Change Ventures is a pre-seed and seed venture capital fund with boots on the ground in all three Baltic states. The VC has just announced the first close of its Fund II, amounting to €21 million, and made an investment in Qoorio (formerly HumansApp). Founded in 2018, Qoorio is a ‘community for humans to share life learnings & knowledge’.
The primary investor in Fund II is the European Investment Fund (via capital from Baltic Innovation Fund I and Innovfin), joined by publicly listed Draper Esprit, one of Europe’s largest venture capital funds, as well as a Baltic pension fund manager, among others.
Change Ventures backs ambitious founders based in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania as well as Baltic diaspora entrepreneurs building their businesses elsewhere in the world. Its initial investments range from €100k to €750k, with follow-on capital available for later rounds.
After investing, Change Ventures helps with getting to product-market fit, raising additional funds and growing the business, leveraging an unparalleled network of follow-on investors and partners. Previous investments by the VC include Baltic startups Nordigen, MeetFrank, Interactio, Timbeter and Giraffe360.
“Our investments in Estonian startups Transferwise and RealEyes indicated something special about the Baltic States,” said Jonathan Sibilia, head of secondaries and fund of funds at Draper Esprit. “This small region with a population of just six million people has produced a disproportionately large number of global success stories, including four unicorns from Estonia alone. We selected Change Ventures as the leading seed fund in the region to invest in the next crop of new teams coming to the market so that we can offer them growth financing when the time comes.”
The new fund sees the addition of a new venture partner to strengthen its presence in the region. Janis Krums, a serial entrepreneur and angel investor and a Latvian based in the USA, will help the firm scout investment opportunities. Its venture partner in Lithuania, Vytautas Kubilius, Head of Baltics at Google, will also continue to support the search for aspiring startup teams.
