This document provides a summary of key findings from research on startup investment and innovation across 24 countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Some of the main findings include:
1) The region is very diverse, with some countries having more advanced innovation ecosystems while others are less developed. Russia attracts the most investment and startups in absolute terms.
2) Many countries have strong engineering assets from their communist past that now support software development and are transitioning to more product-focused innovation.
3) Most country ecosystems have progressed significantly in recent years, though some like Albania and Azerbaijan still lag behind.
4) Governments and public institutions have played an active role supporting startups, though Russia's landscape is
Top 8 Trends in Financial Services & Social MediaDana Larson
People no longer think about banking in terms of checking accounts or even ATMs for that matter. They think about how they can make the payments they need to with the least amount of effort. Whether buying a movie ticket online, repaying a friend for lunch, saving for college, or ensuring the lights stay on for another month, people are increasingly turning to new payment methods including social media and mobile payments.
This document brings together a set of latest data points and publicly available information relevant for Banking Industry. We are very excited to share this content and believe that readers will benefit from this periodic publication immensely.
With more than 12 million customers and more than US$2 billion annual revenue, Russian Tinkoff Neobank is a force to reckon with. Tinkoff products range from banking, wealth management, insurance, SAS based products to telecom for retail customers, SMEs, and large businesses.
Tinkoff products are highly adapted to the Russian lifestyle and socio-economic conditions proven by the rapid adoption of their products. The company was listed on the London stock exchange in 2013 and currently has a market cap of around ~US$10 billion.
Monobank - First Mobile Only Bank in UkraineSam Ghosh
Monobank is Ukraine's first mobile-only bank founded in 2017 in Kyiv. It offers retail and business banking services through its mobile app, including credit cards, deposits, payments, and international transfers for consumers, and business accounts and merchant pay later options for businesses. Monobank has grown rapidly, now serving over 3.5 million deposit accounts and processing over 1.4 billion transactions worth $24 billion. The founders of Monobank have also launched a fintech product called Koto in the UK that offers credit via a Mastercard debit card.
Klarna - Swedish born 'Buy Now, Pay Later' GiantSam Ghosh
Update March 1st 2021: Klarna's valuation soared to US$31 billion after a huge USD1 billion fundraising. https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/37576/klarna-confirms-mammoth-1-billion-fund-raise
Klarna is a Sweden based fintech unicorn that offers Consumer Credit, Merchant Solutions, and Banking services. Founded in 2005 by three students of Stockholm School of Economics, Klarna went from a rejected idea to a US$31 billion giant with a presence in 17 countries.
Klarna has been a pleasant outlier as a profitable fintech company from the beginning. In 2019 Klarna recorded a GMV of US$35 billion with net operating revenue of US$ 753 million.
Recently, Klarna is experiencing some growing pains especially in its quest to expand out of Europe. In 2019, Klarna reported a loss for the first time. In 2020 although their revenue is growing rapidly, losses also seem to expand.
Klarna spearheaded the 'Buy Now, Pay Later' industry and offer many innovative products. They have also created a unique playful brand.
Let us learn more about Klarna.
Global Alternative Lending Industry amid COVID-19Sam Ghosh
Alternative Lending emerged to provide credit access to individuals and businesses who lack credit history or in other words - the ‘thin file’ borrowers.
The primary segments of Alternative Lending are Consumer Finance and Small and Medium-Sized Business Finance.
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing most economies to shrink in 2020 causing enormous job losses, revenue losses for businesses, and in some cases business closures.
Consumer spending took a significant hit due to the pandemic. As per data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, Retail Sales of Consumer Goods contracted by 20.5% in January-February 2020 compared to January-February 2019. The growth remained in the negative territory for the first two quarters of 2020.
Data from VISA and Mastercard show a drastic drop in credit-card debt use. Demand for household short-term credit is still subdued. As unemployment rates improve and retail sales pick up the pace, demand for consumer finance is expected to improve in the coming quarters.
Many SMBs are going through severe financial distress primarily due to lower demand and lack of access to credit. Many may not recover and close their businesses.
Lack of demand may hinder the SMBs from accessing and/or getting approval of business loans.
On the supply side, the alternative lending companies may struggle to access low-cost capital due to deteriorating balance sheets of the banks and NBFCs who likely to increase risk-premium and even avoid exposure to the high-yield segments.
Increasing bad loans may push policymakers to put safeguards in place which may lower profitability and limit access to capital for the alternative lenders. For example, China's Supreme Court slashed the legally protected ceiling of informal lending rate in August 2020. This is expected to unfavorably impact the profitability of alternative lenders.
Established fintech (Square, PayPal, etc.) are entering the lending business, and as credit demand improves we may see more of this trend.
Many large retailers such as Amazon, Macy’s, etc. partnered with financial services companies to extend consumer credit to their customers. We may expect to see acquisitions of fintech lenders by the retailers.
Stressed balance sheet likely to increase M&A activities in the sector.
Top 8 Trends in Financial Services & Social MediaDana Larson
People no longer think about banking in terms of checking accounts or even ATMs for that matter. They think about how they can make the payments they need to with the least amount of effort. Whether buying a movie ticket online, repaying a friend for lunch, saving for college, or ensuring the lights stay on for another month, people are increasingly turning to new payment methods including social media and mobile payments.
This document brings together a set of latest data points and publicly available information relevant for Banking Industry. We are very excited to share this content and believe that readers will benefit from this periodic publication immensely.
With more than 12 million customers and more than US$2 billion annual revenue, Russian Tinkoff Neobank is a force to reckon with. Tinkoff products range from banking, wealth management, insurance, SAS based products to telecom for retail customers, SMEs, and large businesses.
Tinkoff products are highly adapted to the Russian lifestyle and socio-economic conditions proven by the rapid adoption of their products. The company was listed on the London stock exchange in 2013 and currently has a market cap of around ~US$10 billion.
Monobank - First Mobile Only Bank in UkraineSam Ghosh
Monobank is Ukraine's first mobile-only bank founded in 2017 in Kyiv. It offers retail and business banking services through its mobile app, including credit cards, deposits, payments, and international transfers for consumers, and business accounts and merchant pay later options for businesses. Monobank has grown rapidly, now serving over 3.5 million deposit accounts and processing over 1.4 billion transactions worth $24 billion. The founders of Monobank have also launched a fintech product called Koto in the UK that offers credit via a Mastercard debit card.
Klarna - Swedish born 'Buy Now, Pay Later' GiantSam Ghosh
Update March 1st 2021: Klarna's valuation soared to US$31 billion after a huge USD1 billion fundraising. https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/37576/klarna-confirms-mammoth-1-billion-fund-raise
Klarna is a Sweden based fintech unicorn that offers Consumer Credit, Merchant Solutions, and Banking services. Founded in 2005 by three students of Stockholm School of Economics, Klarna went from a rejected idea to a US$31 billion giant with a presence in 17 countries.
Klarna has been a pleasant outlier as a profitable fintech company from the beginning. In 2019 Klarna recorded a GMV of US$35 billion with net operating revenue of US$ 753 million.
Recently, Klarna is experiencing some growing pains especially in its quest to expand out of Europe. In 2019, Klarna reported a loss for the first time. In 2020 although their revenue is growing rapidly, losses also seem to expand.
Klarna spearheaded the 'Buy Now, Pay Later' industry and offer many innovative products. They have also created a unique playful brand.
Let us learn more about Klarna.
Global Alternative Lending Industry amid COVID-19Sam Ghosh
Alternative Lending emerged to provide credit access to individuals and businesses who lack credit history or in other words - the ‘thin file’ borrowers.
The primary segments of Alternative Lending are Consumer Finance and Small and Medium-Sized Business Finance.
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing most economies to shrink in 2020 causing enormous job losses, revenue losses for businesses, and in some cases business closures.
Consumer spending took a significant hit due to the pandemic. As per data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, Retail Sales of Consumer Goods contracted by 20.5% in January-February 2020 compared to January-February 2019. The growth remained in the negative territory for the first two quarters of 2020.
Data from VISA and Mastercard show a drastic drop in credit-card debt use. Demand for household short-term credit is still subdued. As unemployment rates improve and retail sales pick up the pace, demand for consumer finance is expected to improve in the coming quarters.
Many SMBs are going through severe financial distress primarily due to lower demand and lack of access to credit. Many may not recover and close their businesses.
Lack of demand may hinder the SMBs from accessing and/or getting approval of business loans.
On the supply side, the alternative lending companies may struggle to access low-cost capital due to deteriorating balance sheets of the banks and NBFCs who likely to increase risk-premium and even avoid exposure to the high-yield segments.
Increasing bad loans may push policymakers to put safeguards in place which may lower profitability and limit access to capital for the alternative lenders. For example, China's Supreme Court slashed the legally protected ceiling of informal lending rate in August 2020. This is expected to unfavorably impact the profitability of alternative lenders.
