Emerge, a major conference held last week to highlight the startup and venture scene of the ‘New East,’ has published a selection of 100 promising startups from the region.
Touted as having a unicorn potential, these startups were selected according to a variety of criteria — in particular, company maturity (up to three years of age), amount of capital raised (no more than $3 million), MVP and commercial traction. Successful developments amid the pandemic and a positive sustainability impact were also taken into account.
The featured startups come from the former Soviet Union, other Central and Eastern European countries (such as Poland and Romania) — as well as other jurisdictions across the world (EU, USA, Asia) where startup entrepreneurs from the region tend to establish their company to ensure their global growth.
Confirming the region’s strongest skills, 56% of the featured startups use such technologies as AI, ML, Big Data, or computer vision.
In their majority, these startups have a deep tech focus:
- 54% conduct deep R&D;
- 14% have a provisional patent, or launched a patent application, or plan to du so;
- 13% have intellectual property, licences, or technologies protected by patents (local or international);
- 11% have founders or have team executive who are experts in a relevant field (degree or book authorship).
As noticed by the report, a significant fraction of the companies have a sustainability orientation. Around one third of them are interested in becoming a B-corporation; as many have at least one KPI related to sustainable development. One startup in five has a diverse team, while 13% tend to use eco-friendly materials and abstain from using paper.
The ‘Emerge 100’ regional startup report can be downloaded at no charge through this link.
