Poland has 41 percent of start-up rounds in the region, but 15 percent of the capital

Polish start-ups close the most funding rounds in Central and Eastern Europe, but trail Bulgaria and Lithuania by value. The reason is the market structure: lots of small rounds, almost no large ones.

Poland accounted for 48 of 118 start-up funding rounds in Central and Eastern Europe in the third quarter of 2026, or 41 percent of transactions in the region. According to an October 27 report by investment platform Vestbee, Polish companies raised only 93 million euros out of about 632 million euros, or just under 15 percent. By value, Poland ranked third, behind Bulgaria (200.6 million euros) and Lithuania (192 million euros).

Compared with the second quarter, the number of Polish rounds rose from 44 to 48, while their total value fell by 34 percent, from 140 million euros. As many as 37 of the 48 transactions involved companies at the earliest stage of development. According to a report by PFR Ventures and Inovo.vc, the median transaction value was 4.6 million zlotys, or about 1.1 million euros.

The rankings were decided by individual large rounds. Bulgarian satellite technology producer EnduroSat raised 186.4 million euros, and Lithuanian company Oxylabs, which develops tools for acquiring data from the internet, raised 118.2 million euros from U.S. fund Warburg Pincus. These two transactions accounted for 48 percent of the region's capital in the quarter. An analysis by fund GapMinder shows that of the ten largest rounds, only one was led by a fund focused on Central and Eastern Europe. The rest were financed mainly by institutions from the U.S.

A similar pattern can be seen globally. According to Crunchbase, global investments by venture capital funds (which buy stakes in young companies) reached nearly 680 billion dollars by the end of the third quarter, which is a record. Capital is concentrating in the largest rounds, however, and investors are funding fewer early-stage companies. In North America, the number of transactions fell by 16 percent year on year in the third quarter, although their value rose by 50 percent, to 92 billion dollars.

For founders of Polish start-ups, this means that initial money is available locally, but for rounds counted in the tens and hundreds of millions of euros, they usually need to look for investors from outside the region.