Nicosia, Cyprus · Venture Capital 33East was founded by Demetrios Zoppos and Yiannis Eftychiou and selected by the European Investment Fund in 2023 as Cyprus's first EIF-backed venture capital fund. It closed a €26 million debut fund in January 2025, anchored by the Cyprus Equity Fund (NRRP) and private investors including the Bank of Cyprus. The fund targets pre-seed and seed-stage startups with a Cyprus connection, writing cheques of €100K–€1M across enterprise software, fintech, gaming, marketplaces, logistics, digital health, and climate tech. First portfolio companies include Electryone AI, an AI-powered renewable-energy management platform.
Prague, Czech Republic · Startup Adam is a marketplace for tradespeople, effectively an on-demand platform for home renovation and construction services. Customers can book vetted painters, electricians, or renovation crews, while providers receive steady demand and streamlined scheduling. The company has expanded across Europe, including the UK, Spain, and France. By 2026, Adam is a visible Czech marketplace success in the home services sector.
Madrid, Spain · Person Co-founder and CEO of Spotahome, the Madrid-based mid- to long-term rental marketplace. He co-founded the proptech in 2014 to let tenants book verified homes online without in-person viewings, backed by Seaya and others.
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.
Kyiv, Ukraine · Startup Overview: Allset is a food-tech startup that provides a platform for online restaurant ordering and pickup. Originally launched as a dine-in pre-ordering app, Allset allows customers to pre-order meals at restaurants so that the food is ready at a scheduled time and they can "skip the line". Over time, Allset expanded to enable standard takeout orders, curbside pickups, and even contactless dine-in where you arrive and your meal is served immediately. The convenience factor is central: Allset's app lets users browse menus of partner restaurants, pay in advance (including tip), and streamline the eating experience without waiting. For restaurants, Allset offers a marketplace to attract busy professionals and on-the-go diners, while avoiding the high fees of delivery services. By focusing on pickup and in-restaurant efficiency, Allset positioned itself as a lower-cost alternative to delivery apps for eateries, promising no couriers or delivery logistics - just seamless pickup transactions. As of 2021, Allset had thousands of restaurant partners, particularly in major U.S. cities, and had broadened its use-case to also support contactless dining during the COVID-19 pandemic. Founding Story (2015): Allset was founded in 2015 by two Ukrainians, Stas Matviyenko (Stan) and Anna Polishchuk, who moved to California to grow the business. The founders previously built a mobile payments startup in Ukraine (Settle), which gave them insight into restaurant payment pain points. They noticed that busy professionals often have limited lunch break time and that waiting for service at restaurants ate up much of it. Thus, Allset was conceived to let users pre-order and pre-pay for meals so they could "set" everything in advance and have all set when they arrive (hence the name). The concept started with a few restaurants in San Francisco and New York participating. Early growth was modest as it required signing up restaurants one-by-one and changing consumer habits. However, by offering a win-win - restaurants get more turnover at lunch with guaranteed orders, customers get time savings - Allset steadily gained traction. Matviyenko and Polishchuk leveraged their Ukrainian tech team to build the app cost-effectively. In 2016, they got into the 500 Startups accelerator, which provided seed funding and mentorship in Silicon Valley. By 2017-2018, Allset expanded to multiple U.S. cities and refined its model to also include standard takeout ordering. Product and Market: Allset's target users were urban professionals and corporate employees looking for efficient lunch options. It integrated with over 7,000 restaurants in the U.S. and also some in Ukraine by 2023. Cuisine-wise it was diverse - from fast-casual chains to local eateries. The platform's business model charges restaurants a commission per order, but it touted itself as having significantly lower fees than delivery apps like UberEats or DoorDash. This is because pickup orders do not involve logistics costs. Allset also at times charged consumers small convenience fees or offered a subscription for zero fees. Its competition includes not just the big delivery apps, but also restaurant reservation systems and point-of-sale providers who have added mobile ordering. However, Allset carved a niche in "order ahead for dine-in/pickup." During COVID-19, Allset quickly shifted focus to contactless pickup and curbside service, which aligned with public health needs. The app usage grew as more consumers opted for takeout and avoiding crowds. Post-pandemic, Allset continued to be relevant as many users, accustomed to mobile ordering, kept using it for efficiency. Traction: By the early 2020s, Allset had facilitated tens of millions of orders. It was particularly popular in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. The app had over 2 million users and a strong repeat usage among its core demographic (e.g., office workers who would use it daily for lunch). Allset's restaurant network grew to include national chains as well as local favorites. A reported figure from around 2021 indicated nearly 7,000 restaurant partners across the US and Ukraine, illustrating its significant network. Partnerships with large chains (for example, they onboarded Panera Bread in some regions) helped validate the concept. In terms of scale, Allset's gross merchandise volume (the total value of orders through the platform) reached eight figures in USD annually. Press coverage often highlighted Allset as a rising star in the on-demand dining space, and it received awards like being listed in Forbes' 30 Under 30 (Matviyenko was honored in 2018). Funding and Investors: Allset attracted a mix of Silicon Valley and Ukrainian investors through its journey. Early on, it raised a $3.35M combined seed (including a $1M pre-seed from SMRK, a Ukrainian VC). In 2018, Allset secured an $8.25M Series A, with investors like Greycroft, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), VK (Digital Garage), and SMRK participating. This round helped fuel its expansion to new cities. By 2020, Allset had raised a total of about $16.6M in funding. A notable investor, Andreessen Horowitz, gave credibility given their prominence. Additionally, the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) co-invested in Allset, a nod to its Ukrainian roots and growth potential. The company was relatively capital-efficient, using a distributed team in Kyiv for development while its sales team signed restaurants in the U.S. According to PitchBook, Allset's valuation was healthy, though it never reached unicorn status. Acquisition by SoundHound (2024): A major milestone came in June 2024, when SoundHound AI, a Nasdaq-listed voice AI company, announced it had acquired Allset. The deal amount was undisclosed, but it marked a successful exit for the founders and investors. SoundHound's interest was in combining Allset's marketplace and restaurant partnerships with SoundHound's voice assistant tech for ordering (they have a voice ordering system used by restaurants). Through this acquisition, Allset's team (Matviyenko and Polishchuk) and technology joined SoundHound, aiming to power voice-enabled food ordering across SoundHound's large client network. The acquisition can be seen as a strategic fit: Allset brings the restaurant relationships and order workflow, while SoundHound brings cutting-edge voice AI. Allset's co-founders took on roles within SoundHound's leadership to continue growing this combined vision. For the Ukrainian startup scene, Allset's acquisition was a proud moment - a startup founded by Ukrainians achieved a notable exit on the global stage. Achievements and Impact: Allset's journey demonstrated the strength of Ukrainian entrepreneurs in the global arena of food tech. The company managed to enter the ultra-competitive U.S. food app market and carve a space for itself. It was recognized as one of Ukraine's top startups in multiple rankings. The company's growth also had a direct impact: it provided business to restaurants (especially small ones) by bringing them customers who might not have come in otherwise. Its focus on reducing wait times resonated with modern consumers' demand for convenience. Notably, Allset survived and adapted through the pandemic - offering features like dine-in ordering via QR code to minimize contact. This nimbleness likely made it an attractive acquisition target. Allset also set an example of transatlantic collaboration: R&D in Ukraine, business development in the U.S., which is a model other Ukrainian startups have since followed. Post-acquisition, the Allset app and brand continue to operate, now with the backing of SoundHound. With voice technology integration, a future use case might be ordering meals by simply speaking to your car or smart device, which could be the next level of convenience Allset helps enable. For Anna Polishchuk and Stas Matviyenko, their success with Allset has cemented them as influential figures in Ukraine's startup community, often mentoring younger founders and investing in new startups. Sources: vestbee.com, kyivpost.com, vcnewsdaily.com.
