Istanbul, Turkey · Venture Capital 500 Istanbul is an Istanbul-based early-stage venture capital fund established in 2016 by Enis Hulli and Rina Onur Şirinoğlu in partnership with 500 Global, operating as a distinct fund entity focused on Turkey and Emerging Europe. The fund raised a €30M Fund II and later evolved into 500 Emerging Europe, targeting a €70M raise for the broader CEE and Baltics region. Its portfolio of 37+ companies includes three unicorns — Insider, BillionToOne, and Carbon Health — with portfolio companies collectively generating over $600M in annual revenue and attracting $1.1B in follow-on funding. The fund backs pre-seed to seed-stage startups with typical cheques from €200K to €3M.
London, United Kingdom · Startup AdMagica is a generative AI platform for e-commerce ad creative production, with corporate presence in London and core operations in Tbilisi. The product helps performance marketing teams generate, resize, and test conversion-oriented creatives faster across social channels, reducing creative fatigue and production overhead. The company emerged from the 500 Eurasia Batch 9 ecosystem and targets European commerce brands.
Paris, France · Person Co-founder and co-CEO of Mirakl, leading the marketplace-software company's US and global expansion. He co-founded the company with Philippe Corrot after an earlier e-commerce venture.
London, United Kingdom · Person Serial UK entrepreneur who founded Cazoo, the online used-car retailer, after building Zoopla and LoveFilm. A prolific consumer-internet founder, he took Cazoo public via SPAC in 2021.
Łódź, Poland · Person Co-founder and CEO of Kubota, the listed Polish lifestyle brand best known for reviving the iconic Kubota flip-flop. She and her co-founders relaunched the dormant brand in 2018 and grew it into a multi-channel e-commerce and retail business.
Bilbao, Spain · Accelerator Founded 2017. Seed-stage investor focused on marketplaces, e-commerce, and travel tech. All Iron Ventures is an accelerator programme based in Bilbao, Spain. The programme supports startups in Marketplaces, E-commerce, Travel Tech.
Warsaw, Poland · Startup Allani is a Polish fashion-discovery and shopping aggregator that lets users browse clothing and accessories across hundreds of online stores from a single interface. Led by Mateusz Romanowski (also an early Brainly angel), Allani operates a popular consumer product in Polish e-commerce, monetizing through affiliate revenue and direct partnerships with retailers.
Wrocław, Poland · Startup Composable commerce frontend platform (formerly Vue Storefront), giving enterprise retailers a modular, framework-agnostic storefront stack on top of headless commerce backends. Alokai covers storefront UI, middleware, caching, and integrations with major commerce engines (commercetools, SAP Commerce, BigCommerce, Shopify). Backed by Movens Capital among others.
Berlin, Germany · Startup Amorelie was founded in 2013 in Berlin by Lea-Sophie Cramer and Sebastian Pollok as a sexual-wellness e-commerce brand aimed at mainstream, design-conscious consumers. ProSiebenSat.1 began investing in 2014 and acquired a majority stake in 2015, with the company valued at close to €100M by 2018. Both founders had exited management by 2020, and the business was subsequently sold on to the EQOM Group.
Munich, DE · Person Andreas Hoerning is the Chief Executive Officer of Westwing Group AG, a publicly listed European home and living e-commerce company headquartered in Munich, Germany, with operations across multiple European markets. He leads Westwing's strategy around community-driven commerce, social retail, and influencer partnerships. Hoerning is a confirmed keynote speaker at NRF 2026: Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris.
Istanbul, Turkey · Person Founder and CEO of Selia Fullcommerce, an e-commerce and fullcommerce services company. He is an announced speaker at the IGEXX Istanbul Global E-Export Summit 2026.
Paris, France · Startup Ankorstore is a Paris-based B2B wholesale marketplace founded in 2019 that connects independent brands and makers with independent retailers across Europe, handling discovery, ordering, payment terms and logistics. It aims to help local shops compete with large chains and reached unicorn status in 2022.
Krakow, Poland · Startup Answear.com is a Krakow-based online fashion retailer founded in 2011 that sells apparel, footwear, and accessories from over 500 international brands across Central and Eastern Europe. The company operates in Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Ukraine, and went public on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2021. Answear focuses on mid-to-premium fashion with strong logistics and localization for each market. It has become one of the leading multi-brand fashion e-commerce platforms in CEE, competing with Zalando and About You in the region.
Athens, Greece · Angel Investor A Greek serial entrepreneur and investor, Apostolos frequently co-invests in Poland, especially in marketplaces. He has at least two Polish marketplace startups in his portfolio, one being Packhelp (custom packaging). He brings experience from the Southeastern European startup scene into Poland. Associated startups: Packhelp, e-food (expanded to Poland), and other e-commerce platforms.
Warsaw, Poland · Person Co-founder and Partner at Movens Capital. Serial tech entrepreneur and investor; founder and CEO of NetSprint (2000–2018), a Polish search engine that grew into a CEE adtech/martech group. Led Movens Fund 1 (2020–2023) to invest roughly €14M across 20 CEE startups before co-anchoring Fund 2 (€60M, 2025). Board roles and angel investments across fintech, e-commerce, and SaaS in Poland and CEE.
Frankfurt, Germany · Startup asgoodasnew is a Frankfurt-based re-commerce platform specializing in professionally refurbished consumer electronics including smartphones, laptops, tablets, and wearables. Founded in 2012, the company offers devices graded by condition with up to 30-month warranties, providing a trusted alternative to buying new. asgoodasnew handles its own refurbishment and quality assurance processes in-house, differentiating it from pure marketplace models. The company has grown steadily in the German and European market and is part of the broader circular-economy movement alongside Back Market and refurbed, helping reduce electronic waste across Europe.
Wroclaw, Poland · Startup AtomStore is a Wroclaw-based composable e-commerce platform designed for mid-market and enterprise brands that need flexible storefront, catalog, and omnichannel commerce workflows. The platform supports both B2C and B2B selling scenarios with modular architecture that allows brands to customize checkout, pricing, and integration layers without replacing their entire tech stack. AtomStore serves Polish and CEE retailers looking for a locally built alternative to Shopify Plus or commercetools, with strong support for marketplace integrations and multi-warehouse fulfillment.
Berlin, Germany · Startup AUTO1 Group is Europe's leading digital automotive platform, founded in Berlin in 2012 by Christian Bertermann and Hakan Koç. The company connects used car buyers and sellers across Europe through its B2B platform AUTO1.com for trade dealers and its B2C brand Autohero for consumers. Listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 2021 (ticker: AG1), AUTO1 Group has a market capitalisation of approximately €5.5 billion as of May 2026 and employs nearly 7,000 people.
Paris, France · Startup Back Market is a leading European marketplace for refurbished electronics, connecting certified refurbishers with consumers looking for affordable, sustainable alternatives to new devices. The platform covers smartphones, laptops, tablets, and other consumer electronics, with quality grading and warranty guarantees. Valued at $5.7 billion after its 2022 Series E, Back Market operates across Europe and the US and is a flagship example of the circular economy model.
Birmingham, United Kingdom · Person Founder and CEO of Gymshark, the fitness-apparel brand he started from his parents' garage as a teenager and bootstrapped into a billion-pound business before its first outside investment.
Budapest, Hungary · Person Specialist in applied artificial intelligence for commercial environments at Molin AI, focusing on how AI tools can be deployed in practical e-commerce and retail use cases. He is an announced speaker at the XXII E-Commerce Conference 2026 in Budapest.
Baku, Azerbaijan · Startup Birmarket (formerly Umico, founded 2019) is Azerbaijan's largest e-commerce marketplace, rebranded in July 2025 as part of PASHA Holding's Bir digital ecosystem. The platform offers over 500,000 products, express 2-hour delivery, 900+ pickup points, and integrated installment financing through Birbank. It operates across electronics, fashion, food, home, and multiple other retail categories.