Established fintech (Square, PayPal, etc.) are entering the lending business, and as credit demand improves we may see more of this trend.
Many large retailers such as Amazon, Macy’s, etc. partnered with financial services companies to extend consumer credit to their customers. We may expect to see acquisitions of fintech lenders by the retailers.
Stressed balance sheet likely to increase M&A activities in the sector.
Kakao Bank - Trailblazing Neobank from South KoreaSam Ghosh
Kakao Bank was launched in the year 2017 as part of the Kakao Corp. Within 24 hours, Kakao Bank enrolled 300K subscribers, 2 million in 15 days. As of the end of 2020, this South Korean Bank had more than 13 million users, around a quarter of the South Korean population. The bank has reached a loan book size of 20.3 trillion KRW (US$17.94 billion). The operating income for the bank stood at 804 billion KRW (~US$708 million) with 113.6 billion KRW (~US$100 million) net profit in FY2020.
Just after 3 years of its launched Kakao Bank is already planning IPO and is valued at around 10 trillion won (US$9.15 billion).
Let us learn about Kakao Bank.
As per the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2020, global wealth stood at US$ 399 trillion as of the end of 2019. Most of the global wealth is primarily controlled by older men in North America and Europe.
As per BCG, the Asset Under Management (AuM) for the global asset management industry stood at US$88.7 trillion as of the end of 2019.
The pandemic found the wealth management industry dealing with margin pressure amid the popularity of passive products, on the verge of a great wealth transfer from the Baby Boomers to the younger generations, a rising share of women’s wealth, and increasing regulatory pressure. Revenue from beta is quickly diminishing due to the popularity of passive products. The focus is shifting from margin to increasing AUM.
As per Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2020, global wealth decreased by US$ 17 trillion between January and March of 2020. Recovery in the capital markets Q2 onwards led to the recovery of household wealth in Q2 to the levels of the end of 2019. Though the loss of growth represents a more than US$7 trillion loss from expected wealth levels by the end of the first half of 2020. Lower economic activity, lower consumption, and lower investments by both households and corporates likely to restrain household wealth growth for many coming years. The growth rate may not recover to pre-pandemic levels before the end of 2021. Global wealth per adult decreased by 0.4% in the first half of 2020. China is the biggest gainer and Latin America along with Africa are the greatest losers.
Though low-interest-rate environment, making time deposits less attractive, likely to boost funds flows to capital markets and demand for wealth management services.
At the same time, social distancing is forcing digital adoption in wealth management. Apart from that, the great wealth transfer will mean that the wealth management sector needs a paradigm shift in their client engagements. The expectations of tech-savvy millennials are very much different from the older generations. Instant gratification, higher involvement in the process, and constant monitoring are some of the features Millennials expect.
Micro-Investment platforms and Online Brokers are expected to be immensely beneficial as tech-savvy Millennials control more and more wealth. Self-service platforms that specialize in passive products (MF, ETF) are especially lucrative.
Hybrid services that combine human touch with tech efficiency will likely to become mainstream as wealth management firms push for cost-cutting and younger generations control more and more wealth.
As many traditional wealth management firms will look to increase their digital capabilities, WealthTech firms with proven business models are expected to be seen as attractive acquisition targets.
CB Insights Global Fintech Report Q3 2019Jeff Martinez
Q3’19 fintech funding topped $8.9B, a quarterly record when adjusting for Ant Financial’s $14B investment in Q2’ As of Q3, fintech has raised $24.6B in 2019, already surpassing 2017’s annual total. Funding grew on the back of 19 $100M+ rounds worth approximately $4B in Q3’19.
Deals rebounded slightly in Q3’19 but are likely to fall short of 2018’s record as a result of a continued pullback in early stage investing: Fintech deals in Q3’19 grew 6% from Q2'19, but they have dropped in every quarter in 2019 when compared to the same time frame last year. Early stage (seed/angel and Series A) deals fell to an 11 quarter low and funding hit a 7 quarter low.
The US saw deals dip to an 11 quarter low while Asia saw deals spike and nearly surpass the US in Q3’19: The US saw deals dip as a result of a pull back in early stage deals, which also contributed to the overall drop in 2019 global deals through Q3’19. Asia saw deals rebound as China reclaimed the
lead from India as Asia’s top deal hub.
Southeast Asia fintech topped new annual highs: Southeast Asia set a new annual record with $701M raised across 87 deals through Q3’19 . The top 2 deals since 2015 occurred in 2019: a $100M Series B to Singapore based Deserka and a $100M Series C to Vietnam based MoMo.
India and China continued to battle over the title of Asia’s top fintech hub in Q3’19: China saw deals surge to 55 in the quarter, reclaiming the lead from India with 33 deals. India saw $674M in funding, narrowly pulling ahead of China’s $661M.
Challenger banks have raised over $3B in 2019 YTD and Q3’19 saw $1.3B invested a quarterly funding high: Q3’19 saw challenger banks funding bolstered by rounds to unicorns, including NuBank’s $400M Series F, which was the largest reported equity investment to a challenger bank and made
NuBank the highest valued challenger at $10B. Startup focused challenger banks saw competition heat up with deals to Ramp Financial, Mercury, and Stripe, which launched card issuing.
There are 58 VC backed fintech unicorns worth a combined $213.5B: Q3’19 saw 6 new fintech unicorn births (Hippo, Judo, Deposit Solutions, QuintoAndar, Dave , and C2FO), and 3 more have occurred in Q4’19 as of 11/11/19 (Next Insurance, Ebanx , and Riskified ). Other highly valued unicorns continued to raise late stage capital, including NuBank, Gusto, and Stripe, among others, but none signaled an IPO was imminent.
Summary based on Deloitte's CEE Fintech Report 2016
Source: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/central-europe/ce-fintech-in-cee-region-2016.pdf
Summary of findings
2018 VC-backed fintech deals and funding set an annual record: In 2018, - VC-backed fintech companies raised $39.57B across 1,707 deals globally. Deals were up 15% year-over-year while funding surged 120% on the back of 52 mega-rounds ($100M+) worth $24.88B combined.
Fintech is happening on global scale with deals outside of core markets (US, UK, and China) accounting for 39% of deals: Fintech deal hubs are starting to emerge globally. The count of unique fintech startups raising funding topped an annual high of 1,463 companies, and the unique number of investors reached 2,745 boosted by an influx of corporate investors.
Early-stage deals, as a percentage, fell to a 5-year low as investors concentrated bets in perceived winners: Global seed and Series A fintech deals grew 5% on an annual basis in 2018, but fell as a percentage of total deals to 57%. US early-stage deals were flat YOY as investors concentrated their bets in established fintech unicorns.
There are 39 VC-backed fintech unicorns worth a combined $147.37B: Q4'18 saw five new unicorns births (Plaid, Brex, Monzo, DevotedHealth, and Toss) and two in the first month of Q1’19 (N26 and Confluent). The cohort’s total valuation in 2018 was boosted by a record year for megarounds to existing unicorns, including Gusto and Robinhood, among others.
The Future of Fintech in Southeast AsiaFinch Capital
Finch Capital worked together with MDI Ventures and Dealroom to map the local FinTech ecosystem in Southeast Asia. We are sharing local funding and M&A data as well as our thoughts on the developments that shape local growth of Fintech companies
With more than 680 million internet users, more than 500 million smartphone users, cheap data and a young aspiring population, India is providing a very healthy environment for the E-commerce market to grow.
Although, future growth of E-commerce in India shall be truly Indian as growth will depend on tapping the tier 2 and 3 cities. Consumers in these tier 2 and 3 cities are very different from English speaking metro-dwellers - they prefer vernacular languages, access the internet using smartphones and have very local preferences. Let us talk about this industry.
Chapter 1 - Impact of COVID-19 on FinTech: A resilient European tech growth engine. Overall impact was in line with expectations, except for payments and mortgages. For payments, the e-commerce boost made up for travel falls. Top European FinTechs took this chance to revaluate cost inefficiencies and lived to fight another day with reduced sales and increased customer support. The next 6 to 12 months will be more challenging when new funding is required.
Chapter 2 - European FinTech landscape buoyancy enabled by massive government support. 2020 has been surprisingly resilient, with funding up 20% including government programs, but down 10% excluding this. Banking & payments searched for simplicity as an overcrowded
Innovate Finance’s 2017 VC FinTech investment landscape provides investors, startups and the wider FinTech ecosystem the data to understand trends and capital flows as the FinTech market evolves. Overall figures suggest that the UK has had its best year on record and was a global leader in terms of capital invested and deal volume, second only to the US.
