GrayBella Capital is a pan-European venture capital fund investing in healthcare and complex technology fast growth companies. They invest €2-7M in trenches and welcome other investors on board.
Their goal is to help companies scale internationally while keeping core operations locally in their primary market.
They have a preference for B2B. Their especial focus is on bioinformatics, genomics and other areas where health meets IT. Clinical trials are out of their scope.
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.
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.
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.
Helen Ventures is the €50M energy CVC fund of Helsinki energy company Helen. Their investments are connected to energy: production, storage, transmission, usage, saving, carbon neutrality, digital and other operational solutions for a large energy company, and related solution areas like mobility and circular economy.
Evli Growth Partners invest throughout Europe. Their home markets are the New Nordics: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.
An insider view from their investment manager: https://medium.com/evli-growth-partners/vc-as-a-marketplace-and-other-learnings-from-the-first-year-in-vc-568dc2b1e7ad
Nordic Ninja is funded by large Japanese technology companies, but investment decisions are made locally. They have connections to large companies especially in Japan, having partnerships with global giants such as Panasonic, Omron and Honda.
They don’t invest in games, crypto or pharma. They’re widely interested in everything else, including but not limited to robotics, automation, health tech, AI and mobility.
They prefer to co-invest with a local investor, but can also lead or be the sole investor on a round. They’re often willing to serve on company boards.