrorist state of Russia in this rating.

To the request why Ukraine was not included, Pitchbook answered that its map shared omits countries that saw fewer than 10 deals or less than €20 million invested between 2022 and 2023. However, according to DealBook, $218 million in VC and PE tech deal volume in Ukraine was only in 2022.

• FMFIB provides access to alternative financing for the Bulgarian economy through financial instruments co-financed by the EU shared management funds. In the previous investment cycle, FMFIB has successfully supported over 2,300 Bulgarian SMEs and made 220 equity investments in startups.
• The new fund is financed under the EU Programme for Competitiveness and Innovations in Enterprises and co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.
• The public resource provided amounts to €100 million, but it is expected to reach €126 million through the additional co-financing by private investors.

Entrepreneurship Fund will be structured as 3 separate funds:

• Early Stage Fund – €30 million public resource to support early-stage development (proof of concept) with tickеts of up to €1 million;
• Venture Capital fund – €30 million public resource focused on fast-growing companies with developed products, aiming to launch mass production or distribution to target markets with tickеts of up to €3 million;
• Growth Fund – €40 million public resource to invest in mature and fast-growing enterprises with tickets up to €4 million.

Currently, the fund of funds is focused on finding fund managers, who will be announced by the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025.

The success of businesses and influencers largely depends on their online presence, which, in turn, requires a shift in strategies, the exploration of tools, and a fresh approach to its construction. In this context, HeyLink.me is changing the digital rules of the game and serves as a powerful tool for business growth, expansion, and monetization. It creates new opportunities for influencers seeking an effective way to share their content, enhance their authority, and attract a more engaged audience. Convenient social media management, centralized link control, in-depth analytics, global impact, and monetization are just some of the advantages offered by HeyLink.me.

“HeyLink.me, with 4 million users, has long been revolutionizing the approach to creating and managing links for social media worldwide, offering unique features such as advertising and e-commerce tools. We are happy to become even a more active player in the Ukrainian market. It’s great to see the percentage of Ukrainian users continually growing. Some notable HeyLink.me users in Ukraine include the non-profit organization Razom for Ukraine, the charity fund Tabletochki, the educational platform Prometheus, the waste sorting station No waste Ukraine, the platform Concert.ua, online media Svidomi, music media Slukhach, the band Druha Rika, and others”. – says Anastasia Yevsiukova, Head of Business Development at HeyLink.me.

What Are the Advantages of HeyLink.me?

HeyLink.me is a new generation link-management platform offering social monetisation tools: Instant Checkout, AI-powered Analytics, Advertising Feature, NFTs, and Cryptolinks. The platform allows users to create, customize, analyze, integrate, sell, and earn money through just one link.

HeyLink.me is a globally accessible platform that boasts an active customer base of over 4 million customers spanning across 95 countries worldwide (as of the publication date). HeyLink.me stands as one of the most highly frequented websites on the web, attracting an astounding number of over 250 million visits each month. 

It’s worth noting that the platform was created in 2021 in Sydney, Australia, by entrepreneurs with Ukrainian roots, Olga Oleinikova and Kyrylo Medvediev. However, with 77% of the team members hailing from Ukraine, it can rightfully be called a Ukrainian innovative product.

The Uniqueness and Main Mission of HeyLink.me

HeyLink.me aims to help everyone earn money on social media effortlessly, effectively, and consistently. That’s why the HeyLink.me team, in official partnership with Google, developed and introduced a unique earnings feature called HeyLink.me AdSense. All users can enable this feature on HeyLink.me, and every time someone clicks on their relevant advertising banner, which appears right after their account passes verification, they will earn money. To get HeyLink.me profile approved, users must meet certain requirements set by HeyLink.me. These requirements ensure that the platform maintains a high standard of quality and helps users monetize their online presence effectively.

“At HeyLink.me, we understand how important it is to assist our users in engaging with their audience, promoting content, and maximizing their income potential. In this context, HeyLink.me is a game-changer. The platform levels the earning playing field for everyone and allows them to monetize content, regardless of having a large number of followers or brand connections. Moreover, it is our main competitive advantage over other services”. – adds Anastasia Yevsiukova, Head of Business Development at HeyLink.me.

Everyone can estimate their approximate earnings using a special calculator. To do this, users have to select the relevant category of their social profile/business and the region where their audience is active.

“HeyLink.me completely changes the approach to online presence today, giving everyone the opportunity to create a unique and profitable web profile. With its help, you can build your own personal brand page and earn money. Thanks to our innovative approach to creating a relevant service, we have the ability to change the digital rules of the game and influence the future of online presence on a global scale and in Ukraine especially”. – comments Anastasia Yevsiukova, Head of Business Development at HeyLink.me.