Finch Capital in partnership with Dealroom released a
detailed data analytical report titled ‘The State of European FinTech, 2019 edition’, and reveals the drivers behind the strong value creation, the investors and the buyers of the fintech over the last five years.
IMAP closed 112 deals worth more than $14.7 billion during the first half of 2021. The strong rebound in market
activity that began in Q4 of 2020 carried over well into Q1 of this year and although the rate of deal making
returned to more normal pre-COVID levels in Q2, IMAP partners around the world have full pipelines and many
are expecting to have a record year. IMAP partners in North America and several European countries in particular
are experiencing the strongest market environment and most new deal flow in over a decade. In the first half
deals were closed across 14 different sectors, with Technology, Business Services, Healthcare, Industrials, and
Consumer Retail the most represented. Twenty-nine percent of IMAP deals were cross-border.
Global Digital Payment Industry amid COVID-19Sam Ghosh
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the global digital payments industry. Payment volumes decreased by around 20% for both Visa and Mastercard in the first half of 2020 due to declines in economic activity. Cross-border transactions were especially affected by lower international travel and trade. However, digital payment adoption increased as consumers shifted away from cash. The long-term outlook is positive as new technologies like contactless payments gain traction and regulations push digital usage.
This document introduces the 2020 Government AI Readiness Index published by Oxford Insights and the International Development Research Centre. It finds that the US ranks first in overall readiness, while Western European nations like the UK and Germany also score highly. China ranks surprisingly low at 19th due to its focus on implementation over readiness factors. Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean score lowest on average. A new sub-index on responsible AI use finds Nordic countries leading, while the US and UK score lower. The report aims to help governments understand gaps and strengths to improve their AI readiness and ensure its responsible development and use.
Global Trends In FinTech, focus on US and ChinaSean Walsh
Presentation on American and Chinese trends in financial technology at the Silicon Valley Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum in late 2015.
By: Sean Walsh, @SeanWalshBTC
This document provides an overview of fintech. It discusses how fintech aims to improve efficiency and reduce costs in financial services by using technology. Fintech includes activities like digital payments, robo-advisors, crowdfunding, and digital lending. The document also outlines opportunities for fintech in India, including a large unbanked population, supportive government policies, and a growing base of smartphone and internet users. Institutional support from universities and business organizations is also helping develop India's fintech ecosystem.
Ar report from www.Fintechnews.sg about all Philippine Fintech Startups. Check out also the List here, http://fintechnews.sg/fintech-startups-philippines/
MTBiz is for you if you are looking for contemporary information on business, economy and especially on banking industry of Bangladesh. You would also find periodical information on Global Economy and Commodity Markets.
This document provides an overview and analysis of the Chinese Internet market. It begins with an agenda outlining the topics to be covered, including the characteristics of the Chinese market, how it has achieved strong growth, factors influencing competition, and how the market may evolve in the future. Some key points made about the Chinese Internet market are that it has over 710 million users, is growing rapidly year-over-year, and contributes nearly 7% of China's GDP, highlighting its importance. Younger users that prefer mobile access and apps are adopted more quickly in China compared to other markets. The document aims to decode and explain the dynamics shaping the Chinese Internet landscape.
More than 150 interactive sessions devoted to researches of technological trends, emerging of the new markets, transformation of business models and integration of breakthrough technologies into business practice.
The Ukrainian venture market saw record investment levels in 2015, with total funding reaching $132 million - over triple the amount in 2014. This was mainly driven by three large growth-stage deals totaling $100 million. Early-stage investments also increased, with the average seed round growing to $380,000. Ukrainian investors committed a record $68 million in 2015, nearly matching foreign investors and demonstrating increased confidence and maturity in the local startup ecosystem. The success of globally-focused startups has also attracted more international funding.
Kakao Bank - Trailblazing Neobank from South KoreaSam Ghosh
Kakao Bank was launched in the year 2017 as part of the Kakao Corp. Within 24 hours, Kakao Bank enrolled 300K subscribers, 2 million in 15 days. As of the end of 2020, this South Korean Bank had more than 13 million users, around a quarter of the South Korean population. The bank has reached a loan book size of 20.3 trillion KRW (US$17.94 billion). The operating income for the bank stood at 804 billion KRW (~US$708 million) with 113.6 billion KRW (~US$100 million) net profit in FY2020.
Just after 3 years of its launched Kakao Bank is already planning IPO and is valued at around 10 trillion won (US$9.15 billion).
Let us learn about Kakao Bank.
As per the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2020, global wealth stood at US$ 399 trillion as of the end of 2019. Most of the global wealth is primarily controlled by older men in North America and Europe.
As per BCG, the Asset Under Management (AuM) for the global asset management industry stood at US$88.7 trillion as of the end of 2019.
The pandemic found the wealth management industry dealing with margin pressure amid the popularity of passive products, on the verge of a great wealth transfer from the Baby Boomers to the younger generations, a rising share of women’s wealth, and increasing regulatory pressure. Revenue from beta is quickly diminishing due to the popularity of passive products. The focus is shifting from margin to increasing AUM.
As per Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2020, global wealth decreased by US$ 17 trillion between January and March of 2020. Recovery in the capital markets Q2 onwards led to the recovery of household wealth in Q2 to the levels of the end of 2019. Though the loss of growth represents a more than US$7 trillion loss from expected wealth levels by the end of the first half of 2020. Lower economic activity, lower consumption, and lower investments by both households and corporates likely to restrain household wealth growth for many coming years. The growth rate may not recover to pre-pandemic levels before the end of 2021. Global wealth per adult decreased by 0.4% in the first half of 2020. China is the biggest gainer and Latin America along with Africa are the greatest losers.
Though low-interest-rate environment, making time deposits less attractive, likely to boost funds flows to capital markets and demand for wealth management services.
At the same time, social distancing is forcing digital adoption in wealth management. Apart from that, the great wealth transfer will mean that the wealth management sector needs a paradigm shift in their client engagements. The expectations of tech-savvy millennials are very much different from the older generations. Instant gratification, higher involvement in the process, and constant monitoring are some of the features Millennials expect.
Micro-Investment platforms and Online Brokers are expected to be immensely beneficial as tech-savvy Millennials control more and more wealth. Self-service platforms that specialize in passive products (MF, ETF) are especially lucrative.
Hybrid services that combine human touch with tech efficiency will likely to become mainstream as wealth management firms push for cost-cutting and younger generations control more and more wealth.
As many traditional wealth management firms will look to increase their digital capabilities, WealthTech firms with proven business models are expected to be seen as attractive acquisition targets.
CB Insights Global Fintech Report Q3 2019Jeff Martinez
Q3’19 fintech funding topped $8.9B, a quarterly record when adjusting for Ant Financial’s $14B investment in Q2’ As of Q3, fintech has raised $24.6B in 2019, already surpassing 2017’s annual total. Funding grew on the back of 19 $100M+ rounds worth approximately $4B in Q3’19.
Deals rebounded slightly in Q3’19 but are likely to fall short of 2018’s record as a result of a continued pullback in early stage investing: Fintech deals in Q3’19 grew 6% from Q2'19, but they have dropped in every quarter in 2019 when compared to the same time frame last year. Early stage (seed/angel and Series A) deals fell to an 11 quarter low and funding hit a 7 quarter low.
The US saw deals dip to an 11 quarter low while Asia saw deals spike and nearly surpass the US in Q3’19: The US saw deals dip as a result of a pull back in early stage deals, which also contributed to the overall drop in 2019 global deals through Q3’19. Asia saw deals rebound as China reclaimed the
lead from India as Asia’s top deal hub.
Southeast Asia fintech topped new annual highs: Southeast Asia set a new annual record with $701M raised across 87 deals through Q3’19 . The top 2 deals since 2015 occurred in 2019: a $100M Series B to Singapore based Deserka and a $100M Series C to Vietnam based MoMo.
India and China continued to battle over the title of Asia’s top fintech hub in Q3’19: China saw deals surge to 55 in the quarter, reclaiming the lead from India with 33 deals. India saw $674M in funding, narrowly pulling ahead of China’s $661M.
Challenger banks have raised over $3B in 2019 YTD and Q3’19 saw $1.3B invested a quarterly funding high: Q3’19 saw challenger banks funding bolstered by rounds to unicorns, including NuBank’s $400M Series F, which was the largest reported equity investment to a challenger bank and made
NuBank the highest valued challenger at $10B. Startup focused challenger banks saw competition heat up with deals to Ramp Financial, Mercury, and Stripe, which launched card issuing.
There are 58 VC backed fintech unicorns worth a combined $213.5B: Q3’19 saw 6 new fintech unicorn births (Hippo, Judo, Deposit Solutions, QuintoAndar, Dave , and C2FO), and 3 more have occurred in Q4’19 as of 11/11/19 (Next Insurance, Ebanx , and Riskified ). Other highly valued unicorns continued to raise late stage capital, including NuBank, Gusto, and Stripe, among others, but none signaled an IPO was imminent.
