selected: 9 startups
from: 4 countries
meet them: right now!

Long live Kickstarter! Big money goes to Warhorse.

Czech game developer Warhorse Studios has successfully reached its Kickstarter goal (£300k) for its game Kingdom Come: Deliverance in two days. And still raising, reaching £600k any time soon.

“While we were always confident in our vision for Kingdom Come: Deliverance, we never in our wildest dreams expected a response like this,” says Game Director and Lead Designer Dan Vávra. “We’re humbled by the outpouring of support, and admittedly a bit shell shocked. We can’t thank our supporters enough. We are prepared to give everything we have to make an unforgettable game.”

Warhorse and its lead investor can now confirm that Kingdom Come: Deliverance will be funded through completion. The game is an open world AAA action-adventure RPG set for initial release in 2015.

Warhorse Studios aren’t the only Czech game studio exploring the crowdfounding. The first ones were Dreadlocks, who aimed for £14k and got them for its cyberpunk RPG Dex. Right after the Warhorse success come Mingle Games with their own campaign to raise money for the mobile game Darklands.

5 Polish startups to look out for in 2014

Startups are springing up everywhere in Europe at an increasing rate. At the beginning of this year, server EU-Startups chose five startups to look for in 2014.

The first one is  Estimote, founded in 2012 in Krakow. Estimote is building a sensor-based analytics and engagement platform. Their main product is Estimote Beacons. Estimote has risen over $3.4 million by well known firms/names like Andreessen Horowith, Yuri Milner or YCombinator.

The second one is TAXI5, a Wroclaw and Krakow-based startup allowing you to order a taxi with basically just one click. Taxi5 founded in 2012 works on the iOS and Android platforms and cooperates with taxi companies – not directly with taxi drivers. In July of 2012 TAXI5 received €500,000 in seed funding from Satus VC.

Another one isPositionly, a Warsaw-based startup that created a topnotch analytics platform for SEO. Positionly was founded in 2012 and has been backed financially with $300,000 from Point Nine Capital and Business Angels. Positionly.com offers an easy-to-use, scalable SEO analytics platform that enables its users to measure SEO performance, even if they know nothing about SEO.

BETEGY is the fourth startup. A Warsaw-based sports data technology startup provides football predictions and betting tips by using a self-learning algorithm based on statistical data. BETEGY, which was founded in 2013, also provides predictions to business clients via API for enriching their digital content and user engagement.

And the last one is Landingi. Founded in the end of 2011, Landingi came up with an app that helps you to create successful landing pages for many marketing campaign purposes without the need to be a designer or web developer. The promising startup is headquartered in Krakow and received $91,000 in seed funding last year.

Earlybird raises Digital East Fund dedicated to investments in CEE

Berlin-based venture capital firm Earlybird announced their new Digital East Fund, dedicated to early stage investments in Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey. The $130m fund will enable about twenty seed and series A level investments in the region.

Over the past years Earlybird has emerged as one of the leading venture capital firms fuelling the growth of the Berlin startup ecosystem. Their investments include 6Wunderkinder and The Football App. In recent years, the firm has made investments in other European cities including Prague (Socialbakers), Vienna and Istanbul (Peak Games), where they even have their office.

Earlybird announced their new Digital East Fund, dedicated to early stage investments in Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey. Until now, the fund has $110million committed capital, but the firm said they plan to close the fund at $130m, enabling about twenty seed and series A level investments in the region.