AIN.Capital talked with Roman Novacek, CFA and one of the Partners, about Presto Ventures’ activities and results, as well as the state of the CEE market in 2023.

It’s almost the end of 2023, could you please summarize Presto Ventures’ activity this year: How many investments were closed? How many of them were announced? Any exits this year?

In 2023, we’ve closed 15 investments so far, including Outfindo, CityPay.io, or Blindspot Technologies. Some deals are still waiting to be announced. That brings us to a total of almost 60 portfolio companies in Presto Ventures across two funds. 

Several companies in the portfolio are in exit discussions at the moment. That said, we prefer to be realistic and count on them only when the pen hits the paper. Fingers crossed two exits will close by the end of Q1 2024.

Last year Presto launched its €30 million Fund II. How much has been accomplished since the launch?

A lot has happened, I must say 🙂 We’ve proven we can effectively scale the company, analyzing more than 3,000 potential opportunities this year. Since its launch, Fund II has closed 40 deals. 

We’ve been building the firm gradually, starting with a solo GP and later a team of 2 people in the first fund. The second fund has grown from 7 people at the beginning to 15 team members at the moment. Over the last year, we’ve set up robust internal processes that enable us to cover the whole CEE+ region, including physical visits to countries such as Tajikistan or Ukraine.

Presto has also built a presence in new markets and strengthened our brand and reputation across the extended CEE region. We’ve successfully proven that our investment strategy – backing early-stage companies in Central and Eastern Europe, with the view of leading them towards raising the next round in the West – is sound and viable. 

Case in point: Keboola. This Czech data supercharger has just announced the largest Series A round in CE in 2023 (and 2nd largest in the entire CEE, at $32 million), with our participation. Presto led the previous Seed round in 2022 with the thesis of getting the company on to the VC path of raising a significant Series A. This was fully accomplished even faster than we had expected.

Last but not least, we’ve been able to select real winners – a number of our portfolio companies have successfully raised further rounds, including the ‘dreaded’ Series B of over €20 million, even in the currently tough economic conditions.

Are there any plans on launching Fund III in the near future?

Yes, we’re in the process of finishing materials for our Fund III, with a target size of €100 million. We aim to capitalize on the opportunities coming from the latest CEE market developments – one of the fastest growing regions for VC funding, yet claiming less than 10% of the total European startup funding.

We have a great track record, and a clear and proven investment focus. We’ll ramp up our activities to get to 30-50 new investments per year, as we continue to build a leading VC firm in the CEE+ region.

In November alone you had two deals announced, one with Ukrainian startup Getpin, another with British startup Magic ID. Tell us more about these deals.

At Presto, we’re always excited to back startups that create solutions we would love to use ourselves. Besides that, Magic ID is our first investment into a Greek founder, and fits with our increased focus on the Balkan region – following our investment in the Serbian-Estonian company OTASync, which closed their round at the end of October.

Ukraine and its resilient founders are among our favorites. It was quite the experience following Volodymyr through the ups and downs related to covid and the war. Getpin’s successful expansion against all odds convinced us to add fuel to their scaling machine.

All in all, we focus on finding startups with a solid value proposition and strong fundamentals, and diversify by geography.

Given your activity, are there any plans for further investments this year? 🙂 What about H1 of 2024?

Hopefully we’ll be able to conclude one more startup investment before Christmas. There’s also a number of Q4 investments that are yet to be announced.

We have several million EUR still left in the fund and plan to do few investments in 2024 before fully focusing on Fund III.

Presto usually invests in CEE, so you must understand the ups and downs of the VC and startup market this year. Tell us about it.

In many CEE countries, there has been an investment slowdown, mainly due to startups not raising late stage investment rounds. With their superior spending efficiency and ability to move to breakeven faster – compared to their western counterparts – they can afford to wait until the valuations on the market correct.

Has anything changed regarding Presto’s investment strategy? Did you need to adapt?

Fundamentally, our investment strategy hasn’t changed. Our strategy has always been to invest into startups with sustainable and recurring revenue, which provides a lot of downside protection. 

On a more operational level, we’ve realized the need to work with portfolio startups more closely to effectively manage their runway and prepare them for the situation of not receiving good investment conditions in the following round. We help them prepare to be in a position to reject such offers and continue building the company.

You’re also one of the most active investors in the Ukrainian ecosystem. What pieces of advice would you give to Ukrainian startups?

Don’t be afraid to expand quicker and test new markets – including Poland, Baltics, Nordics, or even the US.

Focus more on sales than the product (this is a ‘CEE problem’ in general).

Lean into your resilience.

Polish company Survicate, in collaboration with UXCam, published the Mobile App Feedback 2023 Report, giving actionable insights for mobile app creators. AIN.Capital shares key points of the report.