Paris, France · Venture Capital Alven is an independent Paris-based venture capital firm founded in 2000 by Guillaume Aubin and Charles Letourneur, making it one of the oldest and most established VC institutions in France. The firm manages €2 billion in assets under management across six successive funds, with its latest fund closing at €350 million in 2022. Alven focuses on seed through Series B investments across B2B software, fintech, marketplaces, developer tools, and consumer technology, predominantly backing French and European startups. Notable unicorn investments include Qonto, Dataiku, and Algolia, alongside a broader portfolio of 164 companies that includes Ankorstore, OpenClassrooms, Happn, and Meero.
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.
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.
Lisbon, Portugal · Startup Independent alternative Android app store and distribution platform with 430M+ users and 1M+ apps, one of the largest Android stores globally, with an AppCoins crypto rewards layer. Founded 2009.
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.
Kyiv, Ukraine · Startup Subscription talent marketplace founded in Kyiv in 2020 (Y Combinator S21) that matches companies with vetted designers, developers and marketers within 24 hours.
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.
Warsaw, Poland · Startup Mobile platform for booking public and private sports facilities, helping players find and reserve courts and pitches. Founded in Warsaw, targeting the growing market for accessible recreational sports infrastructure.
Paris, France · Startup BlaBlaCar is the world’s leading long-distance carpooling platform, often hailed as France’s flagship startup success. Founded in 2006 by Frédéric Mazzella (along with Francis Nappez and Nicolas Brusson), BlaBlaCar was born from Mazzella’s realization that countless car journeys had empty seats. The platform (named after users’ self-described chattyness level – “Bla”, “BlaBla”, or “BlaBlaBla”) connects drivers with spare seats to passengers traveling the same way, so they can share the ride and costs. Today, BlaBlaCar has a 100 million-member community across 22+ countries, serving over 25 million travelers per quarter pre-pandemic. It operates in most of Europe and parts of Latin America and Asia, having successfully localized carpooling in markets like Germany, Russia, Brazil, and Turkey. The company also branched into bus travel: in 2018, BlaBlaCar acquired Ouibus from SNCF, rebranding it BlaBlaBus, to offer intercity bus routes alongside carpool rides. BlaBlaCar’s business model charges a roughly 10–20% booking fee from passengers in mature markets, though in new markets it often launches free to build liquidity. Known for its strong community culture, BlaBlaCar emphasizes trust – it introduced verified profiles, ratings, and even an optional “Ladies Only” carpool option. The company achieved unicorn status in 2015 when it raised $200 million at a $1.6 billion valuation and later was valued around $2 billion. Despite the pandemic’s impact on travel, BlaBlaCar rebounded by 2022, even reporting profitability. In 2023, it raised €100 million in financing to fuel growth. BlaBlaCar is often cited in case studies (Harvard, etc.) as a pioneer of the sharing economy in Europe, proving that a people-powered platform can transform intercity transport. By bringing cost-effective travel to millions and fostering new friendships on the road, BlaBlaCar has truly brought “ridesharing” into the mainstream – and stands as one of Europe’s few consumer-tech unicorns with global reach.
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.
Sofia, Bulgaria · Startup Digital insurance broker offering a marketplace to compare and buy auto, travel, health, life and property policies fully online, plus services like e-vignettes; licensed by the Bulgarian Financial Supervision Commission.
Warsaw, Poland · Startup Booksy is a Polish-founded SaaS marketplace for booking personal-care appointments — hair, beauty, barbers, nails, and wellness providers. Founded in Warsaw in 2013 by Stefan Batory and Konrad Howard, Booksy expanded internationally and grew its provider base most rapidly in the US, UK, Spain, and Brazil. Backed by investors including Cat Rock Capital, Sprints Capital, and Piton Capital, the company offers business owners scheduling, payments, marketing, and customer-retention tooling alongside its consumer booking app.
Milan, Italy · Incubator Boost Heroes is a Milan-based early-stage micro-VC and syndicate founded on 17 July 2015, focusing on seed and early-stage investments across consumer internet, marketplace, impact, and fintech sectors. The firm has made over 57 investments across Europe, North America, and Asia, with portfolio companies including Satispay, Homepal, and GoodBuyAuto. Typical startup valuations at entry range from $1–5 million.
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.
Barcelona, Spain · Angel Investor Carlos Blanco is a Spanish serial entrepreneur and one of the country's best-known angel investors, based in Barcelona. He founded Akamon Entertainment, a social gaming company that he sold in one of Spain's most notable exits of 2015, and he co-founded the Nuclio Venture Builder and the Conector startup accelerator. He is Managing Partner at Encomenda Smart Capital and has been recognised with Spain's Best Business Angel award by AEBAN.
Berlin, Germany · Startup CarOnSale is a Berlin-based B2B digital marketplace for used-car wholesale trading across Europe. Licensed car dealers and OEMs use the platform to list, appraise, auction, buy, and sell used vehicles to professional buyers. Beyond the auction itself, CarOnSale operates an integrated software ecosystem that bundles ancillary services such as vehicle inspections and reports, logistics and transportation, financing, pricing algorithms with guaranteed pricing, and payment processing, aiming to streamline cross-border transactions between dealers. The company is also Mercedes-Benz's partner for marketing lease returns and demonstration vehicles in Europe.
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.
Vilnius, Lithuania · Startup CGTrader is a Vilnius-founded online marketplace for 3D models, connecting a global community of 3D designers with buyers who need stock or custom models for gaming, architecture, product visualization, AR/VR, and e-commerce. The platform hosts millions of 3D assets and also operates an enterprise arm that provides managed 3D modeling services for large retailers and brands building digital product catalogs. Founded in 2011 by Marius Kalytis, CGTrader has raised venture funding and grown into one of the leading 3D content marketplaces globally, with strong traction in the US market.
Dublin, Ireland · Startup eCommerce intelligence platform that makes brands' products shoppable across retailers via 'Where to Buy' technology, shoppable media and digital shelf analytics. Clients include Philips and Coca-Cola. Founded 2013.
