Czech and Slovak Consumer Startup Deals Fell 64% Since 2021. AI Now Takes 25% of Deals

Czech and Slovak startups closed 175 deals in 2021 and 101 in 2025. The fall hit startups selling to consumers hardest: their deals dropped 64%, against 34% for startups selling to businesses. AI went the other way, from 11% of deals in 2019-21 to 25% in 2025-26.

This episode maps the whole market since 2018: how many deals, how much capital, at which stage, and which kinds of companies investors backed. From 2018 to 2025, startups here closed 942 deals worth €4.74B, and 2026 has added 61 deals so far.

Capital fell harder than deal count

Capital peaked at €1.33B in 2022, then fell 69% in 2023 while deal count fell 23%. The peak years rested on a few large rounds, led by €280M into SOTIO Biotech in 2021 and €220M into Rohlik in 2022. Investors kept writing rounds but stopped signing the largest ones.

Capital recovered to €760M in 2025 on fewer deals; the year's largest round, €202.4M into Tachyum, is 27% of it. First-time raisers peaked at 108 in 2021 and numbered 64 in 2025.

The stage mix moved later. Pre-seed and seed rounds made up 75% of deals in 2021 and 64% in 2025, while Series A and later went from 15% to 22%. The rest are debt, grants, crowdfunding and rounds with no stage.

Consumer startups lost twice as much as business-facing ones

Startups selling to consumers closed 75 deals in 2021 and 27 in 2025, down 64%. Startups selling to businesses went from 104 to 69, down 34%. Consumer startups took 39% of deals in 2019-21, 24% in 2025-26.

Here and below, we compare 2019-21, before the peak, with 2025 and 2026 so far. Shares are relative, so the part of 2026 that has passed counts as it is.

AI grew; most areas held their share

AI went from 11% of deals in 2019-21 to 25% in 2025-26, and from 13% to 23% of newly funded startups; it is the only rise the tests pick out. Life sciences, meaning biotech, drug discovery, pharma and diagnostics, went from 2% to 6%, with 8 deals in 2022 against 2-3 a year before, but on so few deals that we count it as drifting up rather than a trend.

Digital health (5% to 7%), energy and climate (4% to 6%) and mobility and logistics (5% to 6%) moved up by less than their year-to-year swings, so we count them as drifting up, not as a trend. Travel and hospitality (8% to 4%) and physical products (5% to 2%) fell the most. Tech hardware (13% to 9%), media and gaming (11% to 7%), commerce and marketplaces (8% to 6%), food and agriculture (5% to 4%), mobile apps (6% to 4%) and property (5% to 2%) drifted down. Travel, commerce and media sell mostly to consumers, in line with the consumer decline above.

Every other area held its share between the two periods, moving by less than a fifth: enterprise software, fintech, developer tools, martech and sales, data and analytics, cybersecurity, HR tech and edtech. Fintech went from 15% to 12% of deals and enterprise software from 20% to 19%. Single years swing more than that, but around a level that held: these are steady shares of a shrinking market.

What changed inside fintech, tech hardware and enterprise software

Inside fintech, enterprise software and tech hardware, the mix of startups changed more than the totals show. The tags cannot show it, since almost every startup in these areas carries the same few labels, so we sorted each startup into one type by what it does, read from its own description by an AI model.

Fintech moved away from lending and insurance. Lending went from 28% to 15% of fintech deals and insurance from 8% to 0%. Compliance, identity and fraud tools went from 8% to 25%, while payments (16% to 15%) and crypto (10% to 10%) held.

Tech hardware, meaning startups that make a physical product, fell from 13% of all deals in 2019-21 to 9% in 2025-26, and the kind of hardware changed. Sensors and connected devices went from 15 deals to 1 and consumer devices from 10 to 1. Medical devices grew from 13% to 29% of the area's deals, with rounds for VR Vitalis, HTG Medical and Kardi AI, and drones and defence from none to 2 deals (Groundcom and Airvolute).

Enterprise software moved from collaboration tools to developer and automation tools. Collaboration and productivity tools went from 18% to 3% of its deals. Developer, IT and security tools went from 13% to 26%, and operations and process automation from 16% to 23%.

What changed inside the areas

A steady share can hide a reshuffle. AI startups took a growing share of deals inside the software areas: from 0% to 17% of digital health deals, 20% to 32% of developer tools deals and 16% to 45% of enterprise software deals, comparing 2019-21 with 2025-26.

Several areas moved towards business customers. In digital health, startups selling to hospitals, clinics, insurers and employers went from 17% to 58% of the area's deals, and startups selling to consumers from 83% to 50% (a startup selling to both counts in both). Startups selling to businesses also went from 63% to 80% of energy and climate deals, 55% to 83% of travel and hospitality deals, 60% to 93% of tech hardware deals and 85% to 89% of developer tools deals. It is the other side of the consumer decline.

Smaller parts grew inside their areas too. Drug discovery went from 0% to 22% of life sciences deals, marketing automation from 8% to 19% of martech deals, climate-related food startups from 10% to 17% of food deals, and property management software from 26% to 67% of property deals.

Niches that came and went

Some niches rose and fell on small numbers. Crypto fintech, meaning exchanges, crypto payments and lending and blockchain infrastructure, closed 1, 3 and 8 deals in 2020-2022, then 0 in 2023 and 2 in the two years since. Food delivery and quick commerce peaked at 8 deals in 2021 and has closed 1-2 a year since 2023. Fashion and apparel startups closed 8 deals in 2022 and 7 in 2023, then 0 in 2024 and 1 in 2025.

What happened to the startups first funded in 2018-22

We followed the 381 startups that raised their first recorded round between 2018 and 2022. 20% raised another round in 2023 or later, 10% were bought, and 70% have had no new round since 2022 and no sale. That last group is not a count of failures: many keep trading on revenue or raise rounds that are never announced.

The type of startup made a difference, though each type holds only 11 to 76 startups. Raised another round most often: mobile apps (8 of 18), life sciences (6 of 16) and AI (17 of 47). Least often: media and gaming (2 of 26), martech and sales (3 of 37) and commerce and marketplaces (4 of 33). Bought most often: data and analytics (8 of 31) and AI (9 of 47).

2026 so far

2026 YTD counts 61 deals and €638.5M. The largest round, €256.2M into Mews, is 40% of that capital. Series A and later rounds account for 26% of this year's deals and consumer startups for 20%.

The rest of this series takes this picture apart: which funds write the checks, how seed round sizes have changed, how often seed-funded companies reach a Series A, and who buys Czech and Slovak startups.