Lisbon, Portugal · Startup Bloop is a Lisbon-based social-commerce startup founded by Francisco Rodrigues (CEO) and João Neves (CTO), both alumni of companies including Amazon, Farfetch, Microsoft and Uber. Conceived in 2022 and formalised in 2024, it operates what it calls the world's first social shopping network — a platform that fuses a product marketplace with the mechanics of a social feed, turning ordinary consumers into paid recommenders.
Users earn wallet credits of up to 10% of a purchase's value for publishing authentic recommendations, and up to 5% commission on referral sales, while sellers gain community-generated exposure instead of paid ads. At its July 2025 public beta the platform carried 200,000+ products from 150+ brands and reported a ~4.5% conversion rate. Bloop has raised about €1.5M in pre-seed capital co-led by Monarque Funds and Insure Broker, including one of Portugal's largest retail crowdfunding rounds, and targeted a €5M seed to expand into Spain and France.
Vilnius, Lithuania · Startup Callsy is a Vilnius-based conversational AI startup focused on recovering abandoned e-commerce checkouts for online merchants. The product integrates with Shopify, initiates natural-language voice calls to high-intent shoppers, and follows up with personalized SMS incentives to improve conversion. Its multilingual voice workflows are tailored for cross-border commerce across Europe and beyond.
Tbilisi, Georgia · Startup Cardeal is a Tbilisi-based auto marketplace and auction platform that digitizes cross-border vehicle sourcing and trade workflows. The product enables buyers to access international car inventories and live bidding, then manage shipping, customs, and delivery from a unified interface. It grew through the 500 Georgia/Eurasia program and serves regional demand across the Caucasus.
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Catawiki is Europe's leading curated online auction marketplace, founded in 2008 in the Netherlands and headquartered in Amsterdam. The platform hosts weekly auctions across more than 80 categories including art, jewellery, classic cars, collectibles, and fashion, with each listing vetted by category experts. Catawiki has served millions of buyers and sellers across Europe and raised €150 million in 2021. In 2026 it opened an additional office in Lisbon, Portugal.
Baku, Azerbaijan · Venture Capital Founded in November 2022 as Azerbaijan's first domestically domiciled venture capital fund, Caucasus Ventures was established by the Innovation and Digital Development Agency, PASHA Holding, and individual investors, with a statutory capital of 11.3 million AZN (~$6.6 million). Led by General Partner Mammad Karim, the fund targets post-seed to Series A startups in fintech, edtech, SaaS, cybersecurity, gaming, and e-commerce across Azerbaijan, Georgia, Türkiye, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe. Portfolio companies include Vivoo, Platma, Cognitiwe, Cargon, TASS Vision, and KLIPY. The fund is distinctive as the pioneer institutional VC vehicle in the Azerbaijani ecosystem, backed by state innovation infrastructure and private capital.
Tbilisi, Georgia · Startup Cryptocurrency payment gateway founded in Tbilisi in 2020, enabling merchants to accept payments in multiple cryptocurrencies and settle in USD, EUR, GEL, or TRY. CityPay has onboarded over 600 business partners in Georgia including international hotel chains. The company raised seed funding in 2023 from Presto Ventures and Tether, with Tether subsequently investing an additional $10 million in 2024 as a principal partner.
Sofia, Bulgaria · Startup CloudCart is a Bulgarian ecommerce-as-a-service platform founded in 2016 by brothers Nikolay and Peter Iliev. The platform enables merchants to build, manage, and scale online stores with built-in marketing automation, multichannel sales tools, and integrated payment and shipping support. CloudCart is backed by Vitosha Venture Partners and reported approximately $3.6 million in annual revenue with over 1,100 merchant customers in 2024. The platform expanded into Romania in 2023.
Barcelona, Spain · Startup Colvin is a direct-to-consumer flowers and plants marketplace that sources fresh-cut flowers directly from growers and ships them to customers across Spain, Germany and Italy, offering curated bouquets and gifting with shorter supply chains than traditional florists.
Paris, France · Event Organisator One of the world's leading event organisers, headquartered in the Paris region, running trade shows across retail, food, agriculture and technology. Comexposium organises Paris Retail Week / NRF Retail's Big Show Europe at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles in partnership with the National Retail Federation.
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Person Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Picnic, the Amsterdam-based online grocery delivery company, where he leads engineering, data and the in-house machine-learning platform that powers its app-only model. He is a confirmed speaker at TechEx Europe 2026 in Amsterdam, presenting on applied AI and data at scale.
Berlin, Germany · Person David Schneider is Co-founder of the fashion e-commerce giant Zalando. A founder in the German startup ecosystem, David leads the fashion e-commerce giant Zalando.
Warsaw, Poland · Angel Investor Serial entrepreneur and angel investor, Dawid is known for co-founding CHIC Group, which was acquired by British American Tobacco in a landmark transaction. He actively backs consumer-facing and technology-enabled brands, combining growth strategy support with capital. Notable startup involvements include TakeDrop and investments across lifestyle and tech ventures, including co-investments in projects such as Samurai Labs.
London, United Kingdom · Startup Depop is a social commerce marketplace for buying and selling secondhand fashion, popular among Gen Z users. Founded in London and acquired by Etsy in 2021 for $1.6 billion, Depop combines social-media-style profiles and feeds with peer-to-peer transactions. The platform has over 30 million registered users and is a leading player in the circular fashion economy.
Sofia, Bulgaria · Event Sofia's leading digital economy conference organized by Capital newspaper, attracting 1,000+ executives, founders, and policymakers. Covers digital transformation, e-commerce, and fintech with a strong focus on the Bulgarian and SEE markets. Tickets around EUR 50-150.
Cologne, Germany · Event Europe's leading digital marketing and tech expo, drawing 40,000+ martech, adtech, and e-commerce professionals to Cologne every September. DMEXCO combines a conference track with a massive expo floor where agencies, SaaS vendors, and publishers exhibit. Key topics include programmatic advertising, retail media, AI-driven personalization, and privacy-first marketing. Tickets EUR 99-499.
Berlin, Germany · Event Pure B2B expo for e-commerce service providers. Price: free with B2B registration and approval. High ROI for startups selling logistics, payments, marketing automation, or retention tools.
Budapest, Hungary · Event For over two decades the most important annual gathering of Hungary's e-commerce sector, held just before the Q4 sales peak. The two-day programme at Europa Event Center features keynotes, panels, an expo, networking, and an evening awards dinner, with the 2026 guest country of honour being China and a strong international and cross-border focus.
Budapest, Hungary · Event Organisator Organiser of Hungary's long-running E-Commerce Conference (E-Kereskedelmi Konferencia), the country's most important annual gathering for the online retail sector. The two-day programme features keynotes, panels, an expo, networking, and an awards dinner, with a strong cross-border and international focus.
Bucharest, Romania · Venture Capital Early Game Ventures is a Bucharest-based venture capital firm that launched its first fund in 2019 focused on Romanian tech startups, achieving a reported 45% IRR on Fund I with 4 exits from 28 portfolio companies including Bunnyshell and Profluo. In April 2024 the firm launched Fund II targeting €60 million to invest in early-stage startups across CEE — primarily Romania (60–70%), with the remainder across Europe — at ticket sizes up to €6 million. Focus sectors include SaaS, AI, cybersecurity, fintech, and deep tech.
London, United Kingdom · Event A two-day commerce event at ExCeL London for B2C and B2B online-retail professionals, with 200+ solution providers and CPD-accredited content across ten theatres on AI-driven shopping, fulfilment and growth. Co-located with Technology for Marketing and Parcel & Post Expo.
