Digital East Fund (ex-Earlybird) continues to champion winners out of Central and Eastern Europe. To see what the Digital East Fund (ex-Earlybird) has been up to in 2021 and discover our perspective on some of the more recent investments, have a look at a series of blog posts where we do a deep dive on our focus markets and investment theses: Payhawk, Alokai (f.k.a. Vue Storefront), Orgnostic, Trickest, Anari and Binalyze
2021 marked significant milestones for the Digital East Fund. Back in April, UiPath listed its shares on the NYSE to become the largest Europe-born technology company to IPO. Observing first-hand the transformations a Romanian company had to go through pre- and post-IPO, plus Daniel and team’s evolution from such humble beginnings, was a unique experience for us as investors.
While some companies mature into public markets for their next phase of growth, others step up their game with ever-larger venture rounds and higher growth momentum. It’s this continuity that cements the progress of emerging tech hubs like CEE. After raising the second-largest Series B round by a B2B company in the region (second-only to UiPath’s round in 2018), we believe Payhawk is following in the footsteps of its fellow global software category winners from CEE.
2021 has been an active year, when it comes to new investments from our new fund and exits from our first fund. We have been lucky to back seven new companies in a wide range of verticals, such as AI/ML, cybersecurity, DevOps, enterprise software, HRtech, and fintech. And earlier this year, FITE was acquired by Triller, marking the fifth successful exit in our first fund.