Berlin, Germany · Venture Capital Cherry Ventures is a Berlin-headquartered seed-stage venture capital firm founded in 2012 by Filip Dames, Christian Meermann, and Daniel Glasner, three serial founders who previously built and exited companies in the Rocket Internet orbit and wanted a fund that operated like an ex-operator first-round partner rather than a traditional generalist. The firm has grown into one of the most consistently visible seed funds in Europe, with over EUR 750 million under management across five generations of funds and a portfolio that includes FlixBus, GetYourGuide, Auto1 Group, Forto, Infarm, Flink, Juni, and Choco. Cherry invests from EUR 500K to EUR 4M at pre-seed and seed across consumer, marketplaces, B2B SaaS, fintech, and climate tech, and opened offices in London, Paris, and Stockholm during the 2021-2023 expansion cycle. It is one of the relatively small group of European seed funds that regularly competes head-to-head with US tier-one firms on European first checks.
Berlin, Germany · Person Christian Bertermann is Co-founder & CEO of the used-car marketplace AUTO1 Group. A founder in the German startup ecosystem, Christian leads the used-car marketplace AUTO1 Group.
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.
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Creative Fabrica is an Amsterdam-based marketplace for digital design assets founded in 2016, offering fonts, graphics, craft designs, and premium content for designers and crafters worldwide. The platform hosts over 20 million listed products from more than 20,000 active designers, and attracts over 40 million monthly page views. The company has expanded into AI-powered creative tools through its Studio AI suite. Peak Capital led the company's Series A in 2021.
Prague, Czech Republic · Startup Cyrkl is a circular-economy marketplace described as “Tinder for industrial waste.” It enables factories to sell scrap materials such as plastics or metals to recyclers instead of landfilling them. The platform improves pricing transparency and accelerates reuse of materials across industrial supply chains. By 2026, Cyrkl is a recognized circular-economy player in CEE with growing cross-border adoption.
Paris, France · Venture Capital Daphni is a Paris-based venture capital firm founded in 2015 by Pierre-Eric Leibovici, managing over €500 million in assets under management across three funds. The firm targets seed and Series A investments in European technology startups, writing cheques from €500K to €10M, and distinguishes itself through a community-driven model that engages its network of founders, operators, and investors as active contributors to portfolio companies. Daphni's third fund, Daphni Blue, began its first close at €200 million in March 2025, backed by LPs including Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, Bpifrance, and the European Investment Fund. Notable portfolio companies include Back Market, Swile, and Epic, with three unicorns, one IPO, and 22 acquisitions across the portfolio.
Prague, Czech Republic · Startup Daytrip provides door-to-door private car transfers between cities, pairing long-distance travel with local driver-guides. The model serves tourists who want flexible, comfortable intercity travel without the hassle of trains or buses. The company is profitable and has expanded globally, including the US and Asia. By 2026, Daytrip is a recognized Czech travel-tech export.
London, United Kingdom · Startup Deliveroo is a London-based food delivery platform founded in 2013 by Will Shu and Greg Orlowski. The company connects consumers with restaurants, grocery stores, and convenience retailers through its app and rider network. Deliveroo went public on the London Stock Exchange in March 2021. The company operates across the UK, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, and has invested heavily in its Editions dark kitchen network and its advertising platform for restaurant partners. Deliveroo competes with Uber Eats and Just Eat in its core markets and serves millions of consumers monthly.
Berlin, Germany · Startup Delivery Hero is a Berlin-based global online food ordering and quick-commerce company founded in 2011 and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 2017. The company operates food delivery platforms in more than 70 countries under local brand names and employs over 40,000 people globally. As of May 2026, Delivery Hero has a market capitalisation of approximately €13.7 billion and Uber has increased its stake to 19.5%, though no completed takeover has occurred. Delivery Hero is one of Europe's largest publicly listed tech companies.
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.
Warsaw, Poland · Startup DocPlanner is a Polish-founded healthcare booking and patient engagement platform operating brands such as ZnanyLekarz and MioDottore. The group expanded across Europe and Latin America and in 2017 acquired Germany’s Jameda, strengthening its presence in the DACH market; its TuoTempo brand deepened the practice management stack for larger healthcare providers. DocPlanner is backed by investors including Point Nine Capital, Goldman Sachs Private Capital, and One Peak Partners. The company connects patients with doctors while offering clinics scheduling, CRM, and telehealth tools.
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg · Startup Doctena is a Luxembourg-based healthtech platform that enables patients to book medical appointments online across multiple European countries. The system connects patients with doctors, dentists, and specialists through a unified booking interface while providing healthcare practitioners with schedule management, patient communication, and practice administration tools. Operating across Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria, Doctena has become one of the leading medical appointment platforms in the Benelux region and a key example of how healthtech can scale across fragmented European healthcare systems.
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.
London, United Kingdom · Venture Capital Episode 1 Ventures is a London-based seed and pre-seed fund founded in 2013 by Simon Murdoch, Damien Lane, and Adrian Lloyd, all experienced entrepreneurs who have built and exited companies. The firm closed its third fund at £76 million in February 2024, bringing total capital managed to over £170 million across three vehicles. Episode 1 focuses on software-driven businesses in AI, infrastructure, health, open-source, and marketplace sectors, writing initial cheques of up to £2 million. The fund has backed 69 companies and achieved a 73% Series A graduation rate — three times the industry average — with notable portfolio companies including Carwow, Huboo, CloudNC, and Robin AI.
Stockholm, Sweden · Accelerator EQT Ventures is the VC arm of EQT Group, launched in 2016 in Stockholm with offices in London, Berlin, and San Francisco. Managing over EUR 2.2B, the firm invests EUR 1-25M from seed through Series C in AI, fintech, mobility, and marketplaces. EQT Ventures uses Motherbrain, its proprietary AI deal-sourcing platform, to identify opportunities early. Portfolio includes Einride, Epidemic Sound, Voi, and Wolt. The fund leverages EQT's network of 300+ industrial advisors for strategic support.
Istanbul, Turkey · Venture Capital Esas Ventures is the venture capital arm of Esas Holding, Turkey's largest family-owned investment group backed by the Şevket Sabancı family, founders of the Sabancı Holding conglomerate. Founded in 2018 and operating from Istanbul with a London presence, the fund has built a portfolio of 38+ companies including four unicorns, with Getir, Deel, and Misfits Market among its most notable exits and holdings. The firm invests primarily at Seed and Series A stages in B2B SaaS, marketplaces, and consumer tech, with a global mandate spanning Turkey, the US, and Europe. Esas Ventures backed Insider through its $500M Series E led by General Atlantic, underscoring its capacity for large follow-on rounds.