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Event A one-day conference at Kromhouthal Amsterdam drawing 2,000+ professionals across tech, media, e-business, and marketing. Relevant for e-commerce, martech, and digital-media founders targeting the Dutch market.
Istanbul, Turkey · Person CEO of Clickmelive, a live-commerce and digital sales technology company. He is an announced speaker at the IGEXX Istanbul Global E-Export Summit 2026.
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Venture Capital Endeit Capital is a growth-stage venture capital firm founded in 2006 and headquartered in Amsterdam, with additional offices in Hamburg and Stockholm. It manages a €303 million fund focused on AI-enabled fintech, climate tech, future of work, and security companies across the DACH, Benelux, Nordic, and UK markets, investing €7–15 million at late Series A to early Series B. The firm has made 64 investments and 25 exits, including the $330 million acquisition of 3D Hubs by Protolabs.
Kaunas, Lithuania · Startup Eneba is an online marketplace for video game keys, downloadable content, gift cards, and in-game currencies, founded in 2018 by Vytis Uogintas and Žygimantas Mikšta in Kaunas. The platform uses proprietary machine learning and fingerprinting technology for fraud prevention and serves over 10 million registered users across Europe. Early investors include Practica Capital, InReach Ventures, and FJ Labs. In 2024 the Lithuanian national development finance institution ILTE issued a €10 million loan to support development of an AI-based mobile games recommendation system.
Valletta, Malta · Event Summit at the Mediterranean Conference Centre with 2,500+ attendees and 400+ investors. Features the Big Pitch Competition with a prize package worth over EUR 1M and strong media visibility.
Yerevan, Armenia · Event Organisator Event x Expo Group is an Armenian event management company headquartered at Sayat-Nova Ave 19/1 in Yerevan, specializing in conferences, exhibitions, trade shows, summits, and networking events. They are the organizer of e-Logi Fest, Armenia's leading international event dedicated to logistics, e-commerce, and supply chain innovation, held annually at the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concert Complex. Their portfolio spans large-scale international events including the PostEurop Plenary Assembly 2016 in Armenia and the CDEK Forum Yerevan 2025. The company works with industry leaders, government officials, and innovators to build communities and create collaboration platforms.
Graz, Austria · Startup faaya collective is an art-commerce platform that sells fine-art prints from emerging artists and produces on-demand prints locally in Graz, positioned as a sustainability-focused alternative to larger print marketplaces.
Paris, France · Person Co-founder and president of Vestiaire Collective, the global resale marketplace for pre-owned luxury fashion she co-founded in 2009, helping pioneer the circular luxury economy.
Warsaw, Poland · Person Executive Partner at MCI Capital, promoted to the role in 2026. He focuses on the firm's e-commerce and SaaS investments and has been involved in key holdings such as idoSell, working across deal origination, execution and portfolio growth in CEE.
Munich, Germany · Startup FINN is a car-subscription platform serving consumers and businesses with an all-inclusive monthly model that bundles insurance, maintenance, and roadside support. The company has expanded B2B fleet workflows with automated management tools and EV-focused offerings for employee mobility programs.
Warsaw, Poland · Event Poland's flagship digital marketing, advertising, and media conference, organised by IAB Polska with 80+ talks under the DIMAQ accreditation umbrella. Valuable for martech and adtech founders, and for any startup sharpening its go-to-market — it puts you in front of agencies, brands, and media buyers.
Brasov, Romania · Startup Cross-border e-commerce fulfillment network for online retailers, running storage, pick-and-pack, invoicing and courier coordination across a multi-warehouse footprint in 30 countries for next-day delivery.
Oslo, Norway · Startup Gelato is an Oslo-founded print-on-demand and production platform that connects e-commerce sellers, creators, and enterprises with a global network of over 130 print partners across 32 countries. The platform enables businesses to sell custom-printed products like t-shirts, wall art, mugs, and photo books that are produced locally near the end customer, reducing shipping times, costs, and carbon emissions. Gelato has raised over $200 million and serves millions of creators through integrations with Shopify, Etsy, and other e-commerce platforms. The company is a leading example of how distributed manufacturing networks can be orchestrated through software to create more sustainable and efficient supply chains.
Istanbul, Turkey · Startup Getir is an Istanbul-founded ultra-fast grocery and delivery platform that pioneered the 10-minute delivery model before it became a global phenomenon. Founded in 2015 by Nazim Salur, the company built a vertically integrated dark-store and courier network across Turkey before expanding to the UK, Germany, Netherlands, US, and other markets. At its peak Getir raised over $1.8 billion and reached a valuation above $11 billion, making it Turkey's most highly valued startup. The company later consolidated operations and refocused on profitable core markets, representing both the ambition and the operational challenges of the rapid delivery category in Europe.
Berlin, Germany · Startup Grover is a Berlin-based technology rental and subscription platform founded in 2015 by Michael Cassau. The company lets consumers and businesses rent electronics such as laptops, smartphones, gaming consoles, and smart home devices on a monthly subscription basis instead of buying them outright. Grover promotes a circular economy model by refurbishing and re-renting returned devices multiple times. The company raised over $1 billion in equity and debt financing and operates across Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, and the US. It partners with major retailers including MediaMarkt and Samsung.
Istanbul, Turkey · Person Vice Chairman of Horoz Logistics, a major logistics and supply-chain operator supporting cross-border e-export. He is an announced speaker at the IGEXX Istanbul Global E-Export Summit 2026.
Kosice, Slovakia · Startup GymBeam is the leading fitness and nutrition D2C brand in Central and Eastern Europe. It uses aggressive data analytics and direct-to-consumer distribution to launch, test, and scale new supplements and wellness products faster than traditional competitors. By 2026, GymBeam is a major ecommerce scale-up with exceptional revenue growth and a growing international footprint, positioning it as a potential IPO or strategic exit candidate.
Birmingham, United Kingdom · Startup Gymshark is a Birmingham-based direct-to-consumer fitness apparel brand founded in 2012 by Ben Francis when he was 19 years old. The company became one of the UK's fastest-growing brands by leveraging influencer marketing and social media before it was standard practice, building a devoted community of fitness enthusiasts. Gymshark reached unicorn status in 2020 when General Atlantic invested at a $1.45 billion valuation. The brand sells primarily online across 180+ countries and has expanded into physical retail. It is one of Europe's best examples of a DTC brand scaling without traditional retail.
Istanbul, Turkey · Person Head of the E-Export, Digital Marketing and Disruptive Technologies Department at the Ministry of Trade of Türkiye. He is an announced speaker at the IGEXX Istanbul Global E-Export Summit 2026.
Istanbul, Turkey · Person CEO of Ozon Global Türkiye, leading the marketplace's expansion for Turkish exporters. She is an announced speaker at the IGEXX Istanbul Global E-Export Summit 2026.
Warsaw, Poland · Venture Capital An early-stage “angel fund” that invests in tech and communication startups, specializing in marketplaces, e-commerce, B2B, and IoT. It operates like an angel syndicate, with a portfolio including companies like Allani, Evenea, and Preply. Notable focus: seed-stage online platforms – Hedgehog provides capital plus hands-on involvement to spur growth (many of its investments later raised VC funding).
Istanbul, Turkey · Startup Hepsiburada is one of Turkey's two largest e-commerce platforms, running a marketplace, first-party retail, express logistics, payments (HepsiPay), and advertising network serving tens of millions of monthly customers. Founded in 2000 by Hanzade Doğan Boyner, the company was the first major Turkish internet company to list on a US stock exchange when it IPO'd on Nasdaq (HEPS) in 2021 — a milestone that put Turkish consumer tech firmly on the radar of international public-market investors. Hepsiburada differentiates from Trendyol through its stronger positioning in 1P inventory, premium electronics, and its in-house payment infrastructure, and has built one of the largest same-day and next-day last-mile networks in the country. For the directory it is a key example of a Turkish consumer-internet story that reached public markets on its own, rather than through strategic acquisition.
