#euvc stands with Eastern Europe ✊
#euvc stands with Eastern Europe ✊
Putin's war is changing Europe 😡 We're leading syndicates into the three best emerging VCs in the region 💸 But it's far more than charity.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is fundamentally changing Europe 😡 As a response, the #euvc community is leading syndicates into three of the best emerging managers in the CEE-region 💸 But it's far more than charity. In fact, there are several reasons why we're so bullish on the CEE/CIS region 🐂.
💡 The best founders & startups emerge from times of hardship & tech talent is flooding out of Russia to CEE countries.
🧲 CEE-based tech entrepreneurs are strongly inclined to building companies that focus on the West.
🛑 Russian-backed VCs will find it hard to get allocations on coveted deals giving western-backed managers an advantage.
Acrobator Ventures [final close in 15 days!]
by Joachim Laqueur, Bas Godska, Mike Reiner, Ramon Vigdor
Acrobator Ventures is an operator-led fund backing Eastern founders building global software companies. The fund focuses on arbitrage opportunities in data-heavy B2B(2C) pre-seed/seed deals sourced by a combination of proprietary tech & insider networks in the tight-knit Eastern diaspora tech founder communities.
Track-record of 70+ investments over 15+ years in the Baltics/CEE/CIS yielding 15.7x DPI, 57.9x TVPI 🤯
Including Decacorn investment in miro.com and follow-ons by Tier 1 VCs like Insight, Accel, TCV, and Iconiq.
Differentiated investment strategy focusing on early access by allocating significant capital to acquire defendable entry ownership positions and offering all pro-rata rights to LPs via SPVs 💭😍
Backed by investors like the founders and execs of Miro, Flowtraders and Booking.com & institutional investors like the highly revered European VC-focused fund of fund Isomer Capital 🏛🪙.
Acrobator's launch and oversubscription was featured in tech.eu and we can only say that we're happy we secured our allocation in time. Final close is July 30th, so you can still make it to join us 🏃♂️💨.
Leadership in times of crisis 🦸
As you may know, Bas Godska and his wife were personally affected by the war in Ukraine. Although they were fortunate enough to be in the Netherlands when the war broke out, many of their friends and relatives were not. In connection to a foundation Bas created to support Ukrainian refugees, Bas commented on the situation to Quotenet, a major Dutch media outlet:
A nice life, just outside Kiev, that was what we had. We lived in nature, with some animals, which was really nice. Until Putin invaded Ukraine.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, something that he and his wife did not witness themselves due to a delayed flight, his life has also been turned upside down. With great speed, Bas started to bring relatives, friends and acquaintances to safety by bringing them to the Netherlands. Surprising to many, this sometimes turned out to be unexpectedly difficult.
You also have to deal with people who are old, who would rather say they have a bomb on their head than leave home and hearth. Which in turn has a social domino effect, because then their children don't want to go either. It's something you only know from tear-jerking movies, but now it's real. Heartbreaking.
To date, Godska and his wife Kseniya’s foundation has linked 679 Ukrainian refugees to host families in The Netherlands and donated € 752.639. If you wish to donate, you can do so here. Their work to help Ukraine through the crisis continues forcefully to this day.
Startup Wise Guys
by Cristobal Alonso, Dag Ainsoo, Herty Tammo, Alexandra Balkova, Günce Önür
Startup Wise Guys (SWG) is one of the most active early-stage investors in Europe with a strong footprint in CEE/CIS countries. The accelerator program and the first fund were established back in 2012, in Estonia.
From a small team and accelerator in 1 city and 1 vertical, SWG has grown into a leading player in the European accelerator scene with 32 completed batches across 8 cities and 5 verticals, thus investing in more than 300 startups.
We're investing into Challenger Fund II, the flagship fund that gives exposure to 100+ of the pre-seed startups SWG accelerate 💪 The fund focuses on SaaS, Fintech, Cyber and Sustainability in the Baltics, CEE, CIS & Turkey.
The POC fund of 800k€ launched in 2012 has a Net MOIC of 13x as of 31.03.22. The fund invested in 59 startups out of which 37 are still active 👏
Challenger Fund I of 8.15M€ launched in 2019 and has since invested in 115 startups. The fund is still actively deploying and MOIC is already at 1,75x - a solid performance for an accelerator fund with of this vintage.
500 Istanbul
by Enis Hulli, Rina Onur Sirinoglu, Arin Özkula
500 Istanbul is one of the rising stars in Europe and one of the highest performing funds in the whole 500 Global network. Fund II already holds 12 companies and some has recently gotten to the promised land of positive TVPI and IRR 📈
35M€ is currently committed to the fund with all LPs from fund I re-investing. The LP-base counts 25 founder-LPs, 3 European & Global GPs as well as one of Europe’s renowned emerging VC specialist fund of funds.
Fund I of 10.6M$ has a 4.7x Gross TVPI & 53% IRR generated via 40 investments in founders from 11 countries. The portfolio has a cumulative $ 500M annualized revenue with 97% of the revenue coming from foreign markets. 85% of their founders have raised follow-ons with $ 1.1B+ raised and 5 exits created 🤯.
Downstream investors counting funds tier-1 like Sequoia, GV, Riverwood, Brookfield and many more undisclosed to the public. For every 1$ invested, follow-on investors has come in with a whopping € 125 💰
Investment strategy tailored to the Turkish & Eastern European startup ecosystems focusing on Geo-arbitrage and Technology transfer leveraging 500 Istanbul’s unique access to global SF-based funds and renowned brand & reputation.
The team employs a massively aggressive deal sourcing strategy where every team member sources deals 50% of their time & founders are guaranteed GP-presence at any second meeting held- and an investment decision within 3 weeks.
What's the #euvc community anyway? 🤔
We're a community of likeminded venturers passionate about backing the nexrt generation of VCs in Europe.
>50% of us are Founders & operators.
>40% of us are VCs & angels.
>20% of us are Ecosystem champions.
>10% of us are Limited Partners & Fund-of-Funds.
And we would love to welcome you 🤗 Apply to join here and read our memos on theemergingvc.substack.com
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out ✌
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David Cruz e Silva | Meet🗓️ | Email📩 | Phone.
Andreas Munk Holm | Meet🗓️ | Email📩 | Phone.
Democratizing access to #EUVC ✊