Summary based on Deloitte's CEE Fintech Report 2016
Source: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/central-europe/ce-fintech-in-cee-region-2016.pdf
Summary of findings
2018 VC-backed fintech deals and funding set an annual record: In 2018, - VC-backed fintech companies raised $39.57B across 1,707 deals globally. Deals were up 15% year-over-year while funding surged 120% on the back of 52 mega-rounds ($100M+) worth $24.88B combined.
Fintech is happening on global scale with deals outside of core markets (US, UK, and China) accounting for 39% of deals: Fintech deal hubs are starting to emerge globally. The count of unique fintech startups raising funding topped an annual high of 1,463 companies, and the unique number of investors reached 2,745 boosted by an influx of corporate investors.
Early-stage deals, as a percentage, fell to a 5-year low as investors concentrated bets in perceived winners: Global seed and Series A fintech deals grew 5% on an annual basis in 2018, but fell as a percentage of total deals to 57%. US early-stage deals were flat YOY as investors concentrated their bets in established fintech unicorns.
There are 39 VC-backed fintech unicorns worth a combined $147.37B: Q4'18 saw five new unicorns births (Plaid, Brex, Monzo, DevotedHealth, and Toss) and two in the first month of Q1’19 (N26 and Confluent). The cohort’s total valuation in 2018 was boosted by a record year for megarounds to existing unicorns, including Gusto and Robinhood, among others.
The Future of Fintech in Southeast AsiaFinch Capital
Finch Capital worked together with MDI Ventures and Dealroom to map the local FinTech ecosystem in Southeast Asia. We are sharing local funding and M&A data as well as our thoughts on the developments that shape local growth of Fintech companies
With more than 680 million internet users, more than 500 million smartphone users, cheap data and a young aspiring population, India is providing a very healthy environment for the E-commerce market to grow.
Although, future growth of E-commerce in India shall be truly Indian as growth will depend on tapping the tier 2 and 3 cities. Consumers in these tier 2 and 3 cities are very different from English speaking metro-dwellers - they prefer vernacular languages, access the internet using smartphones and have very local preferences. Let us talk about this industry.
Chapter 1 - Impact of COVID-19 on FinTech: A resilient European tech growth engine. Overall impact was in line with expectations, except for payments and mortgages. For payments, the e-commerce boost made up for travel falls. Top European FinTechs took this chance to revaluate cost inefficiencies and lived to fight another day with reduced sales and increased customer support. The next 6 to 12 months will be more challenging when new funding is required.
Chapter 2 - European FinTech landscape buoyancy enabled by massive government support. 2020 has been surprisingly resilient, with funding up 20% including government programs, but down 10% excluding this. Banking & payments searched for simplicity as an overcrowded
Innovate Finance’s 2017 VC FinTech investment landscape provides investors, startups and the wider FinTech ecosystem the data to understand trends and capital flows as the FinTech market evolves. Overall figures suggest that the UK has had its best year on record and was a global leader in terms of capital invested and deal volume, second only to the US.
Finch Capital in partnership with Dealroom released a
detailed data analytical report titled ‘The State of European FinTech, 2019 edition’, and reveals the drivers behind the strong value creation, the investors and the buyers of the fintech over the last five years.
IMAP closed 112 deals worth more than $14.7 billion during the first half of 2021. The strong rebound in market
activity that began in Q4 of 2020 carried over well into Q1 of this year and although the rate of deal making
returned to more normal pre-COVID levels in Q2, IMAP partners around the world have full pipelines and many
are expecting to have a record year. IMAP partners in North America and several European countries in particular
are experiencing the strongest market environment and most new deal flow in over a decade. In the first half
deals were closed across 14 different sectors, with Technology, Business Services, Healthcare, Industrials, and
Consumer Retail the most represented. Twenty-nine percent of IMAP deals were cross-border.
Global Digital Payment Industry amid COVID-19Sam Ghosh
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the global digital payments industry. Payment volumes decreased by around 20% for both Visa and Mastercard in the first half of 2020 due to declines in economic activity. Cross-border transactions were especially affected by lower international travel and trade. However, digital payment adoption increased as consumers shifted away from cash. The long-term outlook is positive as new technologies like contactless payments gain traction and regulations push digital usage.
This document introduces the 2020 Government AI Readiness Index published by Oxford Insights and the International Development Research Centre. It finds that the US ranks first in overall readiness, while Western European nations like the UK and Germany also score highly. China ranks surprisingly low at 19th due to its focus on implementation over readiness factors. Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean score lowest on average. A new sub-index on responsible AI use finds Nordic countries leading, while the US and UK score lower. The report aims to help governments understand gaps and strengths to improve their AI readiness and ensure its responsible development and use.
Global Trends In FinTech, focus on US and ChinaSean Walsh
Presentation on American and Chinese trends in financial technology at the Silicon Valley Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum in late 2015.
By: Sean Walsh, @SeanWalshBTC
This document provides an overview of fintech. It discusses how fintech aims to improve efficiency and reduce costs in financial services by using technology. Fintech includes activities like digital payments, robo-advisors, crowdfunding, and digital lending. The document also outlines opportunities for fintech in India, including a large unbanked population, supportive government policies, and a growing base of smartphone and internet users. Institutional support from universities and business organizations is also helping develop India's fintech ecosystem.
Ar report from www.Fintechnews.sg about all Philippine Fintech Startups. Check out also the List here, http://fintechnews.sg/fintech-startups-philippines/
MTBiz is for you if you are looking for contemporary information on business, economy and especially on banking industry of Bangladesh. You would also find periodical information on Global Economy and Commodity Markets.
This document provides an overview and analysis of the Chinese Internet market. It begins with an agenda outlining the topics to be covered, including the characteristics of the Chinese market, how it has achieved strong growth, factors influencing competition, and how the market may evolve in the future. Some key points made about the Chinese Internet market are that it has over 710 million users, is growing rapidly year-over-year, and contributes nearly 7% of China's GDP, highlighting its importance. Younger users that prefer mobile access and apps are adopted more quickly in China compared to other markets. The document aims to decode and explain the dynamics shaping the Chinese Internet landscape.
More than 150 interactive sessions devoted to researches of technological trends, emerging of the new markets, transformation of business models and integration of breakthrough technologies into business practice.
The Ukrainian venture market saw record investment levels in 2015, with total funding reaching $132 million - over triple the amount in 2014. This was mainly driven by three large growth-stage deals totaling $100 million. Early-stage investments also increased, with the average seed round growing to $380,000. Ukrainian investors committed a record $68 million in 2015, nearly matching foreign investors and demonstrating increased confidence and maturity in the local startup ecosystem. The success of globally-focused startups has also attracted more international funding.
Investors Book 2021 - catalog for investors and startups that will allow them to connect in a reliable, efficient way to make ‘perfect match’.
The Investors Book 2021 was created by the Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (UVCA) supported by the USAID through its Competitive Economy Program in Ukraine (USAID CEP) and the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
Ukraine Dealbook IT and Internet Market 2012-14Yevgen Sysoyev
The comprehensive overview of venture market in Ukraine and all tech deals in 2012-14, overview of key trends, players and Ukrainian venture ecosystem
Subscribe to @YevgenSysoyev to receive updates
Downloadable version is here:
http://www.ewdn.com/files/ua_dealbook.pdf
Key findings:
https://prezi.com/y_gg35xswhcr/the-deal-book-of-ukraine/
IDCEE 2011 was an international conference on internet technologies and innovations held in Kiev, Ukraine on October 25-26, 2011. Over 2000 participants from 35 countries attended, including prominent speakers, 150 startups, and venture capitalists. The top three startup winners were Mixgar from Hungary, Quoteroller from Belarus, and Speaktoit from Russia. The event included a conference, startup contest, Forbes dinner, and presentations at Ukrainian universities. IDCEE aims to be a major platform for internet entrepreneurship in Central and Eastern Europe.
This document provides an overview of investment activity in the Ukrainian IT and internet sector from 2012-2014. It analyzes over 250 deals from the past four years involving more than 1,000 startups in Ukraine. The report finds that total investment reached at least $80 million in 2013, though it decreased by around half in 2014 due to smaller deal sizes rather than fewer deals. It also notes the emergence of new domestic investors and the growth of angel investment in Ukraine. The report aims to increase transparency in the Ukrainian venture market and support its development.
Tech Ecosystem of Ukraine 2019. Insights, facts, companies you wanted to knowKirill Mazur
Ukraine's tech ecosystem is booming.
Last 5 years have become history-changing for Ukraine. With its 185 000 tech specialists, a few thousand startups, first unicorns, first innovation district and 20% average annual tech workforce growth, Ukraine is facing a prominent creative revolution in many areas.
