Warsaw, 29 May 2025

Digital Champions CEE 2025: 15 newcomers, value of largest companies up 10 per cent.

29 May 2025

Total capitalisation of the largest technology companies in Central and Eastern Europe increased by almost 10 per cent over the year to reach USD 117 billion, according to the latest report by the Digital Poland Foundation. Fifteen companies debuted on the list of 100 digital champions in the region. The Foundation's experts highlight the increase in the value of mid-sized companies, which is a sign of the dynamic development of the entire industry.

Estonian fintech Wise topped this year’s list, followed by Poland-based ecommerce enabler InPost and Polish online sales platform Allegro. The list includes 32 companies with a market capitalisation over $1 billion, down from a record 39 in 2021. Fifteen companies made their first appearance on the list, including Lithuania’s $1.2 billion Flo Health, maker of an AI-enabled period and pregnancy tracking app, and Croatian sports betting and gaming site Supersport. Five debutants come from Poland: AirHelp offering support for airline passengers, Kontakt.io - supporting blockchain management, fintech PayPo, Nomagic.ai building robots for logistics companies and Cloudferro providing cloud services.

Experts from the Digital Poland Foundation point to the increase in the value and importance of medium-sized companies in the latest edition of the ranking. This favours innovation, the exchange of experience, staff development and specialist support services. It is also more dynamic and attractive from an investor's point of view. As the report shows, the capitalisation of ‘dragons’, i.e. companies in the range of USD 250 million to USD 1 billion, has more than doubled (an increase of 138%) in four years.

“We are excited about the growth of the biggest regional stars in the tech industry, and even more so about the evolution of the entire CEE market, which is transforming into an ecosystem filled with numerous valuable companies, says Piotr Mieczkowski, managing director of the Digital Poland Foundation and co-author of the report. Thanks to this, the market is becoming a platform for development that showcases the region's many competitive advantages”

Poland maintained its lead in the ranking in terms of the number of champions and share in total market capitalisation. The list of the 100 largest companies includes 39 Polish companies with a value of USD 43 billion, representing 37% of the value of all companies in the ranking. Estonia remains the leader in the ranking based on the size of the population of individual countries, both in terms of the number of champions and capitalisation. This year's number one on the list and 11 other companies come from this country.

“The region’s champions continue executing on their strategy of fast growth driven by acquisitions – not only elsewhere in the region, but also from Western Europe and markets including Turkey,” said Radzym Wójcik, counsel in Baker McKenzie’s Warsaw M&A practice. “We’re still seeing low engagement in the region by global capital, but my experience confirms the report’s conclusion that companies from the region are increasingly well prepared to negotiate with international funds, and are receiving increasing funding flows, at richer valuations. Part of that is because these local companies increasingly have clients around the globe.”

E-commerce and SaaS (Software as a Service) companies dominate the ranking in number and value. Together, they account for 57 per cent of the total value of the top 100 technology companies. The number of SaaS companies in this year's ranking is 31, while e-commerce and marketplace companies make up 23. Other categories included in the ranking are fintech, media and entertainment and cyber security. The latter category, although with only five companies, saw the largest increase in value last year - up 94 per cent to US$8.3 billion.

“CEE’s digital companies have reached a key inflection point: their local markets are too small for them to continue growing, so the natural step is for them to expand internationally,” said Wojciech Świercz, partner at Arthur D. Little in Poland. “Going global is the factor that allows them to scale their operations and continue growing.”

Digital Champions CEE 2025 - top 100 tech companies in CEE region, per country and type

Among the 15 companies that left the ranking are ElevenLabs and Grammarly. Both have continued their dynamic growth, but after changing their headquarters or ownership structure, they do not meet the criteria of the Digital Poland ranking for Central European companies. Other companies have changed owners or dropped from the ranking due to lower valuations - this is particularly true for listed companies. Only three companies were affected by problems related to the deterioration of their financial condition.

The current total capitalisation of the region's 100 leading technology companies is 12 per cent below the record US$133 billion in the first edition of the ranking in 2021. The lower current valuation has been mostly influenced by discounts of giants such as Romania's UiPath, whose value has since fallen by USD 20 billion, and Allegro, down by USD 5 billion, as well as ownership and head office changes, which particularly affect Ukrainian companies.

The CEE Digital Champions ranking has been published for the fourth time. The value of companies was calculated based on current public market valuations, market benchmarks, EBITDA ratios and revenues. The champions include companies whose main source of profit is digital products and services or sales through digital channels reaching customers.

The report's strategic partners are Arthur D. Little and the law firm Baker McKenzie. The report's partners are Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, MCI Capital, MidEuropa, mInvestment Banking, PFR Ventures and PAIH.

The full report can be downloaded from the Digital Poland Foundation’s website.

About the Digital Poland Foundation

The Digital Poland Foundation’s mission is to position Poland as a leading global centre of digital innovation, making Poland’s economy more competitive in the area of high technology, increasing Poles’ economic knowledge and promoting the ideas of innovation, entrepreneurship and responsible growth. The Foundation works to disseminate knowledge on the role of innovation and digitalisation in the country’s economic development. It brings together companies and organisations from a variety of sectors, encouraging them to work together on specific projects.