Accelerace VC invests into very early stage Nordic-Baltic tech startups. They’re agnostic regarding industry and many other factors. Their value-add includes supporting founders not just by their investment managers, but also by the alumni of their portfolio companies.
Revenue: €5M/year or more
SGS is a Swiss inspection company with worldwide operations. They seek startups to collaborate with and/or buy, which could help their inspection operations.
They’re especially interested in AI, machine vision, target recognition, IoT (e.g. humidity measurements), 3D mapping of bulk cargo, 3D modeling of buildings and construction sites, safety regulation management software – in general anything that helps make inspections faster, with lower manpower costs, and with more evidence of what was inspected.
OBOS is the largest housing provider company in Norway, investing into startups related to their areas of operational excellence: real estate and construction. They can be either an investor, a client, or both for a startup.
They seek software startups, but don’t mind them using hardware assets. Marketplace companies can also be interesting if there’s an especially well-demonstrated product-market fit. Even though Norway and Sweden are their home market, their startup investments tend to be to companies that are internationally scalable.
They prefer to invest into startups that have some traction, ideally already some customers lined up.
They haven’t been interested in blockchain startups due to their low levels of success so far.
Most often they invest as part of a syndicate. They usually do not lead the investment rounds to avoid creating too much dependency, typically being already a client and an investor.
Their typical ownership stake in a portfolio company is 5-10%.
They also have a separate team making later stage investments. They sometimes describe their investments range as “From startup to stock exchange.”
Verge HealthTech Fund invests globally into startups building global next-generation health solutions. They seek health tech companies with commercial or at least clinical validation.
The fund’s partners are health tech founders and operators, with experience in building and scaling companies internationally.
As a global fund, they prefer to partner with local partners on investments, either as a lead or follow investor, but they have also made solo investments as well.
They typically seek a board or at least a board observer seat.
Tikura Ventures is the angel fund of Antti Pellinen from Finland. He has been building and investing into ventures in multiple sectors, with a focus on B2B solutions, both industrial and otherwise. He has invested in both hardware and software companies.
His focus is on Nordics and Baltics. Startups from elsewhere can be interesting as well in exceptional cases.
DYNAX Invest is a angel syndicate from Bulgaria that focuses on supporting selected startups through investments, fundraising the rest of the funding round and advisory. They focus on European startups, and have done especially many investments in the CEE region.
They are industry-agnostic. Having a tech element is a plus, but not mandatory. They have a strong preference for startups with traction, either revenue or otherwise. In expectional cases, for example a deep tech startup, could be interesting also before traction.
Their team has extensive experience with M&A and investment banking, including fundraising.
They can help find a lead investor, but are not leading rounds themselves. They normally don’t seek a board seat.
WiseInvest is the angel investing office of Nikolai Angelov from Estonia. He is entrepreneur, investing into early-stage startups. He has done more than 300 investments into many fields, including but not limited to proptech, fintech, greentech, medtech, and real estate.
Exerte Partners is a family office from Cyprus. They invest generalistically, but have a slight emphasis on food, biotech, energy and SaaS solutions. Their expertise includes scaling and internationalization, as well as optimizing at scale.
They invest typically as a co-investor, but have occasionally lead rounds in cases they know especially well (e.g. food). They don’t generally do convertible notes.
Vestman Energia looks to invest into scalable solutions in energy, food and forestry. In energy they are most interested in distributed generation and storage.
They are typically a co-investor. They have also been a lead investor in cases where they had special expertise.
Specialist VC invests into companies based in, or founders from the Baltics, Finland and Ukraine. They focus on B2B software companies, marketplaces, and software-enabled hardware companies. They have also invested in some B2C and hardware companies through their previous fund, United Angels VC.
The fund’s partners have built companies like Civitta and Fortumo, followed by a decade of angel investing. Their network also includes many advisors, including a scientific advisor in biotech.
For SaaS companies they seek initial traction, e.g. €10k MRR. For deep tech companies this is not as much of a requirement.
They often co-invest, occasionally also lead. They haven’t done any solo investments so far.
They have supported some portfolio companies through participating in their boards, but this has not been a requirement to invest.
They also do secondary investments, where early employees and investors sell some of their shares and receive the money to themselves, as opposed to the company issuing new shares.