In 2019, UNIT.City team together with partners has launched the guide about key things you should know about innovations in Ukraine.
For optimized reading: http://www.uadn.net/files/ua_hightech.pdf
A comprehensive 250-page review of software R&D and IT outsourcing activities in Ukraine, the country with the largest number of software engineers in CEE. http://www.uadn.net/files/ua_hightech.pdf
Uplift.Club is a business club that helps growing businesses and startups scale through expertise and consulting. It has helped companies in various industries like banking, CRM software, emergency support services, and more. Uplift.Club's managing partners and advisors have experience in areas like strategy, marketing, investment, and technology development. They work directly with clients and have helped many businesses successfully grow, raise funds, increase sales and profitability.
23 6 2016 major cities of europe _ value propositiongprister
The Major Cities of Europe organization represents Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and city managers from local governments across Europe. It was established in 1982 and focuses on promoting innovation in local governments through knowledge sharing. Members meet at annual conferences hosted in different cities each year to share experiences and best practices. They also participate in workshops and EU projects. The organization aims to be the leading group for CIOs and city managers to voluntarily exchange ideas and experiences regarding technology strategies in local government.
This document provides information about Startup Europe Week (SEW), which aims to unite European regions in supporting entrepreneurs. SEW will be the largest entrepreneurship event in Europe, taking place in over 200 cities across 40 countries. Each local SEW event will provide information sessions on regional support for entrepreneurs, networking opportunities, and access to European resources and initiatives. The Kharkiv, Ukraine SEW event is organized by a small local team and will include workshops on starting a business, the publishing industry, and building creative enterprises, as well as a discussion on Ukraine's IT startup ecosystem.
This document provides information about Startup Europe Week (SEW), which aims to unite European regions in supporting entrepreneurs. SEW will be the largest entrepreneurship event in Europe, taking place in over 200 cities across 40 countries. Each local SEW event will provide information sessions on regional support for entrepreneurs, networking opportunities, and access to European resources and initiatives. The Kharkiv SEW agenda includes workshops on starting a business, the publishing industry, creative enterprises, and Ukraine's IT startup ecosystem. The Kharkiv SEW is organized by a small local team committed to empowering local entrepreneurs.
This document provides information about Startup Europe Week (SEW), a large entrepreneurship event taking place in over 200 cities across 40 European countries. SEW aims to unite European regions in supporting entrepreneurs by sharing information on resources and initiatives available at both the regional and European level. The event brings value to participants through information sessions on local support programs, networking, and access to financing opportunities. The document then outlines the agenda for SEW events specific to Kharkiv, Ukraine, which will include workshops on starting a business, the publishing industry, creative enterprises, and the local IT startup ecosystem.
The document describes the Eastern European Conference on Web Entrepreneurship and Technology. It provides details on the third edition of the conference, including that it will have international speakers, presentations on entrepreneurship and technology trends, and workshops. It also lists speakers from companies like Adobe, Seedcamp, and startups in Eastern Europe. The conference aims to connect the region to the global web technology field.
MCI Capital - European Leading Growth Capital Firm With Passion for Digital Transformation – your gateway to CEE - Workshop by Sylwester Janik, Senior Partner and Tomek Danis, Partner of MCI Capital at the NOAH Conference London 2016, Old Billingsgate on the 10th of November 2016.
GraphRAG for Life Science to increase LLM accuracyTomaz Bratanic
GraphRAG for life science domain, where you retriever information from biomedical knowledge graphs using LLMs to increase the accuracy and performance of generated answers
Skybuffer AI: Advanced Conversational and Generative AI Solution on SAP Busin...Tatiana Kojar
Skybuffer AI, built on the robust SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), is the latest and most advanced version of our AI development, reaffirming our commitment to delivering top-tier AI solutions. Skybuffer AI harnesses all the innovative capabilities of the SAP BTP in the AI domain, from Conversational AI to cutting-edge Generative AI and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). It also helps SAP customers safeguard their investments into SAP Conversational AI and ensure a seamless, one-click transition to SAP Business AI.
With Skybuffer AI, various AI models can be integrated into a single communication channel such as Microsoft Teams. This integration empowers business users with insights drawn from SAP backend systems, enterprise documents, and the expansive knowledge of Generative AI. And the best part of it is that it is all managed through our intuitive no-code Action Server interface, requiring no extensive coding knowledge and making the advanced AI accessible to more users.
Freshworks Rethinks NoSQL for Rapid Scaling & Cost-EfficiencyScyllaDB
Freshworks creates AI-boosted business software that helps employees work more efficiently and effectively. Managing data across multiple RDBMS and NoSQL databases was already a challenge at their current scale. To prepare for 10X growth, they knew it was time to rethink their database strategy. Learn how they architected a solution that would simplify scaling while keeping costs under control.
Introduction of Cybersecurity with OSS at Code Europe 2024Hiroshi SHIBATA
I develop the Ruby programming language, RubyGems, and Bundler, which are package managers for Ruby. Today, I will introduce how to enhance the security of your application using open-source software (OSS) examples from Ruby and RubyGems.
The first topic is CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures). I have published CVEs many times. But what exactly is a CVE? I'll provide a basic understanding of CVEs and explain how to detect and handle vulnerabilities in OSS.
Next, let's discuss package managers. Package managers play a critical role in the OSS ecosystem. I'll explain how to manage library dependencies in your application.
I'll share insights into how the Ruby and RubyGems core team works to keep our ecosystem safe. By the end of this talk, you'll have a better understanding of how to safeguard your code.
Main news related to the CCS TSI 2023 (2023/1695)Jakub Marek
An English 🇬🇧 translation of a presentation to the speech I gave about the main changes brought by CCS TSI 2023 at the biggest Czech conference on Communications and signalling systems on Railways, which was held in Clarion Hotel Olomouc from 7th to 9th November 2023 (konferenceszt.cz). Attended by around 500 participants and 200 on-line followers.
The original Czech 🇨🇿 version of the presentation can be found here: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/hlavni-novinky-souvisejici-s-ccs-tsi-2023-2023-1695/269688092 .
The videorecording (in Czech) from the presentation is available here: https://youtu.be/WzjJWm4IyPk?si=SImb06tuXGb30BEH .
Dandelion Hashtable: beyond billion requests per second on a commodity serverAntonios Katsarakis
This slide deck presents DLHT, a concurrent in-memory hashtable. Despite efforts to optimize hashtables, that go as far as sacrificing core functionality, state-of-the-art designs still incur multiple memory accesses per request and block request processing in three cases. First, most hashtables block while waiting for data to be retrieved from memory. Second, open-addressing designs, which represent the current state-of-the-art, either cannot free index slots on deletes or must block all requests to do so. Third, index resizes block every request until all objects are copied to the new index. Defying folklore wisdom, DLHT forgoes open-addressing and adopts a fully-featured and memory-aware closed-addressing design based on bounded cache-line-chaining. This design offers lock-free index operations and deletes that free slots instantly, (2) completes most requests with a single memory access, (3) utilizes software prefetching to hide memory latencies, and (4) employs a novel non-blocking and parallel resizing. In a commodity server and a memory-resident workload, DLHT surpasses 1.6B requests per second and provides 3.5x (12x) the throughput of the state-of-the-art closed-addressing (open-addressing) resizable hashtable on Gets (Deletes).
Building Production Ready Search Pipelines with Spark and MilvusZilliz
Spark is the widely used ETL tool for processing, indexing and ingesting data to serving stack for search. Milvus is the production-ready open-source vector database. In this talk we will show how to use Spark to process unstructured data to extract vector representations, and push the vectors to Milvus vector database for search serving.
Digital Marketing Trends in 2024 | Guide for Staying AheadWask
https://www.wask.co/ebooks/digital-marketing-trends-in-2024
Feeling lost in the digital marketing whirlwind of 2024? Technology is changing, consumer habits are evolving, and staying ahead of the curve feels like a never-ending pursuit. This e-book is your compass. Dive into actionable insights to handle the complexities of modern marketing. From hyper-personalization to the power of user-generated content, learn how to build long-term relationships with your audience and unlock the secrets to success in the ever-shifting digital landscape.
FREE A4 Cyber Security Awareness Posters-Social Engineering part 3Data Hops
Free A4 downloadable and printable Cyber Security, Social Engineering Safety and security Training Posters . Promote security awareness in the home or workplace. Lock them Out From training providers datahops.com
Let's Integrate MuleSoft RPA, COMPOSER, APM with AWS IDP along with Slackshyamraj55
Discover the seamless integration of RPA (Robotic Process Automation), COMPOSER, and APM with AWS IDP enhanced with Slack notifications. Explore how these technologies converge to streamline workflows, optimize performance, and ensure secure access, all while leveraging the power of AWS IDP and real-time communication via Slack notifications.
