Presto News | Q4 2024
VC and startup news on technologies that protect the future + updates on all things Presto
Dear partners & friends of Presto,
Globally, Q4 was one of the most eventful quarters in recent history. Politically, economically, technologically.
Rapid AI advancements are paving the way for an exciting future, and everyone can feel the race picking up. There have never been more opportunities on the table – or a better time to start something new.
As the saying goes: When the winds of change blow, some build walls, others build windmills.
Let’s roll up the sleeves.
It’s time to build 💪🏼
Without further ado, feel free to jump to the sections that interest you the most:
1. Highlights
2. New PTH investments
3. Portfolio fundraising
4. Market insights
5. Brainfood
6. #MeetPresto
7. Department of memes
⭐ Highlights
- New horizons unlocked 💙 In Q4, we welcomed the first members of the Presto Tech Horizons portfolio family. To get to know them better, let’s dive right in:
Vidar Systems | Developer of portable AI-driven acoustic locators
BlueQubit | SF-based quantum software startup founded by Stanford alumni
- On the home front, the recently launched Czech Startup Association 🇨🇿 has solidified its role as a bridge between policymakers and the startup ecosystem. As one of the founding members, we’re excited, hopeful, and ready to do our part.
Elena Ghinita
- Deloitte Technology Fast50 CE: 400 companies, 17 countries, and 5 portfolio champions 🏆 Oddin took the cake with their rocket growth and Jeff App placed 3rd – shortly after winning the Sifted 30 Leaderboard: Eastern Europe & Baltics. Kudos also to Woltair, Adam, and Sloneek! #portfolioproud
🔔 New PTH investments
Excited to welcome these exceptional teams!
Coming soon: More companies that help create a safer, more resilient future.
🇺🇲 BlueQubit | Seed | $10M | Nyca Partners, Restive, Chaac Ventures, Presto Tech Horizons, NKM Capital, BigStory VC, DEPO Ventures
🇺🇲/🇺🇦 Bavovna AI | Late-Seed | $1.7M | Presto Tech Horizons, Network VC, Allied VC
🇪🇪/🇺🇦 Vidar Systems | Pre-Seed | Presto Tech Horizons and other early investors
💸 Portfolio fundraising | Selected companies
- Lakmoos | €100k ARR | B2B SaaS | Instant market research thanks to accurate synthetic data
- OTA Sync | €1.3M ARR | B2B SaaS | Cloud-based channel manager and property management platform
➡️ 6 of our portfolio companies are currently fundraising or about to start. To learn more, please visit the Presto showroom.
💡 Market insights
Global and European market news
- Overall venture deal activity fell 19% YoY to 27K in 2024, the lowest since 2016, with sharp declines in China (-33%), Canada (-27%), and Germany (-23%). That said, Q4 2024 saw a global funding rebound to $86.2B, up 53% QoQ, with mega-rounds ($100M+) accounting for 60% of the total – nearing record levels seen in Q1 2021.
- Defense tech startups raised nearly $3 billion across 85 rounds by mid-November 2024, surpassing the $2.6 billion raised in 113 rounds in all of 2022. That’s a new record for the sector.
- AI accounted for 37% of venture funding and 17% of deals in 2024, both all-time highs, driven by infrastructure players raising the year’s 5 largest deals. Early-stage AI deals dominated, representing 74% of AI funding rounds, signaling strong investor focus on early bets in this high-potential sector.
Market outlook
- Fastest-growing tech markets include enterprise AI agents, generative AI for customer support, humanoid robots, and autonomous driving systems, fueled by advancements in AI and industrial automation.
- The result of the US elections is expected to influence the VC industry through deregulation and reduced oversight as well as potential Federal Trade Commission M&A policy shifts, and enhanced liquidity conditions, which is being proved with the Goldman Sachs IPO Issuance Barometer at 137 (above its historical 100 baseline).
- With 40% of unicorns held in VC portfolios for nine or more years, there is a growing pressure for exits, and the backlog of IPO-ready companies (eg. Klarna, Chime, eToro, Cerebras). This could lead to a surge in public listings, setting 2025 up as a pivotal year for venture-backed IPOs. The next 4 years make it possible to see the biggest names in the industry going public, such as Stripe or Circle.
For a deep-dive on these market highlights 👆🏼 follow these resources 👇🏼
- Defense Tech Hits New High in 2024 | Crunchbase
- State of Venture 2024 Report | CB Insights
- 2025 Venture Capital Outlook | Wellington Management
- US VC Trends In 2025 | SG Analytics
🧠 Brainfood
In-house thoughts worth sharing 🙌🏼
- Investing in Resilience Tech | Vojta & Premysl
Global focus on defense technologies is reshaping investment strategies. Join our partners Vojta and Premysl as they discuss resilience tech investing and the pulse of the VC scene with Jan Richter in the Agenda podcast. - Instead of Cars, Drones: Czechia Could Adapt Its Manufacturing | Vojta Rocek
In this insightful interview with Pavel Otto, Vojta highlights the opportunities in aerospace and defense sectors – with a focus on AI, cybersecurity, and new materials – and stresses the need to strengthen our technological foundation. - Building, Scaling, and Selling | Vojta Rocek
'Only customers hold true expertise, not VCs. In CEE, the more successful you get, the lonelier you become. Founders must attend sales meetings' – Vojta, an exited founder turned VC, is dropping insights and truth bombs on all things building, scaling, and selling for SeedBlink.
More VC thoughts to feed your mind 📚
- Things we learned about LLMs in 2024 | Simon Willison
Concise and sharp recap of everything important that happened in the LLM space over the last year. AI Agents? We’re still not quite there. - Can AI Models Show Us How People Learn? Impossible Languages Point a Way | Ben Brubaker
A review of a recent study about LLMs’ ability to learn real and made-up human languages offers much deeper insights into how people learn and absorb rules. - VCs, stop wasting your money on AI chatbots and invest in deeptech instead | Dr Ewan Kirk
Kirk argues to shift focus from AI chatbots and more generally from ‘shallow’ tech to deeptech sectors like clean tech, robotics, and biotech for sustainable growth and outsized returns. - My product is my garden | Herman Martinus
A vintage 2020 piece highlighting different product development journeys. Not every solution is a VC case, nor does it have to be. Herman likens his approach for product development to meticulous and patient gardening.
👋🏼 #MeetPresto
The list is getting longer, and that can only mean one thing – the event season is upon us! Mark your calendars and follow our #PrestoAdVentures on LinkedIn.
🇵🇱 DIANA Defence & Security Days | Feb 4-6 | Krakow, Poland
🇸🇪 Nordic Defence Tech Summit 2025 | Feb 6 | Stockholm, Sweden
🇱🇻 TechChill | Feb 6-7 | Riga, Latvia
🇩🇪 The Future of Tech Defense Manufacturing & Innovation | Feb 13 | Munich, Germany
🇩🇪 European Defense Tech Hackathon | Feb 13-16 | Munich, Germany
🇩🇪 Munich Security Conference | Feb 14-16 | Munich, Germany
🇺🇦 Defense Tech Forum | Feb 18-19 | Kyiv, Ukraine
🇸🇪 TechArena | Feb 20-21 | Stockholm, Sweden
🇸🇰 High Gate | Mar 13 | Bratislava, Slovakia
🇮🇱 CyberTech Global | Mar 24-25 | Tel Aviv, Izrael
🇵🇱 CEE VC Summit | Mar 25-26 | Warsaw, Poland
🇧🇪 EDF Info Days | Apr 2-3 | Brussels, Belgium
🤓 Department of memes
That's it from Presto.
Stay tuned for the next issue ✌🏼