Warsaw, Poland · Angel Investor Ewa Chronowska is a Warsaw-based venture capital investor and entrepreneur who co-founded Next Road Ventures, a Polish early-stage VC backing B2B SaaS and marketplace startups across Europe. She is also founder and CEO of Vestbee, the largest startup-investor matchmaking platform in Central and Eastern Europe, and organises the annual CEE VC Summit — the region's flagship gathering for fund managers and LPs. Recognised as one of Europe's youngest female General Partners, she has backed 15+ companies including TrustMate, Epinote and Sunroof.
Madrid, Spain · Person Co-founder and co-CEO of Jobandtalent, the staffing-marketplace unicorn he started in 2009. He leads the company alongside co-founder Juan Urdiales, scaling its on-demand workforce platform internationally.
Madrid, Spain · Startup Fever is a Madrid-born entertainment discovery platform that curates and produces immersive experiences, from candlelight concerts to secret cinema events, in over 100 cities worldwide. The company uses data-driven demand testing to decide which experiences to produce, reducing risk for venues and creators while surfacing high-quality cultural events for consumers. Fever has become one of Europe's most prominent consumer marketplace unicorns, blending tech-driven curation with live entertainment at scale.
Belgrade, Serbia · Startup FishingBooker is a Belgrade-based online marketplace connecting recreational anglers with fishing guides and charter captains worldwide. The platform allows users to browse, compare, and book fishing trips across thousands of destinations, handling payments, reviews, and communication between guests and guides. With operations spanning the US, Caribbean, Europe, and beyond, FishingBooker has become the world's largest fishing trip booking platform. The company demonstrates how Serbian engineering talent can build globally dominant vertical marketplaces in niche travel segments that larger OTAs have underserved.
Athens, Greece · Startup Car-as-a-service subscription platform offering brand-new vehicles for a fixed monthly fee covering insurance, maintenance and road fees, with no down payment. Founded 2018, expanding across Southeast Europe.
Munich, Germany · Startup Mobility platform offering intercity bus and train travel founded in Munich in 2011. Operates across Europe and North America (acquired Greyhound in 2021) under parent Flix SE.
Paris, France · Person Founder and former CEO of BlaBlaCar, the long-distance carpooling platform he started in 2006 and grew into a global ride-sharing leader. A high-profile figure in French tech, he also co-founded the lobby group France Digitale.
London, United Kingdom · Startup London-based beauty and wellness booking platform that provides commission-free subscription software for salons, spas, and independent therapists—covering appointments, payments, marketing, and inventory—with operations in 120+ countries and 100,000+ business partners.
Edinburgh, United Kingdom · Person Co-founder and former CEO of Skyscanner, the Edinburgh travel-search company that became one of Scotland's defining tech successes before its acquisition by Ctrip for around £1.4bn.
Berlin, Germany · Startup GetYourGuide is a Berlin-based travel experiences marketplace founded in 2009 by Johannes Reck and Tao Tao. The platform connects travelers with curated tours, activities, and attraction tickets in destinations worldwide, offering everything from skip-the-line museum passes to multi-day excursions. GetYourGuide has raised over $900 million from investors including KKR, SoftBank, and Temasek, reaching a valuation above $2 billion. The company serves tens of millions of travelers annually and has expanded into branded 'Originals' experiences operated under its own quality standards, positioning it as the leading European alternative to Viator in the tours and activities category.
Warsaw, Poland · Startup Grupa Pracuj is the parent of Pracuj.pl, Poland's largest online job marketplace, and a portfolio of HR-tech brands across Central and Eastern Europe (eRecruiter, the:protocol, RocketJobs, and Softgarden in Germany). Founded in 2000 by Maciej Noga and Przemysław Gacek, the group went public on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2021. It remains the dominant recruitment platform in Poland and a key training ground for many Polish operator-angels.
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.
Copenhagen, Denmark · Venture Capital Heartcore Capital is a Copenhagen-headquartered early-stage venture firm founded in 2007 as Sunstone Technology Ventures and rebranded to Heartcore in 2019 around a consumer-first thesis. Operating from Copenhagen, Berlin, Paris and London, it backs European founders from inception through Series A, deploying €250K–€6M as first institutional capital, and has become one of Europe's highest-ranked seed and Series A investors.
Across five early-stage funds, two growth vehicles and a Web3 fund, Heartcore manages roughly €800M; Fund V closed at €170M in December 2024, signalling a broadening from pure consumer into AI and software infrastructure, climate tech and synthetic biology while retaining consumer and travel exposure. The firm's track record includes Tink (acquired by Visa for €1.8bn, 2022), Peakon (Workday, ~$700M, 2021), Trustpilot (LSE IPO, 2021), Boozt (Nasdaq Stockholm, 2017) and Kaia Health (Sword Health, 2026), with a portfolio spanning GetYourGuide, TravelPerk, Podimo, Natural Cycles and Vivino. The partnership is led by co-founders Jimmy Fussing Nielsen and Christian Lindegaard Jepsen alongside Max Niederhofer (Berlin) and Yacine Ghalim (Paris).
Prague, Czech Republic · Startup Hedepy is an online therapy platform connecting patients with certified psychotherapists via video. It has expanded across more than ten European markets, offering multilingual access and flexible scheduling. The service addresses mental health capacity shortages by making therapy easier to access and scale. By 2026, Hedepy is a leading Czech health-tech company in digital mental health.
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.
Madrid, Spain · Person Co-founder and CEO of Fever, the Madrid-founded live-entertainment discovery platform that scaled globally with backing from Goldman Sachs and Accel. He co-founded Fever in 2014 to help people discover local experiences and events.
Madrid, Spain · Person Spanish entrepreneur and investor who co-founded the digital road-freight marketplace OnTruck and is also a co-founder of the AI cardiology startup Idoven. He is an active figure in the Madrid startup ecosystem across logistics and health tech.
Stockholm, Sweden · Person Partner at Northzone in Stockholm, investing in consumer and marketplace companies across the Nordics and Europe. She backs early-stage founders and supports them through scaling and follow-on rounds.
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg · Startup Job Today is a Luxembourg-registered mobile-first hiring platform focused on the hourly-and-service segment of the labor market — retail, hospitality, warehouses, logistics, beauty, care — where traditional job boards like LinkedIn and Indeed have always been an awkward fit. The product lets candidates build a one-tap profile, browse open roles around their location, and chat directly with employers inside the app, effectively turning the recruiting process into a messaging experience closer to Tinder or WhatsApp than a legacy ATS. Founded by Polina Montano and Eugene Mizin in 2015, the company raised over USD 35 million from investors including Accel and Mangrove Capital Partners and operates primarily in the UK and Spain. Job Today is one of the more visible consumer-facing tech companies headquartered out of Luxembourg and a useful example of how the country's legal and corporate infrastructure attracts startups far beyond pure finance.
Berlin, Germany · Person Johannes Reck is Co-founder & CEO of the travel-experiences marketplace GetYourGuide. A founder in the German startup ecosystem, Johannes leads the travel-experiences marketplace GetYourGuide.