Szczecin, Poland · Startup IAI (IdoSell) is a Szczecin-based e-commerce SaaS platform that provides merchants with a complete toolkit to run online stores, integrate with marketplaces like Allegro and Amazon, and manage multi-channel order operations at scale. Founded as one of Poland's earliest e-commerce infrastructure companies, IdoSell powers thousands of online shops and processes billions of PLN in gross merchandise volume annually. The platform includes product catalog management, warehouse logistics, payment processing, and cross-border selling capabilities, making it a core part of the Polish e-commerce stack.
Istanbul, Turkey · Person Professor of Marketing at Yıldız Technical University and an authority on digital marketing and e-commerce in Türkiye. He is an announced speaker at the IGEXX Istanbul Global E-Export Summit 2026.
Bucharest, Romania · Event Central and Eastern Europe's digital industry festival covering digital marketing, e-commerce, and content creation. Brings 1,000+ marketing and growth professionals to Bucharest with strong representation from regional tech companies and agencies. Tickets from EUR 100.
Istanbul, Turkey · Event The second edition of the Istanbul Global E-Export Summit (IGEXX) is a cross-border digital commerce and e-export event at the Haliç Congress Center under the theme 'Beyond Borders'. It brings together e-commerce brands, online marketplaces, retailers, logistics and fulfilment providers and trade policymakers for keynotes, panels, B2B matchmaking and the IGEXX Awards.
Istanbul, Turkey · Person Regional Director for Northern Europe at Meta, working on advertising and commerce solutions for businesses. She is an announced speaker at the IGEXX Istanbul Global E-Export Summit 2026.
Baku, Azerbaijan · Venture Capital Launched in October 2024 at the INMerge Innovation Summit in Baku, InMerge Ventures is Azerbaijan's second institutionally backed venture capital fund, with an authorized capital of $4 million contributed equally by the Innovation and Digital Development Agency, Azerbaijan Investment Company, PASHA Future Lab, and Trendyol Group. The fund focuses on digital technologies, e-commerce, and innovation-driven startups from the Caucasus, Central Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and the MENA region. Key founding figures include Inara Valiyeva (Chairwoman, Innovation and Digital Development Agency), Yasin Jalilov (Deputy Executive Director, Azerbaijan Investment Company), and Farrukh Aliyev (CEO, PASHA Future Lab). Its co-sponsorship by Trendyol Group, the Turkish e-commerce giant, gives it a distinctive cross-border e-commerce and marketplace angle.
Istanbul, Turkey · Person Government Relations and Public Affairs lead at SHEIN, the global online fashion and lifestyle retailer. He is an announced speaker at the IGEXX Istanbul Global E-Export Summit 2026.
Paris, France · Startup Joko is a Paris-based consumer fintech that rewards users with cashback on their everyday purchases. Through a mobile app and browser extension, it automatically detects qualifying transactions at partner retailers and credits users with rewards, both online and in store. The company's technology builds on PSD2 open banking, connecting to users' bank cards to identify eligible spending without manual scanning of loyalty cards. Joko raised a €10M Series A in October 2020, led by Partech and Axeleo, bringing total funding to around €12M at that time.
Gothenburg, Sweden · Startup Juni is a Gothenburg-based financial management platform for e-commerce businesses, founded in June 2020 by Samir El-Sabini, Jonathan Sanders, and Anders Orsedal. The platform offers multi-currency accounts, virtual and physical cards, credit products, analytics, and accounting integrations designed specifically for online merchants and digital advertisers. Juni holds an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence from Sweden's Finansinspektionen and has raised $282 million across five funding rounds including a $206 million Series B.
Kolding, Denmark · Startup Just Eat began in Kolding in 2001 as one of the first online takeaway ordering marketplaces in Europe. After early traction in Denmark, the company relocated to London and expanded aggressively across Europe and beyond through acquisitions and country launches. Just Eat listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2014 and later merged with Takeaway.com, forming one of the largest food delivery groups globally. The company is a defining example of a Danish startup scaling into a multi-billion euro public business.
Tbilisi, Georgia · Venture Capital Kedari Ventures is a Tbilisi-based early-stage investment fund founded by Dimitry Kumsishvili, who served as Georgia's Minister of Finance and First Vice Prime Minister before moving to the private sector. The fund targets digital platforms with global expansion potential across e-commerce, logistics, education, and entertainment, and has built a portfolio of over 10 companies employing more than 100 people. Fund size is not publicly disclosed; the firm has deployed approximately 993,000 GEL in equity and 2.5 million GEL in loans across portfolio companies. Kedari also co-founded AXEL, Georgia's first structured business angel network, in partnership with Tbilisi Startup Bureau.
Brno, Czech Republic · Startup Kiwi.com is a Brno-founded online travel agency that uses proprietary Virtual Interlining technology to combine flights from airlines that do not formally codeshare, creating unique multi-carrier itineraries unavailable on traditional booking platforms. The platform searches across 750+ carriers including low-cost airlines, trains, and buses to find the cheapest routes. Founded in 2012 by Oliver Dlouhy, the company grew rapidly and became one of the largest travel booking platforms in Europe, processing tens of millions of bookings annually. Kiwi.com also offers a Guarantee product that protects travelers on self-transfer connections.
Vilnius, Lithuania · Startup Vilnius-based agentic AI operating system for e-commerce teams. AI agents autonomously monitor products, campaigns, customers, and inventory, then execute tasks such as generating creatives, adjusting ad budgets, and publishing site updates through connected tools. Reached €1M ARR six months after launch. Raised €2M seed from XTX Ventures and Practica Capital.
Baku, Azerbaijan · Startup Lalafo is an AI-powered C2C classifieds marketplace founded in September 2015, operating Azerbaijan's largest buy-sell, job, and real estate search platform at lalafo.az. The platform covers categories including electronics, real estate, vehicles, clothing, and services. Lalafo operates localized versions in multiple countries including Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Greece, and Poland.
Łańcut, Poland · Startup Lancerto is a Polish premium menswear brand founded in 2008 by Tomasz Ciąpała together with Mariusz Jończy and Tomasz Górkiewicz, headquartered in Łańcut where it also runs its own manufacturing. The brand sells suits, shirts, shoes, and accessories through dozens of retail showrooms across Poland and a dedicated e-commerce store launched in 2016. The company is founder-owned and self-financed, with no external funding rounds or stock-market listing publicly disclosed.
Budapest, Hungary · Person Chief Marketing Officer at Dedoles, a fast-growing Central European direct-to-consumer fashion and lifestyle brand, with expertise in marketing measurement and return on investment. He is an announced speaker at the XXII E-Commerce Conference 2026 in Budapest.
Bratislava, Slovakia · Startup Luigi’s Box provides advanced search and product recommendation for ecommerce sites, boosting conversion by understanding intent, typos, and synonyms. Its tooling has become a de facto standard across CEE ecommerce, with strong adoption among mid-market retailers. By 2026, Luigi’s Box is one of the region’s top AI-powered ecommerce infrastructure companies.
Wroclaw, Poland · Angel Investor Founder of interior design marketplace Pixers, Maciej now actively mentors and funds young startups. Drawing on his e-commerce background, he has invested in projects like PCdoc and ScreenSHU, among others, to help new founders scale their services. Associated startups: PCdoc.pl, ScreenSHU, and various e-commerce/marketplace startups.
Warsaw, Poland · Person Co-founder and CEO of Zowie, the AI customer-service platform she started in 2019 (originally Chatbotize). A software-engineering graduate of AGH University in Kraków, she has scaled Zowie to serve enterprises like L'Oréal and InPost, raising around $20M from investors including Tiger Global, and has been named to Forbes 30 Under 30.
