The "if-then" rule is dead. As modern workflows grow too complex for static logic, businesses are swapping rigid, traditional automation for adaptive, goal-oriented AI agents. But how do you control a system that "thinks for itself"?
Czech startup Grid.online has closed a €4 million round to grow its neutral courier infrastructure, off the back of 10× delivery growth and over 1 million parcels delivered in year one.
Norma's natural language analytics, already adopted across 10,000 Foodics branches, will now power the next generation of agentic AI for restaurant operations.
From participation rates above 90% to measurable changes in team performance, Mirror 360's first large-scale deployment explores what becomes possible when feedback shifts from a periodic exercise to a continuous process.
“When researchers come to us, it doesn’t start with a negotiation,” Viktor Olsson of KTH Innovation explains. Here’s how Sweden’s founder-friendly university model is creating a deep tech powerhouse and what CEE can learn from it.
The Recursive’s weekly roundup aims to cover key tech developments across Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the growing impact of CEE-born founders on the global stage. Take a look at the latest news in funding, startup milestones, and emerging trends tied to the region’s innovation potential.
Through a partnership between BSMEPA, Future Unicorns Accelerator, and The Recursive, Bulgaria's first coordinated Startup Grind delegation connected founders with the conversations, relationships, and market perspectives shaping global tech, while strengthening ties with Silicon Valley.
Treating emerging markets as a monolith is a costly mistake. Utopia’s Alina Truhina explains how to leverage strategic arbitrage between emerging markets and GCC, and why local nuance is the ultimate sourcing advantage.
Three of Southeast Europe's most established technology companies, Next Consult, btProvider, and C4 Nexus, are bringing together more than a decade of collaboration, 200+ specialists, and over €20M in annual revenue under the new Trimaranix brand.
Warsaw-based Microamp has secured €6.5 million from the European Innovation Council to develop Any-G, a software-defined wireless platform engineered to support 5G, 6G and future network standards from a single architecture, without replacing physical infrastructure.
Poland is investing $11M in ElevenLabs through Vinci, the investment arm of state-owned bank BGK, giving the government a minority stake in the $11B AI voice company.
Can an algorithm handle an unexpected midnight crisis? Treating HNWI's like a premium mass market is a costly mistake. While AI excels at logistics, wealth management relies on human trust and subtle context.
Tilia Impact Ventures opens applications for the second edition of its flagship program, now reaching founders across CEE, Turkey, and Greece.
Lithuanian defense-tech startup PDKINEMATICS secured a €2 million seed round co-led by Coinvest Capital and Iron Wolf Capital to scale production and deployment of its battlefield-proven Gannet precision guidance system for UAVs across Europe, Ukraine, and NATO markets.
Greece's innovation ecosystem attracted more than €732 million across 95 funding rounds in 2025, marking another year of strong growth. In this interview, Found.ation's Filippos Zakopoulos explains why capital is no longer the biggest challenge.
Sloneek Intelligence connects corporate data across every HR application in use, and can be controlled entirely by voice or chat. The new round will fund the platform's AI development and expansion into the UK and Polish markets.
Founded by investors with backgrounds in Wall Street biotech research and healthcare finance, Kos aims to give European life sciences companies greater access to US industry expertise, capital, and networks.
Slovak startup Definic, previously known as Nordics, raised €2.5 million ($2.9 million) in seed funding to help enterprises pick the right IT vendors through AI-driven vendor intelligence and benchmarking.
Romania is buzzing over a promised $1B "Quantum AI" data center in Cluj, but tech experts smell a marketing stunt. Is it a sovereign tech hub or just a massive power drain wrapped in buzzwords? The details don't add up.
The Recursive’s weekly roundup aims to cover key tech developments across Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the growing impact of CEE-born founders on the global stage. Take a look at the latest news in funding, startup milestones, and emerging trends tied to the region’s innovation potential.