Madrid, Spain · Person Founder and CEO of Cabify, the Madrid-based ride-hailing and mobility platform and one of Spain's first tech unicorns. A former management consultant and Stanford MBA, he founded Cabify in 2011 to build a multi-modal mobility company focused on Spain and Latin America.
Madrid, Spain · Person Co-founder and co-CEO of Jobandtalent, the Madrid-based workforce-management and staffing marketplace unicorn backed by SoftBank. He co-founded the company in 2009 to digitise temporary-work matching across Europe and the Americas.
Berlin, Germany · Person Julian Weselek is Co-founder & CEO of the online travel company Tourlane. A founder in the German startup ecosystem, Julian leads the online travel company Tourlane.
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.
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Just Eat Takeaway.com is an Amsterdam-headquartered online food delivery marketplace formed from the 2020 merger of Dutch Takeaway.com and British Just Eat. The combined company became one of the world's largest food delivery platforms, operating in over 20 countries across Europe, North America, and Australasia. The company briefly owned Grubhub in the US before divesting it. Listed on the London and Amsterdam stock exchanges, Just Eat Takeaway connects millions of consumers with hundreds of thousands of restaurant partners. The company has faced intense competition from Uber Eats and Deliveroo but remains a dominant player in many European markets.
Zurich, Switzerland · Venture Capital Lakestar is a Zurich-headquartered venture capital firm founded in 2012 by Klaus Hommels, one of Europe's most prolific and publicly visible technology investors, whose pre-Lakestar angel track record included early bets on Skype, Spotify, and Facebook in Europe. The firm runs a multi-stage strategy spanning early-stage funds, growth funds, and public/crossover vehicles, with offices in Zurich, Berlin, London, and Zug. Notable portfolio companies include Revolut, N26, Mister Spex, Blockchain.com, GetYourGuide, FlixBus, and Opendoor. Lakestar manages over EUR 2 billion across funds and has been a vocal advocate at the EU level for scaling up European technology sovereignty, having been involved in initiatives like the European Tech Champions Initiative and the Scale-Up Europe pledge. It is one of the few continental European VCs that operates across the full venture lifecycle at significant scale.
London, United Kingdom · Startup Lawhive is a London-based legaltech company building an AI-driven law firm model focused on the consumer legal market. It helps people resolve everyday legal issues such as family law, landlord and tenant disputes and employment matters, connecting clients with solicitors through an online platform. The company has developed its own AI operating system used by lawyers to reduce the time, cost and administrative burden of routine legal work. In February 2026 Lawhive raised $60 million in a Series B round, with participation from TQ Ventures, GV, Balderton Capital and Jigsaw, to support its expansion into the US.
Prague, Czech Republic · Startup Liftago is a Prague-based ride-hailing and delivery marketplace founded in 2012 that connects passengers and businesses with licensed professional taxi drivers and courier services. Unlike Uber and Bolt, Liftago works exclusively with regulated taxi operators, positioning itself as a compliant alternative in the Czech market. The platform expanded into last-mile delivery and B2B logistics, helping restaurants and retailers fulfill same-day orders. Liftago has become one of the most widely used mobility apps in Prague, with a strong network of professional drivers and fleet partnerships.
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 Partner at Movens Capital and pricing / commercial strategy specialist, known for advising B2B SaaS and marketplace companies on monetisation, pricing architecture, and revenue operations. Joined Movens to lead growth-stage deal work and post-investment commercial support.
Warsaw, Poland · Angel Investor Co-founder of Grupa Pracuj and managing partner at Pracuj Ventures, Maciej is one of the most active HR-tech focused investors in Poland with a portfolio spanning 40+ companies. He is known for scaling marketplace and B2B software models, and remains a key shareholder in Grupa Pracuj following its Warsaw Stock Exchange IPO. Notable startup involvements include Symmetrical.ai, Jutro Medical, and SonarHome.
Paris, France · Startup Malt is a Paris-founded freelancer marketplace launched in 2013 that connects independent professionals with companies seeking project-based talent in tech, marketing, design, and consulting. The platform operates across France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, and the UK, and has over 700,000 registered freelancers serving enterprise clients including Airbus, L'Oreal, and BNP Paribas. Malt has raised over EUR 100 million and manages compliance, contracts, and payments to simplify the hiring process. It is a leading European alternative to Upwork and Fiverr, with a strong focus on local enterprise freelancing.
Luxembourg, Luxembourg · Venture Capital Mangrove Capital Partners is one of Europe's most storied early-stage venture capital firms, founded in Luxembourg in 2000 by Mark Tluszcz, Gerard Lopez, and Hans-Jürgen Schmitz. The firm manages over $1 billion in assets and has backed 8 unicorns, including Skype (a $2 million investment that returned $200 million) and Wix (an $8 million bet that returned $700 million). Mangrove invests at pre-seed and seed stage across Europe and Israel, with a team spanning Luxembourg, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona, and London. Portfolio companies include Flo Health, WalkMe, K Health, Talkwalker, and Doctena.
Paris, France · Angel Investor Marc Simoncini is a French serial entrepreneur and angel investor best known as the founder of Meetic, Europe's largest online dating platform, which he sold to Match Group. After his successful exit, Simoncini became one of France's most active angel investors, co-founding Jainama, a personal investment vehicle through which he has backed over 100 startups. His investments span consumer internet, marketplaces, fintech, and lifestyle brands, with notable bets including companies like Made.com and Sensee. Simoncini is known for writing large angel checks and taking board seats, combining strategic guidance with significant early-stage capital. He is a key figure in France's first generation of internet entrepreneurs who now fuel the next wave of founders.
Warsaw, Poland · Angel Investor An early dot-com entrepreneur (co-founded Gadu-Gadu), Marcin made angel investments in startups like DocPlanner and UXPin before co-founding the VC fund Market One Capital. His angel portfolio included many Polish marketplaces and SaaS companies, leveraging his extensive network from the 2000s startup wave. Associated startups: DocPlanner, UXPin, and numerous marketplace platforms (early investor).
Warsaw, Poland · Angel Investor A veteran of Poland’s startup scene, Mariusz founded GoldenLine and DocPlanner. Alongside running a unicorn-scale company (DocPlanner), he has been an angel in numerous startups including Preply, Shoplo, Positionly, and Brainly. He often provides both capital and guidance on scaling to international markets. Associated startups: Preply, Shoplo, Positionly, Brainly, Allani, among others.
Warsaw, Poland · Accelerator Market One Capital (MOC) is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Warsaw and Barcelona that specialises in marketplaces and platforms with network effects. It backs pre-seed and seed founders across Europe building two-sided marketplaces and B2B platforms, and its portfolio includes companies such as Docplanner and Packhelp.
London, United Kingdom · Person Partner at Index Ventures focused on consumer, marketplace and mobility companies. He has led the firm's investments in Revolut, Deliveroo, Personio and Algolia, working closely with European founders scaling into global markets.
