Emerging Europe’s start-up scene is thriving: new money is pouring into the market all the time. To keep you up to date with the latest investments, innovations, movers and shakers, each Monday Emerging Europe brings you a handy round-up of the region’s start-ups which closed financing rounds over the previous seven days.
Prague-based collaboration analytics platform Time is Ltd. gets 4.6 million euros in seed round
Czech start-up Time is Ltd has closed a seed round to the tune of 4.6 million euros (5.6 million US dollars) led by angel investor Mike Chalfen of London’s Chalfen Ventures. Illuminate Financial Management, Acequia Capital, existing investor Accel, as well as angel investors Paul Sallaberry and Clark Golestani also participated.
Founded in 2017 by Cyril Hoschl and Jan Rezab, the start-up aims to address an important challenge facing today’s companies — with all the digital communication and collaboration tools used, how much actual work is being done?
Its platform seamlessly integrates with the likes of Microsoft Office 365, Google Workspace, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and Zoom to deliver insights into team productivity, a virtual must during a time when many companies have been shifting more and more to remote work.
Data points include more than 400 user defined selections, meaning that managers can plot their own course and then measure it. With the data, managers can formulate plans on how to increase productivity, engagement, and real collaboration within their departments.
“The opportunity to analyse these kinds of collaboration and communication data in a privacy-compliant way alongside existing business metrics is the future of understanding the heart beat of every company – I believe in 10 years time we will be looking at how we could have ignored insights from these platforms,” says Jan Rezab, CEO and co-founder.
The company also reports that Ulf Zetterberg, founder and former CEO of Seal Software, will be joining Time is Ltd. as president and co-founder.
The start-up plans to use the funds from the newest round to drive international expansion and product development.
Romanian start-up Brunch scores 250,000 euros to scale its collaboration app
Brunch is a new Romanian start-up aiming to help web developers, designers, and marketers collaborate better.
Founded in 2020 by entrepreneurs Andrei Stoica and Razvan Statescu, the company has now received 250,000 euros in funding from Ulpia Ventures.
Its app facilitates collaboration processes between teams that build and optimise websites. With the app, feedback is managed from all actors during website creation, thus reducing development time and cost. Right now, the app has a free version and two paid plans, one aimed at freelancers and one aimed at businesses.
“We have been working in digital marketing and web development for over 10 years and we identified a market need for a platform that can facilitate web collaboration for building new websites and optimising existing ones. Brunch reduces time spent and financial resources invested, improves communication and the feedback process, being at the same time really easy to use by anyone. This investment is a proof of trust from our partner, it confirms our business model and helps us accelerate growth,” explains Andrei Stoica, CEO.
Brunch has recently caught the eye of entrepreneur and investor Mihai Ivașcu, CEO of Modex and investment partner at Ulpia Ventures which led to the closing of the current round.
“The 250,000 euros in funding will enable Brunch to reach the next level of development, to become a market leader in less than a year and to create a new trend among web developers, content creators and marketers. We are happy Brunch joins the Ulpia Ventures family, alongside other tech companies and I know we will make great things together, all the while solving real life problems through emerging technologies developed by the new wave of entrepreneurs,” says Ivașcu.
Estonian start-up Edumus raises 180,000 euros to tackle global teacher shortage
Estonian female-founded edtech start-up Edumus has received 180,000 euros from Estonian and Finnish angel investors.
Edumus is a platform and marketplace that enables specialists from different fields and industries to join schools as part-time teachers. Through the platform, they can give classes in a specific subject, to one grade, over the course of a school year.
The platform supports the whole recruitment process of new teachers — professionals can sign up for the programme and are then matched with local schools who need their competencies. A training programme developed by Finnish teacher training professionals is designed specifically for those with no prior teaching experience and covers 21st century pedagogy and teaching methodologies.
This way, the company hopes to address a real issue in education — the ongoing teacher shortage. According to UNESCO Institute for Statistics an additional 69 million teachers must be recruited to achieve universal primary and secondary education by 2030.
“21st-century schools need new kinds of teachers. We believe that scientists, developers, engineers and other specialists should be more involved in school education, and share their real-life experience. Edumus’ training programme and facilitating software system helps to connect schools with professionals. This year, Edumus platform will be launching in Ukraine in addition to Estonia, with ongoing negotiations in Uzbekistan,” says Maria Rahamägi, the 28-year-old female founder of Edumus.
Launched in Estonia in 2019, in just two years the education initiative has already sent over 40 specialists to schools. This September, Edumus will send up to 200 more specialists to schools around Estonia as part-time teachers.
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