Paris, FR · Person Marc Lolivier is the General Delegate (Délégué Général) of FEVAD, the Fédération du E-Commerce et de la Vente À Distance, which is France's principal trade federation for e-commerce and distance selling. He is a prominent voice in French and European digital commerce policy, representing the sector at national and international forums. Lolivier is a confirmed speaker at NRF 2026: Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, addressing agentic AI and customer services.
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg · Startup Luxembourg-based AI platform enabling direct-to-consumer brands to expand across global marketplaces by automating inventory management, pricing, marketing, logistics, compliance, and fulfilment. Founded by ex-Amazon executives in 2022. Raised $8M Series A from Expon Capital and Smedvig Ventures.
Warsaw, Poland · Venture Capital MCI Capital is a Warsaw-listed digital private equity and growth investor and one of the largest mid-market technology PE groups in Central and Eastern Europe. Founded in 1999 by Tomasz Czechowicz and listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (ticker: MCI), the firm manages roughly €650M (PLN 2.7bn) in assets, deployed through two evergreen funds — MCI.EuroVentures and MCI.TechVentures, both launched in 2008. MCI targets expansion and buyout transactions of €25–100M, taking majority or significant stakes in two to three companies a year across SaaS, e-commerce and marketplaces, fintech, insurtech, foodtech, traveltech and digital infrastructure.
Geographically the firm concentrates on Poland and the wider CEE region — including Hungary, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Lithuania — with selective reach into Western Europe. Since inception MCI has completed over 110 investments and more than 90 divestments, delivering landmark exits including iZettle (sold to PayPal for $2.2bn in 2018), Dotpay/eCard (Nets/Nexi, 2019), Azimo (Papaya Global, 2022) and a partial exit from Answear.com in 2025. Its listed structure, backed by institutional shareholders including the Nationale-Nederlanden pension fund, gives MCI permanent-capital characteristics rare among European mid-market PE peers.
Istanbul, Turkey · Person Director General of Exports at the Ministry of Trade of Türkiye, overseeing national export policy. He is an announced speaker at the IGEXX Istanbul Global E-Export Summit 2026.
Paris, France · Startup Mirakl is a Paris-based enterprise marketplace platform founded in 2012 by Adrien Nussenbaum and Philippe Corrot. The company provides the SaaS technology that enables retailers, manufacturers, and distributors to launch and operate their own online marketplaces, adding third-party sellers alongside their existing product catalogs. Mirakl powers marketplace operations for over 400 enterprise customers including Macy's, Kroger, Carrefour, and Siemens. The company has raised over $800 million, reaching a valuation of $3.5 billion, and is one of France's highest-valued B2B SaaS companies. Mirakl has offices in Paris, London, and Boston, and its platform model reflects the broader shift toward marketplace commerce across enterprise retail.
Berlin, Germany · Startup Mister Spex is Europe's leading digitally native omnichannel optician, founded in Berlin in 2007 and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ticker: MRX) since 2021. The company sells prescription glasses, sunglasses, and contact lenses online across five European countries and operates 65 physical stores in Germany alongside a network of over 300 partner opticians. Mister Spex serves over 8 million customers and employs around 1,000 people. It pioneered the online-to-offline model in European eyewear retail.
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Payments infrastructure provider helping EU businesses accept local and global methods. Mollie is a startup based in Amsterdam, Netherlands at the growth stage. The company operates in the Payments, Fintech space. Learn more at their website.
Tallinn, Estonia · Startup Montonio is an Estonian payments and post-checkout platform for e-commerce merchants. Through a single API and dashboard it offers open-banking bank-transfer payments, card payments, Apple Pay and Google Pay, BLIK and Buy-Now-Pay-Later financing, alongside post-checkout tools such as shipping labels, parcel tracking, returns and refunds. The company serves merchants across the Baltics and Poland, aiming to be a unified checkout solution for the region. Its regulated payment-institution entity is registered in Lithuania while the company operates from Tallinn.
Krakow, Poland · Startup Morele.net is a Krakow-based e-commerce platform specializing in electronics, computing hardware, gaming equipment, and consumer goods. The company operates one of Poland's largest online electronics retail operations with a broad catalog, competitive pricing, and a nationwide logistics and fulfillment network. Morele.net has built a loyal customer base among tech-savvy Polish consumers and competes with x-kom and MediaExpert in the domestic market. The platform also operates several niche vertical storefronts and has invested in warehouse automation to support growing order volumes.
Warsaw, Poland · Venture Capital Warsaw-based multi-stage venture capital firm backing Central and Eastern European tech founders with global ambitions. Movens Capital runs a €60M Fund 2 (launched 2025) and writes first checks of €250k–€3M at pre-seed through Series A+. Focus areas: fintech, edtech, healthtech, deep tech, climate tech, enterprise software, and e-commerce enablement across Poland, the Baltics, the Balkans, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, and Moldova. Founded in 2018 by Artur Banach and Michał Olszewski. Fund LPs include the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), PFR Ventures, and 80+ tech founders, operators, and family offices. Notable exits include MEDICAlgorithmics (IPO) and Fenige.
Warsaw, Poland · Startup Cross-border e-commerce automation platform for online retailers selling on Amazon and other European marketplaces. Combines pricing automation (Tradeye), listing localisation, and order-handling workflows to help sellers scale internationally with minimal overhead. Backed by Movens Capital.
Vilnius, Lithuania · Incubator Nextury Ventures is a venture capital firm and startup incubator founded in 2013 in Vilnius by entrepreneur Ilja Laurs and ICT executive Mindaugas Glodas. Inspired by Silicon Valley models, it builds and invests in early-stage companies in fintech, proptech, sharing economy, e-commerce, and mobile sectors. Since inception it has invested in over 30 companies across multiple European markets, including the UK and US, with cumulative returns of +219% after taxes reported over a five-year period.
Warsaw, Poland · Startup Nice To Fit You is a Warsaw-based foodtech company offering premium boxed diet catering subscriptions with personalized meal plans. Founded in 2014, the company delivers nutritionally balanced, chef-prepared meals daily to health-conscious consumers across Poland. NTFY offers multiple diet programs including low-calorie, keto, vegan, and sports-oriented plans, all designed by dietitians. The company has grown to become one of Poland's leading diet catering brands in a competitive market with dozens of local players, capitalizing on the strong Polish consumer trend toward convenient healthy eating.
London, United Kingdom · Startup Nivoda is a London-based B2B online marketplace for the global jewellery trade, founded in 2017. Its platform lets jewellers and retailers source diamonds (natural and lab-grown), coloured gemstones, melee, and made-to-order finished jewellery without holding their own stock. Nivoda layers technology onto the traditional diamond supply chain, offering virtual showroom tools, API inventory feeds for retailer websites, consolidated shipping and invoicing, risk-free returns, express delivery, and flexible trade-credit payment terms. It describes itself as the world's leading B2B diamond marketplace, serving jewellers internationally.
Oslo, Norway · Startup Oda is an Oslo-based online grocery delivery company that has built one of Europe's most efficient automated grocery fulfillment operations. Originally launched as Kolonial.no, the company rebranded to Oda and developed proprietary warehouse automation technology that enables it to pick and deliver grocery orders at significantly lower cost than traditional supermarkets. Oda expanded into Finland and Germany and has raised over $400 million from investors including SoftBank. The company represents Norway's most ambitious attempt at reimagining grocery retail through technology and logistics innovation, offering a compelling alternative to the dark-store model pursued by rapid delivery startups.
Istanbul, Turkey · Person CEO of Karaca International, leading global expansion for the Turkish homeware and lifestyle brand. He is an announced speaker at the IGEXX Istanbul Global E-Export Summit 2026.