HCL Notes und Domino Lizenzkostenreduzierung in der Welt von DLAUpanagenda
Webinar Recording: https://www.panagenda.com/webinars/hcl-notes-und-domino-lizenzkostenreduzierung-in-der-welt-von-dlau/
DLAU und die Lizenzen nach dem CCB- und CCX-Modell sind für viele in der HCL-Community seit letztem Jahr ein heißes Thema. Als Notes- oder Domino-Kunde haben Sie vielleicht mit unerwartet hohen Benutzerzahlen und Lizenzgebühren zu kämpfen. Sie fragen sich vielleicht, wie diese neue Art der Lizenzierung funktioniert und welchen Nutzen sie Ihnen bringt. Vor allem wollen Sie sicherlich Ihr Budget einhalten und Kosten sparen, wo immer möglich. Das verstehen wir und wir möchten Ihnen dabei helfen!
Wir erklären Ihnen, wie Sie häufige Konfigurationsprobleme lösen können, die dazu führen können, dass mehr Benutzer gezählt werden als nötig, und wie Sie überflüssige oder ungenutzte Konten identifizieren und entfernen können, um Geld zu sparen. Es gibt auch einige Ansätze, die zu unnötigen Ausgaben führen können, z. B. wenn ein Personendokument anstelle eines Mail-Ins für geteilte Mailboxen verwendet wird. Wir zeigen Ihnen solche Fälle und deren Lösungen. Und natürlich erklären wir Ihnen das neue Lizenzmodell.
Nehmen Sie an diesem Webinar teil, bei dem HCL-Ambassador Marc Thomas und Gastredner Franz Walder Ihnen diese neue Welt näherbringen. Es vermittelt Ihnen die Tools und das Know-how, um den Überblick zu bewahren. Sie werden in der Lage sein, Ihre Kosten durch eine optimierte Domino-Konfiguration zu reduzieren und auch in Zukunft gering zu halten.
Diese Themen werden behandelt
- Reduzierung der Lizenzkosten durch Auffinden und Beheben von Fehlkonfigurationen und überflüssigen Konten
- Wie funktionieren CCB- und CCX-Lizenzen wirklich?
- Verstehen des DLAU-Tools und wie man es am besten nutzt
- Tipps für häufige Problembereiche, wie z. B. Team-Postfächer, Funktions-/Testbenutzer usw.
- Praxisbeispiele und Best Practices zum sofortigen Umsetzen
Your One-Stop Shop for Python Success: Top 10 US Python Development Providersakankshawande
Simplify your search for a reliable Python development partner! This list presents the top 10 trusted US providers offering comprehensive Python development services, ensuring your project's success from conception to completion.
5th LF Energy Power Grid Model Meet-up SlidesDanBrown980551
5th Power Grid Model Meet-up
It is with great pleasure that we extend to you an invitation to the 5th Power Grid Model Meet-up, scheduled for 6th June 2024. This event will adopt a hybrid format, allowing participants to join us either through an online Mircosoft Teams session or in person at TU/e located at Den Dolech 2, Eindhoven, Netherlands. The meet-up will be hosted by Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), a research university specializing in engineering science & technology.
Power Grid Model
The global energy transition is placing new and unprecedented demands on Distribution System Operators (DSOs). Alongside upgrades to grid capacity, processes such as digitization, capacity optimization, and congestion management are becoming vital for delivering reliable services.
Power Grid Model is an open source project from Linux Foundation Energy and provides a calculation engine that is increasingly essential for DSOs. It offers a standards-based foundation enabling real-time power systems analysis, simulations of electrical power grids, and sophisticated what-if analysis. In addition, it enables in-depth studies and analysis of the electrical power grid’s behavior and performance. This comprehensive model incorporates essential factors such as power generation capacity, electrical losses, voltage levels, power flows, and system stability.
Power Grid Model is currently being applied in a wide variety of use cases, including grid planning, expansion, reliability, and congestion studies. It can also help in analyzing the impact of renewable energy integration, assessing the effects of disturbances or faults, and developing strategies for grid control and optimization.
What to expect
For the upcoming meetup we are organizing, we have an exciting lineup of activities planned:
-Insightful presentations covering two practical applications of the Power Grid Model.
-An update on the latest advancements in Power Grid -Model technology during the first and second quarters of 2024.
-An interactive brainstorming session to discuss and propose new feature requests.
-An opportunity to connect with fellow Power Grid Model enthusiasts and users.
How to Interpret Trends in the Kalyan Rajdhani Mix Chart.pdfChart Kalyan
A Mix Chart displays historical data of numbers in a graphical or tabular form. The Kalyan Rajdhani Mix Chart specifically shows the results of a sequence of numbers over different periods.
How to Interpret Trends in the Kalyan Rajdhani Mix Chart.pdf
Startup Innovation & VC Investment in Central and Eastern Europe
1. The first-ever comprehensive
startup research on
24 countries of Central
and Eastern Europe
PRESENTATION
& KEY FINDINGSSTARTUP
INVESTMENT
& INNOVATION
IN EMERGING EUROPE
A M O N G R E S E A R C H A N D M E D I A P A R T N E R S
1
2018 EDITION, VERSION 1 – FEBRUARY 2018
TO SHARE THIS REPORT,
PLEASE USE THIS LINK:
http://cee.ewdn.com
2. 2STARTUP INVESTMENT & INNOVATION IN EMERGING EUROPE
The result of a one-year-long research across 24 countries, this report highlights the main
facts, numbers and trends of startup investment and innovation in Central and Eastern Europe.
It can be downloaded at no charge from http://cee.ewdn.com
ABOUT THIS REPORT
q COPYRIGHT AND REPUBLICATION RULES
q INACCURACIES AND UPDATES
The content of this report is protected by copyright. Individuals and organizations can, without prior authorization and free
of charge, copy and publish without limitation short extracts in the form of quotes. This report must be clearly indicated as the
source with a link to http://cee.ewdn.com. To copy and republish very large extracts, or the full report, or for other
editorial cooperation opportunities, please contact Adrien Henni at editor@ewdn.com
We will be pleased to receive any notices of inaccuracies or information we may have missed. Please submit corrections,
updates and/or suggestions to report@ewdn.com. Your feedback will help us make the next edition an even better resource for
the community.
With participation from major partnering resources, this report and its further updates will be viewed by thousands of industry
professionals and investors, both in Central and Eastern Europe and across the world. You may get featured in it via a
promotional page or a case study made by our team at the highest editorial standards. To inquire about these opportunities, or
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q ADVERTISING AND SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
3. East-West Digital News is a news and research agency dedicated
to the vibrant tech markets of Central and Eastern Europe.
Founded in 2011, the agency publishes news sites (Russia:
www.ewdn.com , Ukraine: www.uadn.net) and industry reports
(http://ewdn.com/reports).
A consulting branch, East-West Digital Consulting, provides
international players with assistance for business development in
Eastern-European companies, and advises local companies on
their international strategies (http://www.ewdn.com/services).
For more information, please contact us at contact@ewdn.com
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
STARTUP INVESTMENT & INNOVATION IN EMERGING EUROPE
4. 4STARTUP INVESTMENT & INNOVATION IN EMERGING EUROPE
Lead researcher: Adrien Henni
Mr. Henni is co-founder and chief editor at East-
West Digital News (www.ewdn.com). With more
than 15 years of experience in the high-tech and
venture businesses in France, Eastern Europe and
other countries, he advises a variety of startups,
funds and other organizations. editor@ewdn.com
RESEARCH TEAM
Research analyst: Jane Kuhuk
Ms. Kuhuk is research analyst and project coordinator at
East-West Digital News and Ukraine Digital News
(www.uadn.net). She graduated with honors from
National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv
Polytechnic Institute". You may contact her at
team@ewdn.com
Writer: Vladimir Kozlov
Mr. Kozlov is a Moscow-based journalist. He used to
held editorial positions at The Moscow Times and
The Moscow News and is now a freelance writer
focused on business and technology.
vladimir-v-k@yandex.ru
Artwork & design: Ivan Gubenko
Based in Kiev, Mr. Gubenko has a rich experience in
the fields of corporate design and visual
communications as well as layout for online and print
supports. He is also a painter. See his works on Saatchi
Art http://goo.gl/mp9y4Q or write him at
ivan_gubenko@ukr.net
ICO expert: Arseniy Strizhenok
A Blockchain enthusiast and expert, Mr. Strizhenok
has been an ICO advisor with several Russian
companies. He has more than 5 years of hands-on
experience in IT and marketing, as well as in co-
organizing international Blockchain events.
team@ewdn.com
CEE expert: Armin Konjalić
Mr. Konjalić is an outstanding expert of the CEE
startup scene. His networks and knowledge span
across virtually all the countries of the region.