Kyiv, Ukraine · Startup Online IT education platform founded in 2015 teaching programming and tech roles, with an income-share agreement model where graduates pay a percentage of salary after getting hired.
Wroclaw, Poland · Angel Investor Serial entrepreneur (co-founder of platforms like ZadajPytanie and later CEO of fashion startup Allani), Mateusz turned to angel investing after successful exits. Notably, he invested early in the edtech unicorn Brainly before fully focusing on growing Allani. His founder perspective in marketplaces and consumer apps guides the startups he now supports. Associated startups: Brainly, Allani, and other consumer internet ventures.
Paris, France · Startup Meero is a Paris-based photography technology company that uses AI to automate photo editing and connects businesses with a global network of professional photographers. The platform serves industries including real estate, e-commerce, and hospitality, offering on-demand shoots with AI-enhanced post-production. Meero raised over $200 million and was valued at over $1 billion before restructuring operations to focus on its core AI editing technology.
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.
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.
Paris, France · Startup Naboo is a Paris-based corporate event and seminar booking platform that lets companies plan offsites and team events through a single system covering venues, accommodation, catering, transportation and team-building activities. Sometimes described as the Booking.com of corporate seminars, it is building a software suite to help finance and procurement teams oversee MICE budgets, including spend tracking, policy compliance and invoicing. Founded in 2022, the company raised a 20 million euro Series A round in early 2025 led by Notion Capital to fund European expansion.
Budapest, Hungary · Startup Netrisk Group is a Budapest-based digital insurance comparison and brokerage platform that helps consumers compare policies from multiple insurers and purchase coverage online. The company operates across Central and Eastern European markets and is the leading insurance aggregator in Hungary, covering auto, home, travel, and health insurance products. Netrisk simplifies a traditionally opaque buying process by providing transparent side-by-side comparisons and instant quotes. The group has expanded through acquisitions and organic growth to become one of the most significant insurtech players in the CEE region.
Paris, France · Person Co-founder and CEO of BlaBlaCar, having led the company's growth, fundraising and acquisitions from COO to chief executive. He previously worked as a venture investor in Silicon Valley.
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.
Barcelona, Spain · Person Co-founder and CEO of Glovo, the Barcelona-based on-demand delivery platform that became one of Spain's largest tech companies before its acquisition by Delivery Hero. An aeronautical engineer by training, he built Glovo from a 2015 Barcelona startup into a multi-country delivery network.
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.
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Venture Capital Peak is an Amsterdam-based seed venture capital firm founded in 2013 by a group of serial European founders — Johan van Mil, Daniel Hennes, Madeline Lawrence, and later Luc Mader — who wanted to build a fund explicitly aimed at first-time SaaS, marketplace, and platform founders in Europe. The firm writes initial checks of EUR 500K to EUR 4M at pre-seed and seed, reserves meaningful follow-on capacity through Series A, and takes a hands-on partner model that is unusually involved in hiring, pricing, and product-strategy work for portfolio companies. Peak's portfolio has included Trengo, Creative Fabrica, Catawiki, Miinto, Homerun, and Recruitee, and the firm is one of the most consistent seed-stage names in Benelux/DACH venture. It closed its fifth fund in 2023 and remains a reference seed investor for founders across the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and the Nordics.
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.
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.
Berlin, Germany · Venture Capital Point Nine is a Berlin-based seed-stage venture capital firm founded in 2011 by Christoph Janz and Pawel Chudzinski, specializing in B2B SaaS and online marketplaces. The firm manages over EUR 500M across multiple funds and typically invests EUR 500K to EUR 3M at seed, with follow-on capacity into Series A. Point Nine has backed notable companies including Zendesk (pre-IPO), Algolia, Typeform, Mambu, Chainalysis, and DocPlanner, establishing a strong track record in vertical SaaS and developer tools across Europe and North America.
Vilnius, Lithuania · Venture Capital Practica Capital is the most established venture capital firm in the Baltics, founded in Vilnius in 2011 and managing four funds totalling over €130 million in assets under management. The firm invests at pre-seed, seed, and selected Series A stages in marketplace, SaaS, and deep/industrial tech startups originating from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, and now has partners on the ground in all three Baltic capitals. Its portfolio of 70+ companies includes CGTrader, TransferGo, PVcase, Interactio, Eneba, and Ovoko, with one IPO and six acquisitions to date. The €80 million third fund, closed in February 2024, is the largest seed fund ever raised in the Baltic region.
Warsaw, Poland · Venture Capital Pracuj Ventures is the venture arm associated with Grupa Pracuj co-founder Maciej Noga, focused on HR-tech, marketplace, and B2B software businesses across Europe. The fund leverages the broader Grupa Pracuj ecosystem for deal flow and operator support, and has backed 40+ companies including Symmetrical.ai, Jutro Medical, and SonarHome.
Kyiv, Ukraine · Startup Preply is a Ukrainian-founded online tutoring marketplace that matches learners with one-on-one language tutors through a search-and-book flow, a subscription-based lesson plan, and an in-browser classroom that handles video, shared docs, homework, and scheduling. Founded in 2012 in Kyiv by Kirill Bigai, Dmytro Voloshyn, and Serge Lukyanov, Preply now serves millions of learners and tens of thousands of tutors across more than 180 countries, with particular strength in English, Spanish, French, German, and — increasingly — business-skills subjects beyond pure language. The company has raised over USD 120 million from investors including Owl Ventures, Hoxton Ventures, and Point Nine, and officially relocated its headquarters to Barcelona in 2023 while keeping significant engineering operations in Kyiv. Preply is a canonical example of Ukrainian B2C SaaS that became genuinely global and represents a rare European challenger to Cambly, italki, and other US-led language-tutoring marketplaces.
Naarden, Netherlands · Venture Capital Prime Ventures is one of the longest-running growth-stage venture firms in the Netherlands, founded in 1999 and operating from Naarden with additional presence in London. The firm writes Series B and later checks of EUR 10-40 million into European technology companies with proven revenue traction, with a sector focus spanning B2B SaaS, digital marketplaces, fintech, and consumer internet. Over more than two decades Prime has backed companies including Just Eat, Takeaway.com, Gemalto, TaxiCaller, Brandbank, Recommind, and Impraise, and has produced several of the most profitable Dutch venture returns on record. The firm is a useful example of a Benelux-headquartered fund that plays a growth-round role traditionally occupied by US crossover investors, and it is often one of the first calls for a Dutch or wider European scale-up raising its first big post-PMF round.
Berlin, Germany · Venture Capital Project A Ventures is a Berlin-based early-stage operator VC founded in 2012 by Florian Heinemann, Uwe Horstmann, Christian Weiss, Ben Fischer, Anton Waitz, and Thies Sander. The firm closed its fifth and largest fund at €325 million in 2025, bringing total assets under management to approximately €1.2 billion. What sets Project A apart is its in-house platform of over 140 functional experts in engineering, business intelligence, marketing, sales, and recruiting who work directly inside portfolio companies alongside capital. Investments span seed through Series B across SaaS, fintech, logistics, and consumer technology, with a notable portfolio including Trade Republic, sennder, Catawiki, WorldRemit, KRY, and Voi.
