LAUNCHub Ventures, a leading early-stage European venture capital firm, has completed the first closing of its new fund at €44 million, aiming to read a target size of €70 million.
Founded in 2012, LAUNCHub Ventures invests in technology startups at Seed and Series A stages, focusing on companies in South Eastern Europe (SEE), the broader Central and Eastern European (CEE) region, as well as startups with SEE co-founders worldwide.
LAUNCHub Ventures is backed at this stage by the European Investment Fund, corporations in the tech sector and successful Bulgarian founders. So far, advanced discussions with other private and institutional investors provide strong confidence that the final close will happen by Q2 2021.
LAUNCHub Ventures will invest in 25 startups over the next 4 years. The initial investment range is between €500K and €2 million, and more than a half of the total fund size will be kept as reserves to support the funding needs of the best portfolio companies in follow-on rounds. LAUNCHub Ventures will provide capital to the most promising entrepreneurs building companies in verticals such as B2B SaaS, Fintech, Proptech, Big Data, AI, Marketplaces, Digital Health. The fund will also actively invest in the Web 3.0 / Blockchain space where its first successful deals date back in 2014 – the early days of this emerging sector.
There is a huge concentration of highly skilled developers in most countries in the CEE region – approximately 1.3 developers for every 100 people in the workforce. “Central and Eastern Europe’s rapid economic growth has caught the attention of Western investors searching for the next unicorn. The region has huge and still untapped potential with more and more local success stories, paving the way for the next generation of CEE tech founders,” said Todor Breshkov, Founding Partner at LAUNCHub Ventures.