team@ewdn.com
Writer: Mina Nacheva
Mrs. Nacheva is a freelance journalist and content
strategist, covering SMEs and entrepreneurship in Europe,
including the field of innovation. She has years-long
experience in print and online media in Austria, Bulgaria,
and the Netherlands. She also does research on the new
trends in digital journalism. contact@minanacheva.com
5. 5STARTUP INVESTMENT & INNOVATION IN EMERGING EUROPE
The following persons have offered contributions to this research or supported it in various ways
• Olga Afanaseva, Executive Director at the Ukrainian VC and PE
Association (UVCA)
• Agahuseyn Ahmadov, Regional Associate for CEE Region
at Seedstars World
• Arèche Alamir, Chief Customers and Innovations Officer
at Auchan Retail Russia
• Cristobal Alonso, CEO at Startup Wise Guys
• Kaloyan E. Andonov, reporter at Global Corporate Venturing
• Kosta Andrić, Managing Partner at ICT Hub (Serbia)
• Mikhail Antonov, Deputy CEO and Innovation Infrastructure
Development Director at RVC (Russia)
• Hanna Aranovich, CMO at Neosound in Estonia, formerly
International Communication Manager at Imaguru (Belarus)
• Ben Aris, Chief Editor at BNE Intellinews
• Hayk Asriyants, founder of Startup Armenia
• Uranik Bagu, Executive Director at Innovation Centre Kosovo
• Aneida Bajraktari, co-founder and Managing Partner at Balkans
Capital and a startup community leader in Albania
• Kirill Bigai, startup entrepreneur (Preply)
• Maxim Bulakovsky, Policy Analyst at OECD
• Lyudmila Bulavkina, CMO at Rentmania.com (Russia)
• Alexey Burdyko, startup entrepreneur (Play2Live)
• Ilya Bykonya, startup entrepreneur (Rightech)
• Laura Calmore, Direction of Development, BPI France
• Traian Chivriga, executive at Vintage.vg (Moldova)
• Ewa Chronowska, founder and President of the CEE Business
Angels Network
• Craig Corbett, Chairman at 150sec.com
• Anita Erker, Head of Communications at MVP Workshop (Serbia)
• Matej Ftacnik, CXO at Vacuum Labs (Slovakia)
• Arseniy Dabbakh, Partner at RB Partners (Russia)
• Igor Douplitzky, Director of business development with startups at
Orange
• Andrey Durakov, startup entrepreneur (Let It Play)
• Vladimir Dyakov, startup entrepreneur (AB-Chain)
• Petra Dzurovcinova, former Executive Manager of Slovak industry
association SAPIE
• Alexander “Sasha” Galitsky, Ph. D., co-founder and Managing
Partner at Almaz Capital
• Alex Gidirim, startup entrepreneur (YouDo.com)
• Pier Luigi Gilibert, Chief Executive at EIF
• Oskar Hartmann, serial entrepreneur (Russia)
• Markéta Havlová, Director of the Startup Dpt. at Chezh Invest
• Bogdan Herea, founder of Pitech Plus (Romania)
• Manuk Hergnyan, co-founder and Managing Partner
at Granatus Ventures (Armenia)
• Silke Horáková, ex-CEO of the Czech PE & VC Association
Contributors
6. 6STARTUP INVESTMENT & INNOVATION IN EMERGING EUROPE
Contributors
The following persons have offered contributions to this research or supported it in various ways:
• Ádám Horváth, Head of International Relations at CES Awards
• Bogdan Iordache, Romanian entrepreneur and community
builder, Partner at Gecad Ventures
• Milen Ivanov, Director at the Founder Institute (Bulgaria)
• Josip Juhas, ICObench
• Marko Jukić, CEO at Vollo (Croatia)
• Mammad Karim, founder of Khazar Ventures (Azerbaijan)
• Andrej Kiska, General Partner at Credo Ventures (Czechia, USA)
• Peđa Knežević, East-West Digital News
• Oleg Kouzbit, writer at Marchmont News (Russia)
• Denys Krasnykov, reporter at Kyiv Post (Ukraine)
• Lenka Kucerova, co-founder and CEO at StarLift.org (Czechia)
• Agata Kukwa, Global Facilitator at Startup Weekend (Poland)
• Giorgi Laliashvili, Chief Specialist of Strategic Development at the
Georgian Innovation and Technology Agency (GITA)
• Urban Lapajne, Program Manager at Initiative Startup Slovenia
• Anna Lapshina, Marketing & PR at Playkey (Russia)
• Aiste Lehmann, co-founder and CEO at TIDEA (Bosnia and
Herzegovina)
• Lukasz Leoniewski, Manager for Partnerships at Facebook
• Tim Li, Business Development Manager at CrunchBase
• Jacopo Losso, Director of Secretariat, EBAN
• Dmitry Lukovkin, startup entrepreneur (Deep Gnosis)
• Igor Madzov, Associate at South Central Ventures and co-
founder of Startup Macedonia
• Cédric Maloux, CEO at StartupYard (Prague)
• Dmitry Marinichev, Presidential Internet ombudsman (Russia)
• Marina Marinova, Manager at the Bulgarian PE & VC Association
• Nikolai Markovnik, Ph. D., Senior Investor Manager at VP Capital
• Inga Miliauskiene, former head of VCA, the Lithuanian PE & VC
association
• Marko Mudrinić, co-founder and editor at Netokracija
• Lynn Nicholson, Senior Communications Manager at InvestEurope
• Çelik Nimani, CEO at Frakton (Kosovo)
• Jekaterina Novicka, head of Latvia’s national
startup association Startin.lv
• Oleg Obolenskyi, founder of INTRO Analytics
• Igor Ovcharenko, Business Developer at Seedstars Group
• Maksym Pechersky, startup entrepreneur (Promorepublic)
• Angela Peng, Data Analyst at CrunchBase
• Lisa Peyton, Global Social & Digital Strategist, Global Marketing &
Communications at Intel
• Adrian Pica, founder of 150sec.com
• Viktor Prokopenya, founder of VP Capital
7. 7STARTUP INVESTMENT & INNOVATION IN EMERGING EUROPE
Contributors
The following persons have offered contributions to this research or supported it in various ways:
• Ales Pustovrh, co-founder of ABC Business Accelerator (Slovenia)
• Rimantė Ribačiauskaitė, Head of Startup Lithuania
• Maximilian Schausberger, Innovation Management, Group
Digital Banking at Raiffeisenbank International
• Dr. Plamen Russev, Executive Chairman at Webit Foundation and
the Global Webit Series, founder of Sofia — Digital Capital of the
New Markets
• Maciej Sadowski, Head of Startup Hub Poland
• Matei Sergiu, Moldovan startup entrepreneur
• Alexander Smbatyan, founder of Genome Ventures and
Advisor to Moscow city Deputy Mayor
• Luka Sučić, Managing Director at Nest01, part of HUB385 in Zagreb
• Yuliya Sychikova, Associate at Aventures Capital
• Julia Szopa, CEO at Startup Poland
• Alexander Tasev, Director at SuperFounders
• Pavel Terentiev, Managing Partner at AddVenture
• Janet Todorova, Director of the Sofia chapter of the Founder
Institute
• David Uhlíř, Chief Strategy Officer at the JIC innovation center in
Brno, Czechia
• Nail Valiev, Business Development at Sauce Labs (Azerbaijan)
• Dovydas Varkulevicius, Director of the Entrepreneurship Dpt. at
Enterprise Lithuania
• Kirill Varlamov, Director of the Internet Initiatives Development
fund (IIDF) (Russia)
• Mari Vavulski, Head of Startup Estonia
• David Waroquier, Partner at Mangrove Capital Partners
• Robin Wauters, founder and Chief Editor at Tech.eu
• Tomaz Wesolowski, Polish startup entrepreneur, founder of 2040.io
• Kendrick White, founder of Marchmont Capital Partners (Russia,
USA)
• Adela Zábražná, Executive Manager at SAPIE (Slovakia)
• Marko Zeljko, Startup Manager and Business Developer at SPARK
(Bosnia and Herzegovina)
• Peter Zhegin, Associate at Flint Capital, co-lead at Russia.ai
• Dražen Žujović, Montenegrin startup entrepreneur
8. 8STARTUP INVESTMENT & INNOVATION IN EMERGING EUROPE
RESEARCH and media partners
GEORGIA’S
INNOVATION
& TECHNOLOGY
AGENCY
The following organizations have contributed in various way to the making of this research and/or the dissemination of the report
MEDIA AND INDUSTRY RESOURCES
INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS AND COMMUNITIES
DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES
LOCAL PLAYERS
EVENT ORGANIZERS
VENTURE FIRMS AND FUNDS
GLOBAL COMPANIES
10. 1. The region is very diverse: it comprises some of Europe’s most advanced innovation ecosystems (Estonia,
Slovenia) and some of the least developed (certain republics of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia) – see "Local
Landscapes” http://ewdn.com/files/cee_countries.pdf.