London, United Kingdom · Startup Prolific operates an online marketplace that connects organisations with vetted, fairly paid human participants for data collection, surveys, and AI work. Founded in 2014 at the University of Oxford by Phelim Bradley and Ekaterina Damer, it began as a tool for academic researchers needing reliable study participants and has since expanded into AI training and evaluation. Today it supplies human data for tasks like reinforcement learning from human feedback, model red-teaming, AI evaluation, and specialist annotation, serving both academic institutions and commercial AI customers. It is headquartered in London.
Warsaw, Poland · Angel Investor Founder of Grupa Pracuj and investor associated with Market One Capital (MOC), Przemysław focuses on marketplace models and network-effect businesses. He invests both personally and through fund activity, bringing strategic support in category creation, scaling, and international expansion. Notable portfolio references include Tier Mobility, Packhelp, and DocPlanner.
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.
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.
Brussels, Belgium · Startup Belgian AI marketplace that matches homeowners with verified renovation and construction companies across Belgium. Its AI engine analyses project requirements, cross-references contractor track records, and surfaces ranked shortlists within minutes. All partner companies undergo tax and solvency verification. Invited to VivaTech 2026.
Prague, Czech Republic · Startup Rohlik Group is the Czech Republic's flagship ecommerce and logistics scale-up, often compared to Ocado for its vertically integrated model. The company dominates online grocery across Central Europe and operates the Knuspr brand in Germany and Austria, pairing premium assortment with fast delivery windows. By 2026, Rohlik is heavily automating fulfillment to push down unit economics while expanding warehouse capacity across CEE. Its influence is outsized locally, acting as a talent magnet and a repeat-founder factory for the Prague ecosystem.
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Angel Investor Ruben Nieuwenhuis is a Dutch entrepreneur, angel investor, and ecosystem builder who co-founded StartupAmsterdam, the city's official public-private initiative to support tech entrepreneurship. He later co-founded Startup Delta (now Techleap.nl), the national platform connecting Dutch startups with government, corporates, and investors. As an angel, Nieuwenhuis invests in early-stage tech companies across the Netherlands, with a focus on marketplace models, SaaS, and civic tech. His deep connections to Dutch government, corporate, and VC networks make him an especially valuable angel for founders who need more than capital. He is widely considered one of the architects of Amsterdam's rise as a top European tech hub.
Barcelona, Spain · Person Co-founder of Glovo, where he leads global and public affairs. A serial entrepreneur active in the Spanish tech scene before Glovo, he helped scale the delivery platform across Europe, Africa and Latin America.
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.
Berlin, Germany · Startup sennder is a Berlin-based digital freight forwarder founded in 2015 that uses technology to connect shippers with trucking carriers across Europe. The platform digitizes the traditionally fragmented and paper-heavy European trucking market, using algorithms to match loads with available capacity, optimize routes, and provide real-time shipment tracking. sennder acquired Uber Freight's European operations in 2021 and has raised over $300 million in funding. The company works with major shippers and connects to a network of tens of thousands of trucking companies, making it one of Europe's largest digital freight platforms.
Paris, France · Startup Shotgun is a live-events platform and ticketing solution focused on nightlife and electronic music. It provides software for venues, collectives, festivals, labels and artists to organise events, sell and manage tickets, and engage their communities, while serving as a discovery marketplace where attendees find events and buy or resell tickets. The company emerged from the Parisian underground electronic music scene and has expanded internationally, with offices beyond Paris including Marseille, Lisbon, São Paulo, New York and Miami.
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.
Ljubljana, Slovenia · Venture Capital Silicon Gardens is the Adria region's first founders-for-founders venture capital firm, founded in 2019 and headquartered in Ljubljana. It backs exceptional early-stage tech startups from the Adria region (ex-Yugoslavia and diaspora) and broader CEE, investing as one of the first institutional checks at pre-seed and seed. Fund III, a €33M+ vehicle launched in June 2023, focuses on B2B SaaS, marketplaces, consumer apps and games, and innovative D2C products. The fund's 100+ LP base includes founders who built Outfit7, Sportradar, Bitstamp, Celtra, Photomath, and Zemanta.
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.
Edinburgh, United Kingdom · Startup Skyscanner is a global travel search engine founded in Edinburgh that compares flights, hotels, and car rentals across hundreds of providers. Acquired by Ctrip (now Trip.com Group) in 2016 for $1.7 billion, Skyscanner continues to operate independently from Scotland and serves over 100 million monthly users. It remains one of Europe's most recognized consumer tech brands and a key reference point for Scotland's startup ecosystem.
Wavre, Belgium · Startup Sortlist is a Belgian marketplace that connects companies with marketing, creative and digital agencies, helping businesses discover, evaluate and hire service providers. Founded in 2014 and registered in Wavre, it operates across multiple European markets. It raised an early round in 2019 with investors including Sambrinvest, and an €11 million round in 2021 backed by SRIW and The Club Deal. In 2024 the company reported reaching operational profitability, and in 2025 it named co-founder Nicolas Finet CEO alongside a new innovation lab.
Tallinn, Estonia · Venture Capital Formerly United Angels VC, Specialist VC was founded in 2017 by Riivo Anton and Gerri Kodres and rebranded in 2022 upon closing its €50M Fund II — the first Baltic VC fund to integrate secondary transactions alongside primary venture investing. The firm focuses on B2B, SaaS, fintech, and marketplace startups in the Baltic region and beyond, writing initial cheques from €200K to €1M at seed through Series A. Its Fund I portfolio includes two unicorns, Bolt and Veriff, alongside Starship Technologies and Monese, making it one of the highest-performing early-stage funds to emerge from Estonia.
Vienna, Austria · Incubator Speedinvest is one of Europe's most active pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital firms, founded in 2011 in Vienna by Oliver Holle. The firm manages over EUR 600M across sector-focused funds covering fintech, deep tech, marketplaces, and industrial tech, with offices in Vienna, Berlin, London, Munich, and San Francisco. Speedinvest invests EUR 500K-2M initially and follows on to Series A, having backed 300+ companies including Bitpanda, GoStudent, Tier Mobility, Open, and Wefox. The firm operates a 40-person platform team providing hands-on support in hiring, legal, growth, and US market entry.
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.
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup StuDocu is an Amsterdam-based platform where students share and access study materials such as lecture notes, summaries and practice exams. Operating under the legal entity StudeerSnel B.V., it launched as StudeerSnel.nl before expanding internationally under the StuDocu brand, serving students across many countries and disciplines. In recent years it has added AI-based study tools for generating quizzes, summaries and structured notes. The company raised a $50 million Series B round in 2021 led by Partech.
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.
