The CEE region is where it’s at if you’re an investor, innovative company, or tech entrepreneur. This is the second of a two-part series profiling the tech hubs of the CEE region, and the sorts of disruptive solutions they’re producing. If you missed part 1, read that here first. If you’ve already covered that (and bought your tickets to the Wolves Summit event!), let’s move right onto part two: Slovakia, Lithuania, and host of the 10th Wolves Summit, Poland.
The 7 Hottest Innovation Hubs in CEE, Part 2: Slovakia, Lithuania & Poland
In Part 1 we looked at the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary & Romania. Now let’s check out some other dynamic tech hubs in the CEE region.
5. Slovakia
As children, many of us drew or dreamed of, some sort of car that could also fly. It took Slovakian startup AeroMobil to make it happen though. AeroMobil is a high tech, suer luxury vehicle that is both car and aeroplane in one. Its makers call it the “supercar with superpowers,” and who are we to disagree with that?!
You’ll find Slovakia right in-between other exciting tech scenes like those of its neighbours Hungary, Ukraine, Austria, and the Czech Republic. For a small country in Eastern Europe, Slovakia punches above its weight when it comes to tech startups. Two years ago Inc. Magazine wrote that 57% of the economic output of Slovakia came from SMEs. Inc reported that the country ranked impressively high on its Inc 5000 Europe List for fastest-growing private companies. Slovakia was home to 107 of these.
What’s more, the startups that have had some success already are working to create the sort of startup ecosystem that will help those entrepreneurs that come after. There are plans to create platforms to support professional developments, to assist in SEO optimisation, funding co-working spaces where startups can scale quickly with support and mentoring, and help to facilitate e-commerce activity.
Slovakia has the same highly-educated yet affordable talent pool as its CEE neighbours. It’s come to be famous for software security and heavy manufacturing. Being such a small country, the advantage for Slovak startups is that they very much begin with an international focus, something that cannot be said for all startups. The Slovakian government is working on decreasing bureaucracy for those wanting to set up a business. Interestingly, the government is still the biggest single investor when it comes to Slovak startups.
So what sort of Slovak startup talent can you expect to find at Wolves Summit? In March, we saw six impressive tech companies:
DECENT: one of the first blockchain companies, and one that developed its own blockchain protocol; DCore. It empowers users to create or migrate applications into a blockchain environment.
FINANCIE.ONLINE SK S.R.O: A company building the next-gen digital financial assistant that will look after your finances 24/7. It’s already got thousands of users and coverage from national and local media.
HEALTHCLIP: A technical solution for the digitalisation of medical history, with automatic translation, and data-sharing with clinics & doctors in user’s social medical space.
PAYOWALLET: A digital marketing platform for high-street merchants and food & gastronomy retail. It enables personalized offers and marketing for merchants and includes payments with mobile.
XPERIENCE: A light-weight HCM for global companies enabling a modern people interaction. The app stores all employee data in one central place and provides an accurate time & absence management process with built-in continuous employee feedback.
3IPK - 3IPK: Developing an industrial solution based on blockchain to facilitate aerospace certification, secured engineering and qualification data management as well as components/equipment originality fingerprinting system.
Find a Slovakian startup and help them realise their global potential, by filling up your B2B schedule at the 10th Wolves Summit today.
6. Lithuania
Think of Vilnius, the second-largest city in the Baltic states, and you might think of the past. As far as the Old Town goes, you’d be right to, it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But Vilnius also hosts global tech giants like IBM, Barclays, Nasdaq and others – so when you think of Vilnius, you should think of the future, too.
Like its CEE neighbours, it’s full of young, talented, affordable tech professionals. It has one of the shortest turnaround times in the world for company registration and start-up, as well as a commitment to legislation that is, “business-friendly as well as business-building”. Lithuania’s acceleration in e-government solutions is recognised EU-wide. For startups, there are several large events, including the biggest of these, Startup Fair. It attracts around 2000 visitors each year. Their Startup Visa is a simplified immigration process targeting gifted and ambitious startup founders from around the world to get their startup going and growing in Lithuania.
If you’ve heard of Vinted or Trafi, you’ll already know that Lithuania is full of startup investment potential. Today, Vinted has offices in Berlin, Warsaw and Prague, helping it to reach markets in the UK, France, Germany, USA and more. But it began in Lithuania in 2008, as a website to give unwanted clothes away to friends. It’s the much-loved thrift-store gone online, letting users sell clothes they don’t wear anymore with 0% selling fees. Trafi is a mobility platform enabling cities and enterprises to launch and operate their own MaaS (Mobility as a Service) solutions. Started in Lithuania, it now has offices in Berlin, Prague and Jakarta, and is used by BVG, Lyft, Google and Volkswagen.
The 9th iteration of Wolves Summit saw 14 Lithuanian startups join B2B meetings for investment and partnership possibilities with VCs and companies. Among them were Sharing economy fashion solution JSC RENT BOUTIQUE; the world’s first creative approach to AI+Blockhain which converts data into music, MUSICAL BLOCKCHAIN; the wearable and app that detects drowsiness and intoxication in real-time, PILOTANGEL; and revolutionary cleantech VIEZO, whose energy harvesters convert any source of vibration into useful electrical energy.
7. Poland
Home of the October 2019 Wolves Summit, Poland is a particular star in the CEE digital innovation space. Its economy has grown 400% over the last 20 years. In Polish cities like Warsaw and Krakow, you’ll find engineering and R&D bases where some of the world’s biggest tech players are capitalizing on the pool of IT talent in CEE. Companies like ABB, Cisco, Motorola to Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, are all there.
Famous Polish startups include Brainly, a startup from Krakow which has raised $38.5 million so far. StethoMe allows users to examine their lung and heart health from home using an intelligent stethoscope that works with a mobile app. You’ll likely have heard of other successful (and successfully funded) ventures like Estimote, Base CRM, Kontakt.io, and Seed Labs.
Polish companies made up more than 250 of the startups at the 9th Wolves Summit. This October, you can meet with them on their own turf, right here in Warsaw.
Wolves Summit: Where CEE Startups and Global Investment Meet
The Wolves Summit is now in its 10th edition, over the 23-24 of October in Warsaw, Poland. This multinational event connects the top players in tech companies, startups, investors and corporations. All to support global innovation. It’s a dynamic forum where we link innovation to business and capital in a valuable, time-efficient way.
We offer precise matchmaking so you can interview the best and brightest of CEE startups. To be one of the more than 1500 attendees, and make the most of over 3000 pre-scheduled B2B meetings, get your ticket now!