2. In absolute terms, Russia is by far the regional leader in technological assets, number of startups and volume of
investment (read more: http://ewdn.com/files/cee_russia.pdf ). Estonia and Slovenia are ahead in relative terms (per capita).
3. Many countries of the region display strong technological and engineering assets along with a high educational
level. This is partly a legacy of their communist past. In a range of countries, these assets laid the foundations of
internationally-integrated software development capacities; these countries are now switching to a more product-
and innovation-oriented model (read more: http://ewdn.com/files/cee_trends.pdf ).
4. In most countries, the local innovation ecosystem has progressed in spectacular fashion over the past few years. A
few countries, however, still lag behind – this is the case, in particular, with Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro and some others.
5. In most countries, governments and public institutions have played an active role in supporting the emergence of
local startup and venture activities. In some cases, for example Russia, the local landscape has been structured to a
large extent by state-backed organizations and programs. In member states of the European Union, European
funds have brought considerable support to the emerging venture activity (see interview with EIF Chief Executive in
“Regional Trends” http://ewdn.com/files/cee_trends.pdf ).
6. Brain drain and startup emigration affect many countries of the region, due to the appeal of the US market and, to
a lesser extent, Western Europe. Other issues for startups emerging in the region include the limited size of the
local market, limited access to capital, and in certain cases a negative political or social context. However, the
impact of emigration is not completely negative: many startups do keep a foot in their country of origin, and
successful entrepreneurs do invest back in their homeland (read more: http://ewdn.com/files/cee_trends.pdf ).
Key findings: CEE startup ecosyStems
10STARTUP INVESTMENT & INNOVATION IN EMERGING EUROPE
11. 11STARTUP INVESTMENT & INNOVATION IN EMERGING EUROPE
Key findings: CEE startup ecosyStems
Startup investment per capita
Based on estimates related to 2016, including investment in
startups witH CEE origins but established in other countries
Less than €1
From €5 to €10
Around €50
From €1 to €5
From €10 to €30
No data
Startup ecosystem maturity
Based on EWDN knowledge and expert assessments in each
country (see country sections in Parts 4 and 5 of this report)
Overall market maturity
This ranking combines startup investment per capita (chart 1)
and expert assessments of ecosystem maturity (chart 2)
Group 1: Underdeveloped startup markets
Group 2: Early-stage startup markets
Group 3: Maturing startup markets
Group 4: Highly-developed startup markets
Nascent startup ecosystems
In development
Nearing maturation
Highly-developed ecosystems
Read more: http://ewdn.com/files/cee_trends.pdf
12. 12STARTUP INVESTMENT & INNOVATION IN EMERGING EUROPE
1. With less than 1% of the global investment volume, venture activity in the region remains very weak. Russia boasts
significant numbers in absolute terms (nearly $900m in 2016), but its venture activity looks extremely modest when
compared with the world’s leading markets ($70 billion in the USA, $30 billion in China). The Russian numbers are
low, too, if calculated per capita: just $7 in 2016 (read more: http://ewdn.com/files/cee_russia.pdf ).
2. The only country in the region with high venture activity in relative terms is Estonia, with around $60 of venture
investment per capita (compared with $185 in the USA and $33 in France). Investment per capita is significant in
Slovenia and Latvia as well. But in certain countries, such as Albania, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Montenegro, local
venture activity is almost unnoticeable (see "Local landscapes:” http://ewdn.com/files/cee_countries.pdf )
3. Only a few international VCs come to Central or Eastern Europe. This is due to the relatively small size of the local
markets and, even more often, to a lack of information about these markets and their opportunities. In some cases,
moreover, the local political or legal context is not favorable, tending to discourage international investors.
However, some foreign investors have enjoyed huge returns on investment after investing in startups from the
region.
4. Meanwhile, a number of venture funds and wealthy individuals from the region are asserting themselves on the
global venture scene. This is typically the case of investors with Russian, Polish and Ukrainian roots. Some of these
globalized investors invest even more abroad than in their country of origin.
5. In contrast with its modest VC activity, the region boasts an impressive record on the global ICO scene.
Companies with roots in the region account for around 17% of the ICOs and pre-ICOs conducted globally in 2017,
and 22% of the funds raised. Fully 130 ICOs or pre-ICOs came from Russia (out of 237 from the region as a whole)
– making this country by far the regional leader. Next comes Estonia (22 identified operations), then Slovenia and
Ukraine (22 and 13, respectively) (read more: http://ewdn.com/files/cee_tokens.pdf ).
Key findings: CEE startup investment trends
13. 13STARTUP INVESTMENT & INNOVATION IN EMERGING EUROPE
These orders of magnitude are based on the compilation and comparison of various sources. For CEE, we have aggregated the country estimates
provided by local experts and communities – which usually take into account deals with an international dimension and, in certain cases, undisclosed
deals (read more: http://ewdn.com/files/cee_trends.pdf ). The Russia figure is taken from the RG Partners-EY research, the most reliable of available ones
( http://ewdn.com/files/cee_russia.pdf )
The CEE Venture market compared with other regions of the world
(orders of magnitude in 2016)
USA: Around
$70bn
China:
Around
$30bn
Russia:
Around $0.9bn
EU: Around $15bn
CEE (excl. Russia):
around $0.6bn
14. 14STARTUP INVESTMENT & INNOVATION IN EMERGING EUROPE
These orders of magnitude (not exact data) have been estimated based on one or several local sources, which usually take into account deals with an
international dimension and, in certain cases, undisclosed deals – usually far above InvestEurope’s data (see Methodological Note in Part 1 of this report
http://ewdn.com/files/cee_trends.pdf). No data was found for Bosnia-Herzegovina and Georgia.
Venture investment in CEE countries
(Orders of magnitude in 2016)
€100m
€80m
€60m
€40m
€20m
0
LESS THAN €1M
Albania Moldova Montenegro
FROM €1M TO €10M
Azerbaijan Kosovo
Macedonia
FROM €50M TO €100M
Belarus Estonia
Poland Ukraine
FROM €10M TO €20M
Czechia Croatia Lithuania Slovakia
FROM €20M TO €50M
Armenia Hungary Latvia
Serbia Slovenia
15. CEE IN THE GLOBAL ICO MARKET IN 2017
WITH SUPPORT FROM
Raised amountS IN
identified ICOs and pre-ICOs
Number of identified ICOs AND PRE-ICOs
conducted BY COMPANIES from CEE, or with CEE
roots, based on company registration or
factual origin.
Amounts raised though identified ICOs AND PRE-ICOs BY COMPANIES FROM CEE, OR WITH CEE ROOTS,
based on company registration or factual origin. DOES NOT INCLUDE unidentified operations
and undisclosed amounts.
CEE Rest of the world CEE Rest of the world CEE Rest of the world
$5.4m $4.2m
AVERAGE amountS RAISED
IN identified ICOs and
pre-ICOs
SourceS: ICOBENCH (GLOBAL), ICOBENCH+EWDN (CEE), company information
Number of identified
ICOs and pre-ICOs
See comprehensive ICO market analysis and case studies
in Part 2 of this report http://ewdn.com/files/cee_tokens.pdf
15STARTUP INVESTMENT & INNOVATION IN EMERGING EUROPE
16. 16STARTUP INVESTMENT & INNOVATION IN EMERGING EUROPE
DOWNLDOAD LINKS TO THE FULL VERSION:
PART 1: Regional Trends
• Trend analysis & executive interviews
• Venture deals & VC market data
• How EIF supports venture activity in CEE
• How corporations are getting involved
• Key regional events and industry
resources
http://ewdn.com/files/cee_trends.pdf
PART 3: Artificial intelligence:
The New Powerhouse of Europe?
• Trend analysis & expert opinion
• Case studies & entrepreneur interviews
• Select articles
http://ewdn.com/files/cee_ai.pdf
PART 2: The Token Spring of Central
& Eastern Europe
• ICO market data
• Trend analysis & expert opinion
• Case studies & select articles
http://ewdn.com/files/cee_tokens.pdf
PART 4: Local landscapes
Discover the startup and venture ecosystems in
Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia,
Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania,
Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland,
Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine
http://ewdn.com/files/cee_countries.pdf
PART 5: Special Russia section
• Country data & trend analysis
• Executive interviews & expert opinion
• Select articles
http://ewdn.com/files/cee_russia.pdf
PART 6: Featured startups
& entrepreneurs
Case studies and interviews to discover some of
the region’s most remarkable entrepreneurs and
technologies!
http://ewdn.com/files/cee_featured.pdf
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