Key findings

• 56.2% of the surveyed mobile app creators find product prioritization challenging. 65.3% of Product Managers struggle to determine which features or aspects of their app to focus on next.

• 85.2% of the polled mobile app professionals collect user feedback. However, the majority still struggles to implement it.
• 42.1% of surveyed mobile app creators report using ChatGPT or other AI software. Some mention it being helpful with research, data analysis, and feedback categorization.

User feedback

• Out of 85.2% of the polled mobile app professionals, the majority include app store reviews as a source of feedback, but using this channel is not always correlated with the highest effectiveness.
• In-app surveys can increase the effectiveness of feedback collection by up to 8%.
• For 57.1% of the surveyed creators, analyzing and prioritizing feedback is the main barrier to effectively implementing it in their development process.

• 46.3% of the respondents collect feedback periodically: every six months (3.9%), quarterly (3.9%), monthly (23%), and weekly (15.4%).
• The most popular frequency (selected by 30.8% of research participants) of running mobile app surveys is to trigger them by specific events.

The first cohort is focused on energy resilience, sensing and surveillance, and secure information sharing.  Here are the CEE startups selected for the first program:

• Dronetag — Czech Republic. Based in Prague, Dronetag develops a solution for drone traffic management in the European airspace.
• Neuromorphica — Bulgaria.
• Vistareader — Lithuania.
• Revobeam — Poland.
• GIM Robotics — Finland. Founded in 2014, GIM Robotics builds intelligent robots — which can operate in an unknown environment and learn from them — for use in industry.
• Astrolight — Lithuania. Astrolight develops secure laser communication systems for aerospace and defence companies.
• Galtec — Estonia. The Tartu-based startup creates fuel cells with very high power density which are able to power drones, off-grid equipment, IoT and portable devices, and space equipment.

About DIANA

DIANA is a €50 million yearly acceleration program aimed at boosting defense and dual-use innovation across Going through the program, the startups will get mentorship, commercial, technical and business support and the possibility to test their solutions in specially designed NATO test centers. 

The startups will receive a grant of €100,000, with a possible €300,000 top-up. The program start off next year. The selected startups will participate in an intensive six-month acceleration, while the most successful companies will be invited to stay on for a further six months.

DIANA has complementary €1 billion NATO Innovation Fund focused on the dual-use deep tech sector. AIN.Capital reported on the fund’s launch in August 2023.

Who’s fundraising?

During the survey, 60% of VCs said they are currently fundraising. Only 14% answeres they’d do so in the next 6-12 months, and 19% plan to fundraise in the next 12+ months.

Among the 111 VCs who responded to Sifted’s survey, 70% invest at pre-seed/seed and 22% at Series A. 95% of respondents were European investors who invest in European startups; just 5% were investors based elsewhere in the world investing in Europe.

Participants in fundraising

• 95% of respondents have Fаamily offices and high-net-worth individuals as LPs already. 43% have corporates as LPs, while 42% have fund of funds as investors.
• Almost 15% have raised from a pension fund, 14% from a sovereign wealth fund, and 10% from an endowment (foundations run by educational or cultural institutions).
• 42% of European VCs said they’ve raised from state-backed LPs.

• The vast majority of respondents’ LPs are based in Europe.
• 38% of European VCs have a UK-based LP, while 20% have a German LP.
• 18% of European VCs have North American LPs, and just 8% have raised from an Asian LP and 4% from a Middle Eastern LP.
• Only 8% of respondents had a French investor, compared to 15% that had a Nordic LP.

Prohibited categories for LPs

• 17 VCs claimed they would turn down LPs with links to Russia. 10 said they would turn down Chinese LPs, and another 10 said they would turn down investors from the Middle East.
• 12 VCs said they’d avoid LPs whose money originated from oil and gas, or tobacco
• Dozens of VCs said they wouldn’t take money from any LP that didn’t pass their anti-money-laundering checks. Nine VCs said they’d take money from anywhere.

Why are some LPs not interested?

56% of European VCs haven’t returned any capital to their LPs in the last 12 months. Somes LPs blamed high interest rates, market conditions and geopolitics for its.

However, LPs don’t seem to be trying to exit their positions in VC funds: 81% of respondents said no full or partial LP stakes in their fund had changed hands in the last 12 months. 9% said they had — and the final 10% said they were considering it.

In the past 4 years of communicating with hundreds or thousands of founders, one empirical observation stood out. Founders who are not dedicated to reporting or internal KPI tracking, who are not transparently informing and leveraging their investors, are underperforming.

And don’t get me wrong. Reporting is not for investors who want to see how the business is performing month on month. Reporting is fully and mostly for you as founders.