Krakow, Poland · Angel Investor Co-founder and former CTO of Brainly, Tomasz leverages his edtech and product experience as an angel investor. He has backed several Polish startups (including Allani, Positionly, Investio, and Luna Lang) and continues to support tech education initiatives. Associated startups: Allani, Positionly, Investio, Luna Lang.
Warsaw, Poland · Person Co-founder and Managing Partner of Inovo Venture Partners, Poland's leading seed-stage fund. Previously an investment banker at Rothschild and an investor at Penta Investments, he has led Inovo's backing of companies such as Packhelp, Restaumatic and Symmetrical, and helped raise the firm's three funds totalling roughly €167M.
Copenhagen, Denmark · Startup Too Good To Go is a marketplace that helps consumers buy surplus food from restaurants, bakeries, and supermarkets at a discount, reducing food waste. Launched in Denmark in 2015, the app scaled across Europe, North America, and Australia, building a global community that has saved millions of meals. The company combines sustainability impact with a simple consumer pickup model and has become one of the best known Danish climate tech exports. It also runs programs that help businesses prevent waste and educate consumers about food labeling.
Berlin, Germany · Startup Tourlane is a Berlin-based travel tech company that combines technology with personal travel advisors to create customized multi-day trips. The platform uses data and algorithms to match travelers with personalized itineraries for long-haul destinations, then pairs them with expert advisors for booking. Tourlane has raised over $100 million and serves customers primarily in Germany and the US, bridging the gap between OTA convenience and traditional travel agency expertise.
Vienna, Austria · Startup TourRadar is a Vienna-based online travel marketplace specialising in multi-day organised tours. Founded in 2010 by brothers Travis and Shawn Pittman, it connects travelers with tour operators worldwide across adventure travel, safaris, river cruises, food tours and hiking trips. The platform lets users browse, compare and book multi-day trips, read traveler reviews and access booking-protection services. It positions itself as an organised adventure platform and has raised venture funding through a Series C round with backers including TCV, Cherry Ventures and Speedinvest.
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.
Milan, Italy · Venture Capital Founded in 2013 by Massimiliano Magrini (former Google Italy MD) and Paolo Gesess, United Ventures is one of Italy's leading independent technology-focused VC firms, with cumulative AUM approaching €500 million across three funds including a €150 million early-stage Fund III (launched 2023) and a dedicated growth vehicle, UV T-Growth. The firm targets software, fintech, cybersecurity, cloud, IoT, and marketplace companies predominantly at Series A, co-investing across Italy and Europe. Its portfolio of 51 companies has generated 10 acquisitions and 2 IPOs; landmark investments include Musixmatch (10x+ return on exit to TPG), Everli (Series C lead, €22 million), and Cleafy (Series B, 2026).
Athens, Greece · Venture Capital VentureFriends was founded in 2016 by serial entrepreneurs Apostolos Apostolakis and George Dimopoulos in Athens to back early-stage scalable startups across Europe and MENA. The firm has raised three funds — VF1 (€20M, 2016), VF2 (€50M, 2018), and VF3 (€100M, 2021) — totalling €170M in AUM. It focuses on pre-seed through Series A investments of €330K–€2.8M in FinTech, PropTech, Marketplaces, TravelTech, and SaaS. With 83 portfolio companies, the firm has produced 2 unicorns, 1 IPO, and 10 acquisitions, with Blueground among its flagship investments.
Paris, France · Startup Luxury fashion resale platform with strong operations and authentication teams in Spain. Vestiaire Collective is a startup based in Paris, France at the growth stage. The company operates in the Marketplace, Fashion, Circular Economy space. Learn more at their website.
Paris, France · Person Co-founder and CEO of Malt, the freelance marketplace connecting companies with independent professionals across Europe. He scaled it into the continent's leading freelancing platform.
Madrid, Spain · Person Vincent Rosso is a French-Spanish entrepreneur who co-founded and led BlaBlaCar's expansion across Spain and Latin America, and later co-founded the carsharing platform Consentido/CONSENTIO. He is a recurring voice on mobility, marketplaces and European startup scaling.
Vilnius, Lithuania · Startup Vinted is one of the most important consumer internet companies to emerge from the Baltics and the dominant European marketplace for second-hand fashion. Its scale comes from solving the resale experience in a way that feels simple for ordinary users rather than niche collectors: easy listing, broad demand, integrated shipping, and a business model that reduces friction on the supply side. That combination turned wardrobe resale from an occasional behavior into a repeat consumer loop, helping normalize recommerce across Europe. Vinted matters in the startup ecosystem because it proves that Lithuania can produce globally relevant consumer platforms with strong brand recognition, operational depth, and defensible marketplace dynamics. It also sits at an interesting intersection of circular economy, logistics, trust, and consumer product design, showing that major marketplace businesses are built as much on operations and liquidity as on software. For founders and investors, Vinted remains a strong case study in how marketplace design choices and local logistics execution can compound into continental scale.
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.
Athens, Greece · Startup Welcome Pickups is an Athens-based travel technology company offering personalised airport transfers and in-destination travel experiences. Founded in 2015 by Alexandros Trimis and Savvas Georgiou, the platform lets travelers pre-book rides at fixed prices and combines transfers with additional in-destination services. It operates across more than 100 destinations and partners with hotels, airlines and travel agencies to handle guest transfers. In December 2022 it raised a €5.3 million round led by Market One Capital, Flashpoint and Venture Friends to expand its destination network.
London, United Kingdom · Person Founder and CEO of Deliveroo, the food-delivery company he started in 2013 after struggling to get good food delivered in London. He scaled it across Europe and Asia and led its 2021 IPO on the London Stock Exchange.
Prague, Czech Republic · Startup Woltair is a digital marketplace and installation platform for heat pumps and solar systems. It streamlines the complex process of finding qualified contractors, securing subsidies, and completing installations. By 2026, the company is a notable Czech green-tech player pushing heat pump adoption across Central Europe. Its operational advantage is a software-driven workflow layered on top of local installer networks.
Warsaw, Poland · Event CEE-focused networking summit in Warsaw with 2,000+ in-person attendees, 500+ investors, and hybrid participation from across Central and Eastern Europe. Founder tickets typically EUR 300-700. Core value is high-volume matchmaking through pre-scheduled 15-minute investor-founder meetings across SaaS, IoT, PropTech, and deep tech, a top CEE deal-flow event.
Paris, France · Person Partner at Heartcore Capital, based in Paris, who joined from Goldman Sachs in 2013. He leads investments in consumer technology and marketplaces across France and Southern Europe.
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.
Paris, France · Startup Zefir is a French proptech company operating an AI-powered real-estate marketplace that aims to accelerate residential property transactions for sellers, buyers and agents. Its technology pools listings across competing agents and helps reduce transaction times, and it has launched ZIA, an AI-powered home-search assistant for buyers. Founded in 2020 and based in Paris, Zefir raised a 15 million euro Series B round in September 2025 led by FinTech Collective, bringing total funding to roughly 50 million euro.