Money Before a Product: Who Still Gets It in Czechia

Czech investors still fund startups that have nothing to sell yet, but only two kinds: founders who have built and sold a company before, and teams with a fund on the cap table from the day they incorporate. We checked every Czech startup whose first outside round came in 2024 to 2026 against the press at the time of the round: 29 B2B and 11 consumer companies. 9 of the 40 raised before they had a product.

Part 1: Consumer startups

Consumer startups have lost ground as a share of Czech first rounds. They took 38% of first rounds in 2021 and 39% in 2022, then 24% in 2024 and 23% in 2025. Their count fell from 33 to 11 a year while all first rounds fell from 87 to 48.

5 of the 11 consumer companies that raised had users or revenue first. TasteTown had 120,000 downloads and about 500 venues before its 10M CZK round in April 2025. Mamio had 15,000 users, all organic, before €300k in January 2024. Flow Nutrition had 17.3M CZK of revenue before Reflex Capital invested.

Four consumer startups raised before a product. Three had a fund or studio involved from founding and sold about a fifth of the company. Vetstor, three months old, sold 20% to Purple Ventures and ZAKA for about €500k and raised a €1M seed 18 months later. Elin.ai had Presto Ventures as a shareholder from incorporation and raised €1M to launch its app. The fourth, Hitchat.ai, had an angel commit €1M in tranches before launch; the payments stopped and the company went into insolvency in 2025.

Part 2: B2B startups

B2B founders raise earlier. Half of the 29 B2B first rounds backed a product that was live or in pilots but had no paying customers named at the time. Only 9 needed traction. Consumer founders needed users or revenue, or a fund on board from day one.

The large B2B rounds before a product all went to founders with a previous company behind them. ValkaAI raised €12M, Duvo $15M and Theorema $3.3M. Four of these companies are now 100% owned by a US or Dutch parent, so their cap tables no longer show in the Czech register. Founders without that history raised before a product only through small tickets: Veriteus took a €40k convertible loan.

Founders with a product sold a similar share to consumer founders, usually for more money: Talsec sold 22% for about €1M with Generali and the Czech interior ministry as clients, and HTG Medical 18% for about €600k with its device certified and in use at IKEM. Studios ask for more. Miton took a third of DeepScout for €200k plus an option on €400k.

Most of the 2024 and early-2025 B2B first-rounders came back for a larger round 12 to 24 months later. The pre-product rounds are too recent to judge.

What this means for a founder without a product

A Czech founder without a product or a track record has three realistic routes: show users or paying pilots first, start with a studio or fund that joins the cap table at incorporation, or take an accelerator ticket of around €40k. Part 3 of this piece will cover those incubator and accelerator programmes and what their participants raised next.