Few industries in emerging Europe are growing as fast as the tech sector.

During the first five months of the Covid-19 pandemic, the digital economy in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) grew almost twice as fast as the previous two years, according to McKinsey & Company.

A recent report from Startup Genome, meanwhile, suggested that emerging Europe’s tech ecosystems – especially in Estonia, Lithuania and Romania – were poised to make a global breakthrough.

Then there’s the latest Global Outsourcing 100 rankings from US-based IAOP, which includes over a dozen companies headquartered in, or with their main delivery centres in, the emerging Europe region.

The pandemic has been a driver of the change in investment: private equity and venture capital firms saw new opportunities or decided to increase funding to existing ventures. According to Invest Europe, private equity funds invested in almost 600 CEE companies in 2020, an increase of 15 per cent on 2019, with Poland the leading destination.

The 2020 Tech Emerging Europe Advocates Launch Meeting looked at the region in a global context, discussed its tech potential, showcased some of its unicorns and established global connections.

The Tech Emerging Europe Advocates 2021 Meeting seeks to take this a step further — to identify opportunities between the emerging Europe region and the UK with a focus on selected verticals and emphasis on Tech for Net Zero following the COP26 conference in Glasgow.