Building and leading a startup is an operational nightmare. Everyday, you are dealing with new problems, which mostly cannot be outsourced to somebody else. This keeps you in a constant loop of dealing with problems 24/7.

But you still need to allocate some heads-down thinking time for at least 1-2 whole days a month. Thinking about the performance from a helicopter view, thinking about the strategic milestones to be achieved. Looking on the runway and cost efficiency. Thinking about if what you are doing actually leads somewhere.

And for this you need discussion and data – financial one, analytical one, other KPI metrics and feedback from customers, but mostly focus and time.

Early stage start-ups in pre-seed or seed round sometimes don’t have a board consisting of also non-founders (investors, advisors…), therefore are not legally pushed to create frequent board presentations and meetings. But still, reporting to all investors even in the early stage is essential and can provide a lot of value to founders.

Here is a high level view how a proper Reporting structure should look like, on monthly or quarterly basis (depending from your runway).

• Financial snapshot: Revenues, MRR, Costs, Burn, Cash position, Accounts Payables, Accounts Receivables, Runway + controlling Actuals vs. Plan.
• Analytical KPIs: users, customers, cohort retention, churn, Net dollar retention. Other applicable based on business.
• Highlights of the month.
• Lowlights of the month.
• Commercial qualitative update.
• Strategic milestones (what needs to be achieved to successfully raise next round and what is our progress?). This is probably the most important consideration to do, and can be updated as the business moves.
• Update on product.
• Update on fundraising.
• Update on hiring.
• Current needs – leverage your investors.

Send this as a pre-read 2 days before the call with investor or group of investors. They are your partners and shareholders, can be only heplful if they understand the whole picture and also assumptions you are using. Build trust through transparency, have an open mind to listen, learn and reiterate your strategic goals or assumptions.

And one more thing! Expect that every future investor will ask you for these previous monthly or quarterly reports sent to previous investors. It is a standard part of the Due Diligence process, so have it ready.

• Polish company was founded in early 2023 by Pawel Seweryn and Mikolaj Szymanski; Holi develops holistic health programs aimed at treating obesity, consisting of strict menus and workout plans, offering a shift to the small goals method. They also provide an opportunity to incorporate the latest pharmacological treatments, such as GLP-1 analogs (Saxenda, Wegovy), under the care of specialists.
• Holi aims to provide a holistic approach to improving its patients’ metabolic health. Metabolic diseases include obesity, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease, among others.
• The fresh investment was led by a German fund specializing in the health tech sector, YZR Capital. Berlin-based HEARTFELT_ also participated, along with business angels.

“For the next year, we want to focus primarily on introducing more products and analytics to our health program offerings, building a new application for our patients and specialist team, and conducting validation in selected foreign markets.”

Paweł Seweryn, co-founder of Holi.

• Holi will use the investment to continue the market expansion and the construction of its technology.

AIN.Capital shares the key points of the report.

Three big trends

• Developers are building with generative AI in big numbers. More developers are experimenting with foundation models from OpenAI and other AI players, with open-source generative AI projects even entering the top 10 most popular open-source projects by contributor count in 2023.
• Developers are operating cloud-native applications at scale. There has also been an increase in declarative languages using Git-based infrastructure as code workflows, greater standardization in cloud deployments, and higher user rates for cloud-native technologies.
• 2023 saw the largest number of first-time open-source contributors. This year, commercially backed open-source projects continue to capture the largest share of first-time contributors and overall contributions on the platform.

In general, the GitHub community and activities taken into account when writing the report comprise 420 million projects, 284 million public repositories, 65,000 public generative AI projects, and 4.5 billion total contributors.

• The Polish community was highlighted as the third fastest-growing developer community in Europe. In 2023, there’s been an influx of around 1.2 million developers to the platform, compared to 2022.
• Regarding the usage of gen AI, just halfway through 2023, there was more than twice the number of generative AI projects as in all of 2022.
• Generative AI is driving a significant and global spike in individual contributors to generative AI projects with 148% YoY growth— and a 248% YoY increase in the total number of generative AI projects, too.

Top 10 programming languages on GitHub

• In 2023, JavaScript has once again taken the crown for the top one most popular language, and we continue to see familiar languages, such as Python and Java, remain in the top five languages year over year.

• There has been a notable increase in popular languages and frameworks for data analytics and operations, such as T-SQL and TeX. This highlights how data scientists, mathematicians, and analysts are increasingly engaging with open-source platforms and tooling.
• We also see remarkable parity with the most popular languages used in projects created in 2023 when compared to the overall most popular languages used across GitHub. Some notable outliers include Kotlin, Rust, Go, and Lua, which have seen larger growth across newer projects on GitHub.
• Rust continues to attract more and more developers. While its overall usage is comparatively low to other languages, it is growing at 40% YoY.