Welcome to The Recursive’s new weekly roundup covering key tech developments across Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the growing impact of CEE-born founders on the global stage. Each edition brings you the latest in funding, product milestones, and emerging trends tied to the region’s potential.

This week, one of the standout global headlines came from Silicon Valley, where Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup founded by former OpenAI CTO, Albanian-born Mira Murati, closed a record-breaking $2 billion seed round, valuing the company at $12 billion. 

Back in the CEE, regional founders remain active across sectors such as defense, healthtech, DevOps, and finance. Here are the key stories from this week’s roundup.

CEE Diaspora

Bulgarian-founded Varda Space Industries has raised €160M in Series C funding to scale its microgravity drug manufacturing and hypersonic reentry tech, bringing total funding to €282M. The El Segundo-based company is pioneering space-based pharmaceutical crystallization, with a focus on monoclonal antibodies.

UK-based digital health startup Numan, founded by Greek entrepreneur Sokratis Papafloratos, has raised €49M to fuel international expansion amid surging demand for GLP-1 weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Mounjaro. Since launching its obesity treatment program in late 2023, Numan’s revenue more than doubled to €77M in 2024, with weight loss now accounting for the bulk of its business. The funding supports Numan’s shift toward becoming a key provider of medical weight loss solutions across Europe.

Spacelift, a DevOps startup founded in Poland and now based in California, has raised €43.63M in Series C funding to expand its AI-powered infrastructure orchestration platform. The company, led by Pawel Hytry and Marcin Wyszynski, helps enterprises manage complex multi-cloud environments with tools like Terraform and Ansible — used by clients including NYSE, Cisco, and Duolingo. The round was backed by Five Elms Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, and Polish Inovo.vc.

Console, a startup founded by Romanian entrepreneur Andrei ?erban, has raised €5.33 million in growth funding from Thrive Capital to expand its AI-powered IT support platform. The tool, which integrates directly into Slack, automates routine tasks like password resets and app access requests, easing the workload for IT teams.