Emerge, a major conference held last week to highlight the start-up and venture scene of the ‘New East’, has published a selection of 100 promising start-ups from the region, reports East-West Digital News (EWDN).
Touted as having a unicorn potential, these start-ups 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 $3mn), MVP and commercial traction. Successful developments amid the pandemic and a positive sustainability impact were also taken into account.
The featured start-ups 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 start-up entrepreneurs from the region tend to establish their companies to ensure their global growth.
Confirming the region’s strongest skills, 56% of the featured start-ups use such technologies as AI, ML, Big Data or computer vision.
The majority of these start-ups have a deep tech focus:
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 start-up in five has a diverse team, while 13% tend to use eco-friendly materials and abstain from using paper.
The ‘Emerge 100’ regional start-up report can be downloaded at no charge through this link.
This article first appeared in East-West Digital News (EWDN), a bne IntelliNews partner publication.