Ewa Kompowska, VP at RTP Global
The numbers are in – and they tell a story of acceleration.
According to Invest Europe’s latest statistics, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) accounted for 2.2% of total European investment value in 2024, up from 1.9% in 2023. But the real story isn’t the funding jump. It’s what’s powering it: a new generation of founders with shared history and roots, global ambition and a drive to build the region’s next category-defining companies – inspired by breakout successes like Bolt and Vinted.
And it’s fast becoming one of the most compelling forces reshaping European tech.
From outsourced talent to insider advantage
For years, global tech companies viewed CEE primarily as a destination for outsourced engineering. Startups and scaleups set up development hubs there to benefit from the region’s deeptech talent pools, its strong STEM ecosystem and lower operating costs.
But here’s what didn’t make headlines: the top talent inside those teams was quietly absorbing the playbook. They were learning how to shape product strategy, navigate fundraising rounds, and build teams that scale. Today, many of those engineers and product managers are no longer supporting someone else’s vision – they’re leading their own and building the next wave of cutting-edge AI startups.
Take ElevenLabs: an AI voice startup founded by Polish entrepreneurs in London, building a global team with presence in the region. Or homegrown players like Proofs, pioneering agentic AI for sales engineering, and Paypercut, reimagining payments for merchants in CEE from the ground up – both RTP portfolio companies.
These startups are building for global markets from day one, led by founders with deep insight into what it takes to scale internationally.
Reinvention, not repetition
CEE founders have always been defined by resourcefulness. Compared to their counterparts in Western Europe, they’ve received significantly less capital – yet the region has produced over 40 unicorns – a powerful testament to resilience and the ability to do more with less.
Earlier generations proved that billion-dollar businesses could be built here. And the next wave of founders isn’t just replicating that success – they’re rethinking how it’s done.
This next generation is shifting beyond consumer tech, venturing into AI, fintech, and deep tech. They’re building remote-first teams by blending CEE engineering hubs with global go-to-market talent, and they’re raising internationally from the outset.
What’s emerging is a distinctly global mindset with CEE roots – where a Slovenian startup might serve US customers, with a Polish GTM lead and a Romanian engineering team. The region no longer operates in silos. The “CEE ecosystem” has become a shared outlook: technical, capital-efficient and globally ambitious.
So why do the best CEE startups still feel undervalued?
While domestic capital has historically sustained the ecosystem, it can only take companies so far. Scaling today demands access to global funding and the ability to solve problems that cross borders. This is where the new generation of founders stands apart.
CEE still remains overlooked. Regulatory differences are part of the challenge but perception is the bigger hurdle and too many investors still underestimate the potential of a CEE founder.
It’s time to challenge that perception.
These founders are some of the most capital-efficient in Europe and, increasingly, they’re pairing that strength with first-hand experience in scaling globally. Many have come up through scale-ups, combining the pragmatism the region is known for with the ambition and operational playbooks of global companies. The result? Lean, resilient operations with global reach from day one.
For global VCs, winning in CEE means more than writing a check. It requires local insight, presence and true partnership – bridging the path from regional success to global scale. That’s exactly what we’re focused on at RTP.
A growing force
CEE is no longer an emerging region. It’s an evolving one. Quietly, confidently and quickly.
A new generation of interconnected, experienced and globally minded founders is reshaping the region’s tech landscape. They’re not waiting for validation from Silicon Valley or London. They’ve seen what success looks like and are now building the next generation of category leaders from Warsaw, Prague, Sofia and beyond.
And at RTP, we’re proud to be backing this ecosystem transformation from the ground up.