Istanbul, Turkey · Person General Secretary of ETID (the Turkish E-Commerce and Internet Association), supporting the country's digital-commerce ecosystem. He is an announced speaker at the IGEXX Istanbul Global E-Export Summit 2026.
Hamburg, Germany · Event One of Europe's largest digital marketing and technology festivals, attracting 70,000+ attendees to Hamburg Messe. Features masterclasses, expo stages, and side events covering MarTech, creator economy, D2C, and AI-powered marketing tools.
Wrocław, Poland · Startup Open-source, AI-native commerce and operations framework co-founded in 2025 by Piotr Karwatka (creator of Vue Storefront / Alokai) and Tomasz Karwatka (founder of Divante). It provides modular infrastructure for building custom commerce, ERP and finance software with AI-assisted engineering, combining SaaS speed with bespoke flexibility.
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Otrium is an Amsterdam-based e-commerce company founded in 2016 that runs an online fashion outlet marketplace, giving premium and designer brands a dedicated channel to sell past-season and surplus stock to consumers instead of destroying or heavily discounting it in stores. It combines a curated shopping experience with data tools that help brands manage end-of-season inventory more sustainably.
Warsaw, Poland · Startup Warsaw-based custom packaging platform serving SMBs and brands across Europe. Packhelp combines an online design tool, configurable product catalogue (boxes, mailers, labels, tape), and a European manufacturing network to deliver branded packaging at low MOQs. Early backer: Movens Capital (Fund 1); later rounds brought in Kennet Partners, Speedinvest, and others.
Paris, France · Event Paris Retail Week, held as NRF Retail's Big Show Europe at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, is a major gathering for the future of retail in Europe. Organised by the National Retail Federation with Comexposium, it brings retailers, brands and technology partners together around retail innovation and commerce tech.
Budapest, Hungary · Startup B2B Buy Now Pay Later fintech that lets merchants offer business buyers deferred payment terms of 15-90 days while the merchant is paid instantly, handling credit risk and collections.
Szczecin, Poland · Angel Investor Co-founder of IdoSell (IAI Group) and one of the pioneers of Polish e-commerce, Paweł scaled the company for over two decades before transitioning into active angel investing. His major liquidity event was a majority stake sale in IAI Group to MCI Capital in a transaction valuing the business at hundreds of millions of PLN. He now focuses on smart-money support for B2B SaaS and e-commerce infrastructure startups, including investments such as Piesotto and Embargo.
Kyiv, Ukraine · Startup Pet-tech company founded in Kyiv in 2012 making interactive pet cameras with treat dispensers, GPS trackers and AI safety alerts, plus a Petcube Care subscription and online vet service.
Paris, France · Person Co-founder and CEO of Mirakl, the marketplace and e-commerce software platform he co-founded in 2012. He scaled it into a global SaaS leader valued at over $3.5bn, backed by 83North, Permira and others.
Paris, France · Startup Photoroom is a Paris-based AI company founded in 2019 that builds photo-editing tools which automatically remove and replace image backgrounds and generate product visuals, aimed primarily at e-commerce sellers and marketers. Its app has been downloaded tens of millions of times and it trains its own generative image models. It raised a 43 million dollar Series B round in 2024 led by Balderton Capital and Aglae Ventures.
Tbilisi, Georgia · Startup Phubber is a Tbilisi-based fashion re-commerce marketplace that combines the feed-driven social-shopping pattern popularized by Depop and Vinted with a mixed C2C and small-B2C inventory model tuned for the Caucasus. Buyers browse a scrollable, algorithmically ranked feed of pre-loved and indie-brand apparel; sellers can list in minutes with photos taken directly from the app; and the platform handles payments, local delivery integration, return flows, and dispute mediation so that trust — the usual blocker in peer-to-peer fashion — is not the user's problem. Phubber emerged as a breakout from the 500 Georgia/Eurasia program and is one of the more visible consumer-marketplace experiments coming out of Georgia, where most local tech is still B2B and fintech. It is a useful data point on how social-commerce patterns originally built for Western Gen-Z audiences are being re-implemented for emerging regional markets.
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Picnic is a Dutch online supermarket that rebuilt grocery delivery around planned logistics instead of adapting the economics of traditional retail stores. Customers order through an app, while Picnic fulfills from dedicated infrastructure and delivers on optimized neighborhood routes using tightly managed electric vehicles. That routing-first model makes the company structurally different from on-demand marketplaces because it reduces waste, increases drop density, and improves unit economics over time. As a result, Picnic is often discussed less as a consumer app and more as a logistics and software company disguised as a supermarket. It is a useful addition to the directory because it represents a European scale-up that won by controlling operations, data, and delivery cadence rather than by pursuing convenience at any cost. The company also broadens the dataset's coverage of e-commerce and supply-chain innovation, showing how category-defining startups can emerge from dense urban operations and disciplined software-led execution. For founders and investors studying European tech, Picnic is a strong reference case for how operational complexity can become a defensible moat rather than a burden.
Vilnius, Lithuania · Startup Pigu / Hobby Hall Group is a Vilnius-headquartered Baltic e-commerce marketplace group operating localized online retail platforms across Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland under brands including Pigu.lt and Hobby Hall. The group sells electronics, home goods, fashion, and sporting equipment, combining marketplace and first-party retail models. It is one of the largest e-commerce operators in the Baltic states, with strong brand recognition and logistics infrastructure tailored to the region. The group competes with Amazon and local players by offering local-language customer service, fast regional delivery, and curated assortments.
Wrocław, Poland · Startup Pixers is a Wrocław-based online marketplace for personalised wall décor, offering millions of designs across wall murals, stickers, posters, and canvas prints. The company was co-founded in 2010 by Maciej Białek and grew to operate localised storefronts serving European and North American markets. It reached tens of millions in annual revenue on a self-financed basis, with no significant external funding rounds publicly disclosed.
Riga, Latvia · Startup Printful is a Riga-founded print-on-demand and fulfillment company that enables e-commerce entrepreneurs, creators, and brands to sell custom-designed products without holding inventory. The platform handles printing, warehousing, and shipping of apparel, accessories, and home goods through its own fulfillment centers in the US, Europe, and Mexico. Printful integrates with major e-commerce platforms including Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, and Amazon, and has fulfilled over 70 million items. With over 1,000 employees and revenues exceeding $200 million, Printful is Latvia's largest technology company and one of the Baltic region's most significant startup success stories, demonstrating that global-scale e-commerce infrastructure can be built from Riga.
Riga, Latvia · Startup Printify is a print-on-demand platform founded in Riga in 2015 that connects e-commerce merchants with a global network of third-party print providers. Merchants can design and sell custom products — apparel, accessories, home goods — without holding inventory. In 2021 the company raised $45 million, including from H&M Group. In late 2024 Printify merged with fellow Latvian unicorn Printful to form one of the world's largest print-on-demand groups.
Budapest, Hungary · Person Business development professional at Mergado, a product-data and feed-management platform serving online merchants across Central Europe, with a focus on AI-powered shopping experiences. He is an announced speaker at the XXII E-Commerce Conference 2026 in Budapest.
Warsaw, Poland · Person Partner at Movens Capital. Background in finance and operations, leading deal execution and portfolio support for early-stage CEE startups across fintech, enterprise software, and commerce enablement.
Berlin, Germany · Startup Razor Group is a Berlin-based e-commerce aggregator that acquires and operates Amazon marketplace brands, using technology and operational expertise to scale product portfolios. The company has consolidated multiple competitors and built one of Europe's largest portfolios of marketplace-native consumer brands. Razor Group focuses on supply chain optimization, product development, and cross-border expansion to grow acquired brands.