Digital Serbia's new scaling program kicks off with three startups from Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia that have already raised millions and now want to win new markets.
Can We Safely Live with Humanoid Robots? 🤖 In this fascinating episode of The Recursive Podcast, we sit down with Emily Kate Genatowski, an AI PhD candidate, historian and domestic robotics researcher who provides a unique, hands-on perspective on our future with machines. Unlike most researchers who work in controlled labs, Emily lives full-time with a humanoid robot named Tova (a Unitree G1) in her apartment in Vienna.
As the founder of PSL (Proportional Stake Liability), an insurtech startup bridging the liability gap in robotics, Emily’s career is dedicated to uncovering the practical, legal, and social friction points that arise when AI gains a physical body. She moves beyond the "AI hype" to explore how humanoid robotics will realistically intersect with our legal regulations, physical infrastructure, and the daily fabric of our communities.
🧠 Why Watch?
Whether you’re a tech optimist, a skeptic, or someone worried about the future of work, this conversation offers a grounded, practical look at the challenges ahead. Emily moves the needle from philosophical fear to practical empowerment, showing us that we are still the architects of the future we want to see.
What does AI engineering actually look like inside modern enterprises — and how close are we to truly autonomous software development?
In this episode of The Recursive Podcast, we sit down with Karol Przystalski, Chief Data and AI Officer at Exadel, to explore how organizations are moving beyond AI experimentation and into AI-native operations.
We discuss the evolution from AI copilots and coding assistants to fully orchestrated engineering systems, why many companies are measuring AI success incorrectly, and how enterprise leaders should think about ROI, productivity, and organizational change in the age of autonomous engineering.
Karol also shares insights into Exadel Colleague — an AI-powered engineering teammate designed to support entire software teams—and explains why the future of AI isn't about replacing humans, but helping them focus on higher-value work.
In This Episode:
🔹 Why AI adoption is shifting from experimentation to real business value
How enterprises have moved beyond AI proof-of-concepts and are now focused on productivity, efficiency, and measurable outcomes.
🔹 The difference between AI-enabled development and AI-native engineering
Why coding assistants are only the first step—and how autonomous systems are transforming entire software development lifecycles.
🔹 How to measure AI ROI beyond token usage
The metrics that actually matter, including productivity gains, human-equivalent hours saved, accuracy, and business impact.
🔹 The future of autonomous engineering and the role of humans
Why AI won't replace software engineers, but will fundamentally change how teams work and what skills will matter most.
🧠 Whether you're an engineering leader, CTO, product executive, or simply curious about the future of software development, this conversation offers a practical look at where enterprise AI is headed next.
In this episode of The Recursive Podcast, we sit down with Kilian Kaminski, the co-founder of Refurbed, the Vienna-based marketplace that has become a powerhouse in the European circular economy. Kilian shares insights from his transition from Amazon to entrepreneurship and the ongoing battle to establish refurbishment as a standardized global consumption category.
A former head of Amazon’s Certified Refurbished program in Germany, Kilian left the corporate giant to revolutionize how we consume. Today, Refurbed has surpassed €2 billion in sales, proving that "rethinking new" is not just a sustainable choice, but a massive business opportunity that sits at the intersection of consumer trust and environmental impact.
What we discussed in this episode:
♻️ The limitations of corporate sustainability and the origins of Refurbed’s marketplace model.
♻️ Overcoming the "chicken and egg" problem of acquiring sellers and building consumer trust in non-new products.
♻️ The critical need for standardized European legal definitions and quality criteria for refurbishment.
♻️ Cultural differences in consumption habits and the untapped "gold mine" of 600 million unused devices in European households.
♻️ The impact of the "Right to Repair" directive and the role of the European Refurbishment Association (EUREFAS) in policy lobbying.
🧠 This episode is a must-watch for entrepreneurs interested in marketplace dynamics, sustainability advocates, and anyone curious about how the "Right to Repair" legislation will impact the gadgets we use every day.
