Doing sustainability and impact investing: mobility, food and agriculture, energy (renewable, efficiency, storage), water, waste etc. Looking for indications of repeat demand.
Looking for defensible market positions. Technology is not necessary, if the position of the company is otherwise strategically defensible.
Investing globally with a focus on Europe. Also investing actively in Africa and Asia.
Focus on B2B across all their funds.
Prefer to lead or co-invest. Prefer to take a board seat.
Interested in hardware and deep tech software. Solutions should be hard for competitors to copy, and if they are, it’s not a must that they’re technological. They prefer companies having customer validation and preferably revenue, but in exceptional cases can invest in a proof-of-concept stage as well.
Companies can be based anywhere, but have to have some operations in Eastern Europe, for example considering Poland as an important target market.
In most cases they only co-invest or lead invest. For startups related to construction industry and chemicals, a CVC investment is possible.
Focusing on digital entertainment (esports, gaming) and consumer tech. Social media, fitness etc. work well. No hardware. Interested especially in infrastructure and new genres of games and other formats.
In business models main focus is on B2C, can do also B2B or B2B2C.
Geographically North America, Europe and Southeast Asia are their main focus areas.
Sparkmind.vc is the first Nordic venture capital company focused on the learning sector. They invest in teams transforming early childhood, K12, higher, secondary and vocational education as well as corporate and lifelong learning. Their geographical home field is Europe, especially North Europe, but they also selectively do investments outside the region.
They often join the boards of their portfolio companies.
Open Circle is based in Lithuania and they have partners in Finland and Denmark. Most of their investments are in Lithuania, but they can invest anywhere in the European Economic Area.
Their ideal case is to co-invest or lead a round into a software company. This is the 3/5 year of their investment period and they look forward to making a couple more new investments. They’re stake size agnostic.
Their usual minimum ticket is 100ke. In exceptional cases they have done 50ke, and in very exceptional cases can consider even smaller tickets.
They prefer applying startups to contact the partner whose experience best matches their area.
Impact fund. Focuses on continental Nordics: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, with some emphasis also on Baltics. Prefers co-investing outside Sweden, but has also led rounds outside their home market.
Invests €0.5-1M on early stage companies. They exceptionally invest up to €2M initial tickets on later stage companies. Looking for a 5-10x return.
€23M fund focusing on software technology in Finland and Baltics. Can invest also elsewhere in Europe. Hardware can be a minor component of an invested company’s offering, but software has to be the main part. Commonly co-invests with other funds. Can lead rounds in their focus geography.
Prefer B2B and B2C. B2G investments would require significant indications that the sales cycle is much faster than average in that area.
They look for traction before investing. In B2B there has to be revenue, in B2C traction can be proven in other ways as well.
They prefer to participate in companies at the board level.
Karma Ventures invest into early-stage deep tech software in Baltics, Nordics, and in especially strong cases also elsewhere in Europe.
They’re looking for companies with technological advantage. Doesn’t have to be IPR, but something valuable and very hard to imitate. They look for companies with traction, first clients validating the demand, but in exceptional cases pre-revenue can also be considered.
In terms of sectors, life sciences are not their focus, but deep tech B2B health software can be interesting.
They prefer to lead, co-lead or invest solo.
Contrarian Ventures is a European fund investing into companies transforming the energy sector, including where and how it is used, with an emphasis on sustainability. They are also interested all energy tech, e-mobility, automation, AI, hydrogen, energy grids, and energy storage. They have an especial liking for software and hardware-enabled software.
They focus on B2B, but are interested in especially strong B2C and B2G cases as well.
The partners have extensive expertise and networks in energy and its associated sectors in addition to startups and venture capital. They have a singular focus on helping the best energy-related startups succeed.
They prefer to lead or co-lead in deals. They’re an active investor, seeking to add value through their network, expertise and services for all portfolio companies. They often look for a place on the board, at least as an observer. Their HQ is in Vilnius with partners based in London and other key European cities.