Istanbul, Turkey · Venture Capital Re-Pie is Turkey's first and largest alternative portfolio management company, established in 2015 under a Capital Markets Board licence and managing assets worth over 73.5 billion TL across 41 venture capital, 36 real estate, and 13 securities investment funds. Its venture capital arm backs Seed to Series A technology companies with cheques of $1M–$10M, with a notable portfolio including Getir, Hepsiburada, ikas, Modanisa, Colendi, and Ace Games. Re-Pie combines financial structuring expertise from its broader asset management platform with active strategic and operational support for portfolio companies. The firm is headquartered in Istanbul and is regulated by Turkey's CMB.
Prague, Czech Republic · Startup AI-powered real-time recommendation and personalized search engine offered as a SaaS API; uses 100+ proprietary ML models and the ReQL query language, serving media, streaming, e-commerce and marketplaces.
Vienna, Austria · Startup refurbed is a Vienna-based online marketplace for refurbished electronics, household appliances, and sports equipment, founded in 2017 by Peter Windischhofer, Kilian Kaminski, and Jurgen Riedl. The platform connects certified refurbishers with consumers seeking sustainable, warranty-backed alternatives to new devices at savings of up to 40%. refurbed operates across 11 European markets including Germany, Austria, Italy, and Sweden, and has raised over EUR 55 million. By planting a tree for every product sold, the company emphasizes its sustainability mission and has become one of Austria's most visible circular-economy startups.
Warsaw, Poland · Startup Warsaw-based AI decision engine for retail that converts customer behavioural signals into real-time, individualised actions—adjusting recommendations, promotions, and inventory allocation to match intent at the point of decision. Serves 30+ enterprise retailers globally. Raised €2.1M pre-seed co-led by Movens Capital and Vastpoint.
London, United Kingdom · Event Retail innovation event at ExCeL London showcasing payments, in-store analytics, loyalty platforms, and omnichannel solutions. Free for qualified retailers; vendors pay for exhibition space. Attracts 10,000+ retail technology buyers and decision-makers. Valuable for retail-tech startups seeking direct access to UK high-street and e-commerce buyers.
Berlin, Germany · Person Robert Gentz is Co-founder & Co-CEO of the fashion e-commerce giant Zalando. A founder in the German startup ecosystem, Robert leads the fashion e-commerce giant Zalando.
Prague, Czech Republic · Venture Capital Rockaway Capital is a Prague-based investment group founded in 2013 by Jakub Havrlant, focusing on e-commerce, e-travel, media, fintech, and blockchain ventures across DACH, CEE, and the Balkans. The group's portfolio companies have generated aggregated revenues exceeding €2.5 billion and employ more than 5,000 people in 17 European countries. A notable exit was the sale of its stake in Mall Group, a leading CEE e-commerce platform, to Allegro for $1.13 billion.
Madrid, Spain · Angel Investor Rodolfo Carpintier is a veteran Spanish internet entrepreneur and angel investor who has been active in Spain's digital economy since the mid-1990s. He founded DFJ Espana (the Spanish affiliate of Draper Fisher Jurvetson) and later DAD (Digital Assets Deployment), a venture builder and investment firm. Carpintier has invested in over 60 Spanish and Latin American startups, focusing on e-commerce, digital media, and internet services. He authored 'La Empresa 2.0' and is a frequent speaker on digital entrepreneurship in the Spanish-speaking world. Known as one of Spain's internet pioneers, Carpintier brings decades of operational and investing experience to early-stage founders and remains one of the most active individual investors in the Iberian startup scene.
Kraków, Poland · Startup SALESmanago is a Kraków-based marketing-automation platform serving mid-market e-commerce companies across Europe. Founded by Grzegorz Błażewicz in 2011, the company offers customer data, segmentation, omnichannel campaign execution, and AI-driven personalization. SILVER LAKE Waterman acquired a majority stake in 2022, valuing the company at hundreds of millions of euros, after which Błażewicz continued investing through Borubar Ventures.
Madrid, Spain · Venture Capital Samaipata is a Madrid-based seed-stage venture capital fund founded in 2016 by José del Barrio (founder of La Nevera Roja) and Eduardo Díez-Hochleitner, investing in marketplace and platform business models with network effects across Europe, with particular focus on Southern Europe, France, and the UK. The fund deploys tickets of €500,000 to €3 million at pre-seed and seed, and has backed over 40 companies whose follow-on rounds from tier-1 funds including Index, Atomico, and Kleiner Perkins have exceeded €250 million in aggregate.
Stockholm, Sweden · Angel Investor CEO/co-founder of Klarna, Sebastian has Polish roots and has made angel investments in Poland. He participated in funding for Warsaw-based custom packaging startup Packhelp, among others. His presence brings a bit of Scandinavian fintech savvy to the Polish ecosystem. Associated startups: Packhelp (and likely other Polish e-commerce enablers).
Warsaw, Poland · Startup Showroom.pl is a Warsaw-based online fashion marketplace that aggregates independent designers and boutique brands from across Poland, offering curated multibrand discovery for younger consumers. Co-founded by Jan Stasz, the company became one of Poland's best-known fashion-tech successes of the 2010s and is a frequent reference point in the Polish e-commerce ecosystem.
London, United Kingdom · Person Founder of Depop, the social marketplace for secondhand fashion that became a cultural phenomenon with Gen Z before its acquisition by Etsy. A designer by background, he also co-founded PIG magazine.
Athens, Greece · Startup Skroutz is the dominant price-comparison and e-commerce marketplace in Greece, routinely ranking among the top five most-visited websites in the country and effectively serving as the discovery layer for most Greek consumer online shopping. Founded in 2005 by George Hadjigeorgiou, Vassilis Stavrou, and Panagiotis Papadimitropoulos as a simple product price-comparison site, it has since evolved into a full marketplace with integrated checkout, Skroutz Last Mile logistics, Skroutz Pay, and Skroutz Plus subscription, becoming the closest thing Greece has to a local answer to Amazon. The company was majority-acquired by CVC Capital Partners in 2021 at a valuation reported around EUR 300 million — one of the largest consumer-tech exits in Greek history — and it continues to run both its marketplace and a logistics arm independently. For the directory, Skroutz shows how a domestically dominant consumer platform can compound over fifteen years to become a strategic asset that global PE buyers are willing to pay premium multiples for.
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Venture Capital Slingshot Ventures is an Amsterdam-based venture capital firm founded in 2014, focused on late seed and Series A investments in consumer digital brands, e-commerce, and direct-to-consumer startups. The firm invests EUR 500K-3M and works closely with founders on brand building, growth marketing, and customer acquisition strategies. Slingshot's portfolio spans emerging consumer platforms across the Benelux and broader European market, with the team bringing operational experience from scaling digital-first brands and marketplaces.
Brno, Czech Republic · Startup Conversational e-commerce platform combining live chat, chatbots and an AI shopping assistant (Mira) to engage visitors and convert leads; used on 100,000+ websites, with leading live-chat market share in Central Europe.
Athens, Greece · Startup Tech-driven used-car B2C platform that inspects, reconditions and sells pre-owned vehicles with transparency and warranty. Founded 2015, ~250 staff, operating in Greece, Poland, Romania and Germany.
Berlin, Germany · Startup Spryker is an enterprise commerce platform offering a composable, API-first architecture for B2B and B2C digital commerce. Based in Berlin and Hamburg, Spryker enables large enterprises to build custom transactional experiences across marketplaces, IoT commerce, and unified commerce scenarios. The company serves enterprise customers across manufacturing, retail, and wholesale, and has raised over $200 million from investors including TCV and One Peak.
Porto, Portugal · Startup Cashback platform that links shopping rewards to the stock market: a share of each purchase at 300+ partner brands is invested in stocks, with rewards fluctuating daily and a guaranteed minimum.
