Digital champions CEE 2026: Total valuation nears 128 billion USD as deeptech and relocations reshape the region

At the end of 2025, the 100 largest technology companies in Central and Eastern Europe achieved a combined market capitalisation of USD 127.9 billion, narrowing the gap to the region’s 2021 peak and confirming the continued resilience of the regional digital economy. The strongest growth came from the region’s largest players — the so-called “Digital Phoenixes” valued above USD 1 billion — whose combined valuation increased by 14.58% year-on-year to USD 101.05 billion.

However, the report highlights that official data significantly understates the true scale of value created by the region's innovators. Many leading firms originating from the CEE region — such as ElevenLabs, Grammarly, ICEYE, Rimac, and Avast — have relocated their headquarters to the United States or the United Kingdom to raise capital or have been acquired by multinational corporations, removing them from the ranking. According to the authors of the report, if these mature companies still met the geographic criteria of the index, the total value of the top 100 technology companies from the CEE region would already exceed USD 170 billion.

“When the inaugural Digital Champions CEE ranking was launched, the region was framed as a ‘Digital Phoenix’ — a symbol of ambitious transformation emerging from post-communist economies. Five editions later, the trajectory remains strong, but the narrative has evolved.
Against a backdrop of intensified global headwinds, companies across Central and Eastern Europe have shifted from rapid acceleration to more disciplined, resilient growth. This maturation has sharpened strategic focus: for many organisations, it has unlocked new avenues for expansion and innovation; for others, it has introduced heightened competitive pressure and a more complex, unpredictable operating environment,” said Radzym Wójcik, Counsel at Baker McKenzie.

Poland remains the region’s largest technology ecosystem in absolute terms, accounting for USD 47.39 billion — or 37.05% — of the total regional value, with 42 companies in the Top 100 ranking. It is also the only market showing strength across all company maturity levels, from emerging scaleups to multi-billion-dollar champions.

The Baltic states, however, continue to outperform the region when measured by capitalisation intensity per capita. Estonia achieved the highest score in the ranking, significantly ahead of all other countries, while Lithuania recorded a 123.97% increase in total capitalisation since 2021. Latvia emerged as the fastest climber by intensity growth over the five-year period.

Together, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Czechia now account for nearly 78% of the region’s total technology value. Croatia delivered the strongest long-term growth in percentage terms, with ecosystem value increasing by 170.7% since 2021, while Bulgaria nearly doubled its market capitalisation over the same period.

While e-commerce and marketplace platforms remain the region’s largest value category, accounting for more than 36% of total capitalisation, the report identifies a major structural shift toward deeptech, space technology, healthtech, and dual-use innovation.

The “other” category — which includes deeptech and space tech companies — recorded the strongest year-on-year growth in the entire ranking, surging 87.59%. New high-value entrants such as EnduroSat and Creotech Instruments reflect increasing investor appetite for companies addressing defence, logistics, infrastructure, and strategic resilience.

“The composition of the ranking is also evolving. E-commerce, SaaS and fintech remain the backbone of CEE’s digital economy, but the list now points to a broader and more strategic technology base: robotics, space and Earth observation, cybersecurity, AI-native software, digital health, sovereign cloud and other infrastructure-oriented businesses. This shift shows that CEE is moving beyond consumer platforms and software scale-ups toward technologies directly linked to Europe’s productivity, security, resilience and digital sovereignty,” said Wojciech Świercz, Partner at Arthur D. Little.

The report also documents record levels of venture capital-backed exits across the region. Following 82 exits in 2024 — the highest number ever recorded — the ecosystem sustained momentum with 81 exits in 2025.

This marks a dramatic increase compared with just 31 exits in 2015 and confirms that Central and Eastern Europe has evolved from an emerging startup market into a mature ecosystem capable of producing a consistent pipeline of acquisition-ready and IPO-ready companies.

Venture capital investment across the region reached EUR 2.71 billion in 2025. However, the report notes that this figure includes approximately EUR 730 million in funding rounds raised by companies that had already relocated their headquarters outside the region. Those excluded rounds included major transactions involving ElevenLabs, ICEYE, Tachyum, and MaintainX.

The relocation dilemma: nearly half of CEE value has left the region​​​​

One of the report’s central conclusions concerns the increasing relocation of the region’s most successful technology companies to the United States and the United Kingdom.

According to data cited in the report, 48% of CEE scaleups have moved their headquarters abroad, primarily to access larger pools of growth capital. The United States attracts 56% of relocating companies, while the United Kingdom alone accounts for nearly one-quarter of all relocations. The report warns that this trend presents a broader strategic challenge for Europe’s competitiveness.

“Europe is increasingly being reduced to a highly skilled research and development layer for the American technology sector. Ideas are incubated locally, products are built locally, but the companies are ultimately financed, scaled, and frequently acquired by US capital,” said Piotr Mieczkowski, Managing director at Digital Poland Foundation.

Ukraine represents the most acute example of this dynamic. While the number of Ukrainian companies formally included in the ranking has declined sharply since 2021, many continue to maintain engineering and R&D operations within Ukraine despite relocating corporate headquarters abroad to secure international financing and ensure business continuity.

The report also reveals accelerating generational change within the regional ecosystem. Companies founded between 2017 and 2021 recorded the fastest valuation growth of any cohort, increasing their collective value by 189.09% since the first edition of the ranking.

At the same time, a core group of 49 companies has remained in the Top 100 throughout all five editions of the report, demonstrating the growing stability and resilience of the region’s leading technology players.

“Innovation today is the foundation of competitiveness, resilience and technological sovereignty for Poland and Europe. This is why BGK actively engages in building the innovation financing ecosystem through the Innovate Poland initiative, including the Future Tech Poland fund, as well as through the BGK Vinci investment fund. We also invest directly in funds supporting modern technological infrastructure.
The Digital Champions CEE 2026 report demonstrates that our region possesses the talent, ambition and entrepreneurial strength which — with the right support — can translate into the growth of future European and global technology leaders,” said Jarosław Dąbrowski, Member of the Management Board at Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego.

Digital Champions CEE 2026 is the fifth edition of the annual ranking of the 100 most valuable technology companies in Central and Eastern Europe. The report was first presented to the public at the ‘Private Equity Insights Poland & CEE 2026’ conference in Warsaw. The report covers both publicly listed and privately held companies across the broader CEE region, including the Baltic states and non-EU countries such as Serbia and Albania, while excluding Russia, Belarus, and Austria.  The report is based on data from leading transaction monitoring platforms such as CB Insights, Crunchbase, Dealroom, PitchBook, Tracxn, PitchBook and Preqin, and is the result of collaboration with selected VC/PE funds and associations in the CEE region. The report is available to download free of charge from the Digital Poland foundation’s website. Arthur D. Little and Poland’s Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego are strategic partners of the report; Baker McKenzie, MCI Capital and PFR Ventures are partners.