Hamburg, Germany · Startup Taxdoo is a Hamburg-based tax automation platform founded in 2016 that specializes in VAT compliance, financial accounting, and tax reporting for e-commerce businesses selling across European borders. The platform automates the complex web of cross-border VAT obligations that arise when online sellers store and ship goods across multiple EU countries. Taxdoo integrates with major e-commerce platforms and marketplaces including Amazon, Shopify, and eBay, and handles VAT registration, filing, and reporting across jurisdictions. The company serves thousands of online merchants navigating Europe's fragmented tax landscape.
Paris, France · Person Co-founder and CEO of Back Market, the refurbished-electronics marketplace he co-founded in 2014 to make second-hand devices mainstream. He scaled it into one of Europe's largest circular-economy platforms, valued at over $5bn.
Warsaw, Poland · Angel Investor CEO of Lancerto and active business angel focused on the overlap between traditional retail operations and modern digital commerce. Tomasz frequently mentors D2C founders and contributes as a jury member in startup competitions. His investment interests center on e-commerce, fashion tech, logistics, and tools that improve customer experience or supply-chain performance.
Warsaw, Poland · Angel Investor Managing partner at MCI Capital (Internet Ventures), Tomasz is one of the most experienced digital growth investors in Central Europe. His background includes strategy and international operating exposure, and he has led investments across e-commerce, digital health, and online marketplaces. Portfolio and exit references include Frisco.pl, SiDLY, and Morele.net.
Istanbul, Turkey · Startup Trendyol is Turkey's largest e-commerce platform, operating a marketplace, express delivery service, digital wallet, and food delivery product that together serve tens of millions of customers. Founded in 2010 by Demet Mutlu, the company attracted a major investment from Alibaba Group and has grown into one of the most valuable private technology companies in Europe with a valuation exceeding $16 billion. Trendyol processes millions of orders daily through its logistics infrastructure spanning hundreds of thousands of merchants. The platform is a dominant force in Turkish digital commerce and an increasingly important player in cross-border e-commerce across the broader region.
Copenhagen, Denmark · Startup Founded in 2007 by Peter Holten Muhlmann, Trustpilot is a Copenhagen-born consumer reviews platform that helps people share feedback about businesses and helps companies respond to and learn from customers. The platform operates a freemium model, pairing public reviews with paid tools for analytics, review invitations, and trust widgets. Trustpilot scaled internationally, opened major offices in London and New York, and went public on the London Stock Exchange in 2021. Today it hosts hundreds of millions of reviews and remains one of Denmark's best known global software successes.
Istanbul, Turkey · Event Organisator The Türkiye Exporters Assembly (Türkiye İhracatçılar Meclisi, TİM) is the umbrella body of Turkish exporters. It organises the Istanbul Global E-Export Summit (IGEXX), a cross-border digital commerce and e-export event in Istanbul, in collaboration with the Electronic Commerce Operators Association and the Ministry of Trade.
Berlin, Germany · Person Tushar Ahluwalia is Co-founder & CEO of the e-commerce roll-up Razor Group. A founder in the German startup ecosystem, Tushar leads the e-commerce roll-up Razor Group.
Warsaw, Poland · Startup Tylko is a direct-to-consumer, digital-first furniture company specialising in made-to-measure shelving and storage. Customers configure pieces online with a parametric configurator and AR app, with each item CNC-manufactured to order in Poland from birch wood and shipped across Europe.
Paris, France · Person Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Back Market, shaping the brand and product behind the refurbished-electronics marketplace he started with Thibaud Hug de Larauze and Quentin Le Brouster.
Istanbul, Turkey · Startup Image-recognition and AI platform for retail and CPG companies, automating shelf monitoring, planogram compliance, price tracking and competitive intelligence from in-store imagery.
Copenhagen, Denmark · Startup Vivino is a Copenhagen founded wine discovery app that lets consumers scan labels and access crowd sourced ratings, tasting notes, and pricing. Founded in 2010 by Heini Zachariassen and Theis Sondergaard, Vivino built the largest wine data community and later expanded into a full marketplace where users can buy wines directly. The company has grown to tens of millions of users and has raised significant venture funding to expand internationally. Vivino is a standout Danish consumer tech company that blended mobile, computer vision, and commerce.
Barcelona, Spain · Startup Wallapop is a Barcelona-based mobile-first marketplace for buying and selling second-hand goods, designed as a hyper-local consumer-to-consumer platform for used items. Launched in 2013, it grew into one of Spain's leading second-hand marketplaces and a key player in the circular economy. South Korean internet group Naver, an investor since 2021, agreed to acquire full ownership in a deal announced in August 2025 and completed in early 2026, while the company remained headquartered in Barcelona.
Dublin, Ireland · Startup Wayflyer is a Dublin-based revenue-based financing platform that provides non-dilutive working capital to e-commerce and consumer brands, using their store, payments, and marketing data to underwrite advances in days rather than weeks. Founded in 2019 by Aidan Corbett and Jack Pierse, the company became one of the fastest Irish startups ever to reach unicorn status after raising a Series B at a USD 1.6 billion valuation in 2022, off the back of explosive demand from DTC brands that needed alternatives to equity and bank debt during the post-pandemic inventory crunch. Wayflyer's technical edge is its underwriting model, which ingests Shopify, Amazon, Facebook Ads, and bank data to produce forward revenue forecasts and risk-adjusted offers, and it has expanded from pure cash advances into a broader financial-operations product for e-commerce merchants. In the European ecosystem it is the clearest example of fintech built specifically around the growth capital needs of modern digital brands.
Istanbul, Turkey · Event The 20th-anniversary edition of Webrazzi Summit, Turkey's most influential technology and entrepreneurship conference, organized by tech media outlet Webrazzi at the Wyndham Grand Istanbul Levent on 21 October 2026. A single-day program of simultaneous panels, keynotes and workshops spanning e-commerce, fintech, AI and machine learning, digital marketing and sustainability, gathering founders, corporate innovators and investors.
Stockholm, Sweden · Accelerator Hybrid VC fund and tech innovation hub founded in 2016 running accelerator programs at The Factory and investing in early-stage digital and fintech startups. Support: equity investment, mentorship from in-house experts, workspace access. Scope: National.
Poznan, Poland · Angel Investor Business Angel of the Year 2022 and co-founder of Netguru, Wiktor became a prolific startup investor after scaling one of Europe’s best-known digital consultancies. Through Supercharge Capital, he focuses on global SaaS and e-commerce enablement companies. Notable portfolio examples include Tidio, Packhelp, and Customly.
Berlin, Germany · Event Executive-level forum for global retail leadership in Berlin, attracting 1,000+ C-suite executives from major retail brands and technology providers. Registration costs about GBP 2500+. Features keynotes on retail transformation, AI-driven commerce, and sustainability. Valuable for retail-tech scaleups seeking strategic partnerships with global retail decision-makers.
Berlin, Germany · Startup Zalando is a Berlin-based online fashion and lifestyle platform founded in 2008 by Robert Gentz and David Schneider. It grew from a Rocket Internet-backed shoe retailer into Europe's largest online fashion marketplace, listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2014. Zalando operates across 25 European markets, connecting over 50 million active customers with thousands of brands. The company transitioned from a pure retailer to a platform model, enabling brands to sell directly through its Partner Program while offering logistics, marketing, and fulfillment services via its Zalando Fulfillment Solutions infrastructure.
Warsaw, Poland · Startup AI customer-service platform co-founded in 2019 by Maja Schaefer (originally as Chatbotize, rebranded 2021). Zowie lets enterprises in e-commerce, banking and telecom deploy AI agents across chat, voice, email and app using a deterministic decision engine, and counts L'Oréal, InPost and Avon among its customers. It has raised around $20M, including a Series A led by Tiger Global.